Viewing Azure DevOps Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Azure DevOps, you gain access to live Azure DevOps data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve Azure DevOps data. This article will walk through connecting to Azure DevOps using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Azure DevOps

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

You can connect to your Azure DevOps account by providing the Organization and PersonalAccessToken.

Obtaining a Personal Access Token

A PersonalAccessToken is necessary for account authentication.

To generate one, log in to your Azure DevOps Organization account and navigate to Profile -> Personal Access Tokens -> New Token. The generated token will be displayed.

If you wish to authenticate to Azure DevOps using OAuth refer to the online Help documentation for an authentication guide.

Connecting to Azure DevOps Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Azure DevOps data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Azure DevOps and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection. 👁 Adding a New Connection. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Azure DevOps. 👁 Setting the Connection Parameters. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: Builds) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the View on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the BuildsView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   👁 Visually Binding the View. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Builds data.

    👁 The View data on a Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Azure DevOps Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Azure DevOps Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Azure DevOps Data