Viewing Dropbox 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 Dropbox, you gain access to live Dropbox data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update Dropbox data. This article will walk through connecting to Dropbox using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Dropbox

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.

Dropbox uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded credentials or register an app with Dropbox.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

Connecting to Dropbox Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Dropbox data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Dropbox 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 Dropbox. 👁 Setting the Connection Parameters. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

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

   👁 Placing the Table on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the FilesTable 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 Table. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

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

    👁 The Table 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 Dropbox Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Dropbox Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Dropbox Data