WinForms. How to find TableAdapter and Fill DataTable at Design-Time

Question

Data in standart DataGridView looks too empty

and it is unclear how data look in customized, filled grid

I'm going to extend grid to look more complex but the result it will be visible only at run-time, when it have data.

So I want to fill DataTable at design time to see how the result looks in the Grid. So I need to perfrom code

this.MyDataTableTableAdapter.Fill(this.dBTestDataSet.MyDataTable)

I can get this.dBTestDataSet.MyDataTable from DataSource when DataSource is assigned by BindingSource using next code:

  if ((DataSource is BindingSource) && String.IsNullOrEmpty(DataMember))
  {
    BindingSource bindingSource = (DataSource as BindingSource);
    if ((bindingSource.DataSource is DataSet) && (bindingSource.DataMember is String))
    {
      DataSet dataSet = (bindingSource.DataSource as DataSet);
      DataTable dataTable = dataSet.Tables[bindingSource.DataMember];
      return dataTable;
    }
  }

now I have MyDataTable

but how can I get MyDataTableTableAdapter?

I don't see any connection between MyDataTable and MyDataTableTableAdapter in the porject code

Although the development environment correctly shows the DataAdapter under every DataTable.

As I understood, there is access to TableProvider in design-time needed or another way to display real data from data table in grids in design-time. IMHO, this is useful feature, and in Embarcadero RAD Studio (Delphi) something similar is relised: we can view live data from DataSet in any attached (binded) data controls. — BlackWitcher
– BlackWitcher, Commented Oct 31, 2016 at 12:11

Reza Aghaei · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-05 20:58:17Z

1

I believe it's not a good idea to load actual data to designer. You can fill DataGridView using some fake data, the same way which web forms designer do it for ASP.NET GridView control.

Q: How can I get MyDataTableTableAdapter? I don't see any connection between MyDataTable and MyDataTableTableAdapter in the porject code.

Each dataset has an XSD file which contains the definition of data set schema and also contains some annotations which will be used for generating TableAdapter classes, for example it contains some nodes like:

<TableAdapter BaseClass="System.ComponentModel.Component" 
 DataAccessorModifier="AutoLayout, AnsiClass, Class, Public" 
 DataAccessorName="CategoryTableAdapter" 
 GeneratorDataComponentClassName="CategoryTableAdapter" 
 Name="Category"
 UserDataComponentName="CategoryTableAdapter">

You can parse the file and extract the related TableAdapter for the DataTable. As you can see above xml is the point which TableAdapter and DataTable relates to each other.

You can get the xsd file using Visual Studio API methods. Also as a more simple workaround you can set its BuildAction to Embedded Resource and get it from the compiled assembly.

Note

Another option which may satisfy your requirement is putting your DataGridView control in UserControl and load data in constructor of UserControl, this way when you put an instance of your UserControl on a form, since the designer executes the constructor of your UserControl then the DataGridView will be filled with data.

Then if you want to expose Columns property of DataGridView you can use this solution.

Example - Just for learning purpose

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using System.Reflection;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Linq;
public class MyDataGridView : DataGridView
{
    protected override void OnDataSourceChanged(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnDataSourceChanged(e);
        TryToPopulateControl();
    }
    protected override void OnDataMemberChanged(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnDataMemberChanged(e);
        TryToPopulateControl();
    }
    private void TryToPopulateControl()
    {
        if (!DesignMode)
            return;
        else
        {
            try
            {
                if (this.DataSource is BindingSource)
                {
                    var bs = (BindingSource)this.DataSource;
                    if (bs.DataSource is DataSet)
                    {
                        var ds = bs.DataSource;
                        var table = bs.DataMember;
                        if (ds == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(table))
                            return;
                        var name = ds.GetType().FullName + ".xsd";
                        string result = "";
                        using (var stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
                               .GetManifestResourceStream(name))
                            using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
                            result = reader.ReadToEnd();
                        var document = XDocument.Parse(result);
                        var node = document.Descendants()
                            .Where(x => x.Name.LocalName == "TableAdapter")
                            .Where(x => x.Attribute("Name").Value == table).FirstOrDefault();
                        if (node != null)
                        {
                            var tableAdapterName = node.Attribute("UserDataComponentName").Value;
                            var adapterType = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
                                .GetTypes().Where(x => x.Name == tableAdapterName).FirstOrDefault();
                            var adapter = Activator.CreateInstance(adapterType);
                            var fillMethod = adapterType.GetMethod("GetData");
                            var dataTable = fillMethod.Invoke(adapter, new object[] { }) as DataTable;
                            foreach (DataRow row in dataTable.Rows)
                                ((DataSet)ds).Tables[table].Rows.Add(row.ItemArray);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                //Could not load data
            }
        }
    }
}

edited Feb 5, 2020 at 20:58

answered Oct 31, 2016 at 18:07

Reza Aghaei

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4 Comments

Reza Aghaei Over a year ago

You can see how I fill data-table at design-time using real data in this example. I prefer to not include it in the answer because it's just for fun (and learning purpose) and I wrote it just for you to have an idea about how to parse the XSD file. In the example, I suposed for the XDS file, you have set Build Action to Embedded Resource. But in general I don't recommend using it in a real environment this way. The second option which I shared is better.

Reza Aghaei Over a year ago

Let me know if you have any question about this answer or the linked post or if you find them useful :)

Reza Aghaei Over a year ago

It seems your new questions are related to the requirement which you had here. Don't miss this post: Expose Columns property of a DataGridView in UserControl and make it editable via Designer

Reza Aghaei Over a year ago

@DmitryB Pretty old question, but when you find some time, it would be great if you can verify the solution :)

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