Binding a fieldname to a control programmatically in Visual J#

Before the Database Connection and Binding process I want you to make an Ms-Access database file named “dbEmployee” containing a table named “tblEmployee”. Use the following specifications:

Field Name	Data Type	Description
chrempno	text	Handles employee id
chrfname	text	Handles employee’s name
chrlname	text	Holds employee’s last name

After designing the structure of your table, you can enter appropriate values for each field. For instance:

chrempno	chrfname	Chrlname
2010A	John	Doe

Now that we are done creating a table and adding appropriate values to it, we can now link to that table and bind the fields to our windows application control by following these steps:

1. Start>All programs>Visual J# 2005 Express Edition.

2. Click File>New>Project>Select Windows Application from the windows studio installed templates then click Ok.

3. A new form will appear. Before adding appropriate controls to our form let us first establish a connection to our dbEmployee database file. To do this we will use a database access tool called OleDbDataAdapter. OleDbDataAdapter will enable us to set the filename of a database file and the name of the table that we wanted to be made available in our project. It also permits us to set-up how the record values will be displayed on our form by using an appropriate SQL statement.

4. By default, OleDbDataAdapter is not shown on the Visual J# 2005 Express control toolbox, to add it, click Tools>Choose control toolbox>Type “ole” (no quotes ) on the filter textbox then check all the items that starts with “ole” and finally click the Ok button. OleDbDataAdapter should now appear on your toolbox.

5. Expand the All Windows Forms toolbox category then double-click OleDbDataAdapter.

6. A Data Adapter configuration wizard will then appear. Click the new connection button>Select Microsoft Access Database File from the data source list.

7. Click the browse button then locate your dbEmployee.mdb file then click the Ok button.

8. Click Next>A message box containing the following prompt will appear:
“The connection you selected uses a local data file that is not in the current project would you like to your project for the connection? If you copy the data file to your project, it will be copied to the project’s output directory”> just click the Ok button then click next.

9. A Generate SQL statement, type “SELECT * FROM tblEmployee” (no quotes) this will export all the record value of our table to our project then. Click Next after typing the SQL statement and finally click the Finish Button.

10. After specifying the table name, right-click OleDbDataAdapter1 from the bottom portion of Visual J# IDE then click Generate Data Set then click the Ok button. If you are wondering what a dataset is, a Dataset is an imaginary box the holds the field names of your table. It is use a temporary storage box for table data.

11. At this point, you will need to design the interface of your application. Double-click the label tool. In the properties window, change its text to “Employee number:” (no quotes).

12. Double-click the label tool and put it in the right-side of your Employee number label. Change its name to Empnumberlabel.

13. Add another label below the Employee number label and change its text to “Firstname:” (no quotes). Put a label on its right side and name it Fnamelabel.

14. Add another label below the Firstname label and change its text to “Lastname:” (no quotes). Put another label on its right side and name it Lnamelabel.

15. Double-click your form, type the following code:

//fills our dataset with record values
this.oleDbDataAdapter1.Fill(this.dataSet11);
//Use the dataset methods collection to retrieve the record values
//The get_Item() method after the get_Rows() method retrieves the table row value
//while the last get_Item retrieves the table column value
Empnumberlabel.set_Text(String.valueOf(dataSet11.get_Tables().get_Item("tblEmployee").get_Rows().get_Item(0).get_Item(0)));
//The index number of the first table row is 0, the second row is 1 and so on.
//Column index number starts from 0, the second table column is 1 and so on.
Fnamelabel.set_Text(String.valueOf(dataSet11.get_Tables().get_Item("tblEmployee").get_Rows().get_Item(0).get_Item(1)));
//Dataset collection methods returns an object data that is why we use the 
//String.valueOf data conversion function to convert it to string.
Lnamelabel.set_Text(String.valueOf(dataSet11.get_Tables().get_Item("tblEmployee").get_Rows().get_Item(0).get_Item(2)));

16. Your code should now look like this:

private void Form1_Load(Object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
this.oleDbDataAdapter1.Fill(this.dataSet11);
Empnumberlabel.set_Text(String.valueOf(dataSet11.get_Tables().get_Item("tblEmployee").get_Rows().get_Item(0).get_Item(0)));
Fnamelabel.set_Text(String.valueOf(dataSet11.get_Tables().get_Item("tblEmployee").get_Rows().get_Item(0).get_Item(1)));
Lnamelabel.set_Text(String.valueOf(dataSet11.get_Tables().get_Item("tblEmployee").get_Rows().get_Item(0).get_Item(2)));
}

17. Press F5 to test your application.You should now see the following output: