DataBind Wijmo Grid to Airtable Data

The API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for Airtable (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), provides Airtable data as Web services, which enable connectivity to live data. This article shows how to consume JSONP-formatted Airtable data from a Wijmo Grid.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Airtable OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to Airtable

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Airtable, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Airtable by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

• APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
• BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
• TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
• ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.

You can then choose the Airtable entities you want to allow the API Server to access by clicking Settings -> Resources. This article uses SampleTable_1 as an example.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Create a Real-Time Grid

Follow the steps below to consume Airtable data from the Wijmo JavaScript controls:

1. Load the required Wijmo, jQuery, and Knockout libraries:

   
   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.1.min.js"></script>
   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.11.0/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
     
   <!--Theme-->
   <link href="http://cdn.wijmo.com/themes/aristo/jquery-wijmo.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
     
   <!--Wijmo Widgets CSS-->
   <link href="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-pro.all.3.20161.90.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
     
   <!--Wijmo Widgets JavaScript-->
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-open.all.3.20161.90.min.js"></script>
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/jquery.wijmo-pro.all.3.20161.90.min.js"></script>
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/interop/wijmo.data.ajax.3.20161.90.js"></script>
    
   <!--Knockout JS Library-->
   <!-- Both of the links below can work -->
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/wijmo/external/knockout-2.2.0.js"></script> 
   <!--<script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/amd-js/3.20161.90/knockout-3.1.0.js"></script>--> 
   
   <!--Wijmo Knockout Integration Library-->
   <script src="http://cdn.wijmo.com/interop/knockout.wijmo.3.20161.90.js"></script>
   

2. Create a ViewModel and connect to it using the ODataView. You will need to replace the placeholder values for the URL of the API Server, an API Server user, and the authtoken for that user.

   
   <script id="scriptInit">
   $.support.cors = true;
   var viewModel;
   
   function ViewModel() {
     var sampletable_1View = new wijmo.data.ODataView("http://MyServer:MyPort/api.rsc/SampleTable_1", {
     ajax: {
       dataType: "jsonp", 
       username: "MyUser",
       password: "MyAuthtoken",
       data: { "$inlinecount": null }
     },
     pageSize: 10
   });
     sampletable_1View.refresh();
     sampletable_1View.nextPage();
     this.sampletable_1 = sampletable_1View;
     this.prevPage = function () {sampletable_1View.prevPage();};
     this.nextPage = function () {sampletable_1View.nextPage();};
   }
   
   $(document).ready(function () {
      viewModel = new ViewModel();
      ko.applyBindings(viewModel, $(".container").get(0));
   });
   </script>
   

3. DataBind: Below is a simple table with some paging buttons, which you can paste into the body section of your markup.

   
   <h2>Connect to Live Airtable Data in Real Time</h2>
   
   <h3>SampleTable_1</h3>
   <div>
     <button title="previous page" class="pagebuttons" data-bind="click: prevPage, button: {}"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-seek-prev" /></button>
     <button title="next page" class="pagebuttons" data-bind="click: nextPage, button: {}"><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-seek-next" /></button>
   </div>
   <table id="demo-grid" data-bind="wijgrid: { 
     data: sampletable_1, 
     showFilter: true, 
     allowPaging: true,
     pagerSettings: { position: 'none'},
     columnsAutogenerationMode: 'append',
   }" >
   </table>   
   

Below is the resulting grid. You can filter and sort through pages of Airtable data.