Using the Visual Studio Connection String Dialog

Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/TestDataConnect…

Chris Sells asked me today if there was a re-usable connection string user interface that I knew of.  I’d heard that you could use the dialog from Visual Studio, but I had to dig in and remember how.  I’ve put together this quick and dirty example for downloading.

The trick is two fold:

• You need to add Microsoft.Data.ConnectionUI.dll and MicrosoftData.ConnectionUI.Dialog.dll assemblies to your project.  (they are found i the VS2005/Common7/IDE directory)
• Next you need to construct the dialog like any other, but first fill it with the standard providers as well as use the static Show method:

DataConnectionDialog dlg = new DataConnectionDialog();
DataSource.AddStandardDataSources(dlg);
if (DataConnectionDialog.Show(dlg) == DialogResult.OK)
{
  textBox1.Text = dlg.ConnectionString;
  textBox2.Text = dlg.SelectedDataProvider.DisplayName;
}

The sample includes how to find out if the user wants to save the provider and skip that part of the dialog everytime.  Let me kow what you think!