I have a DevExpress LookUpEdit and i want to populate it once... when the form loads. I dont think I need anything fancy like creating a BO and then a BBS... But I'm not sure how to do this...



I have a SQL statement and in Visual Studio 2003 I knew that you could create an adapter that filled a dataset and then bound your combobox to the dataset... but I dont see data adapter's in 2005 and even if i did... is that the best way to do it?



Thanks

Mike,

You really shouldn't be creating adapters manually unless under very extreme circumstances....the framework provides you with all of the connection and access you need.  First of all, this is a basic feature that StrataFrame provides...list population.  You should be using the PopulationDataSourceSettings property and have it populate on the FormLoad.  You can find some more details in the help documentation or you can look at some of the samples that come with the framework.  Before I go into any more explanation I want to make sure that I haven't missed something in your post.

You are just wanting to populate a list or combo with some data that can be shown to the end-user and possibly bound to a field as well...correct?

Right. All I want to be able to do is fill a combo box once... when the form loads. It just seems to me to be a lot of extra/unnecessary work to create a business object then drop that business object onto a form... then drop a BBS onto a form and then bind the BBS to the BO and the combobox to the BBS.

You don't have to use a BBS or drop a BO on the form.  Have you ever populated a combo with the PopulationDataSourceSettings?  There is a property on all combos called PopulationDataSourceSettings that allows you to populate a combo from a business object. 

Look in the help under UI Layer -> List Control Population

Yes I have populated combos and listviews using PopulationDataSourceSettings... I guess I misunderstood business objects a little. I assumed that you only created a BO for data that you would want to manipulate (add, edit, delete). I was under the assumption that creating a BO merely to populate a control was kind of a kludge and involved too much overhead.



But thanks for your input, i will use this method from now on.

Sorry for any misunderstanding...business objects themselves are just a class and are actually very light-weight...at any rate, glad you are going