How to Access Sitecore_Web Database Tables using Sitecore API - sitecore

Question

Hi i m new to Sitecore. I want to know how to access any table values from Sitecore Web Database through Sitecore API as i want to fill dropdownlist from a table inside sitecore_web database.How can we use Sitecore Queries to access data from Sitecore_Web Database?

Answer 1

I don't suggest you to access directly Sitecore_Web Database.What do you want to do exactly ?
Sitecore Api has a lot of classes, methods for accesing sitecore items but you don't access directly databases .
Maybe this link will help you.
You need to create some items to fill your dropdown list.
An item is a record in a database. Items are the basic building block of a Sitecore site. An item may represent any kind of information, e.g. a piece of content, a media file, a layout etc.
Items always have a name and and ID that uniquely identifies the item within the database. Items have a template that defines which fields the item contains. An item represent a single version of piece of content is a single language.
An item can be retrieved from a database using Items.
An item may have a number of subitems or children. These child items can be accessed through the Children property. The resulting items are checked for security and workflow before being returned. So while an item may have subitems, the current user may be denied access to them. The Parent property define the single parent item of this item.
An item represents a single version in a single language of a piece of content. The language of the item can be obtained from the Language property, while the version is available from the Version property.
The item must be in Editing state before the name or any field values can be changed. If not, an exception is raised. To enter the Editing state use the BeginEdit method and to end it, use the EndEdit method. The EditContext class can be used as a shortcut to BeginEdit/EndEdit.
I get this from Sitecore Api Documentation

Answer 2

As sitecore climber stated, you would not access the Sitecore database directly - this is not something which is supported by Sitecore. Typically you would achieve this through the Sitecore API using the following steps:
retrieve a node from the Sitecore tree which contains child items representing your dropdown items
retrieve the child items
databind your dropdown list to the list of child items
In an ascx, you could have something like this:
<asp:DropDownList ID="exampleDropDown" runat="server"/>
and in the code-behind:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
var item = Sitecore.Context.Database.GetItem("/sitecore/content/SiteData/StuffForADropDownList");
if (item != null)
{
exampleDropDown.DataTextField = "Text";
exampleDropDown.DataValueField = "Value";
exampleDropDown.DataSource = from i in item.Children.AsEnumerable<Sitecore.Data.Items.Item>()
select new
{
Text = i["Text"],
Value = i.ID.ToString()
};
exampleDropDown.DataBind();
}
}
}
This example assumes that you have an item at /sitecore/content/SiteData/StuffForADropDownList with some child items, which each have a field called Text.

Answer 3

Default in Sitecore you will NEVER work with real database objects other then objects filled using the Sitecore API. Sitecore API will provide you with data from your Sitecore back-end.
If you want to fill a dropdown with a list of items as datasource try something like this:
var items = Sitecore.Context.Item.GetChildren().toList();
yourdropdown.Datasource = items;
yourdropdown.Databind();
Obviously setting your Datatext and Datevalue key correctly, but that's standard .Net.
In Sitecore, never directly get data out of your database and use the Sitecore API.

Answer 4

Please use the built in services to access the sitecore items. It provides the option to select the database in the Get Item method.
You can access the sitecore service with the below URL:
{Your Site}/sitecore/shell/webservice/service.asmx