Generally speaking, a data source indicates a particular source of information, such as a data feed or a database system.

Data Access provides an IliDataSource gadget class. This class serves as a bridge between the IliTable class and the data-source-aware gadget classes. Data-source-aware gadgets are dedicated to handling user input and displaying data in different styles. They are described in the next section.

From now on in this manual, the term “data source” is used to refer to instances of the IliDataSource class (or one of its subclasses). This should not be confused with the general meaning of this term.

Although the IliDataSource class is a gadget class, its instances are not visible to the user of a Data Access application. They are, however, visible in Views Studio so that they can be edited.

Like other gadgets, a data source has a name and supports a set of callback types through which it is possible to customize its behavior for specific needs, such as business rules, and so on. See Data Sources and Gadgets.