How To Import And Export Data Objects From Sqlite Offline Database Into Dataform (Sfdataform)?

Updated on Sep 13, 2025

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SfDataForm allows you to bind data from local database using SQLite. To achieve this, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Install the sqlite-net-pcl NuGet package in your shared code project.

Step 2: Configure app constants to provide common configurations.

Step 3: Create a database access class and initialize the data manipulation methods.

Step 4: Populate the data into the database.

Step 6: Save the input values into the database after editing the form.

The following code example explains about app constants to provide the common configurations.

public static class Constants
{
        public const string DatabaseFilename = "SampleSQLites.db3";

        public const SQLite.SQLiteOpenFlags Flags =
            SQLite.SQLiteOpenFlags.ReadWrite |
            SQLite.SQLiteOpenFlags.Create |
            SQLite.SQLiteOpenFlags.SharedCache;

        public static string DatabasePath
        {
            get
            {
                var basePath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData);
                return Path.Combine(basePath, DatabaseFilename);
            }
        }
 }

Refer to the following code to create a database access class and initialize the data manipulation methods.

public class DataFormDataBase
{
        static readonly Lazy<SQLiteAsyncConnection> lazyInitializer = new Lazy<SQLiteAsyncConnection>(() =>
        {
            return new SQLiteAsyncConnection(Constants.DatabasePath, Constants.Flags);
        });

        static SQLiteAsyncConnection Database => lazyInitializer.Value;
        static bool initialized = false;

        public DataFormDataBase()
        {
            InitializeAsync().SafeFireAndForget(false);
        }

        async Task InitializeAsync()
        {
            if (!initialized)
            {
                if (!Database.TableMappings.Any(m => m.MappedType.Name == typeof(ContactsInfo).Name))
                {
                    await Database.CreateTablesAsync(CreateFlags.None, typeof(ContactsInfo)).ConfigureAwait(false);
                    initialized = true;
                }
            }
        }

        public Task<List<ContactsInfo>> GetItemsAsync()
        {
            return Database.Table<ContactsInfo>().ToListAsync();
        }

        public Task<ContactsInfo> GetItemAsync(string name)
        {
            return Database.Table<ContactsInfo>().Where(i => i.Name == name).FirstOrDefaultAsync();
        }

        public Task<int> SaveItemAsync(ContactsInfo item)
        {
            return Database.InsertAsync(item);
        }

        public Task<int> DeleteItemAsync(ContactsInfo item)
        {
            return Database.DeleteAsync(item);
        }
 }

You can refer to the following link to create the SQLite connection.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/data-cloud/data/databases

The following code explains how to populate the data into the database.

public DataFormViewModel()
{
            ContactsInfo contact = new ContactsInfo();
            contact.Name = "Jhon";
            contact.ContactNumber = 12345;
            contact.Email = "[email protected]";
            contact.BirthDate = new DateTime(1990, 01, 01);

            App.Database.SaveItemAsync(contact);            
            …
  }

Refer to the following code to get data from the database and store it in a property to bind with DataObject.

public DataFormViewModel()
{
            …     
            this.GetDataModel();
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the data from database
/// </summary>
private async void GetDataModel()        
{
      var dataObject = await App.Database.GetItemsAsync();
      this.Contact = dataObject.FirstOrDefault();        
}

Save the input values into the database after editing the form.

/// <summary>        
/// Gets input values from DataForm and save into the database
/// </summary>        
/// <param name="dataForm"></param>        
private void SaveInputValues(SfDataForm dataForm)        
{
        var dataObject = dataForm.DataObject as ContactsInfo;
        App.Database.SaveItemAsync(dataObject);        
}