| ActiveReports 8 > ActiveReports User Guide > Concepts > Page Report Concepts > Data Sources and Datasets |
Setting up a connection to the data source is the first step in binding data to the report. Once a connection is established, a data set is required to get the data you want to show on the report.
In ActiveReports, you can set the data source information in the Report Data Source Dialog.
The Report Data Source dialog is where you select the type of data to use, provide a connection string, and choose other options for your data source. You can also decide to use a shared data source, use a single transaction, and select a method for handling credentials. Once you add a data source, it appears in the Report Explorer under the Data Sources node. You can also add multiple data sources in a single report.
A dataset fetches data from the data source to display in a report. The DataSet Dialog is where you provide a command type and query string and choose other options for your dataset.
You can also control the timeout period and other data options, and add fields, parameters, and filters to fetch the data you need. With the XML data type, you have to add fields manually with XPath expressions. Once you have added a dataset, its fields appear under the Data Source node in the Report Explorer. You can add multiple datasets for a data source.