Read & Write a SQL Table Directly (DNN)

MegaForm can point at an existing SQL Server table in your DNN database and turn it into a form: browse the table in the builder's DB tab, drop its columns onto the canvas as fields, submit, and the row appears in the table — no code, no manual field mapping.

Build a form from a table

1. Open a form in the Builder and select the DB tab (right panel, next to FIELD / SETTINGS / HTML / AI …). It lists the base tables on the connection.
2. Find your table (the demo uses MFDemo_Product) and click ⚡ Capability to see what MegaForm can do with it — its key, required (non-nullable) columns, and whether it can be written to.
3. Turn columns into fields — two ways:
   • + DataGrid inserts a self-configured Subform (grid) bound to the whole table — good for editing many rows.
   • Column chips — expand the table and click (or drag) a column chip onto the canvas to add a single matching input (Name → text, Price → number, InStock → checkbox, dates → date pickers). Identity primary keys are skipped automatically, so Id is never asked of the user.
4. Publish, submit the form, and the new row lands in the table.

Choosing the connection

The DB tab reads from the site database (DashboardDatabase) by default. If your admin has registered additional named connections (Settings → Database Settings), pick one from the connection selector to browse its tables instead. Use Filter to narrow a long table list, and tick Show system tables to include platform tables.

The demo table

CREATE TABLE dbo.MFDemo_Product (
  Id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,   -- identity PK, skipped on insert
  Name NVARCHAR(120) NOT NULL, Category NVARCHAR(60) NULL, Price DECIMAL(10,2) NULL,
  InStock BIT NOT NULL DEFAULT 1, CreatedUtc DATETIME2 NOT NULL DEFAULT SYSUTCDATETIME()
);

Writing back to the table

When the form is submitted, MegaForm builds an INSERT whose columns are the table's real columns, each valued by its closest form field. So a submission of Name = "Laptop Stand", Category = "Office", Price = 42.00, InStock = ✓ writes a new row into dbo.MFDemo_Product — Id and CreatedUtc fill themselves (identity + default).

The column→field mapping is by name similarity; review the generated fields before publishing so every required (non-nullable) column has a field feeding it, or the insert will fail on a missing value.

Safety

• The connection is never trusted from the browser — the DB tab's table and column reads are gated server-side against the admin allow-list (DashboardDatabase plus any registered connection). A connection the operator never registered can't be reached.
• Table/column names are validated; only schema metadata is read to list tables.

Prerequisites

• DNN 10.x, MegaForm installed, Host/Administrator access.
• A writable table on DashboardDatabase (or a registered named connection).