Create an ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Application

• Jul 28, 2023
• 4 minutes to read

This tutorial describes how to integrate the ASP.NET MVC Dashboard extension into an ASP.NET MVC web application.

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Step 1. Create an ASP.NET MVC Application

This section describes how to create an MVC application in the DevExpress Template Gallery.

In Visual Studio, create a new project and select DevExpress v21.2 Web App Template Gallery on the start page as the project template.

In the invoked gallery, go to the ASP.NET MVC category and select Web Application. Enter MvcDashboardApp as a project name and click Run Wizard.

In the opened ASP.NET MVC Project Wizard, select Empty on the Layout tab.

Then, go to the Suites tab and enable only the Dashboard checkbox to attach the Web Dashboard’s stylesheets, scripts, and resources. Click Create Project.

Step 2. Add a Dashboard Extension to the MVC Application

Build the solution. Open the Views | Home | Index.cshtml (or Index.vbhtml) view, right-click the desired location in the Code Editor to display a context menu and click Insert DevExpress MVC Extension… to invoke the Insert DevExpress Extension wizard.

In the Insert DevExpress Extension wizard, go to the Visualization tab, select Dashboard and click Insert.

The wizard generates the extra code the Web Dashboard requires and inserts the Dashboard extension on the Index.cshtml page:

C#

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";
}   
@Html.DevExpress().Dashboard(settings => {
    settings.Name = "Dashboard";
    settings.ControllerName = "DefaultDashboard";
}).GetHtml()

VB.NET

@Code
    ViewData("Title") = "Home Page"
End Code
@Html.DevExpress().Dashboard(Sub(settings)
    settings.Name = "Dashboard"
    settings.ControllerName = "DefaultDashboard"
End Sub).GetHtml()

Step 3. Create Dashboard Storage

Right-click the App_Data folder and add the Dashboards folder. In the DashboardConfig.cs file located in the App_Start folder, uncomment the DashboardConfigurator.SetDashboardStorage method call and change the dashboard storage path to ~/App_Data/Dashboards.

C#

using System.Web.Routing;
using DevExpress.DashboardWeb.Mvc;

public class DashboardConfig {
    public static void RegisterService(RouteCollection routes) {
        routes.MapDashboardRoute("api/dashboard", "DefaultDashboard");

        // Uncomment this line to save dashboards to the App_Data folder.
        DashboardConfigurator.Default.SetDashboardStorage(new DashboardFileStorage(@"~/App_Data/Dashboards"));

        // ...
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports System.Web.Routing
Imports DevExpress.DashboardWeb.Mvc

Public Class DashboardDesignerConfig
    Public Shared Sub RegisterService(ByVal routes As RouteCollection)
        routes.MapDashboardRoute("api/dashboard", "DefaultDashboard")

        ' Uncomment this line to save dashboards to the App_Data folder.
        DashboardConfigurator.Default.SetDashboardStorage(New DashboardFileStorage("~/App_Data/Dashboards"))

        ' ...
    End Sub
End Class

Step 4. Supply Web Dashboard with Data

Add the nwind.mdb file from the following path to the project’s App_Data folder:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\DevExpress Demos 21.2\Components\Data\nwind.mdb

Specify a connection string to this database within the project’s Web.config file:

XML

<configuration>
  <connectionStrings>
      <add name="nwindConnection" connectionString="XpoProvider=MSAccess; Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=|DataDirectory|\nwind.mdb;" />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

Note

Note that the connection string should contain the XpoProvider parameter that depends on the used database type. For details on how to specify connection strings for different database types, see Register Default Data Connections.

In the DashboardConfig.cs file (located in the App_Start folder), pass the ConfigFileConnectionStringsProvider instance as the DashboardConfigurator.SetConnectionStringsProvider method’s parameter to allow a user to create new data sources based on connection strings from the Web.config file:

C#

using System.Web.Routing;
using DevExpress.DashboardWeb.Mvc;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.Web;

public class DashboardConfig {
    public static void RegisterService(RouteCollection routes) {
        routes.MapDashboardRoute("api/dashboard", "DefaultDashboard");

        // ...
        DashboardConfigurator.Default.SetConnectionStringsProvider(new ConfigFileConnectionStringsProvider());
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports System.Web.Routing
Imports DevExpress.DashboardWeb.Mvc
Imports DevExpress.DataAccess.Web

Public Class DashboardDesignerConfig
    Public Shared Sub RegisterService(ByVal routes As RouteCollection)
        routes.MapDashboardRoute("api/dashboard", "DefaultDashboard")

        ' ...
        DashboardConfigurator.Default.SetConnectionStringsProvider(New ConfigFileConnectionStringsProvider())
    End Sub
End Class

Step 5. Create a Dashboard

The designer application is now ready. Run the project to see the result.

Your application should look as follows:

You can now create your first dashboard in the Web Dashboard.

Step 6. Switch to Viewer Mode

Once you create and save a dashboard, you can switch your Dashboard Designer application to Viewer mode.

In a project, open the Views | Home | Index.cshtml (or Index.vbhtml) view. Add the following code within the MvcDashboardFactory.Dashboard helper method:

C#

@Html.DevExpress().Dashboard(settings => {
    settings.Name = "Dashboard";
    settings.ControllerName = "DefaultDashboard";
    settings.WorkingMode = DevExpress.DashboardWeb.WorkingMode.ViewerOnly;
}).GetHtml()

VB.NET

@Html.DevExpress().Dashboard(Sub(settings)
    settings.Name = "Dashboard"
    settings.ControllerName = "DefaultDashboard"
    settings.WorkingMode = DevExpress.DashboardWeb.WorkingMode.ViewerOnly
End Sub).GetHtml()

Run the application. The ASP.NET MVC Dashboard extension displays the dashboard from ~/App_Data/Dashboards in Viewer mode:

Next Steps

• Create Dashboards on the Web

  Describes how to create and configure dashboards in the Web Dashboard control.

• ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension

  Contains instructions on how to integrate the DashboardExtension extension into an ASP.NET MVC application.