Designer and Viewer Modes in React

• Feb 27, 2023
• 3 minutes to read

The Web Dashboard can function as a designer or viewer. The following modes are available:

Designer

The Web Dashboard works as a designer and allows users to create, edit, and save dashboards. In this mode, the component loads the extensions required to design dashboards. Users can access the Data Source Wizard and can preview underlying data. A user can switch the component to Viewer mode and can modify dashboards from storage on the client side. Requests from the dashboard backend server can be sent to third-party resources. This is the default mode.

Viewer

The Web Dashboard works as a viewer and displays dashboards to users. In this mode, the component also loads the extensions required to design dashboards. A user can switch the component to Designer mode.

ViewerOnly

The Web Dashboard does not load extensions required to design dashboards. Users cannot switch to Designer or Viewer modes on the client.

Note

The Model API is not effective when the Web Dashboard operates in Viewer or ViewerOnly modes.

Specify Designer or Viewer Mode on the Server

The way you can specify the working mode on the server side depends on the backend type:

• ASP.NET Core Dashboard Control - Designer and Viewer Modes
• ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Extension - Designer and Viewer Modes

Specify Designer or Viewer Mode on the Client

The Dashboard React component can operate in controlled and uncontrolled state management modes.

Controlled Mode

The following code snippet switches between working modes when users click a button. The button text depends on the selected working mode:

View Example

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import './App.css';
import DashboardControl from 'devexpress-dashboard-react';

function switchMode(props) {
  return props === 'Viewer' ? "Designer" : "Viewer";
}

function App() {
  const [workingModeVar, setWorkingMode] = useState("Designer");
  return (
    <div style={{ position : 'absolute', top : '0px', left: '0px', right : '0px', bottom: '0px' }}>
      <button onClick={() => { setWorkingMode(switchMode(workingModeVar)) }}>Switch to {switchMode(workingModeVar)}</button>
      <DashboardControl style={{ height: '90%' }} 
        endpoint="https://demos.devexpress.com/services/dashboard/api"
        workingMode={workingModeVar}>

      </DashboardControl>
  </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Note

In the controlled mode, you cannot use the Dashboard Panel to switch between working modes. More information: Switch Between Designer or Viewer Modes in the UI.

Uncontrolled Mode

Add the default prefix to the property name. In the example below, the defaultWorkingMode attribute is used to define the workingMode property’s initial value:

<DashboardControl style={{ height: '90%' }} 
    defaultWorkingMode="ViewerOnly">
</DashboardControl>

Switch Between Designer or Viewer Modes in the UI

You can enable the Dashboard Panel to allow users to switch between the Designer and Viewer.

Do not use the workingMode property in controlled mode when the Dashboard Panel is enabled. Instead, you can configure your application as follows to change the workingMode property in code:

• Add the default prefix to the workingMode property name to use the property in uncontrolled mode.
• Handle the onOptionChanged event and change the workingMode property value.