Create a Blazor Server Dashboard Application

Aug 21, 2024
5 minutes to read

Important

If you are not familiar with the basic concepts and patterns of Blazor, please review the fundamentals before you continue: Introduction to ASP.NET Core Blazor

This tutorial adds a new page with the Dashboard component to a Blazor Server application. The Dashboard component wraps the JavaScript DashboardControl and uses an ASP.NET Core backend with the Dashboard Controller to handle client data requests.

You can also download the pre-configured example and use it as a template to get started:

View Example: Dashboard for Blazor Server - Get Started

Prerequisites

To use the Dashboard component for Blazor, make sure that the following requirements are met:

.NET 6.0 SDK or later
Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0 or higher with the ASP.NET and web development workload
DevExpress Universal Subscription v24.1

Step 1. Create a Blazor Application

Create a new Blazor app named BlazorDashboardApp. Use one of the following options:

Visual Studio

In Visual Studio, select a template depending on your target framework:

For .NET 6.0 and .NET 7.0, select the Blazor Server App template.
For .NET 8, select the Blazor Web App template. Select Server from the drop-down Interactive Render Mode list.

.NET CLI

Run the following console command depending on your target framework:

.NET 6.0 and .NET 7.0
.NET 8.0

dotnet new blazorserver -n BlazorDashboardApp

dotnet new blazor -n BlazorDashboardApp

Step 2. Install the NuGet Packages

In the project, open the NuGet Package Manager and set the package source to All. Install the following NuGet packages:

DevExpress.AspNetCore.Dashboard
DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard
Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.NewtonsoftJson

Refer to the following topic to install and manage libraries using DevExpress NuGet feed: Setup Visual Studio’s NuGet Package Manager.

Step 3. Configure the Dashboard Controller

In the root directory, create an empty MVC Controller named DefaultDashboardController. Inherit DashboardController:

using DevExpress.DashboardAspNetCore;
using DevExpress.DashboardWeb;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection;

namespace BlazorDashboardApp {
    public class DefaultDashboardController : DashboardController {
        public DefaultDashboardController(DashboardConfigurator configurator, IDataProtectionProvider? dataProtectionProvider = null)
            : base(configurator, dataProtectionProvider) {
        }
    }
}

In the application, create the Data/Dashboards folder to store dashboards.

In the Program.cs file, add a scoped service for DevExpress Dashboard and set up the dashboard backend. The controllerName parameter in the RouteBuilderExtension.MapDashboardRoute(IEndpointRouteBuilder, String, String) method is the name of the controller you created in the previous step (without Controller postfix):

using BlazorDashboardApp.Components;
using DevExpress.DashboardAspNetCore;
using DevExpress.DashboardCommon;
using DevExpress.DashboardWeb;
using DevExpress.DataAccess.Json;
using Microsoft.Extensions.FileProviders;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
IFileProvider fileProvider = builder.Environment.ContentRootFileProvider;
IConfiguration configuration = builder.Configuration;

// Add services to the container.
builder.Services.AddRazorComponents()
    .AddInteractiveServerComponents();
builder.Services.AddRazorPages();
builder.Services.AddServerSideBlazor();
builder.Services.AddScoped<DashboardConfigurator>((IServiceProvider serviceProvider) => {
    DashboardConfigurator configurator = new DashboardConfigurator();
    configurator.SetDashboardStorage(new DashboardFileStorage(fileProvider.GetFileInfo("Data/Dashboards").PhysicalPath));
    // Create a sample JSON data source
    DataSourceInMemoryStorage dataSourceStorage = new DataSourceInMemoryStorage();
    DashboardJsonDataSource jsonDataSourceUrl = new DashboardJsonDataSource("JSON Data Source (URL)");
    jsonDataSourceUrl.JsonSource = new UriJsonSource(
            new Uri("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DevExpress-Examples/DataSources/master/JSON/customers.json"));
    jsonDataSourceUrl.RootElement = "Customers";
    dataSourceStorage.RegisterDataSource("jsonDataSourceUrl", jsonDataSourceUrl.SaveToXml());
    configurator.SetDataSourceStorage(dataSourceStorage);
    return configurator;
});

var app = builder.Build();

// Configure the HTTP request pipeline.
if (!app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error", createScopeForErrors: true);
    // The default HSTS value is 30 days. You may want to change this for production scenarios, see https://aka.ms/aspnetcore-hsts.
    app.UseHsts();
}

app.UseHttpsRedirection();

app.UseStaticFiles();
app.UseRouting();
app.UseAntiforgery();
app.MapDashboardRoute("api/dashboard", "DefaultDashboard");

app.MapRazorComponents<App>()
    .AddInteractiveServerRenderMode();

app.Run();

Step 4. Add Stylesheets

In the Pages folder, reference the following stylesheets in the appropriate project file based on your project structure:

Pages/_Layout.cshtml for .NET 6
Pages/_Host.cshtml for .NET 7
Components/App.razor for .NET 8

<head>
@* ... *@
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/ace.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/ace-theme-dreamweaver.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/ace-theme-ambiance.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/dx.light.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/dx-analytics.common.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/dx-analytics.light.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/dx-querybuilder.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="_content/DevExpress.Blazor.Dashboard/dx-dashboard.light.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    @* ... *@
</head>

Step 5. Add References

In the _Imports.razor file, add the DevExpress.DashboardBlazor and DevExpress.DashboardWeb references.

...
@using DevExpress.DashboardBlazor
@using DevExpress.DashboardWeb

Step 6. Add the Dashboard Component

In the Pages folder, add a new Dashboard Razor component (Dashboard.razor) to the app and add the code below to render the Web Dashboard. Set the Endpoint property to the same value you use in the MapDashboardRoute method (api/dashboard) to send data requests to the server.

For .NET 8 projects, enable interactivity for DevExpress components:

Make sure the required interactive services are registered in the Program.cs file.
Add the corresponding render mode attribute to a component’s page.

.NET 6.0 and .NET 7.0
.NET 8.0

@page "/dashboard"

<DxDashboard Endpoint="api/dashboard" style="width: 100%; height: 800px;">
</DxDashboard>

@page "/dashboard"
@rendermode InteractiveServer

<DxDashboard Endpoint="api/dashboard" WorkingMode="WorkingMode.ViewerOnly" style="width: 100%; height: 800px;">
</DxDashboard>

In the NavMenu.razor file, add a new NavLink component to the list to display the Web Dashboard item in the navigation menu:

<div class="nav-item px-3">
    <NavLink class="nav-link" href="weather">
        <span class="bi bi-list-nested-nav-menu" aria-hidden="true"></span> Weather
    </NavLink>
</div>
<div class="nav-item px-3">
    <NavLink class="nav-link" href="dashboard">
        <span class="oi oi-list-rich" aria-hidden="true"></span> Web Dashboard
    </NavLink>

Run the Project

Run the project to see the result. You can now create a dashboard and bind it to the pre-configured JSON data source:

blazor-dashboard-app-get-started

Switch to Viewer Mode

In Designer mode, the control loads the extensions required to design dashboards. Users can access the Data Source Wizard, preview underlying data, and modify dashboards from storage. Requests from the dashboard backend server can be sent to third-party resources. A user can also switch the control to Viewer mode.

After you created and saved a dashboard, switch your Dashboard Designer application to ViewerOnly mode to prevent users from modifying the dashboard and its data.

Open the newly created Dashboard Razor component (Dashboard.razor). Add the DxDashboard.WorkingMode option and set it to ViewerOnly.

@page "/dashboard"

<DxDashboard Endpoint="api/dashboard" WorkingMode="WorkingMode.ViewerOnly" style="width: 100%; height: 800px;">
</DxDashboard>

Run the application. The Dashboard component displays the dashboard from Data/Dashboards in Viewer mode.

web-dashboard-blazor-viewer

Warning

Working mode does not influence server settings. Initially, the server works at the ClientTrustLevel.Full trust level. Verify trust level and specify the actions a client can initiate on the server. See the following topic for details: Working Mode Access Rights.

Next Steps

Create Dashboards on the Web: Describes how to create and configure dashboards in the Web Dashboard control.
Dashboard Component for Blazor: Contains instructions on how to integrate the DxDashboard component into a Blazor application.
Dashboard Backend: Contains instructions that show how to configure the Web Dashboard on the server side.

Controls

Tools

Controls and Extensions

Tools

Maintenance Mode

Controls

Tools

Controls and Extensions

Tools

Maintenance Mode

Prerequisites

Step 1. Create a Blazor Application

Step 2. Install the NuGet Packages

Step 3. Configure the Dashboard Controller

Step 4. Add Stylesheets

Step 5. Add References

Step 6. Add the Dashboard Component

Step 7. Add Navigation

Run the Project

Switch to Viewer Mode

Next Steps