Add a Document Viewer to an ASP.NET Core MVC Application

• Oct 01, 2024
• 6 minutes to read

Follow this step-by-step tutorial to add a Document Viewer to an ASP.NET Core MVC application. This guide includes information about prerequisites, project configuration, controller implementation, sample report creation, and Document Viewer integration with the app.

Prerequisites

• .NET 8.0 or later SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 (v17.0) or higher

Important

In .NET 8, the System.Drawing.Common library is compatible with Windows only. An exception is thrown on other platforms. See the following topic for more information: Reporting .NET/.NET Core Limitations.

Create an ASP.NET Core MVC Web Application

Create a new project in Visual Studio and select ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller) on the start page as a project template.

Click Next.

Specify the application name (WebApplication1), location, target framework, and other options, and click Create.

Manage Packages and Libraries

Install NuGet Packages

Install the following NuGet packages:

• DevExpress.AspNetCore.Reporting
• BuildBundlerMinifier
• Microsoft.Web.LibraryManager.Build

For more information on how to install NuGet packages for DevExpress components, review the following help topic: Choose Between Offline and Online DevExpress NuGet Feeds.

Install npm Packages

Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Add | New Item from the context menu. Add npm Configuration File from the invoked Add New Item dialog.

Open the newly created package.json file, replace its content with the following code, and save the file:

package.json

{
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "name": "asp.net",
    "private": true,
    "dependencies": {
        "bootstrap": "^4.3.1",
        "devextreme-dist": "24.1-stable",
        "@devexpress/analytics-core": "24.1-stable",
        "devexpress-reporting": "24.1-stable"
    }
}

Right-click package.json in the Solution Explorer and select Restore Packages. Alternatively, you can execute the following command in the folder that contains the package.json file:

npm install

Bundle Resources (bundleconfig.json)

Create a new JSON file, name it bundleconfig.json and add it to the project. Open the newly created file, paste the following content, and save the file:

bundleconfig.json

[
    {
    "outputFileName": "wwwroot/css/thirdparty.bundle.css",
    "inputFiles": [
        "node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css",
        "node_modules/devextreme-dist/css/dx.light.css"
    ],
    "minify": {
        "enabled": false,
        "adjustRelativePaths": false
    }
    },
    {
    "outputFileName": "wwwroot/css/viewer.part.bundle.css",
    "inputFiles": [
        "node_modules/@devexpress/analytics-core/dist/css/dx-analytics.common.css",
        "node_modules/@devexpress/analytics-core/dist/css/dx-analytics.light.css",
        "node_modules/devexpress-reporting/dist/css/dx-webdocumentviewer.css"
    ],
    "minify": {
        "enabled": false,
        "adjustRelativePaths": false
    }
    },

    {
    "outputFileName": "wwwroot/js/thirdparty.bundle.js",
    "inputFiles": [
        "node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js",
        "node_modules/knockout/build/output/knockout-latest.js",
        "node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js",
        "node_modules/devextreme-dist/js/dx.all.js",
        ],
    "minify": {
        "enabled": false
    },
    "sourceMap": false
    },
    {
    "outputFileName": "wwwroot/js/viewer.part.bundle.js",
    "inputFiles": [
        "node_modules/@devexpress/analytics-core/dist/js/dx-analytics-core.min.js",
        "node_modules/devexpress-reporting/dist/js/dx-webdocumentviewer.min.js"
        ],
    "minify": {
        "enabled": false
    },
    "sourceMap": false
    }
]

Configure LibMan (libman.json)

Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Manage Client-Side Libraries to open the libman.json file.

Paste the following content and save the file to add fonts and icons to your application:

libman.json

{
    "version": "1.0",
    "defaultProvider": "filesystem",
    "libraries": [

    {
        "library": "node_modules/devextreme-dist/css/icons/",
        "destination": "wwwroot/css/icons",
        "files": [
        "dxicons.ttf",
        "dxicons.woff2",
        "dxicons.woff"
        ]
    }
    ]
}

Note

If your application already uses the libraries listed above, remove duplicate library references to ensure they are registered only once.

For more information on LibMan, review the following article: Use LibMan with ASP.NET Core in Visual Studio.

Configure Application and Services

Configure Application on Startup (Program.cs)

Open the Program.cs file and modify its code as shown in the following code snippet:

Program.cs

using DevExpress.AspNetCore;
using DevExpress.AspNetCore.Reporting;
//...

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Add services to the container.
builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews();

// Add services for Reporting
builder.Services.AddDevExpressControls();
builder.Services.ConfigureReportingServices(configurator => {
    configurator.ConfigureWebDocumentViewer(viewerConfigurator => {
        viewerConfigurator.UseCachedReportSourceBuilder();
    });
});

var app = builder.Build();

app.UseDevExpressControls();
System.Net.ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol |= System.Net.SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

// ...

app.Run();

Implement a Controller

Implement a controller to process Document Viewer requests. In the Controllers folder, create the ReportingControllers.cs file with the following content:

ReportingControllers.cs

using DevExpress.AspNetCore.Reporting.WebDocumentViewer;
using DevExpress.AspNetCore.Reporting.WebDocumentViewer.Native.Services;

namespace WebApplication1.Controllers
{
    public class CustomWebDocumentViewerController : WebDocumentViewerController
    {
        public CustomWebDocumentViewerController(IWebDocumentViewerMvcControllerService controllerService)
            : base(controllerService)
        {
        }
    }
}

Add a Sample Report

1. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and select Add | New Folder from the context menu. Rename the created folder to Reports.

2. Right-click the Reports folder and select Add | New Item from the context menu. In the invoked Add New Item dialog, click the Reporting tree node and select DevExpress v24.1 Report.

   

   Rename the new report to TestReport and click Add.

3. Select the Blank report type in the invoked Report Wizard. The Report Designer displays the newly created blank report.

4. Drop an XRLabel from the Toolbox to the Detail band and rename the label to Hello, world!. Save the report and close the designer.

See the following section for more information about creating reports in Visual Studio: Create a Report from A to Z.

Add the Document Viewer Control

1. Reference the DevExpress.AspNetCore namespace in the _ViewImports.cshtml file.

   _ViewImports.cshtml

   @using DevExpress.AspNetCore
   

   Alternatively, you can reference this namespace in the view that contains the Document Viewer control.

2. Add the following links to the Layout.cshtml page’s head section (the Views | Shared folder):

   _Layout.cshtml

   <head>
       <!--...-->
       <link rel="stylesheet" href="~/css/thirdparty.bundle.css" />
       <script src="~/js/thirdparty.bundle.js"></script>
   </head>
   

3. Replace the contents of the Index.cshtml file with the following code sample that displays the Document Viewer and loads the TestReport (the using directive is correct if the application name is WebApplication1 and the TestReport is created in the Reports folder):

   Index.cshtml

   @using WebApplication1.Reports
   
   @{
       ViewData["Title"] = "Document Viewer";
   }
   
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="~/css/viewer.part.bundle.css" />
   <script src="~/js/viewer.part.bundle.js"></script>
   
   @Html.DevExpress().WebDocumentViewer("DocumentViewer").Height("1000px").Bind(new TestReport())
   

Run the Application

The application’s page contains the Document Viewer control that displays the TestReport report.

Troubleshooting

If the page does not display the reporting component or if it is displayed incorrectly, check the following:

• The script files should be registered in the correct order, as demonstrated in the bundleconfig.json code sample above. For more information, review the following help topic: Script Registration Order.
• There should be no duplicate registrations. If you use bundle registration and copy the scripts from the documentation to your bundleconfig.json file, do not register the libraries on your web page.
• The version of the DevExpress scripts (npm packages) should match the version of the server-side libraries (NuGet packages). You can enable Development Mode to check for library version mismatch on every request to the server. For details, review the following help topic: Server-Side Libraries Version.

Review the following help topic for more information: Troubleshooting.

Limitations

Review the following help topic for details on limitations in ASP.NET Core applications: Reporting .NET/.NET Core Limitations.

What’s Next

You have now completed a basic ASP.NET Core MVC App with a Document Viewer control. Refer to the following articles for more information on Reporting features:

Create a Report from A to Z

View step-by-step tutorials that demonstrate how to create a simple table report.

Open a Report in Document Viewer

Explore ways to display a report in a Document Viewer Control.

Document Viewer Customization

Customize Document Viewer elements.

Mobile Mode in Document Viewer

Enable mobile mode in the Document Viewer.

Cloud Integration

Deploy and integrate DevExpress Reporting applications with cloud services.