Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout Control

4 May 202211 minutes to read

This section briefly explains about how to include ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout control in your ASP.NET MVC application using Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

System requirements for ASP.NET MVC controls

Create ASP.NET MVC application with HTML helper

Install ASP.NET MVC package in the application

Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls are available in nuget.org. Refer to NuGet packages topic to learn more about installing NuGet packages in various OS environments. To add ASP.NET MVC controls in the application, open the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio (Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Manage NuGet Packages for Solution), search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 and then install it.

The Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 NuGet package has dependencies, Newtonsoft.Json for JSON serialization and Syncfusion.Licensing for validating Syncfusion license key.

If you create ASP.NET MVC application with MVC4 package, search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC4 and then install it.

Add namespace

Add Syncfusion.EJ2 namespace reference in Web.config under Views folder.

<namespaces>
    <add namespace="Syncfusion.EJ2"/>
</namespaces>

Add style sheet

Checkout the Themes topic to learn different ways (CDN, NPM package, and CRG) to refer styles in ASP.NET MVC application, and to have the expected appearance for Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls. Here, the theme is referred using CDN inside the <head> of ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows,

~/_Layout.cshtml
<head>
    ...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls styles -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.1.55/fluent.css" />
</head>

Add script reference

In this getting started walk-through, the required scripts are referred using CDN inside the <head> of ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows,

~/_Layout.cshtml
<head>
    ...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls scripts -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/20.1.55/dist/ej2.min.js"></script>
</head>

Register Syncfusion Script Manager

Open ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml page and register the script manager EJS().ScriptManager() at the end of <body> in the ASP.NET MVC application as follows.

~/_Layout.cshtml
<body>
...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Script Manager -->
    @Html.EJS().ScriptManager()
</body>

Add ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout control

Now, add the Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout control in ~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml page by the following ways.

Defined the panels property as the attribute in the content template.
Using the panels property through helper.

Setting the panels property using content template

You can render the Dashboard Layout control by adding the panels property as the attribute to the content template. Add the content template with panel definition for Dashboard Layout into your index.cshtml page which is present under Views/Home folder.

In the following sample, the dashboard layout is rendered with panels property using content template.

CSHTML
HomeController.cs
@model WebApplication.Controllers.HomeController.spacingModel

<div class="control-section">
    <div>
        <!--  DashboardLayout element declaration -->
        @Html.EJS().DashboardLayout("defaultLayout").Columns(6).CellSpacing(Model.cellSpacing).ContentTemplate(@<div>
            <div id="one" class="e-panel" data-row="0" data-col="0" data-sizeX="1" data-sizeY="1">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">0</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="two" class="e-panel" data-row="1" data-col="0" data-sizeX="1" data-sizeY="2">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">1</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="three" class="e-panel" data-row="0" data-col="1" data-sizeX="2" data-sizeY="2">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">2</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="four" class="e-panel" data-row="2" data-col="1" data-sizeX="1" data-sizeY="1">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">3</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="five" class="e-panel" data-row="2" data-col="2" data-sizeX="2" data-sizeY="1">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">4</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="six" class="e-panel" data-row="0" data-col="3" data-sizeX="1" data-sizeY="1">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">5</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="seven" class="e-panel" data-row="1" data-col="3" data-sizeX="1" data-sizeY="1">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">6</div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div id="eight" class="e-panel" data-row="0" data-col="4" data-sizeX="1" data-sizeY="3">
                <div class="e-panel-container">
                    <div class="text-align">7</div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>).Render()
        <!-- end of dashboardlayout element -->
    </div>
</div>

<style>
    /* DashboardLayout element styles  */
    #defaultLayout {
        padding: 10px;
    }

    #defaultLayout .e-panel .e-panel-container {
        vertical-align: middle;
        font-weight: 600;
        font-size: 20px;
        text-align: center;
    }

    .text-align {
        line-height: 160px;
    }
</style>
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;

namespace WebApplication.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        public class spacingModel
        {
            public double[] cellSpacing { get; set; }
        }
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            spacingModel modelValue = new spacingModel();
            modelValue.cellSpacing = new double[] { 10, 10 };
            return View(modelValue);
        }
    }
}

Press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or ⌘+F5 (macOS) to run the app. Then, the Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout control will be rendered in the default web browser.

ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout using Content Template

Setting the panels property using helper

You can render the Dashboard Layout control by using the panels property through helper.

In the following sample, the dashboard layout is rendered with panels property using tag helper.

CSHTML
HomeController.cs
@model WebApplication.Controllers.HomeController.spacingModel

<div class="control-section">
    <div>
        <!--  DashboardLayout element declaration -->
        @Html.EJS().DashboardLayout("defaultLayout").Columns(6).CellSpacing(Model.cellSpacing).Panels(Panel =>
    {
        Panel.SizeX(1).SizeY(1).Row(0).Col(0).Content("<div>0</div>").Add();
        Panel.SizeX(3).SizeY(2).Row(0).Col(1).Content("<div>1</div>").Add();
        Panel.SizeX(1).SizeY(3).Row(0).Col(4).Content("<div>2</div>").Add();
        Panel.SizeX(1).SizeY(1).Row(1).Col(0).Content("<div>3</div>").Add();
        Panel.SizeX(2).SizeY(1).Row(2).Col(0).Content("<div>4</div>").Add();
        Panel.SizeX(1).SizeY(1).Row(2).Col(2).Content("<div>5</div>").Add();
        Panel.SizeX(1).SizeY(1).Row(2).Col(3).Content("<div>6</div>").Add();
    }).Render()
     <!-- end of dashboardlayout element -->
    </div>
</div>

<style>
   /* DashboardLayout element styles  */
    #defaultLayout {
        padding: 10px;
    }

    #defaultLayout .e-panel .e-panel-container {
        vertical-align: middle;
        font-weight: 600;
        font-size: 20px;
        text-align: center;
        line-height: 160px;
    }
</style>
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;

namespace WebApplication.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        public class spacingModel
        {
            public double[] cellSpacing { get; set; }
        }
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            spacingModel modelValue = new spacingModel();
            modelValue.cellSpacing = new double[] { 10, 10 };
            return View(modelValue);
        }
    }
}

ASP.NET MVC Dashboard Layout using Tag Helper

View Sample in GitHub.