Monday 15 June 2015

WebGrid in Asp.Net MVC

In this article I am going to give an example of webgrid control in asp.net mvc. What is the unique feature in this article is dynamic paging, sorting and search in webgrid using ajax.

Generally we are loading data in to grid with a single server side call. For eg:

Select * From Employee  (in sql)   or     context.Employee.ToList() (in linq)

But this query will be fail where we have lot more data in our database tables. For eg. where we 20000 or 30000 records in a table. It can adversely affect our application and sometimes response time will be massive.

In this article we will figure out this problem and will make a generic solution for an asp.net mvc application.

Points to be covered:

1)      Creating webgrid in asp.net mvc

2)      Dynamic Paging using Ajax

3)      Dynamic Sorting using Ajax

4)      Dynamic Search using Ajax

5)      Generic Sorting and Paging classes.

Prerequisites:

1)      Microsoft Visual Studio

2)      SQL Server

Packages:

1)      EntityFramework (install-package entityframework)

2)      jQuery (install-package jQuery)

3)      Bootstrap (install-package Bootstrap)

4)      LinqKit (install-package LinqKit)

Now follow the steps in order to achieve this task:

 

1)      Open Microsoft Visual Studio

2)      Create a new Asp.Net MVC application project

3)      Install the packages given above

4)      Create a Model class named Employee

    public class Employee

    {

        public int EmployeeId { get; set; }

 

        [Required]

        [StringLength(20)]

        public string FirstName { get; set; }

 

        [Required]

        [StringLength(20)]

        public string LastName { get; set; }

 

        public float Salary { get; set; }

 

        [Required]

        [StringLength(50)]

        public string Country { get; set; }

 

        [Required]

        [StringLength(50)]

        public string State { get; set; }

 

        public DateTime DateofBirth { get; set; }

        public bool IsActive { get; set; }

        public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; }

    }

 

5)      Create a db context class. For this tutorial I am using entity framework codefirst approach so it will create and add data in db automatically by using c# context classes.

 

    public class EmployeeDbContext : DbContext

    {

        public EmployeeDbContext()

            : base()

        {

            Database.SetInitializer<EmployeeDbContext>(new EmployeeDbContextInitializer());

        }

 

        public DbSet<Employee> Employees { get; set; }

    }

 

    public class EmployeeDbContextInitializer : DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges<EmployeeDbContext>

    {

        protected override void Seed(EmployeeDbContext context)

        {

            var list = new List<Employee>

            {

                // create object of Employees

            };

 

            list.ForEach(m =>

            {

                context.Employees.Add(m);

            });

 

            context.SaveChanges();

 

            base.Seed(context);

        }

    }

 

6)      Add connection string in web.config:

<connectionStrings>

    <add name="EmployeeDbContext" connectionString="Data Source=SONY-VAIO\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=EmpDb;Integrated Security=true;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

  </connectionStrings>

 

7)      Add the following utilities class for paging and sorting

a)      SortOrderDTO

b)      SortingPagingDTO

c)       SortingPaging

8)      Create a Data Access Layer class named EmployeeDAL and paste the following code:

    public class EmployeeDAL

    {

        public List<Employee> GetEmployees(SortingPagingDTO sortingPaging, ref long totalCount, string strSerchStartWith)

        {

            using (EmployeeDbContext context = new EmployeeDbContext())

            {

                Expression<Func<Employee, bool>> pb = PredicateBuilder.True<Employee>();

 

                if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(strSerchStartWith))

                {

                    pb = pb.And(c => c.FirstName.ToLower().Contains(strSerchStartWith.ToLower()) || c.LastName.ToLower().Contains(strSerchStartWith.ToLower()));

                }

 

                var query = (from x in context.Employees.AsExpandable().Where(pb)

                             orderby x.CreatedDate

                             select x) as IOrderedQueryable<Employee>;

 

                totalCount = query.Count();

                return query.ApplySortingPagingToList(sortingPaging).ToList();

            }

        }

    }

 

9)      Create a Business Logic Layer class named EmployeeBLL

    public class EmployeeBLL

    {

        public static List<Employee> GetEmployees(SortingPagingDTO sortingPaging, ref long totalCount, string strSerchStartWith)

        {

            EmployeeDAL obj = new EmployeeDAL();

            {

                return obj.GetEmployees(sortingPaging, ref totalCount, strSerchStartWith);

            }

        }

    }

 

10)   Create a Home controller and use the following code:

    public class HomeController : Controller

    {

        public ActionResult Index(int? page, int? pagesize, string sort, string sortdir, string search)

        {

            SortingPagingDTO objSortPaging = null;

            SetSortingPaging(page, pagesize, sort, sortdir, out objSortPaging);

 

            long totalCount = 0;

 

            var list = EmployeeBLL.GetEmployees(objSortPaging, ref totalCount, HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(search));

 

            ViewBag.RecordCount = totalCount;

            ViewBag.PageSize = pagesize ?? 10;

 

            if (Request.IsAjaxRequest())

            {

                return PartialView("_Result", list);

            }

            return View(list);

        }

 

        private void SetSortingPaging(int? page, int? pagesize, string sort, string sortdir, out SortingPagingDTO objSortPaging)

        {

            objSortPaging = new SortingPagingDTO();

 

            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(sort))

                objSortPaging.SortOrders.Add(new SortOrderDTO("FirstName", SortOrderDTO.SortOrder.Ascending));

            else

            {

                if (sortdir == "ASC")

                    objSortPaging.SortOrders.Add(new SortOrderDTO(sort, SortOrderDTO.SortOrder.Descending));

                else

                    objSortPaging.SortOrders.Add(new SortOrderDTO(sort, SortOrderDTO.SortOrder.Ascending));

            }

 

            if (page.HasValue)

                objSortPaging.PageNumber = page.Value;

            if (pagesize.HasValue)

                objSortPaging.PageSize = pagesize.Value;

        }

 

    }

 

11)   Add a Index view and insert the following code:

@model IEnumerable<MvcWebGrid.Models.Employee>

@{

    Layout = null;

}

 

<!DOCTYPE html>

 

<html>

<head>

    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />

    <title>Index</title>

    <link href="~/Content/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />

    <script src="~/Scripts/jquery-2.1.4.min.js"></script>

    <script src="~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive-ajax.min.js"></script>

    <script src="~/Scripts/app.js"></script>

</head>

<body>

    <div class="container">

 

        <br />

        @Html.Partial("_Search")

 

        <div id="employee-grid">

            @Html.Partial("_Result", Model)

        </div>

 

    </div>

</body>

</html>

 

12)   Create a partial view _Search.cshtml

@using (Ajax.BeginForm("Index", new { }, new AjaxOptions

                    {

                        HttpMethod = "GET",

                        UpdateTargetId = "employee-grid"

                    }, new { @id = "form-search" }))

{

    <div class="row">

        <div class="col-md-2">

            <select class="form-control" name="pagesize">

                <option value="10">10</option>

                <option value="20">20</option>

            </select>

        </div>

        <div class="col-md-10" style="float:right;">

            <input type="text" name="search" id="search" class="form-control" placeholder="Search">

        </div>

    </div>

}

 

13)   Create a partial view _Result.cshtml

@model IEnumerable<MvcWebGrid.Models.Employee>

 

<div class="row">

    <div class="col-md-12" id="employee-grid-table">

        @{

            var grid = new WebGrid(canSort: true, canPage: true, rowsPerPage: (int)ViewBag.PageSize, ajaxUpdateContainerId: "employee-grid-table");

            grid.Bind(rowCount: (int)ViewBag.RecordCount, source: Model, autoSortAndPage: false);

        }

 

        @grid.GetHtml(

                    fillEmptyRows: false,

                    tableStyle: "table table-striped table-hover",

                    mode: WebGridPagerModes.All,

                    columns: grid.Columns

                    (

                        grid.Column("FirstName", header: "First Name " + WebGridSortHelper.SortDirection(null, ref grid, "FirstName")),

                        grid.Column("LastName", header: "Last Name " + WebGridSortHelper.SortDirection(null, ref grid, "LastName")),

                        grid.Column("DateofBirth", header: "DOB " + WebGridSortHelper.SortDirection(null, ref grid, "DateofBirth"), format: (item => String.Format("{0:dd-MM-yyyy}", item.DateofBirth))),

                        grid.Column("Salary", header: "Salary " + WebGridSortHelper.SortDirection(null, ref grid, "Salary"), format: (item => String.Format("{0:F2}", item.Salary))),

                        grid.Column("State", header: "State " + WebGridSortHelper.SortDirection(null, ref grid, "State")),

                        grid.Column("Country", header: "Country " + WebGridSortHelper.SortDirection(null, ref grid, "Country"))

                    )

                )

    </div>

</div>

 

14)   Create a app.js and paste the following code in order to submit ajax search form for filtering data and page size:

 

$(function () {

 

    var thread = null;

 

    $("#form-search input[name='search']").keyup(function (event) {

        clearTimeout(thread);

 

        var code = event.keyCode || event.which;

 

        if ((code >= 65 && code <= 90) || (code >= 48 && code <= 57) || code == 8 || code == 32) {

 

            thread = setTimeout(function () {

                $("#form-search").submit();

            }, 500);

        }

    });

 

    $("#form-search select[name='pagesize']").change(function (event) {

 

        $("#form-search").submit();

    });

 

});

Now you can search First Name or Last Name by typing in search textbox. You can also change page size by selecting option from dropdown.

Thanks for reading this article. I think this will help a lot in terms of dynamic data loading.

If you want to apply for the source code of this article, you can communicate with me via contact form given in the right hand side. You can enter your full name, email and a short description only.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi
The following line in the dal won't compile.

return query.ApplySortingPagingToList(sortingPaging).ToList();

where does ApplySortingPagingToList come from?

Unknown said...

Can you also clarify step 7? Utility classes

Rohit said...

Hi,

To do this, you have to buy full source code of this tutorial which costs you $15 because code is written by paid professional trainer.

If you want to buy, you can send me your email id by using contact form given in the right pane.

Thanks,
Rohit

Unknown said...

post all code