asp mvc.net Dashboard suggestions.

Question

I'm currently building an inhouse mvc.net reporting app. So far the pages charts etc have been relatively hard coded. i.e. 1 page for this chart, another page for this table. But I'd like to extend it so users have more control over what they're looking at. iow 'A dashboard'.

I'd like suggestions on what other people have used and what they've like/disliked about that approach.

I've briefly looked at:

• http://civicactions.com/blog/2009/feb/22/jquerydashboard_plugin
• MS Web Parts (but I think that's Webforms dependent)
• I've thought about using an alternative viewengine somehow to allow users to supply their own views.

I've also seen many spammy posts about Kalite dynamic dashboards. (so no link here)

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Have you looked into using RenderAction/Action? We have a couple places where modules are used, and throwing a RenderAction in is much easier than trying to control everything within a base controller.

Answer 2

Some alternatives may be;

1. You can use ExtJS. If you have seperate aspx pages you can display them in Tabs or panels. More information can be found here.
2. You can use Webpart Framework. If your users work only in IE and use SQL Server this is fine.
3. Also there are two alternatives. Dropthings] and Dynamic Dashboards. With these frameworks your users can create their own dashboards.
4. You can implement your solution if you like using IFrames.

Answer 3

So far I'm trying http://civicactions.com/blog/2009/feb/22/jquerydashboard_plugin Have a controller to handle picking a widget. I had made a couple of changes to the plugin to use widgetId rather than just id (as that's already in use in my routing). It looks promising, though i haven't yet got db backed saving / loading of configuration. Or individual widget settings figured out. I suspect RenderAction will become a good friend (thanks Andrew).