Referencing the Accelerator as a DLL

Overview

Flexmonster Accelerator can be integrated into your website back end as a separate ASP.NET controller. The main benefits of referencing the Accelerator as a DLL directly from the ASP.NET project are:

• No running of Accelerator installers.
• Easy updates to the newest version.
• No firewall settings.
• No service dependencies.

Prerequisites

• Flexmonster Pivot version 2.4 or higher
• Microsoft Analysis Services installed and configured
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 or higher
• Visual Studio IDE

Step 1. Embed the component into your web page

If Flexmonster is not yet embedded, set up an empty component in your web page:

var pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer",
    toolbar: true
});

<fm-pivot 
 [toolbar]="true">
</fm-pivot>

<FlexmonsterReact.Pivot
 toolbar={true}
/>

<Pivot
 ref="pivot"
 toolbar>
</Pivot>

Step 2. Configure Flexmonster Accelerator on the server

Choose one of the following options:

• Use an example GitHub project
• Integrate into an existing project

Integrate Flexmonster Accelerator into an existing project

To integrate Flexmonster Accelerator into an existing project, follow these steps:

Step 1. Install the Accelerator with NuGet – the Visual Studio’s package manager:

• Right-click on the project and select the Manage NuGet Packages item:

  

• In the Browse tab, search for the Flexmonster.Accelerator package and install it:

  

Step 2. Create a FlexmonsterConfig class with information about the connection:

• ConnectionString – a connection string for Microsoft Analysis Services. Example: Data Source=localhost;.
• CacheManager.MemoryLimit – the maximum memory size available for caching (in bytes).
• CacheManager.Enabled – indicates whether the cache is enabled.

Note: to connect to Azure Analysis Services, specify AuthHelper in FlexmonsterConfig. This property is an instance of the AzureAuthHelper class that has the following parameters:

• ResourceURL – the URL of your Azure Analysis Services instance.
• AzureAuthority – the Azure authority URL (e.g., https://login.microsoftonline.com/<your_domain>). Learn more in the Microsoft guide.
• AzureClientId – the client ID of the service principal registered in Azure Active Directory.
• AzureClientSecret – the client secret of the service principal registered in Azure Active Directory.

Your code should look similar to the following:

public class FlexmonsterConfig {
    public static void Register() {
        // Replace with actual data source 
        // Example: Data Source=localhost
        Flexmonster.Accelerator.Controllers.FlexmonsterProxyController
        .ConnectionString = "Data Source=localhost";

        Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils.CacheManager
        .MemoryLimit = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // MB to bytes

        Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils.CacheManager.Enabled = true;

 
        /* Specify the AuthHelper property if connecting 
           to Azure Analysis Services */
        Flexmonster.Accelerator.Controllers.FlexmonsterProxyController
        .AuthHelper = new AzureAuthHelper(
            // ResourceURL
            "https://westeurope.asazure.windows.net",
            // AzureAuthority
            "https://login.microsoftonline.com/<your_azure_domain>",
            // AzureClientId 
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            // AzureClientSecret 
            "XXXXXXXXXXXXX" 
        );
    }
}

In our project, this file is located in the Flexmonster Accelerator MVC/App_Start/ folder.

Step 3. Register FlexmonsterConfig inside the Application_Start method of the Global.asax.cs file:

FlexmonsterConfig.Register();

Step 4. Create an AcceleratorController class that extends FlexmonsterProxyController. This class will handle the requests to the Accelerator:

public class AcceleratorController : 
    Flexmonster.Accelerator.Controllers.FlexmonsterProxyController {
    public override void OnRequest(BaseArgs args) {
        base.OnRequest(args);
    }
}

In our project, this file is located in the Flexmonster Accelerator MVC/Controllers/ folder.

Step 3. Configure the component

Now it’s time to configure the client – Flexmonster Pivot Table and Charts. Let’s create a minimal configuration using the JavaScript API (replace proxyUrl, catalog and cube parameters with your specific values):

var pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer", 
    toolbar: true,  
    report: { 
        dataSource: { 
            type: "microsoft analysis services", 

            /* URL to Flexmonster Accelerator */ 
            proxyUrl: "http://localhost:50005", 

            /* Catalog name */ 
            catalog: "Adventure Works DW Standard Edition", 
            
            /* Cube name */ 
            cube: "Adventure Works", 
                
            // Flag to use the Accelerator instead of XMLA protocol binary 
            binary: true 
        } 
    }
}); 

var pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer", 
    toolbar: true,  
    report: { 
        dataSource: { 
            type: "microsoft analysis services", 

            /* URL to Flexmonster Accelerator */ 
            proxyUrl: "http://localhost:50005", 

            /* Database name */ 
            catalog: "Adventure Works DW Standard Edition", 
            
            /* Model name */ 
            cube: "Adventure Works", 
                
            // Flag to use the Accelerator instead of XMLA protocol binary 
            binary: true  
        } 
    } 
});  

Launch the web page from a browser — there you go! A pivot table is embedded into your project.

What’s next?

You may be interested in the following articles:

• Configuring the authentication process
• Configuring a secure HTTPS connection