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

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:

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:

     

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.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;
         }
     }

     In our project, this file is located in the Flexmonster Accelerator MVC/App_Start/ folder.
3. Register FlexmonsterConfig inside the Application_Start method of the Global.asax.cs file:

   FlexmonsterConfig.Register(); 

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