Referencing the Accelerator as a DLL

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.

This guide contains the following sections:

• Prerequisites
• Step 1. Embed the component into your webpage
• Step 2. Configure Flexmonster Accelerator on the server
• Step 3. Configure the component
• Enable logging

Prerequisites

• Flexmonster Pivot version 2.4 or higher
• Microsoft Analysis Services installed and configured
• Microsoft .NET Standard 2.0 or higher
• Visual Studio IDE

Step 1. Embed the component into your webpage

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

let pivot = new Flexmonster({
  container: "pivotContainer",
  componentFolder: "node_modules/flexmonster/",
  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 – 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:

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:

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",
  componentFolder: "node_modules/flexmonster/", 
  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", 
  componentFolder: "node_modules/flexmonster/",
  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 webpage from a browser — there you go! A pivot table is embedded into your project.

Enable logging

By default, logging is disabled in the Accelerator as a DLL. To enable logging, you need to implement the Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils.ILogger interface:

Step 1. In your project, create a C# class (e.g., MyLogger.cs).

Step 2. Open the created file (e.g., MyLogger.cs) and import Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils:

using Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils;

Step 3. Implement the Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils.ILogger interface by implementing the Error, Info, Trace, and Warn methods. Your code should look similar to the following:

using Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils;

namespace Project_Namespace
{
	public class MyLogger : ILogger
	{
		public void Error(string message)
		{
			System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(message);
		}

		public void Error(string message, params object[] args)
		{
			System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(message);
		}

		/* Info, Trace, and Warn methods can be implemented similarly */
	}
}

Notice that the Error method is overloaded, so it is implemented twice. The same applies to Info, Trace, and Warn methods. Overall, you should have eight methods implemented in your class.

Step 4. Go to the FlexmonsterConfig class and add your logger implementation to the Register method:

namespace Project_Namespace
{
	public class FlexmonsterConfig
	{
		public static void Register()
		{
			// Other code
			Flexmonster.Accelerator.Utils.LoggerLocator.SetLogger(new MyLogger());
			// Other code
		}
	}
}

Now logging is enabled for the Accelerator as a DLL.

What’s next?

You may be interested in the following articles:

• Configuring the authentication process
• Configuring a secure HTTPS connection