ASP.Net Master Pages

In ASP.NET MVC3 “master pages” are handled in the _ViewStart.cshtml file.  As the name, suggests the code in this file is executed before each view is rendered (see Scott Gu’s blog post for more details).

Now that you understand the basic use of _ViewStart.cshtml file, let’s go over the scope applied to these files.  The _ViewStart.cshtml file will affect all views in the same directory and below the location of it.  Also, you can have another _ViewStart.cshtml file under a sub-folder which will be executed after the top level _ViewStart.cshtml.  Using this feature you can in effect override the top level _ViewStart.cshtml with one closer to the view.

Now when the Index.cshtml View under the Home folder is rendered, it will first execute the /Views/_ViewStart.cshtml file and then it will render the Index.cshtml View.

However, when the Index.cshtml View under the DifferentMasterPage folder is rendered, it will first execute the /Views/_ViewStart.cshtml file, then it will execute the /Views/DifferentMasterPage/_ViewStart.cshtml file, and then it will render the Index.cshtml View.

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Step by Step: Creating Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4 Reports Using Silverlight, RIA Services and VisiFire

I recently read an article on how to build advanced custom CRM reports using ASP.NET and Silverlight.  Since it was using Visual Studio 2008 and Silverlight 2, I decided to write a more updated version using Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Silverlight 4.  Also I decided to make the report work with the on-premise version of CRM 4.0 and as you will see it looks very similar to one of the dashboards enabled for the on-demand version of CRM 4.0.

First you will need to make sure you have the necessary tools installed to build a Silverlight application.  I decided to go with Visual Web Developer 2010 Express because it is free and Silverlight 4 Developer tools for VS.NET 2010.  You will also need to download VisiFire Once you have your development environment setup you can follow these steps to easily create a new dashboard for your on-premise CRM instance.

Figure 1

Step 1: Create a Silverlight 4 Project.

Open up Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and select New Project from the Start page or File menu.  Expand the Visual C# project templates and select Silverlight.  From the Silverlight project types, choose Silverlight Application (see Figure 1).  Name your project CrmSalesPipelineDashboard and click OK.

Figure 2

Now you will see a popup which allows you to choose how to host your Silverlight application. Choose to host the Silverlight application in a new Website with type ASP.NET Web Application Project (which should be the default).  Choose Silverlight 4 and check the Enable WCF RIA Services option (see Figure 2).  After you click OK it will create your two new projects (CrmSalesPipelineDashboard and CrmSalesPipelineDashboard.Web) in one solution.

Step 2:  Add an ASP.NET Entity Data Model

Figure 3

Add a new Models folder to the CrmSalesPipelineDashBoard.Web project where you can store your data models.  Right click on the new Models folder and select Add New Item which will open a dialog box.  Select the Data section under Visual C# and select the ADO.NET Entity Data Model.  Change the name to CrmModel.edmx and click Add (see Figure 3).

Figure 5

Figure 4

Now you will see the Entity Data Model Wizard popup dialog.  Select Generate from database and click Next (see Figure 4).  Either create a new Connection to your CRM database or choose an existing one from the dropdown list.  After you click Next, select the StringMap table from the list of Tables.  Then select the Opportunity view from the list of Views.  Leave the default options checked and change the Model Namespace name to CrmModel and click Finish (see Figure 5).  The new model window will be displayed with the new StringMap and Opportunity entities.

Build the solution to make sure everything is still in order.

Step 3: Add a Domain Service Class

Figure 6

Add a new Services folder to the CrmSalesPipelineDashboard.Web project where you can store your services.  Right click on the new Services folder and select Add New Item which will open a dialog box.  Select the Web section under Visual C# and select the Domain Service Class.  Change the name to CrmDomainService.cs and click Add (see Figure 6).

Figure 7

Now you will see the Add New Domain Service Class popup dialog.  Check the checkbox by the Opportunity and StringMap entities, uncheck the Generate associated classes for metadata and click OK (see Figure 7).

Insert the GetSalesPipeline method (see Listing 1) after the GetStringMaps method in the CrmDomainService class.

Listing 1
//Return the total estimated value for each sales pipeline step
public IQueryable<SalesPipeline> GetSalesPipeline()
{
IQueryable<SalesPipeline> salesPipeline = from opportunity in this.GetOpportunities()
join stringMaps in this.GetStringMaps() on opportunity.StatusCode equals stringMaps.AttributeValue
where stringMaps.AttributeName == "statuscode" && stringMaps.ObjectTypeCode == 3
group new { opportunity, stringMaps } by stringMaps.Value into g
where g.Sum(o => o.opportunity.EstimatedValue).HasValue && g.Sum(o => o.opportunity.EstimatedValue).Value > 0
select new SalesPipeline { SalesPipelineStepName = g.Key, TotalEstimatedValue = g.Sum(o => o.opportunity.EstimatedValue).Value };

return salesPipeline;
}


Insert the SalesPipeline class (see Listing 2) after the CrmDomainService class.

Listing 2
public class SalesPipeline
{
[Key]
public string SalesPipelineStepName { get; set; }
public decimal TotalEstimatedValue { get; set; }
}


Build the solution to make sure everything is still in order.

Step 4: Add the Pie Chart to Silverlight

Download the latest version of VisiFire (http://www.visifire.com) and unzip it to C:\VisiFire.  Add a references to the both the FJ.Core.dll and SL.Visifire.Charts.dll to the CrmSalesPipelineDashboard project.

Insert the XAML necessary to display the pie chart on the page (see Listing 3).

Listing 3
<vc:Chart Name="salesPipelineChart" xmlns:vc="clr-namespace:Visifire.Charts;assembly=SLVisifire.Charts" View3D="True" Theme="Theme1" Width="800" Height="400">
<vc:Chart.Titles>
<vc:Title Text="Sales Pipeline" FontFamily="Verdana" FontSize="20" FontWeight="Bold" />
</vc:Chart.Titles>
<vc:Chart.Series>
<vc:DataSeries RenderAs="Pie" DataSource="{Binding Data, ElementName=salesPipelineDomainDataSource}">
<vc:DataSeries.DataMappings>
<vc:DataMapping MemberName="AxisXLabel" Path="SalesPipelineStepName" />
<vc:DataMapping MemberName="YValue" Path="TotalEstimatedValue" />
</vc:DataSeries.DataMappings>
</vc:DataSeries>
</vc:Chart.Series>
</vc:Chart>
<riaControls:DomainDataSource Name="salesPipelineDomainDataSource" xmlns:riaControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.DomainServices" xmlns:my="clr-namespace:CrmSalesPipelineDashboard.Web.Services" AutoLoad="True" d:DesignData="{d:DesignInstance my:SalesPipeline, CreateList=true}" QueryName="GetSalesPipelineQuery" Width="0" Height="0">
<riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>
<my:CrmDomainContext />
</riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>
</riaControls:DomainDataSource>


Build the solution to make sure everything is still in order.

Finished Pie Chart

Step 5: View the Sales Pipeline Pie Chart

Run the solution by pressing F5 and view the pie chart in the browser.  You will notice that out-of-the-box VisiFire allows you to click on the different pieces of the pie to pull them out.

 

Other Resources

If you are interested in learning more about .NET RIA Services and how to use them in Silverlight I found these videos helpful:
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/all/net-ria-services-intro/
http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/all/ria-services-support-visual-studio-2010/