ASP.NET MVC DataSource Setup

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ShieldUI DataSource for ASP.NET MVC is a server-side wrapper component implemented in the ASP.NET MVC HTML helper pattern. Getting started with the component is a breeze. Simply add a reference to the Shield.Mvc.UI assembly in your ASP.NET MVC 3 or MVC 4 project and add the Shield.Mvc.UI namespace to the <pages> node of the <system.web.webpages.razor> section in your ~/Views/Web.config configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization"/>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="Shield.Mvc.UI"/>
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>
...

Since the ShieldUI DataSource for MVC is a wrapper of the JavaScript DataSource component you need to include the references to the CSS and JavaScript resources in the HEAD section of your webpage:

<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/light/all.min.css" />
    <script src="js/jquery-1.10.2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="js/shieldui-all.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

The resources for the client side component can be found on the download page under “ShieldUI JavaScript” section.

The ShieldUI DataSource for ASP.NET MVC follows the MVC helper pattern by providing a set of chainable methods that configure the widgets. The C# helpers API is a 1:1 reflection of the JavaScript widgets configuration, so you only have to get familiar with a single set of configuration options:

// JavaScript DataSource initialization
var contactsDS = new shield.DataSource({
    data: gridData,
    filter: { path: "age", filter: "lte", value: 27 },
    sort: { path: "name" },
    take: 15
});

// using the DataSource variable with a Grid
$("#grid").shieldGrid({
    dataSource: contactsDS
});

Following is the ASP.NET MVC counterpart of the above code:

// ASP.NET MVC DataSource initialization
@(Html.ShieldDataSource("contactsDS")
    .Data(@gridData)
    .Filter(fb => fb
        .Path("age")
        .Filter(Shield.Mvc.UI.DataSource.FilterFunction.Lte)
        .Value(27))
    .Sort(sb => sb.Path("name"))
    .Take(15)
)

// using the DataSource variable with a Grid
@(Html.ShieldGrid()
    .Name("grid")
    .DataSourceExpression(@contactsDS)
)

To see the configuration options in action, please refer to our online demos.