Customizing The Export To Excel Functionality In Kendo Grid Using ASP.NET Web API

Today, I came across a scenario where I need to customize the inbuilt export to excel functionality in kendo grid while exporting the grid data, i.e where I need to get some of the column data which is hidden in grid while downloading it as excel, which can easily done using show/hide column and bind function of kendo grid.

Let we see how to implement it using ASP.NET Web API as follows,

1. Creating an ASP.NET Web API application.
2. Creating a Controller.
3. Test the API
4. Using a kendo grid with MVVM pattern
5. Customizing the Export to Excel functionality in kendo grid using ASP.NET Web API.

Creating an Empty ASP.NET Web API Project

Create a simple empty WEB API project as in the following figure:

Creating a Model Class

Right click on the model folder and add a new class, in my case I named it Employee.cs:

Code in Employee.cs

1. public class Employee
3. {
4. public Employee(int EmployeeID, string FirstName, string LastName)
5. {
6. this.EmployeeID = EmployeeID;
7. this.FirstName = FirstName;
8. this.LastName = LastName;
9. }
10. public int EmployeeID { get; set; }
11. public string FirstName { get; set; }
12. public string LastName { get; set; }
13. }

Creating a Controller

Right click on the Controller folder and add a new controller, in my case I named it EmployeeDetailsController.cs:

Code in EmployeeDetailsController.cs

1. [RoutePrefix("api/EmployeeList")]
2. public class EmployeeDetailsController : ApiController
3. {
4. [HttpGet]
5. [Route("List")]
6. public HttpResponseMessage EmployeeList()
7. {
8. try
9. {
10. List<Employee> _emp = new List<Employee>();
11. _emp.Add(new Employee(1, "Bobb", "Ross"));
12. _emp.Add(new Employee(2, "Pradeep", "Raj"));
13. _emp.Add(new Employee(3, "Arun", "Kumar"));
14. _emp.Add(new Employee(4, "Dhivakar", "Krishnaswamy"));
15. _emp.Add(new Employee(5, "Rajasekar", "Jayaprakash"));
16. return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, _emp, Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter);
17. }
18. catch (Exception ex)
19. {
20. return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, ex.Message, Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter);
22. }
25. }
27. }

The above controller employee action will return an employee list as a response

Test the API

Test the API using the POSTMAN/Fiddler as in the following figure :

API End Point: /api/EmployeeList/List

Type: GET