Display Data In Grid Using Web API 2 And ReactJS

Introduction

In this post, we will see how to bind data in a grid by using the ReactJS library, ASP.Net Web API 2, and Entity Framework ORM.

In this demo, we are going create a sample application, then generate a mapping of our employee table by using Entity Framework, after that, we will create a service which returns all data from employee table. Finally, ReactJS as a library will be used in order to bind data in a grid.

Let’s start.

SQL Database part

Here, you will find the scripts to create a database and table.

Create Database

USE [master]
GO
/****** Object: Database [DbEmployee] Script Date: 3/26/2017 6:19:33 AM ******/
CREATE DATABASE [DbEmployee]
CONTAINMENT = NONE
ON PRIMARY
( NAME = N'DbEmployee', FILENAME = N'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\DbEmployee.mdf' , SIZE = 3072KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
LOG ON
( NAME = N'DbEmployee_log', FILENAME = N'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\DbEmployee_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , MAXSIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 110
GO
IF (1 = FULLTEXTSERVICEPROPERTY('IsFullTextInstalled'))
begin
EXEC [DbEmployee].[dbo].[sp_fulltext_database] @action = 'enable'
end
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_NULL_DEFAULT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_NULLS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ARITHABORT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_CLOSE OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS ON
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_SHRINK OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS ON
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET CURSOR_DEFAULT GLOBAL
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET DISABLE_BROKER
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET DATE_CORRELATION_OPTIMIZATION OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET TRUSTWORTHY OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET PARAMETERIZATION SIMPLE
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET HONOR_BROKER_PRIORITY OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET MULTI_USER
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET PAGE_VERIFY CHECKSUM
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET DB_CHAINING OFF
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET FILESTREAM( NON_TRANSACTED_ACCESS = OFF )
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME = 0 SECONDS
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DbEmployee] SET READ_WRITE
GO

Create Table

USE [DbEmployee]
GO
/****** Object: Table [dbo].[EmployeeTable] Script Date: 3/26/2017 6:20:03 AM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[EmployeeTable](
[EmployeeID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[FirstName] [varchar](50) NULL,
[LastName] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Gender] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Designation] [nchar](10) NULL,
[Salary] [int] NULL,
[City] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Country] [varchar](50) NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_EmployeeTable] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[EmployeeID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO

After creating the table, you can add some records as shown below.

Create your Web API application

Open Visual Studio and select File >> New Project.

The "New Project" window will pop up. Select ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework), name your project, and click OK.

The next step is to select a template. In this example, we need to choose the Web API template and click the Ok button.

After creating our project, it’s time to add ADO.NET Entity Data Model. Let’s Go.

Adding ADO.NET Entity Data Model

For adding ADO.NET Entity Framework. Right-click on the project name, click Add > Add New Item. A dialog box will pop up, inside Visual C# select Data then ADO.NET Entity Data Model, and enter a name for your Dbcontext model as DbEmployee, finally click Add.

Now, we are going to choose EF Designer from the database as shown below.

After clicking the Next button, a dialog will pop up with the name connection properties. You need to enter your server name and connect to a database panel, selecting the database via dropdown List (DB Employee), then click OK button.

In the final step, the dialog Entity Data Model Wizard will pop up for choosing an object which we want to use. In our case, we are going to choose the Employee table and click the Finish button. Finally, we see that the EDMX model generates an EmployeeTable class.

Create a controller

Now, we are going to create a controller. Right-click on the controllers folder > Add > Controller> selecting Web API 2 Controller – Empty > click Add.

Enter Controller name (‘EmployeeController’).

EmployeeController.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
namespace DisplayDataReactJS.Controllers
{
[RoutePrefix("api/Employee")]
public class EmployeeController : ApiController
{
//Db Context
DbEmployeeEntities db = new DbEmployeeEntities();
[Route("GetEmployeeList")]
public IQueryable<EmployeeTable> GetEmployeeList()
{
return db.EmployeeTables.AsQueryable();
}
}
}

As you can see, I am creating GetEmployeeList() action to select all data from the employee table in JSON format.

ReactJS part

Before all this, we are installing the ReactJS library. For this, open package manager console and running the following commands:

PM> install-package react.js

PM> install-package React.Web.Mvc4

In order to create new jsx file. Right click on Scripts folder > Add > JavaScript File.

EmployeeJSX.jsx

var EmployeeRow = React.createClass({
render: function () {
return(
<tr>
<td>{this.props.item.EmployeeID}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.FirstName}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.LastName}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.Gender}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.Designation}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.Salary}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.City}</td>
<td>{this.props.item.Country}</td>
</tr>
);
}
});
var EmployeeTable = React.createClass({
getInitialState: function(){
return{
result:[]
}
},
componentWillMount: function(){
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('get', this.props.url, true);
xhr.onload = function () {
var response = JSON.parse(xhr.responseText);
this.setState({ result: response });
}.bind(this);
xhr.send();
},
render: function(){
var rows = [];
this.state.result.forEach(function (item) {
rows.push(<EmployeeRow key={item.EmployeeID} item={item}/>);
});
return (<table className="table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>EmployeeID</th>
<th>FirstName</th>
<th>LastName</th>
<th>Gender</th>
<th>Designation</th>
<th>Salary</th>
<th>City</th>
<th>Country</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
{rows}
</tbody>
</table>);
}
});
ReactDOM.render(<EmployeeTable url="api/Employee/GetEmployeeList"/>,
document.getElementById('grid'))

Create HTML Page

To add HTML Page. Right click on project name > Add > HTML Page.

EmployeeGrid.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>.: Employee Grid :.</title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
</head>
<body>
<h3>Employee List - Web API 2 & ReactJS </h3>
<div id="grid" class="container">
</div>
<link href="Content/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/react/react.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/react/react-dom.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/EmployeeJSX.jsx"></script>
</body>
</html>

Note

Don’t forget to add the following libraries in your HTML page.

<link href="Content/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/react/react.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/react/react-dom.js"></script>
<script src="Scripts/EmployeeJSX.jsx"></script>

Output

Now build your application and you can see the following output.

Happy Coding.

4 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Guest User7y ago
Thanks for the article. I couldn't get this to work. However, I'm troubleshooting the JSX.
Les Pinter8y ago
I really appreciate your article. First time I've displayed a table of SQL data using React. I have a question, though, and perhaps you can point me in the right direction. I want to pass a parameter - in my case the first letter of the last name - to the query, preferably based on a dropdown listbox in the html page. I've already noted that if I change the ReactDOM.Render url to end in "?letter=A" the modified query works. What modifications would I need to make to do that interactively? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
SUJIL KUMAR8y ago
Great Article , Please can you share the Code with Complete CRUD operation with Same Sample ?
kzelda link9y ago
Good Article , thx