This tutorial shows how to use the DayPilot Pro MVC Scheduler with MVC 4 and Razor engine. It will load scheduled events from a database (SQL Server), and allow event creating using TimeRangeSelected event and event moving using drag&drop.

Included

Features

  • Displaying events for multiple resources (rooms)
  • Drag and drop event moving
  • Drag and drop event creating
  • Event details editing using a modal dialog
  • CSS3 theme
  • Displaying status messages

Requirements

License

Licensed for testing and evaluation purposes. You can use the source code of the tutorial if you are a licensed user of DayPilot Pro for ASP.NET MVC. Buy a license.

Installation

event-scheduler-asp.net-mvc-visual-studio.png

DLL

  • Put DayPilot.Mvc.dll in the bin directory of the web application.
  • Add it to project references if you are using a compiled web project.

Scripts

Include the DayPilot script in the web page (the scripts can be found in Scripts/DayPilot directory):

  • daypilot-all.min.js

All the scripts are included in the site template (Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml or Views/Shared/_Layout.vbhtml):

<head>
    <!-- ... -->
    <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/DayPilot/daypilot-all.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

CSS Themes

Copy the Demo/Themes directory from the DayPilot demo project to Themes directory.

Include Themes/scheduler_white.css stylesheet in the web page:

<head>
    <!-- ... -->
    <link href="@Url.Content("~/Themes/scheduler_white.css")" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>

MVC View

Add the ASP.NET MVC scheduler control to the view (Views/Home/Index.cshtml or Index.vbhtml):

C#

@using DayPilot.Web.Mvc;
@using DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Events.Scheduler;
@using DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Enums.Scheduler;

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig{})

VB.NET

@imports DayPilot.Web.Mvc
@imports DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Events.Scheduler
@imports DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Enums.Scheduler

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig)

This will add an empty Scheduler with default settings.

In order to show calendar data, we need to specify the backend url:

C#

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig
{
    BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend")
})

VB.NET

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig With
{
    .BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend")
})

Apply a CSS Theme

event-scheduler-asp.net-mvc-theme.png

Apply the "scheduler_white" CSS theme by setting CssOnly = true and CssClassPrefix="scheduler_white".

C#

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig
{
    BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend"),
    CssOnly = true,
    CssClassPrefix = "scheduler_white"
})

VB.NET

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig With
{
    .BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend"),
    .CssOnly = true,
    .CssClassPrefix = "scheduler_white"
})

Note: You can create a custom theme in the online CSS theme designer.

Backend MVC Controller

Create a new SchedulerController class that will handle the backend requests. Add a Backend method:

C#

    public class SchedulerController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult Backend()
        {
            return null;
        }
    }

VB.NET

    Public Class SchedulerController
        Inherits System.Web.Mvc.Controller

        Function Backend() As ActionResult
            Return Nothing
        End Function

    End Class

Create a  new Dps class that will inherit from DayPilot.Web.Mvc.DayPilotScheduler:

C#

public class Dps : DayPilotScheduler
{
}

VB.NET

Public Class Dps
    Inherits DayPilotScheduler

End Class

Modify the Backend action of the Scheduler controller to pass control to a new instance of the Dps class:

C#

public class SchedulerController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Backend()
    {
        return new Dps().CallBack(this);
    }
}

VB.NET

    Public Class SchedulerController
        Inherits System.Web.Mvc.Controller

        Function Backend() As ActionResult
            Return New Dps().CallBack(Me)
        End Function

    End Class

Now override OnInit() method of the DayPilotScheduler class in the Dps class in order to handle the Init event:

C#

public class Dps : DayPilotScheduler
{
     protected override void OnInit(InitArgs initArgs)
     {
         Events = new EventManager().FilteredData(StartDate, StartDate.AddDays(Days)).AsEnumerable();

         DataStartField = "eventstart";
         DataEndField = "eventend";
         DataTextField = "name";
         DataIdField = "id";
         DataResourceField = "resource";
                
         UpdateWithMessage("Welcome!");
     }
}

VB.NET

        Public Class Dps
            Inherits DayPilotScheduler

            Protected Overrides Sub OnInit(ByVal e As DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Events.Calendar.InitArgs)
                Dim em = New EventManager()
                Events = em.FilteredData(StartDate, StartDate.AddDays(Days)).AsEnumerable

                DataStartField = "eventstart"
                DataEndField = "eventend"
                DataTextField = "name"
                DataIdField = "id"
                DataResourceField = "resource"

                UpdateWithMessage("Welcome!")
            End Sub
        End Class

This OnInit() method does three things:

  1. It loads the event set to Events property.
  2. It maps the event set fields (id, start, end, text, resource) to DayPilot fields.
  3. It tells the Scheduler to refresh the events and show a welcome message on the client side.

EventManager is a helper class that loads data from a database:

C#

    public class EventManager
    {
        public DataTable FilteredData(DateTime start, DateTime end)
        {
            SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM [event] WHERE NOT (([eventend] <= @start) OR ([eventstart] >= @end))", ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["daypilot"].ConnectionString);
            da.SelectCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("start", start);
            da.SelectCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("end", end);

            DataTable dt = new DataTable();
            da.Fill(dt);

            return dt;
        }
    }

VB.NET

Public Class EventManager
    Public Function FilteredData(ByVal start As DateTime, ByVal end_ As DateTime) As DataTable
        Dim da As SqlDataAdapter = New SqlDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM [event] WHERE NOT (([eventend] <= @start) OR ([eventstart] >= @end))", ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("daypilot").ConnectionString)
        da.SelectCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("start", start)
        da.SelectCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("end", end_)

        Dim dt = New DataTable
        da.Fill(dt)
        Return dt

    End Function
End Class

Define Resources (Rows)

event-scheduler-asp.net-mvc-resources.png

You can load resources using the Resources collection on the server side.

The Resources collection is persisted during subsequent callback calls so it is enough to load them during the init callback:

C#

protected override void OnInit(InitArgs e)
{
  LoadResources();

  UpdateWithMessage("Welcome!", CallBackUpdateType.Full);
}

private void LoadResources()
{
  foreach (DataRow r in new EventManager().GetResources().Rows)
  {
      Resources.Add((string) r["name"], Convert.ToString(r["id"]));
  }
}

VB.NET

Protected Overrides Sub OnInit(ByVal e As InitArgs)
  LoadResources()

  UpdateWithMessage("Welcome!", CallBackUpdateType.Full)
End Sub

Private Sub LoadResources()
  For Each r As DataRow In (New EventManager()).GetResources().Rows
    Resources.Add(CStr(r("name")), Convert.ToString(r("id")))
  Next r
End Sub

Adding a New Event

event-scheduler-asp.net-mvc-create.png

Now we will enable drag and drop event creating. Add TimeRangeSelectedHandling property to the scheduler configuration in the MVC view:

C#

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig
{
    BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend"),
    TimeRangeSelectedHandling = TimeRangeSelectedHandlingType.JavaScript,
    TimeRangeSelectedJavaScript = "modal('Event/Create?start=' + start + '&end=' + end + '&resource=' + resource)"    
})

VB.NET

@Html.DayPilotCalendar("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig With
{
    .BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend"),
    .TimeRangeSelectedHandling = TimeRangeSelectedHandlingType.JavaScript,
    .TimeRangeSelectedJavaScript = "modal('Event/Create?start=' + start + '&end=' + end + '&resource=' + resource)"
})

scheduler-mvc-new-event-modal-popup.png

The modal() function uses DayPilot.Modal class to display a modal popup with new event details:

<script type="text/javascript">
    function modal(url) {
        var m = new DayPilot.Modal();
        m.closed = function () {
            if (this.result == "OK") {
                dps.commandCallBack('refresh');
            }
            dps.clearSelection();
        };
        m.showUrl(url);
    }
</script>

After the new event is inserted in the database, the modal popup refreshes the scheduler using .commandCallBack(). The .commandCallBack() method fires OnCommand() on the server side:

C#

protected override void OnCommand(CommandArgs e)
{
    switch (e.Command)
    {
        case "refresh":
          Events = new EventManager().FilteredData(StartDate, StartDate.AddDays(Days)).AsEnumerable();

          DataStartField = "eventstart";
          DataEndField = "eventend";
          DataTextField = "name";
          DataIdField = "id";
          DataResourceField = "resource";
          
          Update();
          break;
    }
}

VB.NET

Protected Overrides Sub OnCommand(ByVal e As CommandArgs)
  Select Case e.Command
    Case "refresh"
      Dim em = New EventManager()
      Events = em.FilteredData(StartDate, StartDate.AddDays(Days)).AsEnumerable

      DataStartField = "eventstart"
      DataEndField = "eventend"
      DataTextField = "name"
      DataIdField = "id"
      DataResourceField = "resource"

      Update()
  End Select
End Sub

The OnCommand() method does three things:

  1. It loads the event set to Events property.
  2. It maps the event set fields (id, start, end, text, resource) to DayPilot fields.
  3. It tells the Scheduler to refresh the events using Update().

You can see that the steps 2-4 are the same as in OnInit(). We can move the events reloading to OnFinish() method which is called during every CallBack after the main event handler.

C#

protected override void OnInit(InitArgs initArgs)
{
  UpdateWithMessage("Welcome!");
}

protected override void OnCommand(CommandArgs e)
{
    switch (e.Command)
    {
        case "refresh":
          Update();
          break;
    }
}

protected override void OnFinish()
{
  // update was not requested in the event handler using Update() or UpdateWithMessage()
  // skip event reloading
  if (UpdateType == CallBackUpdateType.None)
  {
    return;
  }

  Events = new EventManager().FilteredData(StartDate, StartDate.AddDays(Days)).AsEnumerable();

  DataStartField = "eventstart";
  DataEndField = "eventend";
  DataTextField = "name";
  DataIdField = "id";
  DataResourceField = "resource";

}

VB.NET

Protected Overrides Sub OnInit(ByVal e As DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Events.Calendar.InitArgs)
  UpdateWithMessage("Welcome!")
End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub OnCommand(ByVal e As CommandArgs)
  Select Case e.Command
    Case "refresh"
      Update()
  End Select
End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub OnFinish()
  REM update was not requested in the event handler using Update() or UpdateWithMessage()
  REM skip event reloading
  If (UpdateType = Enums.CallBackUpdateType.None) Then
    Return
  End If

  Dim em = New EventManager()
  Events = em.FilteredData(StartDate, StartDate.AddDays(Days)).AsEnumerable

  DataStartField = "eventstart"
  DataEndField = "eventend"
  DataTextField = "name"
  DataIdField = "id"
  DataResourceField = "resource"

End Sub

Event Moving

event-scheduler-asp.net-mvc-drag-drop-moving.png

Similar steps have to be applied in order to enable event moving using drag and drop.

Add EventMoveHandling property to the view:

C#

@Html.DayPilotScheduler("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig
{
    BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend"),
    EventMoveHandling = EventMoveHandlingType.CallBack,
    TimeRangeSelectedHandling = TimeRangeSelectedHandlingType.CallBack    
})

VB.NET

@Html.DayPilotCalendar("dps", new DayPilotSchedulerConfig With
{
    .BackendUrl = Url.Content("~/Scheduler/Backend"),
    .EventMoveHandling = EventMoveHandlingType.CallBack,
    .TimeRangeSelectedHandling = TimeRangeSelectedHandlingType.CallBack
})

Override OnEventMove() method in the Dpc class:

C#

protected override void OnEventMove(EventMoveArgs e)
{
  new EventManager().EventMove(e.Id, e.NewStart, e.NewEnd, e.NewResource);
  UpdateWithMessage("The event was moved.");
}

VB.NET

Protected Overrides Sub OnEventMove(ByVal e As DayPilot.Web.Mvc.Events.Calendar.EventMoveArgs)
  Dim em = New EventManager()
  em.EventMove(e.Id, e.NewStart, e.NewEnd, e.NewResource)
  UpdateWithMessage("The event was moved.")
End Sub