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Example: Creating custom report

In Episerver you can create custom reports as well as using the built-in reports in the admin view. This topic gives an example on how to create a custom report of existing pages on a website and how to export the report to Excel using EPPlus.

Start by creating a Controller that looks like this:

namespace AlloyExample.Controllers
{
   [EPiServer.PlugIn.GuiPlugIn(
        Area = EPiServer.PlugIn.PlugInArea.ReportMenu, 
        Url = "~/existingpagesreport",
        Category = "Existing Pages",
        DisplayName = "Pages By PageType")]
    [Authorize(Roles = "Administrators, WebAdmins")]
    public class ExistingPagesReportController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View();
        }
    }
   
}

This controller is a GuiPlugin which will be shown in the report menu and use the url /existingpagesreport. The controller is protected so you have to be part of the administrator group to use it.

For the url to work, add a route to it in global.asax.cs:

protected override void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
        {
            base.RegisterRoutes(routes);
            routes.MapRoute(
                "ExistingPagesReport",
                "existingpagesreport/{action}",
                new { controller = "ExistingPagesReport", action = "Index" });
        }

Create a simple view and make sure it shows up in the report center.

Add a ViewModel with the necessary properties:

public class ExistingPagesReportViewModel
    {
        public IEnumerable<PageType> PageTypes { get; set; }
        public PageDataCollection Pages { get; set; }
        public string SelectedPageType { get; set; }
    }

Create a helper class to make a request against Episerver like this:

public static class ExistingPagesHelper
    {
        public static IEnumerable<PageType> GetAllPageTypes()
        {
            var contentTypeRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentTypeRepository>();
            return contentTypeRepository.List().OfType<PageType>();
        }
 
        public static void SetPagesForPageTypeName(ExistingPagesReportViewModel model)
        {
            var criterias = new PropertyCriteriaCollection();
 
            var criteria = new PropertyCriteria();
            criteria.Condition = CompareCondition.Equal;
            criteria.Name = "PageTypeID";
            criteria.Type = PropertyDataType.PageType;
            criteria.Value = model.SelectedPageType;
            criteria.Required = true;
 
            criterias.Add(criteria);
 
            var pages = DataFactory.Instance.FindPagesWithCriteria(ContentReference.RootPage, criterias);
 
            model.Pages = pages;
        }
    }

Update your index action to create an instance of the View model and assign all page types to it:

public ActionResult Index()
        {
           var model = new ExistingPagesReportViewModel { PageTypes = ExistingPagesHelper.GetAllPageTypes() };
 
            return View(model);
        }

Create a view and add Episerver's CSS and JavaScript to it to have the same look-and-feel as other built-in reports in Episerver. The complete view looks like this:

@model ExistingPagesReportViewModel
 
@using EPiServer.DataAbstraction
@using EPiServer.Framework.Web.Resources
 
@{
    Layout = null;
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <title>@ViewBag.Title</title>
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge" />
    <!-- Shell -->
    @Html.Raw(ClientResources.RenderResources("ShellCore"))
    <!-- LightTheme -->
    @Html.Raw(ClientResources.RenderResources("ShellCoreLightTheme"))
 
    <link href="/EPiServer/CMS/App_Themes/Default/Styles/system.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
    <link href="/EPiServer/CMS/App_Themes/Default/Styles/ToolButton.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
    @Html.Raw(Html.ShellInitializationScript())
 
    <div class="epi-contentContainer epi-padding">
        <div class="epi-contentArea">
            <div class="EP-systemImage" style="background-image: url('/App_Themes/Default/Images/ReportCenter/PublishedPages.gif');">
                <h1 class="EP-prefix">
                    Existing Pages
                </h1>
                <p class="EP-systemInfo">
                    This report displays pages that exists on the site.
                </p>
            </div>
            <div id="FullRegion_ValidationSummary" class="EP-validationSummary" style="color: Black; display: none;">
 
            </div>
        </div>
        @using (Html.BeginForm("ListPages", "ExistingPagesReport", FormMethod.Post))
        {
            <script src="/Util/javascript/episerverscriptmanager.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
            <script src="/EPiServer/CMS/javascript/system.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
            <script src="/EPiServer/CMS/javascript/dialog.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
            <script src="/EPiServer/CMS/javascript/system.aspx" type="text/javascript"></script>
 
            <input type="hidden" id="doExport" name="doExport" value="False">
            <div class="epi-formArea">
                <fieldset>
                    <legend>
                        Report Criteria
                    </legend>
                    <div class="epi-size10">
                        <label for="pageTypes">Select PageType</label>
                        <select name="pageType" id="pageType">
                            @foreach (var type in Model.PageTypes.Where(w => w.ID != 1).OrderBy(o => o.Name))
                            {
                                <option value="@type.ID" @(type.ID.ToString() == Model.SelectedPageType ? "selected=selected" : "") >@type.Name</option>
                            }
                        </select>
                    </div>
                </fieldset>
 
                <div class="epitoolbuttonrow">
                    <span class="epi-cmsButton"><input class="epi-cmsButton-text epi-cmsButton-tools epi-cmsButton-Report" type="submit" name="showReport" id="showReport" value="Show Report" onmouseover="EPi.ToolButton.MouseDownHandler(this)" onmouseout="EPi.ToolButton.ResetMouseDownHandler(this)" /></span>
                    <span class="epi-cmsButton"><input class="epi-cmsButton-text epi-cmsButton-tools epi-cmsButton-Report" type="submit" name="exportReport" id="exportReport" value="Export Report" onmouseover="EPi.ToolButton.MouseDownHandler(this)" onmouseout="EPi.ToolButton.ResetMouseDownHandler(this)" /></span>
                </div>
 
            </div>
        }
 
        @if (Model.Pages != null && Model.Pages.Count > 0)
        {
            <div class="epi-floatLeft epi-marginVertical-small">Number of Hits: @Model.Pages.Count</div>
            <div class="epi-contentArea epi-clear">
                <div>
                    <table class="epi-default epi-default-legacy" cellspacing="0" id="FullRegion_MainRegion_ReportView" style="border-style: None; width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;">
                        <tr>
                            <th scope="col">Page Id</th>
                            <th scope="col">Page Name</th>
                            <th scope="col">Page Url</th>
                            <th scope="col">Published Date</th>
                        </tr>
                        @foreach (var page in Model.Pages)
                        {
                            <tr>
                                <td style="width: 27%;">@page.ContentLink.ID</td>
                                <td>@page.PageName</td>
                                <td>@Url.ContentUrl(page.ContentLink)</td>
                                <td>@(page.StartPublish.HasValue ? page.StartPublish.Value.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm") : "Not published")</td>
                            </tr>
                        }
                    </table>
                </div>
            </div>
 
        }
 
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        document.getElementById("exportReport").onclick = function () {
            document.getElementById("doExport").value = "True";
        };
        document.getElementById("showReport").onclick = function () {
            document.getElementById("doExport").value = "False";
        };
    </script>
</body>
</html>

This code has two submit buttons but only one form action; the JavaScript function connected to the click event on the export and search submit buttons updates a hidden value telling the controller to do an export of the data or not.

The action in the controller that handles this looks like this:

[HttpPost]
        public ActionResult ListPages(FormCollection form)
        {
            var model = new ExistingPagesReportViewModel
            {
                PageTypes = ExistingPagesHelper.GetAllPageTypes(),
                SelectedPageType = form["pageType"]
            };
 
            ExistingPagesHelper.SetPagesForPageTypeName(model);
 
 
            var doExport = false;
 
            if (bool.TryParse(form["doExport"], out doExport) && doExport && model.Pages != null && model.Pages.Count > 0)
            {
                Export(model.Pages, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response);
            }
 
            return View("Index", model);
        }

It returns the view if the export values are not true.

To export the report to Excel, use EPPlus and create a function in the same class like this:

public void Export(PageDataCollection pagesToExport, HttpResponse response)
        {
            using (var package = new ExcelPackage())
            {
                ExcelWorksheet ws = package.Workbook.Worksheets.Add("pages");
 
                ws.Cells[1, 1].Value = "PageId";
                ws.Cells[1, 2].Value = "PageName";
                ws.Cells[1, 3].Value = "PageUrl";
                ws.Cells[1, 4].Value = "Published Date";
 
                ws.Row(1).Style.Font.Bold = true;
                ws.Row(1).Style.Locked = true;
 
                int row = 2;
 
                foreach (var page in pagesToExport)
                {
                    ws.Cells[row, 1].Value = page.ContentLink.ID;
                    ws.Cells[row, 2].Value = page.PageName;
                    ws.Cells[row, 3].Value = Url.ContentUrl(page.ContentLink);
                    ws.Cells[row, 4].Value = page.StartPublish.HasValue ? page.StartPublish.Value.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm") : "Not published";
 
                    ++row;
                }
 
                response.ContentType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet";
                response.AddHeader("content-disposition", string.Format("attachment; filename=pages{0}.xlsx", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd")));
                response.BinaryWrite(package.GetAsByteArray());
                response.Flush();
                response.End();
            }
        }

Last updated: Jan 10, 2017