Summary
Dot Net Dash is a set of tools for administering Asp.Net web applications.
Specifically, it lets web site administrators more easily manage membership users in applications that use Asp.Net Membership and the Asp.Net Role Manager with Forms Authentication. In addition, it provides tools for utilizing and maintaining web event information collected through the Asp.Net Health Monitoring System.
The problem it solves
Once you've published your Asp.Net web site, Dot Net Dash gives you an easy way to see who's logging in, who's locked out and which types of exceptions your web site is experiencing. It also tackles the situation where Administrators can't really help users to reset their passwords without knowing that secret question!
It's a simple tool but it sure beats having to log into your web server to use Event Viewer or use Sql Server Management Studio to query your Membership database.
In a nutshell,
- The Dashboard control gives you an instant User Interface for displaying summary information such as the newest members, latest logins and number of locked out users. A related set of methods are available for retrieving this information, either by your application or by a web client.
- The Membership Management control gives you an instant User Interface for querying your membership user list and reviewing/updating information for each. Again, our API includes methods that you can use in your application or web client to interact with membership data.
- The Roles Management control gives you a UI, similar to Visual Studio's Asp.Net Configuration tool, for managing the users in each role. Our provider-based API gives you methods that you can use in your application or from a remote client
- The Health Monitoring control gives you a summary of web events collected with the built-in Asp.Net Health Monitoring libraries and also tools for searching, reviewing and (most importantly) deleting web event records. Yes, you can get to all this from a remote client.
Small project footprint
Don't you love it when that one small 3rd party widget requires you to alter Visual Studio or import dozens of files into your App? Well, we don't! That's why we built Dot Net Dash to leverage the capabilities of Asp.Net without requiring any databases, folders or special configuration. We think the ideal tool can be added (or removed) from a project without worrying that something will break!
Primary components of Dot Net Dash include
-
The Web Management API
A library of administrative functions that work with and extend the Membership, Roles, Profile and Health Monitoring capabilities of Asp.Net. The Web Management API is contained in a single .Net assembly. The Web Management API » -
The Dot Net Dash Controls
A set of Server Controls for use with both WebForms (ASPX) and MVC projects and that render as User Interfaces that work with the aforementioned Web Management API. All of the controls are contained in a single .Net assembly. The Dot Net Dash Controls »
Built for .Net 4.0
Although we did not leverage any particular data access technology such as Entity Framework, we did utilize lots of stuff in the .Net 4.0 framework. We also built our tools using functionality in the Asp.Net Mvc libraries. Even if you are not using Asp.Net Mvc in your web application, you'll still need to get Asp.Net Mvc 3.0 (it's a 26-second download.)
One of the things we love about Asp.Net 4.0 is that everything is pre-configured for you. In a brand-new web web application, you'll find that Url routing has already been set up and the membership and role systems are wired up pretty much like you'd want them.
Most folks can simply drop the Dot Net Dash control onto a web form or MVC View and it have it start working instantly. If you're running your web application in a virtual folder or if you've implemented a custom membership provider, don't worry because we've got you covered.
Help Topics
The following topics provide a reference to using Dot Net Dash as well as an explanation of its capabilities and limitations.