Getting started¶

In ten minutes: a WPF window that shows a chart of your data, then a designer where your users build their own.

1. Install¶

dotnet add package EasyBI.Wpf
dotnet add package EasyBI.Renderers.LiveCharts2

<PackageReference Include="EasyBI.Wpf" Version="*" />
<PackageReference Include="EasyBI.Renderers.LiveCharts2" Version="*" />

EasyBI runs on .NET 8 and on .NET Framework 4.6.2 or later. EasyBI.Wpf brings EasyBI.Core and EasyBI.Abstractions. Pick the charting library you prefer: EasyBI.Renderers.OxyPlot draws the same charts with OxyPlot.

2. Describe your data¶

A semantic model tells EasyBI what can be analyzed in a collection: its dimensions (what you group by: a region, a date...) and its measures (what you add up: a revenue, a quantity...).

public sealed record Sale(DateTime Date, string Region, string Channel,
                          decimal Amount, int Quantity);

var model = SemanticModel.For(sales, "sales", "Sales") // (1)!
    .Dimension(s => s.Date, "Date")
    .Dimension(s => s.Region, "Region")
    .Dimension(s => s.Channel, "Channel")
    .Measure(s => s.Amount, "Revenue", format: "#,##0 €") // (2)!
    .Measure(s => s.Quantity, "Quantity")
    .Count("Number of sales");

1. sales is any IEnumerable<Sale> or IQueryable<Sale>: a list in memory, or a table of EF Core. "sales" is the name reports use, "Sales" the caption users see.
2. A measure is summed by default; users can switch it to an average, a minimum...

The semantic model page covers everything a model can declare, and how to plug a database.

3. Create the context¶

The context gathers your models and the renderers that draw the charts. Create one for the application, and keep it: every EasyBI control of the application uses it.

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    public EasyBIContext Context { get; } = EasyBIContext.Create()
        .AddModel(model)
        .UseRenderer(new LiveCharts2Renderer());

    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        DataContext = this;
    }
}

4. Show a chart¶

A visual says what to show: the model, the type of chart, the fields on each axis. A VisualView draws it.

<Window xmlns:bi="https://github.com/TheoCvg/EasyBI" ...>
    <bi:VisualView Context="{Binding Context}" Definition="{Binding RevenueByRegion}" />
</Window>

public VisualDefinition RevenueByRegion { get; } = new()
{
    Title = "Revenue by region",
    Model = "sales",
    Type = VisualType.Bar,
    Axis = [new("Region")],                     // (1)!
    Values = [new("Amount")],                   // (2)!
    Sort = new("Amount", Descending: true),
};

Run the application: the chart of the top of this page shows. The query runs in the background, grouped and summed by the model (in SQL with EF Core), so only the five totals reach the chart.

5. Let your users design¶

Replace the hard-coded visual with a designer: users drag fields, pick a type, and the visual follows.

<bi:ReportDesigner Context="{Binding Context}" Visual="{Binding RevenueByRegion}" />

Visual is two-way: what users build comes back into your property. See The designer.

6. Save and open reports¶

Visuals and reports are plain records, saved as JSON (the easybi/v1 format):

var report = new ReportDefinition { Title = "Sales", Visuals = [RevenueByRegion] };
File.WriteAllText("sales.json", ReportSerializer.Serialize(report));

var opened = ReportSerializer.Deserialize(File.ReadAllText("sales.json"));

{
  "schema": "easybi/v1",
  "title": "Sales",
  "visuals": [
    { "title": "Revenue by region", "model": "sales", "type": "Bar", "axis": [ { "field": "Region" } ], ... }
  ]
}

See the report format.

Next steps¶