MongoDB data binding in React Pivot Table

This guide explains how to retrieve data from a MongoDB database using the MongoDB.Driver and MongoDB.Bson libraries and bind it to the Pivot Table through a Web API controller.

Sample dataset: The pivot report below uses the sample_training database with a ProductDetails collection. If you don’t already have this collection, you can load the public sample datasets into your local MongoDB or MongoDB Atlas cluster, or replace the database/collection names with your own. Make sure the collection contains the fields referenced in the pivot report (Country, Products, Sold, Amount, Year).

Creating a Web API Service to Fetch MongoDB Data

Follow these steps to create a Web API service that retrieves data from a MongoDB database and prepares it for the Pivot Table.

Step 1: Create an ASP.NET Core Web Application

  1. Open Visual Studio and create a new ASP.NET Core Web App project named MyWebService.
  2. Follow the official Microsoft documentation for detailed instructions on creating an ASP.NET Core Web application.

Create ASP.NET Core Web App project

Step 2: Install the MongoDB NuGet Packages

To enable MongoDB database connectivity:

  1. Open the NuGet Package Manager in your project solution and search for the packages MongoDB.Driver and MongoDB.Bson.
  2. Install both packages to add MongoDB support.
dotnet add package MongoDB.Driver
dotnet add package MongoDB.Bson
dotnet add package Newtonsoft.Json

Add the NuGet package MongoDB.Driver to the project

Step 3: Create a Web API Controller

  1. Under the Controllers folder, create a new Web API controller named PivotController.cs.
  2. This controller facilitates data communication between the MongoDB database and the Pivot Table.

Step 4: Connect to MongoDB and Retrieve Data

In the PivotController.cs file, use the MongoDB.Driver and MongoDB.Bson libraries to connect to a MongoDB database and retrieve data for the Pivot Table.

  1. Establish Connection: Use MongoClient with a valid connection string (e.g., <Enter your valid connection string here>) to connect to the MongoDB database. For MongoDB Atlas, the connection string is in the format mongodb+srv://user:[email protected]/.
  2. Access the Database and Collection: Use the GetDatabase method to access the specified database (e.g., sample_training) and the GetCollection method to target the desired collection (e.g., ProductDetails).
  3. Retrieve and Structure Data: Use the Find method of the IMongoCollection interface with an empty BsonDocument to retrieve data from the collection. The ToList method then converts the retrieved data into a List for JSON serialization.

Important: The Id property of type ObjectId must be decorated with the [BsonId] attribute. Without it, MongoDB.Driver will throw FormatException when reading documents whose _id field is an ObjectId. The Pivot Table will also reject the JSON response because ObjectId does not serialize to a primitive type by default.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using MongoDB.Bson;
using MongoDB.Bson.Serialization.Attributes;
using MongoDB.Driver;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

namespace MyWebService.Controllers
{
    [ApiController]
    [Route("[controller]")]
    public class PivotController : ControllerBase
    {
        [HttpGet(Name = "GetMongoDbResult")]
        public object Get()
        {
            return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(FetchMongoDbResult());
        }

        private static List<ProductDetails> FetchMongoDbResult()
        {
            // Replace with your own connection string.
            string connectionString = "<Enter your valid connection string here>";
            MongoClient client = new MongoClient(connectionString);
            IMongoDatabase database = client.GetDatabase("sample_training");
            var collection = database.GetCollection<ProductDetails>("ProductDetails");
            return collection.Find(new BsonDocument()).ToList();
        }

        public class ProductDetails
        {
            [BsonId]
            [BsonRepresentation(BsonType.ObjectId)]
            public string? Id { get; set; }
            public int Sold { get; set; }
            public double Amount { get; set; }
            public string? Country { get; set; }
            public string? Products { get; set; }
            public string? Year { get; set; }
            public string? Quarter { get; set; }
        }
    }
}

Step 5: Enable CORS in the Web API

React (typically http://localhost:3000 or http://localhost:5173) running on a different origin than the Web API will be blocked by CORS unless the API explicitly allows it. In Program.cs, register and apply a CORS policy:

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddControllers();
builder.Services.AddCors(options =>
{
    options.AddPolicy("AllowReactApp", policy =>
        policy.WithOrigins("http://localhost:3000", "http://localhost:5173")
              .AllowAnyHeader()
              .AllowAnyMethod());
});

var app = builder.Build();

app.UseCors("AllowReactApp"); // Must be called before MapControllers.
app.MapControllers();

app.Run();

Step 6: Run the Web API Service

  1. Build and run the application.
  2. The application will be hosted at https://localhost:7147/ by default (the port number is defined in Properties/launchSettings.json and may vary based on your configuration).

Step 7: Access the JSON Data

  1. Access the Web API endpoint at https://localhost:7147/Pivot to view the JSON data retrieved from the MongoDB database.
  2. The browser will display the JSON data, as shown below.

Hosted Web API URL

Connecting the Pivot Table to a MongoDB Database Using the Web API Service

This section explains how to connect the Pivot Table component to a MongoDB database by retrieving data from the Web API service created in the previous section.

Step 1: Create a Pivot Table in React

  1. Set up a basic React Pivot Table by following the Getting Started documentation.
  2. Ensure your React project is configured with the necessary EJ2 Pivot Table dependencies.

Step 2: Configure the Web API URL in the Pivot Table

  1. In the App.tsx (or App.jsx) file, map the Web API URL (https://localhost:7147/Pivot) to the Pivot Table using the url property within the dataSourceSettings.
  2. Below is the sample code to configure the Pivot Table to fetch data from the Web API:
import { PivotViewComponent, FieldList, Inject } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-pivotview';
import * as React from 'react';
import './App.css';

function App() {
    let dataSourceSettings = {
        url: 'https://localhost:7147/Pivot'
        // Additional configuration will be added in the next step
    };

    return (<PivotViewComponent id='PivotView' height={350} dataSourceSettings={dataSourceSettings} showFieldList={true}>
        <Inject services={[FieldList]}/>
    </PivotViewComponent>);
};

export default App;

Step 3: Define the Pivot Table Report

  1. Configure the Pivot Table report in the App.tsx (or App.jsx) file to structure the data retrieved from the MongoDB database.
  2. Add fields to the rows, columns, values, and filters properties of dataSourceSettings to define the report structure, specifying how data fields are organized and aggregated in the Pivot Table.
  3. Enable the field list by setting the showFieldList property to true and including the FieldList module in the services section. This allows users to dynamically add or rearrange fields across the columns, rows, and values axes using an interactive user interface.

Here’s the updated sample code for App.jsx with the report configuration and field list support:

import { PivotViewComponent, FieldList, Inject } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-pivotview';
import * as React from 'react';
import './App.css';

function App() {
    let dataSourceSettings = {
        url: 'https://localhost:7147/Pivot',
        enableSorting: true,
        columns: [
            { name: 'Year' }
        ],
        values: [
            { name: 'Sold', caption: "Units Sold"},
            { name: 'Amount', caption: "Sold Amount"}
        ],
        rows: [
            { name: 'Country' },
            { name: 'Products' }
        ]
    };

    return (<PivotViewComponent id='PivotView' height={350} dataSourceSettings={dataSourceSettings} showFieldList={true}>
        <Inject services={[FieldList]}/>
    </PivotViewComponent>);
};

export default App;

Step 4: Run and Verify the Pivot Table

  1. Run the React application.
  2. The Pivot Table will display the data fetched from the MongoDB database via the Web API, structured according to the defined report.
  3. The resulting Pivot Table will look like this:

PivotTable bound with MongoDB database

Additional Resources

Explore a complete example of the React Pivot Table integrated with an ASP.NET Core Web Application to fetch data from a MongoDB database in this GitHub repository.