EasyData Admin Dashboard

A Django-admin-inspired CRUD dashboard for ASP.NET Core + Entity Framework Core. Automatically generates a full admin interface from your DbContext — list views with pagination/search/sorting, create/edit forms with FK dropdowns, and delete confirmations.

What you get

• Dashboard home at /admin/ listing all entities with Add/Change links
• List view with search, column sorting, and pagination
• Create/Edit forms that auto-detect fields, hide auto-generated properties (Id, CreatedAt, UpdatedAt), and render FK relationships as dropdowns
• Delete confirmation page
• Sidebar with model navigation and filtering
• Zero client-side framework dependency — all HTML is server-rendered

Quick start

1. Install packages

Add a reference to the EasyData.AspNetCore.AdminDashboard project (or NuGet package when published).

2. Register services

// Program.cs or Startup.ConfigureServices
services.AddEasyDataAdminDashboard<AppDbContext>();

3. Add the middleware

// Program.cs or Startup.Configure
app.UseEasyDataAdminDashboard("/admin", new AdminDashboardOptions
{
    Authorization = new[] { new AllowAllAdminDashboardAuthorizationFilter() },
    DashboardTitle = "My Admin",
});

That's it. Navigate to /admin/ and you have a working admin panel.

Configuration

Authorization

using EasyData.AspNetCore.AdminDashboard.Authorization;

// Allow all (development only)
new AllowAllAdminDashboardAuthorizationFilter()

// Restrict to localhost
new LocalRequestsOnlyAuthorizationFilter()

// Custom: implement IAdminDashboardAuthorizationFilter

Options

Option	Default	Description
DashboardTitle	"Admin Dashboard"	Title shown in the header
AppPath	"/"	Base path of your application
DefaultRecordsPerPage	25	Pagination page size
IsReadOnly	false	Disable all write operations
EntityGroups	null	Group entities in the sidebar (dictionary of group name to entity names)

Authentication (optional)

The dashboard supports built-in cookie-based authentication with users, groups, and permissions — similar to Django Admin. Auth tables are created automatically in your existing database on startup.

app.UseEasyDataAdminDashboard("/admin", new AdminDashboardOptions
{
    DashboardTitle = "My Admin",
    RequireAuthentication = true,
    CreateDefaultAdminUser = true,
    DefaultAdminPassword = "admin",
});

When RequireAuthentication is enabled:

• All dashboard pages require login (unauthenticated requests redirect to /admin/login/)
• A default superuser admin is created on first startup (when CreateDefaultAdminUser = true)
• Permissions are auto-generated for every entity (add_, view_, change_, delete_)
• Superusers bypass all permission checks; regular users need permissions assigned through groups
• Auth entities (Users, Groups, Permissions) appear in the dashboard under "Authentication and Authorization" and are manageable through the same CRUD interface

Option	Default	Description
RequireAuthentication	false	Enable login and permission enforcement
CreateDefaultAdminUser	false	Create an admin superuser on startup if it doesn't exist
DefaultAdminPassword	"admin"	Password for the default admin user
CookieName	".EasyData.Admin.Auth"	Name of the authentication cookie
CookieExpiration	24 hours	How long the session cookie remains valid

Important: Your database must exist before the auth bootstrap runs. If you use EnsureCreated(), call it before UseEasyDataAdminDashboard():

// Correct order
using var scope = app.ApplicationServices.CreateScope();
using var db = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<AppDbContext>();
db.Database.EnsureCreated();

app.UseEasyDataAdminDashboard("/admin", new AdminDashboardOptions { ... });

Auto-generated fields

Fields configured with ValueGeneratedOnAdd or HasDefaultValueSql in EF Core are automatically:

• Hidden from create forms
• Shown as read-only text on edit forms

Example for timestamp fields:

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
    foreach (var entityType in modelBuilder.Model.GetEntityTypes()
        .Where(t => typeof(StandardEntity).IsAssignableFrom(t.ClrType)))
    {
        modelBuilder.Entity(entityType.ClrType)
            .Property(nameof(StandardEntity.CreatedAt))
            .HasDefaultValueSql("GETUTCDATE()");

        modelBuilder.Entity(entityType.ClrType)
            .Property(nameof(StandardEntity.UpdatedAt))
            .HasDefaultValueSql("GETUTCDATE()");
    }
}

Time-limited pagination COUNT

On tables with millions of rows, SELECT COUNT(*) can take seconds and block the list view. The dashboard cancels the COUNT query if it exceeds PaginationCountTimeoutMs and shows a fallback value instead. Data rows load independently and are not affected.

app.UseEasyDataAdminDashboard("/admin", new AdminDashboardOptions
{
    PaginationCountTimeoutMs = 200,  // default: 200ms; set -1 to disable
});

Option	Default	Description
PaginationCountTimeoutMs	200	Max time (ms) for the COUNT query. If exceeded, a fallback count is shown. Set to -1 to disable.

To reproduce and test with large data, see sample-project/E2E_TESTING.md.

SAML SSO (optional)

The dashboard supports SAML 2.0 single sign-on as an additional login method alongside password authentication. When enabled, the login page shows a "Try single sign-on (SSO)" link.

app.UseEasyDataAdminDashboard("/admin", new AdminDashboardOptions
{
    RequireAuthentication = true,
    EnableSaml = true,
    SamlMetadataUrl = "https://portal.sso.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/saml/metadata/...",
    SamlIssuer = "http://localhost:8000/admin",
    SamlAcsUrl = "http://localhost:8000/api/security/saml/callback",
    SamlGroupsAttribute = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/claims/Group",
});

On SSO login, the dashboard maps IdP group UUIDs to auth_group.name entries. Create groups whose names match the IdP group UUIDs, assign permissions to those groups, and SSO users automatically inherit them. Group memberships are fully replaced on each login.

Option	Default	Description
EnableSaml	false	Show SSO link on login page and enable SAML endpoints
SamlMetadataUrl	null	IdP metadata URL — auto-extracts certificate and SSO URL at startup
SamlIdpSsoUrl	null	IdP SSO endpoint (extracted from metadata if not set)
SamlCertificate	null	IdP X.509 signing certificate base64 (extracted from metadata if not set)
SamlIssuer	null	SP entity ID — must match the SAML audience configured in the IdP
SamlAcsUrl	null	Full ACS callback URL — must match the ACS URL configured in the IdP
SamlGroupsAttribute	"groups"	SAML attribute name containing group IDs (AWS uses http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/claims/Group)

Sample projects

sample-project

A working sample is at ./sample-project. To run it:

# Start SQL Server (required)
docker compose up -d db

# Run the app
cd sample-project/src
dotnet run -- api

Open http://localhost:8000/admin/ to see the dashboard with restaurant domain models (Category, Restaurant, RestaurantProfile, Ingredient, MenuItem).

sample-project-sso

Demonstrates SAML SSO with AWS IAM Identity Center. See sample-project-sso/README.md for configuration details and known issues.

Running tests

# Start SQL Server
docker compose up -d db

# Run all tests
dotnet test EasyData.sln

Project structure

src/
  EasyData.Core/                              # Core metadata model
  EasyData.AspNetCore/                        # ASP.NET Core integration
  EasyData.EntityFrameworkCore.Relational/    # EF Core metadata loader
  EasyData.AspNetCore.AdminDashboard/         # Admin dashboard (this package)
    Authentication/                           # Login, permissions, password hashing, auth DB
    Authorization/                            # Auth filters
    Configuration/                            # DI extensions and options
    Dispatchers/                              # View rendering and API handlers
    Middleware/                               # Request pipeline
    Routing/                                  # URL dispatch
    Services/                                 # Metadata, entity grouping, composite manager
    ViewModels/                               # Form and list models
    wwwroot/                                  # Embedded CSS/JS

test/                                         # Integration & unit tests
sample-project/                               # Working example app
sample-project-sso/                           # SSO example (AWS IAM Identity Center)