Windows Server Essentials Dashboard add-in Samples
This sample demonstrates how to develop various add-ins to the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard.
The Windows Server Essentials Dashboard is a UI designed to help simplify complex administrative tasks, and provide a consistent experience for an administrator. The Dashboard also exposes an API that allows 3rd party developers to add in their own functionality. This extended sample describes a number of ways a developer can add or modify Dashboard features, as described in the list below. Note that many of these tasks are also described in the Windows Server Essentials SDK documentation.
Sample Objectives
This sample demonstrates the following:
- Adding a Common Task
- Adding a Community Link
- Adding a Quick Status
- Adding a listview
- Adding a WinForm Control
- Adding a WPF Control
- Extended a Tab
- Adding a top-level Tab with Listview
- Adding a top-level tab with multiple subtabs
- Adding a top-level tab with WinForm control
- Adding a top-level tab with WPF control and extended user tabs
Related topics
Operating system requirements
Client
Windows 8.1
Server
Windows Server 2012 R2
Build the sample
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Confirm that you have a Windows 2012 R2 Server with the Essentials Experience role enabled.
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Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the %WinDir%\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL directory, and locate the following files:
- HomeAddinContract.dll
- Microsoft.windowsserversolutions.administration.objectmodel.dll
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Copy these two files into the \Library directory under the sample directory.
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Start Microsoft Visual Studio and select File > Open > Project/Solution.
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Go to the sample directory. Go to the directory named for the sample, and double-click the Visual Studio Solution (.sln) file.
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Press F7 or use Build > Build Solution to build the sample.
Run the sample
The dashboard sample contain a number of dashboard add-ins that you can run on your Windows Server Essentials system. Generally, you can run each sample by taking the generated add-in (.addin) file and placing the file in the %Program Files%\Windows Server\Bin\Addins\Users directory. You may need to to re-start Server Manager to see the new additions. For more information, see the Creating a Dashboard Add-In topic and sub-topics. The sample also contains readme files that describe how to access certain add-in features.