Hosting a ComponentArt dashboard in SharePoint 2010 is a scenario which comes up a lot in conversation with clients here at ComponentArt.  This is very possible using our DataVisualization package as well as standard controls (by way of the Silverlight Web Part) already present in SharePoint 2010.

We will assume that we have already created a dashboard solution using ComponentArt DataVisualization technology and also a running SharePoint 2010 installation.  For the purposes of this sample, I will be using our demo package as our running dashboard solution.  First we will need to create a separate website to host our Dashboard DataLayer as well as our Silverlight Xap file.

In my scenario, I want to host the Dashboard DataLayer on the same site as the SharePoint application, so I will need to assign a different port number, so they can reside on the same IP address.

I can verify that my newly created website is working by navigating to the site:

Once we have verified this as working, we will need to login to our SharePoint environment and setup our new SharePoint page.

From the home page, I am going to click Site Actions, then New Page (which will create our page).

Give my page a name, then click Create.

Now we are presented with a new page, inside page content, I want to select Editing Tools, Insert.

Now the ribbon shows a web part option.  Lets select this, and select Media and Content From the Categories.  Once we have selected Media and Content, we have the option on the right to select Silverlight Web Part.

This will let us display any Silverlight application to the page.  Click Add.  Now we will be prompted to add the url of the Silverlight Xap File.  You only need the xap reference because the Silverlight Web Part will create the required object for hosting the Silverlight Application.  I know that my Xap file is located in the ClientBin sub folder of that website we just created, so I will enter it, and click OK.

Now you should have a Silverlight Web Part on your page, we'll need to make some adjustments now to get our dashboard to fit inside.

We will set some options to have the dashboard fit nicely.

Now let's check in our changes, once we have checked in, we will need to publish the page.

We will now be presented with the completed page.

Now we have a SharePoint Page hosting a ComponentArt Dashboard!

Next time, I will show how to create a dashboard using SharePoint 2010 Lists and Excel Services.