In this article I will explain with a step by step tutorial with an example, how to use WebGrid in ASP.Net MVC.
Note: For beginners in ASP.Net MVC, please refer my article ASP.Net MVC Hello World Tutorial with Sample Program example.
 
This article will explain how to implement WebGrid with Entity Framework and also how to:-
1. Display specific columns in WebGrid.
2. Implement Paging in WebGrid.
3. Implement Sorting in WebGrid.
 
 

Database

Here I am making use of Microsoft’s Northwind Database. You can download it from here.
Download and install Northwind Database
 
 

Creating an Entity Data Model

The very first step is to create an ASP.Net MVC Application and connect it to the Database using Entity Framework.
Note: For beginners in ASP.Net MVC and Entity Framework, please refer my article ASP.Net MVC: Simple Entity Framework Tutorial with example. It covers all the information needed for connecting and configuring Entity Framework.
 
Following is the Entity Data Model of the Customers table which will be used later in this project.
ASP.Net MVC: WebGrid Step By Step Tutorial with example
 
 

Namespace

You will need to import the following namespace.
using System.Linq;
 
 

Controller

The Controller consists of following Action method.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside the Index Action method, the records are fetched from the Customers table of the Northwind database using Entity Framework and returned to the View.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // GET: Home
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        NorthwindEntities entities = new NorthwindEntities();
        return View(entities.Customers.ToList());
    }
}
 
 

View

HTML Markup

Inside the View, in the very first line the Customer Entity is declared as IEnumerable which specifies that the Model will be available as a Collection.
The WebGrid is initialized with the Model i.e. IEnumerable collection of Customer Entity class objects as source.
The WebGrid is created using the GetHtml method with the following parameters.
htmlAttributes – It is used to set the HTML attributes to the HTML Table generated by WebGrid such as id, name, class, etc.
columns – It is used to specify the columns to be displayed in WebGrid and it also used to set specific Header Text for the columns.
Note: If the columns are not specified then WebGrid will display all columns supplied by its source. It is very similar to the AutoGenerateColumns feature of the ASP.Net GridView.
 
@modelIEnumerable<WebGrid_EF_MVC.Customer>
 
@{
    Layout = null;
    WebGrid webGrid = new WebGrid(source: Model);
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
    @webGrid.GetHtml(
         htmlAttributes: new { @id = "WebGrid", @class = "Grid" },
         columns:webGrid.Columns(
                 webGrid.Column("CustomerID", "Customer Id"),
                 webGrid.Column("ContactName", "Customer Name"),
                 webGrid.Column("City", "City"),
                 webGrid.Column("Country", "Country")))
</body>
</html>
 
 

Screenshot

ASP.Net MVC: WebGrid Step By Step Tutorial with example
 
 

Downloads

Download Code