Web Server

The Universal Dashboard webserver is based on the ASP.NET Core Kestrel webserver. It's cross-platform and can be hosted in numerous different ways. See Running Dashboards to learn more how to start the webserver.

Web Server Options

HTTPS

Universal Dashboard supports HTTPS. In order to enable HTTPS, you can specify a certificate file and password or a X509Certificate2 returned from the Certificate provider in PowerShell.

To enable HTTPS, simply specify the -CertificateFile and -CertificatePassword or -Certificate parameter on Start-UDDashboard.

$cert = ( Get-ChildItem -Path cert:\LocalMachine\My\2BB51C6FF080B51FCA6D52F0B8B4E5369732AE23 )
​
Start-UDDashboard -Content {
    New-UDDashboard -Title "Secure Dashboard" -Content {
        New-UDElement -Tag "h1" -Content { "Super Secure" }
    }
} -Port 10000 -Certificate $cert

The dashboard will now be available on HTTPS and no longer available on HTTP.

HTTP to HTTPS redirection

You can enable HTTP to HTTPS redirection by specifying a port for HTTP (default 80) and a port for HTTPS (default 443). If the user visits the HTTP port, they will automatically be redirected to the HTTPS port. The redirection happens via a 308 permanent redirect status code from the web server.

$Dashboard = Start-UDDashboard -Port 10001 -HttpsPort 10002 -Certificate $Cert
​
try 
{
    $Request = Invoke-WebRequest http://localhost:10001/dashboard
}
catch 
{
    $_.Exception.Response.StatusCode | should be 308
}
​
$Request = Invoke-WebRequest https://localhost:10002/dashboard
$Request.StatusCode | Should be 200

Listening Address

By default, the web server will listen on all available addresses. You can adjust the listen addresses by using the -ListenAddress parameter and passing in a valid IP Address. This is helpful when building desktop apps, like UDForge, that should not open a web server to listen beyond the local machine.

Start-UDDashboard -Port 10000 -ListenAddress '127.0.0.1'