EPiServer

WCF and EPiServer: Using WCF Web Programming Model Services in EPiServer sites on IIS 7

Stephen Horsfield — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:10:58 GMT

I've just managed to get the .NET 3.5 style of WCF Web Programming Model services to work inside an EPiServer 5 R2 site on IIS 7 and Windows 2008. I had a few difficulties finding out how to integrate the new model into IIS/ASP.NET and then further problems getting it working in EPiServer. Here, I outline the solution.

Context

I'm currently designing a site that will be using the Akamai Edge Suite of technologies (www.akamai.com) and so I desire that all client access is through the caching layer. Additionally, I'm motivated towards a REST model for web services to support a greater degree of caching.

The new WCF Web Programming Model is ideal for this purpose as I can wrap service parameters directly into the URL and reduce the coding effort considerably. I had been concerned about the integration of services into the same website as EPiServer because of how the URL mapping works in the Web Programming Model.

Solution

The solution is really easy once you realise that the typical EPiServer installation changes the default ASP.NET configuration. Specifically, you may need the following:

Create a new folder to host your services
Create a small web.config in this folder (or use location tags in the main web.config file) and add service handlers
Create a ".svc" file for the service
Create the supporting .NET service code

Create a new folder to host your services

This is necessary to allow a separate application configuration. You can change the main application configuration at your own risk, however :)

For the purposes of this post, I'll use "~/services/".

Create a small web.config for this folder and add service handlers

You'll need to add the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add name="svc-ISAPI" path="*.svc" verb="*" modules="IsapiModule" 
           scriptProcessor="%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll"
           resourceType="Unspecified" 
           preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv2.0,bitness32" />
      <add name="ServiceHost" path="*.svc" verb="*"
           type="System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpHandler, System.ServiceModel,
                 Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"
           resourceType="Unspecified" preCondition="integratedMode" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Now I took this from a cleanly created website with no configuration (using the IIS management console) and I recommend that you do the same.

Create a ".svc" file for the service

This file is created in the service folder and forms part of the URL so name it accordingly. I'll just use "service.svc" for illustration:

<%@ ServiceHost Language="C#" Service="Service" CodeBehind="~/App_Code/service.cs"
    Factory="System.ServiceModel.Activation.WebServiceHostFactory" %>

You should name your services more appropriately, of course.

Create the supporting .NET service code

So, you need to create the classes. Here, I'm using a simple file in the App_Code folder, but you might prefer to use a separate code project and assembly. Here's a simple example:

using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;

[ServiceContract]
public interface IService
{
  [OperationContract]
  [WebGet(UriTemplate = "test?s={s}")]
  string test(string s);
}

public class Service : IService
{
  public string test(string s)
  {
    return "test: " + s;
  }
}

So, this is a very basic service with a single HTTP GET method that returns some data dependent on a single query string parameter. A perfect REST example as the result is defined by the input, there is no change of state (so two identical GET requests result in the same value) and so the response is suitable for caching.

Using the service

So now, you can access the service as http://your_episerver_site/services/service.svc/test?s=YourTestString. ASP.NET integration (and IIS) requires the use of a service extension, in this case ".svc", however this article may help you to remove this issue: http://blogs.msdn.com/bags/archive/2008/08/22/rest-in-wcf-part-ix-controlling-the-uri.aspx but don't forget that EPiServer already does some URL rewriting and so you'll have to make sure they don't conflict!

Metadata

Categories: ASP.NET, EPiServer, SOA, WCF, .NET, Windows Server
Keywords: Web Programming Model, Windows Communication Foundation, Service Oriented Architecture, AJAX, JSON
Technorati Tags: software development, Windows Communication Foundation, .NET, JSON, WCF, SOA, service design, Service Oriented Architecture, EPiServer, ASP.NET, AJAX

EPiServer: Handling unpublished pages

Stephen Horsfield — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:45:55 GMT

Overview

I've recently hit an issue where some custom controls have been generating exceptions when unpublished pages exist in an EPiServer site. In these cases, the relevant (required) properties have null values.

Context

Rather than using the standard EPiServer property controls, these pages use ASP.NET data-binding and custom controls that access the required properties of EPiServer PageData objects. They are being viewed in the editing interface by a logged-in user with full permissions. The PageData object is sourced using a FindPagesWithCriteria operation.

Problem

Any of the custom page properties accessed using PageData["PropertyName"] (in C#) return null preventing the display of any useful information and causing exceptions in various cases, such as in sorting operations and date formatting.

Cause

EPiServer does not automatically load the properties for unpublished pages. You have to manually instruct EPiServer to load them.

Solution

Check to see if the page is unpublished and (optionally) whether the user has appropriate access rights. If appropriate, load the full version of the unpublished page and possibly store it in a PageDataCollection:

   1: public static PageDataCollection LoadUnpublishedAsNecessary(PageDataCollection pdc, 
                                                                  bool clearSource)

   2: {

   3:     PageDataCollection pdc2 = new PageDataCollection();

4:

   5:     foreach (PageData p in pdc)

   6:     {

   7:         if (p.PendingPublish)

   8:         {

   9:             AccessLevel l = p.QueryAccess();

  10:             if (((l & AccessLevel.Edit) == AccessLevel.Edit) ||

  11:                  ((l & AccessLevel.Publish) == AccessLevel.Publish))

  12:             {

13:

  14:                 PageReference r = new PageReference(p.PageLink.ID, true);

  15:                 pdc2.Add(EPiServer.Global.EPDataFactory.GetPage(r));

  16:                 continue;

  17:             }

  18:         }

  19:         pdc2.Add(p);

  20:     }

  21:     if (clearSource) pdc.Clear();

22:

  23:     return pdc2;

  24: }

References

http://www.episerver.com/sv/EPiServer_Knowledge_Center/Developer-Forum2/EPiServer-Developer-Forums-/1805/15069/

Versions

EPiServer 5, EPiServer 4.6

Metadata

Categories: .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, Software Development
Additional keywords: FindPagesWithCriteria, saved pages, unpublished, property values null, missing properties
Technorati Tags: .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, software development, data binding, page publishing

EPiServer: Getting a PageData Object When You Do Not Have Access to the Page

Stephen Horsfield — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:53:43 GMT

UPDATED: 16-MAY-2008

Overview

How can you get the PageData object for a page when the current user doesn't have access. It took me a while to find out, but you can just read on...

Context

I have been implementing a redirect facility. Only editors and administrators are allowed access to the page and everyone else is redirected according to a property on the page. The ACL on the page does not give Read access to the Everyone group. How can I get the property?

Solution

The easy solution is to use EPiServer 5. Then you can use the GetPage method of the DataFactory class to get a page, and provide the access level:

EPiServer.Core.PageData page =
  EPiServer.DataFactory.Instance.GetPage(
    pageReference, 
    EPiServer.Security.AccessLevel.NoAccess);

UPDATED: Thanks to Steve Celius of EPiServer for a better solution for EPiServer 4.6

Link to Steve Celius' blog: http://labs.episerver.com/en/Blogs/Steve-Celius/

In EPiServer 4.6, the EPiServer.Security.AccessLevel enumeration does not include a NoAccess member. However, the EPiServer.Security.AccessControlList.NoAccess property is an instance of EPiServer.Security.AccessLevel and can be used directly.

THE METHOD I ORIGINALLY POSTED IS BELOW, BUT DO NOT USE IT!!!

However, I was using EPiServer 4.6 for this project, and the luxury of a NoAccess access level was not given to me!

In this case, you need to circumvent the EPiServer security model. Of course, this probably isn't supported! The following code does the job:

EPiServer.DataAccess.PageLoadDB pageLoadDB =
  new EPiServer.DataAccess.PageLoadDB();

EPiServer.Core.PageData page =
  pageLoadDB.Load2(pageReference);

Job done!

Versions

EPiServer 4.6
EPiServer 5

Metadata

Categories: Software development, EPiServer, Page properties, security
Additional keywords: access denied, page properties, get page
Technorati Tags: .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, security, DataFactory

EPiServer: Getting the target from a Page Link that can be Internal or External

Stephen Horsfield — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:23:49 GMT

Overview

On a Page Type, you can create a property for a web link to a page. This page might be part of the CMS, or it might be on a different site. How can you find out how to render it?

Process

First, you need to get the PropertyData for the property. It might not have a value, but even if it does, the value is just an internal reference to the the page, for example "/templates/MyTemplate.aspx?id=1076". Not very helpful, is it?

Here's a quick method that you can use to return a PageData if the property references a CMS page, or a string with the URL otherwise. You'll still need to check to see which one is returned, if either.

Example code

static void GetPagePropertyLink(PageData CurrentPage, string PropertyName, out PageData pTarget, out string uTarget) {

    pTarget = null;
    uTarget = null;

    PropertyData pUrl = CurrentPage.Property[PropertyName];

    if (pUrl == null) return;
    if (pUrl.IsNull) return;

    try
    {
        pTarget = EPiServer.Global.EPDataFactory.GetPage(
            PageReference.ParseUrl(pUrl.ToString()), EPiServer.Security.AccessLevel.Read);
    }
    catch (EPiServer.Core.PageNotFoundException) { }
    catch (ArgumentException) { }

    if (pTarget == null) uTarget = pUrl.Value.ToString();

    return;
}

Versions

EPiServer 4.6

Metadata

Categories: Software development, EPiServer, Page properties
Additional keywords: Page Properties, Page Types, internal link, external link
Technorati Tags: software development, page link, .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer

EPiServer: Along the same lines... Reordering Page Type Properties

Stephen Horsfield — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:11:33 GMT

Overview

Another example of using the API to help with development. This time reordering many properties quickly.

Process and caveats

In EPiServer 4.6, this process doesn't work quite as well as it should. This can result in interesting behaviour of properties not displaying in the editor in the same order as in the administration of the Page Type. Also, some changes don't seem to get saved. I've done my best to get round these issues, but if you've got any suggestions, please post the comments.

So, how do I do it? As before, I'm hosting the code on a very simple ASP.NET page. It uses the EPiServer APIs to find the PageDefinition objects associated with a PageType. Then it reorders them as requested in the UI. I don't remove the PageDefinitions from the Definitions collection, because I don't know what that will do to pages with the property! That means I have to be a little clever about how I reorder them.

Helpfully, EPiServer provides MoveUp() and MoveDown() methods on a PageDefinition. Unhelpfully, these don't seem particularly reliable! To make sure they work, I do exactly one movement at a time, and in a carefully ordered way. This ensures that early changes do not change the behaviour of later changes. This is one area that can catch you out!

Example code

ReorderPageTypeProperties.aspx

ReorderPageTypeProperties.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="ReorderPageTypeProperties.aspx.cs" Inherits="EPiServerSample.cms.admin.ReorderPageTypeProperties" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        label { font-weight: bold; color: navy; }
        select { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
        label.property { float:left; width: 150px; }
        input.property { width: 200px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>EPiServer:  Reorder Page Type Properties</h1>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div style="width:40%; float:left; margin-right:2em;">
      <asp:Label runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourcePageType">Page Type:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:DropDownList Width="100%" ID="lbSourcePageType" AutoPostBack="true" runat="server" /><br />
    </div>
    <div style="clear:both;">&nbsp;</div>
    <div style="width:40%; float:left; margin-right: 2em;">
      <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourceProperties">Template Property:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="400" ID="lbSourceProperties" SelectionMode="Multiple" AutoPostBack="false" runat="server" />
    </div>
    <div style="width:40%; float:left;">
        <br /><br />
        
        <asp:Button ID="btnMoveUpPage" Text="Move up 5" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMoveUpPage_Click" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnMoveUp2" Text="Move up 2" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMoveUp2_Click" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnMoveUp" Text="Move up" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMoveUp_Click" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnMoveDown" Text="Move down" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMoveDown_Click" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnMoveDown2" Text="Move down 2" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMoveDown2_Click" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnMoveDownPage" Text="Move down 5" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMoveDownPage_Click" />
            
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

ReorderPageTypeProperties.aspx

ReorderPageTypeProperties.aspx

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace EPiServerSample.cms.admin
{
    public partial class ReorderPageTypeProperties : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageTypeCollection p =
                    EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.List();

                lbSourcePageType.DataSource = p;
                lbSourcePageType.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbSourcePageType.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbSourcePageType.DataBind();
            }

            lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndexChanged +=
                new EventHandler(this.lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged);

        }
        
        protected void lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            DropDownList lb = (DropDownList)sender;
            ListBox lbp = null;

            if (object.ReferenceEquals(lb, this.lbSourcePageType)) lbp = lbSourceProperties;

            lbp.Items.Clear();

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(lb.SelectedValue))
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType pt = EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(int.Parse(lb.SelectedValue));
                lbp.DataSource = pt.Definitions;
                lbp.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbp.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbp.DataBind();
            }
        }

        protected void btnMoveUpPage_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            Reorder(true, 5);
        }
        protected void btnMoveDownPage_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            Reorder(false, 5);
        }

        protected void btnMoveUp2_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            Reorder(true, 2);
        }
        protected void btnMoveDown2_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            Reorder(false, 2);
        }

        protected void btnMoveUp_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            Reorder(true, 1);
        }
        protected void btnMoveDown_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            Reorder(false, 1);
        }

        protected void ReorderDef(int PTID, int defID, bool movingUp)
        {
            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType pt =
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(PTID);

            foreach (EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition d in pt.Definitions)
            {
                if (d.ID == defID)
                {
                    if (movingUp) d.MoveUp(); else d.MoveDown();
                    d.Save();

                    break;
                }
            }
            pt.Save();
        }

        protected void Reorder(bool movingUp, int moveBy)
        {
            if (lbSourceProperties.SelectedIndex == -1) return;

            int PTID = int.Parse(lbSourcePageType.SelectedValue);
            int[] indices = lbSourceProperties.GetSelectedIndices();
            if (!movingUp) Array.Reverse(indices);

            System.Collections.Generic.List<int> defIDs =
                new System.Collections.Generic.List<int>();
            foreach (int index in indices)
            {
                defIDs.Add(int.Parse(lbSourceProperties.Items[index].Value));
            }

            foreach (int defId in defIDs)
            {
                for (int j = 1; j <= moveBy; ++j)
                    ReorderDef(PTID, defId, movingUp);
            }
            
            lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged(lbSourcePageType, new EventArgs());

            foreach (int defId in defIDs)
            {
                foreach (ListItem li in lbSourceProperties.Items)
                {
                    if (li.Value.Equals(defId.ToString()))
                    {
                        li.Selected = true;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Versions

EPiServer 4.6

Metadata

Categories: Software development, EPiServer
Additional keywords: Page Types, programmatic administration, reorder properties
Technorati Tags: software development, .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, page properties

EPiServer: Programmatic Manipulation of Page Types

Stephen Horsfield — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:44:29 GMT

Overview

The EPiServer administration tools are pretty good, but every now and then I find that I want a bit more functionality. In this case, I wanted to duplicate new properties across multiple page types, create new properties based on a template and also change existing properties to have unique values for each language. This would have been tedious by hand, but the EPiServer API has everything I needed.

Basic preparation

You don't need to do anything special to access the EPiServer APIs. The easiest option is to create new, standard ASP.NET pages in the admin folder, so that an administrative login is required. Of course, a plug-in could be created instead.

APIs

Everything necessary to manipulate Page Types are in the following classes:

EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType (an individual Page Type)
EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageTypeCollection (a collection of PageTypes)
EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition (an individual property of a Page Type)
EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinitionCollection (a collection of PageDefinitions)

The following are important static methods:

PageType.List() retrieves all defined PageTypes as a PageTypeCollection
PageType.Load(int) retrieves a PageType given its ID
PageType.Load(string) retrieves a PageType given its name
PageDefinition.Load(int) retrieves a PageDefinition given its ID

The following instance members are also important:

PageType.Definitions retrieves a PageType's PageDefinitionCollection
PageType.Save() saves changes to a PageType
PageDefinition.Save() saves changes to a PageDefinition

Examples

Three examples follow in C#. These are as follows:

DuplicatePageTypeProperties.aspx allows for copying properties between PageTypes
LocalizePageTypeProperties.aspx allows for bulk changing of the "Unique Value Per Language" property setting
RepeatingPageTypeProperties.aspx provides a quick method for creating new properties based on an existing one

DuplicatePageTypeProperties.aspx

DuplicatePageTypeProperties.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="DuplicatePageTypeProperties.aspx.cs" Inherits="EPiServerSample.cms.admin.DuplicatePageTypeProperties" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        label { font-weight: bold; color: navy; }
        select { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>EPiServer:  Copy Page Type Properties to Another Page Type</h1>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div style="width:40%; float:left;">
      <asp:Label runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourcePageType">Source Page Type:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="200" ID="lbSourcePageType" AutoPostBack="true" runat="server" /><br />
      <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourceProperties">Source Properties:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="200" ID="lbSourceProperties" SelectionMode="Multiple" runat="server" />
    </div>
    <div style="width:40%; float:left;">
      <asp:Label ID="Label2" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbTargetPageType">Target Page Type:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="200" ID="lbTargetPageType" runat="server" AutoPostBack="true" /><br />
      <asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbTargetProperties">Target Properties:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="200" ID="lbTargetProperties" runat="server" />
    </div>
    <div style="clear:both; width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;">
        <asp:Button ID="btnCopyProperties" runat="server" OnClick="btnCopyProperties_Click" Text="Copy Properties -->" />
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

DuplicatePageTypeProperties.aspx.cs

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace EPiServerSample.cms.admin
{
    public partial class DuplicatePageTypeProperties : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageTypeCollection p =
                    EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.List();

                lbSourcePageType.DataSource = p;
                lbSourcePageType.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbSourcePageType.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbSourcePageType.DataBind();

                lbTargetPageType.DataSource = p;
                lbTargetPageType.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbTargetPageType.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbTargetPageType.DataBind();
            }

            lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndexChanged +=
                new EventHandler(this.lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged);
            lbTargetPageType.SelectedIndexChanged +=
                new EventHandler(this.lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged);
            
            btnCopyProperties.Enabled =
                (lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndex != -1) &&
                (lbTargetPageType.SelectedIndex != -1);

        }

        protected void lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            ListBox lb = (ListBox)sender;
            ListBox lbp = null;

            if (object.ReferenceEquals(lb, this.lbSourcePageType)) lbp = lbSourceProperties;
            if (object.ReferenceEquals(lb, this.lbTargetPageType)) lbp = lbTargetProperties;

            lbp.Items.Clear();

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(lb.SelectedValue))
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType pt = EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(int.Parse(lb.SelectedValue));
                lbp.DataSource = pt.Definitions;
                lbp.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbp.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbp.DataBind();
            }
        }


        protected void btnCopyProperties_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            int[] selectedIndices = lbSourceProperties.GetSelectedIndices();
            if (selectedIndices.Length == 0) return;

            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType source =
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(int.Parse(lbSourcePageType.SelectedValue));
            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType target =
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(int.Parse(lbTargetPageType.SelectedValue));


            foreach (int selectedIndex in selectedIndices) {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition sdef =
                    EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition.Load(int.Parse(
                        lbSourceProperties.Items[selectedIndex].Value));

                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition tdef = new EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition();
                tdef.PageTypeID = target.ID;
                tdef.DefaultValueType = sdef.DefaultValueType;
                tdef.DefaultValue = sdef.DefaultValue;
                tdef.EditCaption = sdef.EditCaption;
                tdef.FieldOrder = target.Definitions.Count;
                tdef.HelpText = sdef.HelpText;
                tdef.LanguageSpecific = sdef.LanguageSpecific;
                tdef.LongStringSettings = sdef.LongStringSettings;
                tdef.Name = sdef.Name;
                tdef.Required = sdef.Required;
                tdef.Searchable = sdef.Searchable;
                tdef.Tab = sdef.Tab;
                tdef.Type = sdef.Type;
                
                tdef.PageTypeID = target.ID;
                tdef.Save();
                target.Definitions.Add(tdef);
                target.Save();

            }
            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.ClearCache();

            lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged(lbTargetPageType, new EventArgs());
        }
    }
}

LocalizePageTypeProperties.aspx

LocalizePageTypeProperties.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="LocalizePageTypeProperties.aspx.cs" Inherits="EPiServerSample.cms.admin.LocalizePageTypeProperties" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        label { font-weight: bold; color: navy; }
        select { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
        label.property { float:left; width: 150px; }
        input.property { width: 200px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>EPiServer:  Create Repeating Page Type Properties</h1>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div style="width:40%; float:left; margin-right:2em;">
      <asp:Label runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourcePageType">Page Type:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:DropDownList Width="100%" ID="lbSourcePageType" AutoPostBack="true" runat="server" /><br />
      <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourceProperties">Template Property:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="200" ID="lbSourceProperties" SelectionMode="Multiple" AutoPostBack="false" runat="server" />
    </div>
    <div style="width:40%; float:left;">
        <asp:Label AssociatedControlID="btnMakeGlobal" runat="server">Globalization</asp:Label><br /><br /><br />
        
        <asp:Button ID="btnMakeGlobal" Text="Make Properties Language Neutral" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMakeGlobal_Click" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnMakeLocal" Text="Make Properties Language Specific" runat="server"
            OnClick="btnMakeLocal_Click" />
            
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

LocalizePageTypeProperties.aspx.cs

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace EPiServerSample.cms.admin
{
    public partial class LocalizePageTypeProperties : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageTypeCollection p =
                    EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.List();

                lbSourcePageType.DataSource = p;
                lbSourcePageType.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbSourcePageType.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbSourcePageType.DataBind();
            }

            lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndexChanged +=
                new EventHandler(this.lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged);

        }
        
        protected void lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            DropDownList lb = (DropDownList)sender;
            ListBox lbp = null;

            if (object.ReferenceEquals(lb, this.lbSourcePageType)) lbp = lbSourceProperties;

            lbp.Items.Clear();

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(lb.SelectedValue))
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType pt = EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(int.Parse(lb.SelectedValue));
                lbp.DataSource = pt.Definitions;
                lbp.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbp.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbp.DataBind();
            }
        }

        protected void btnMakeGlobal_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            SetProperties(true);
        }
        protected void btnMakeLocal_Click(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            SetProperties(false);
        }
        protected void SetProperties(bool global)
        {
            if (lbSourceProperties.SelectedIndex == -1) return;

            int[] indices = lbSourceProperties.GetSelectedIndices();
            foreach (int i in indices)
            {
                int propId = int.Parse(lbSourceProperties.Items[i].Value);
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition d =
                    EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition.Load(propId);

                d.LanguageSpecific = !global;
                d.Save();
            }
        }

    }
}

RepeatingPageTypeProperties.aspx

RepeatingPageTypeProperties.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="RepeatingPageTypeProperties.aspx.cs" Inherits="EPiServerSample.cms.admin.RepeatingPageTypeProperties" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        label { font-weight: bold; color: navy; }
        select { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
        label.property { float:left; width: 150px; }
        input.property { width: 200px; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>EPiServer:  Create Repeating Page Type Properties</h1>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div style="width:40%; float:left; margin-right:2em;">
      <asp:Label runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourcePageType">Page Type:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:DropDownList Width="100%" ID="lbSourcePageType" AutoPostBack="true" runat="server" /><br />
      <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="lbSourceProperties">Template Property:</asp:Label><br />
      <asp:ListBox Width="100%" Height="200" ID="lbSourceProperties" SelectionMode="Single" AutoPostBack="true" runat="server" OnSelectedIndexChanged="lbProperties_SelectedIndexChanged" />
    </div>
    <div style="width:40%; float:left;">
        <asp:Label AssociatedControlID="tbName" runat="server">New Property</asp:Label><br /><br /><br />
        <asp:Label  CssClass="property" ID="Label2" AssociatedControlID="tbName" runat="server">Name:</asp:Label>
        <asp:TextBox CssClass="property"  runat="server" ID="tbName" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Label CssClass="property" ID="Label3" AssociatedControlID="tbEditHeading" runat="server">Edit Heading:</asp:Label>
        <asp:TextBox CssClass="property" runat="server" ID="tbEditHeading" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Label CssClass="property" ID="Label4" AssociatedControlID="tbHelpText" runat="server">Help Text:</asp:Label>
        <asp:TextBox CssClass="property" runat="server" ID="tbHelpText" /><br /><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btnRepeatProperties" runat="server" OnClick="btnRepeatProperties_Click" Text="Create New Property -->" />
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

RepeatingPageTypeProperties.aspx.cs

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace EPiServerSample.cms.admin
{
    public partial class RepeatingPageTypeProperties : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageTypeCollection p =
                    EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.List();

                lbSourcePageType.DataSource = p;
                lbSourcePageType.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbSourcePageType.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbSourcePageType.DataBind();
            }

            lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndexChanged +=
                new EventHandler(this.lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged);
            

            btnRepeatProperties.Enabled =
                (lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndex != -1) &&
                (lbSourceProperties.SelectedIndex != -1);

        }
        
        protected void lbPageType_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            DropDownList lb = (DropDownList)sender;
            ListBox lbp = null;

            if (object.ReferenceEquals(lb, this.lbSourcePageType)) lbp = lbSourceProperties;

            lbp.Items.Clear();

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(lb.SelectedValue))
            {
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType pt = EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(int.Parse(lb.SelectedValue));
                lbp.DataSource = pt.Definitions;
                lbp.DataTextField = "Name";
                lbp.DataValueField = "ID";
                lbp.DataBind();
            }
        }

        protected void lbProperties_SelectedIndexChanged(object source, EventArgs e)
        {
            tbName.Text = string.Empty;
            tbHelpText.Text = string.Empty;
            tbName.Text = string.Empty;
            if (lbSourceProperties.SelectedIndex == -1) return;

            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition p =
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition.Load(int.Parse(lbSourceProperties.SelectedValue.ToString()));

            tbName.Text = p.Name;
            tbHelpText.Text = p.HelpText;
            tbEditHeading.Text = p.EditCaption;
        }

        protected void btnRepeatProperties_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (lbSourcePageType.SelectedIndex == -1) return;
            if (lbSourceProperties.SelectedIndex == -1) return;

            int PageTypeID = int.Parse(lbSourcePageType.SelectedValue.ToString());
            int sdefID = int.Parse(lbSourceProperties.SelectedValue.ToString());

            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType p = EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.Load(PageTypeID);
            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition sdef =
                EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition.Load(sdefID);

            EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition tdef =
                new EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageDefinition();


            tdef.PageTypeID = p.ID;
            tdef.DefaultValueType = sdef.DefaultValueType;
            tdef.DefaultValue = sdef.DefaultValue;
            tdef.EditCaption = tbEditHeading.Text;
            tdef.FieldOrder = p.Definitions.Count;
            tdef.HelpText = tbHelpText.Text;
            tdef.LanguageSpecific = sdef.LanguageSpecific;
            tdef.LongStringSettings = sdef.LongStringSettings;
            tdef.Name = tbName.Text;
            tdef.Required = sdef.Required;
            tdef.Searchable = sdef.Searchable;
            tdef.Tab = sdef.Tab;
            tdef.Type = sdef.Type;
            tdef.PageTypeID = p.ID;
            tdef.Save();
            p.Definitions.Add(tdef);
            p.Save();

        }
    }
}

Versions

EPiServer 4.6

Metadata

Categories: Software development, EPiServer
Additional keywords: Page Types, programmatic administration, copy properties
Technorati Tags: software development, .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, page properties

EPiServer: FindPagesWithCriteria, Multiple Criteria and Boolean Property Tests

Stephen Horsfield — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:53:28 GMT

Overview

This should be easy, but easy it is not. I'm using an EPiServer 4.6 site for this one, so things might've improved in more recent versions, but this caused me a lot of trial and error. I hope this post saves you the hassle.

Context

I've got a Selected/Unselected property set on a Page Type, and I want to search for pages with this property checked. I also want to take account of publishing dates and I've got another date property to check too.

The EPiServer Selected/Unselected property type returns True when selected and Null when it is not. This causes some problems because boolean logic is more complicated when Null values are involved. This is because Null represents "I don't know". If you ask, "Is A equal to B?" and A or B is Null, then the answer is Null... always!

The other problem is that I can only do certain expressions in the query. I can say that some criteria are optional (union set) and some properties are required (intersection set). I cannot reduce or expand a single clause and this limits what is allowed.

My solution

I need to find pages with a date property less than the current date. I'll call this property RequiredBefore
I need to find pages with a boolean property that is set. I'll call this property Flag
I need to find pages that are currently published and accessible to the current user

Here's my code:

PageDataCollection col = new PageDataCollection(); PropertyCriteriaCollection propcol = new PropertyCriteriaCollection(); PropertyCriteria criteria = new PropertyCriteria(); criteria.Type = PropertyDataType.Date; criteria.Name = "RequiredBefore"; criteria.Value = DateTime.Now.ToString(); criteria.Condition = EPiServer.Filters.CompareCondition.GreaterThan; criteria.Required = true; propcol.Add(criteria); criteria = new PropertyCriteria(); criteria.Type = PropertyDataType.Boolean; criteria.Name = "VisibleInSummary"; criteria.IsNull = false; criteria.Value = true.ToString(); criteria.Condition = EPiServer.Filters.CompareCondition.Equal; criteria.Required = true; propcol.Add(criteria); PageDataCollection tempcol = new PageDataCollection(); tempcol = Global.EPDataFactory.FindPagesWithCriteria(CurrentPageLink, propcol, EPiServer.Security.AccessLevel.Read); // Check pages are published foreach (PageData p in tempcol) { if (p.Status == VersionStatus.Published) col.Add(p); } tempcol.Clear();

I'm checking for publishing dates after retrieving the pages which is inefficient. I'm doing this because it is otherwise difficult to handle for the possibility of publishing dates being null, and this way I let EPiServer decide how to check for whether a page is considered published.

Versions

EPiServer 4

Metadata

Categories: Software development, EPiServer, ASP.NET
Additional keywords: EPDataFactory, FindPagesWithCriteria, Search, multiple criteria, Publishing dates, flags, boolean, selected/unselected, PropertyCriteria.IsNull, PropertyCriteria.Required, EPiServer FindPagesWithCriteria, FindPagesWithCriteria EPiServer
Technorati Tags: software development, .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, FindPagesWithCriteria, search

EPiServer: PropertyCriteria — GreaterThan Value or Value GreaterThan?

Stephen Horsfield — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:15:28 GMT

Overview

Using EPiServer, you may use the FindPagesWithCriteria method to retrieve a list of pages based on certain properties, but the helpfully enumerated conditions may be confusing. After all, with a binary inequality operator it is quite important to know the order of the expressions...

Context

You use PropertyCriteria objects to set the criteria for a search and you can use the Condition property to determine the operator. Suppose you selected the GreaterThan operator:

IF --PROPERTY-- > --VALUE-- THEN

But is it actually:

IF --VALUE-- > --PROPERTY-- THEN

The two operations give entirely different answers, and they are not even inverse. The inverse operator to > (greater-than) is <= (less-than-or-equal).

The answer

A search through the EPiServer documentation reveals that the answer is that EPiServer will use:

IF --PROPERTY-- --CONDITION-- --VALUE-- THEN

Versions

EPiServer 5
EPiServer 4

Metadata

Categories: Software development, EPiServer, ASP.NET
Additional keywords: EPDataFactory, FindPagesWithCriteria, Search, Publishing dates, binary operator, inequality, Greater than, Less than, CompareCondition, PageStartPublish, PageStopPublish
Technorati Tags: software development, .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, FindPagesWithCriteria, search

EPiServer: Problems importing data — POST fails

Stephen Horsfield — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:47:51 GMT

Overview

I've been importing a live EPiServer site into a development environment for further work. Normally, this works without problem, but this time I've been getting a POST error, but nothing informative. What's happening?

Solution

A quick look at the event logs on the IIS server quickly identifies the problem: the file exceeds the upload limit. Of course this is less likely to happen in a normal development run, but once there is a fair amount of data it fails. If I hadn't spotted the error in the event log, I might have been stuck for some time.

The default ASP.NET upload limit is 4 MB, so if you need more you will have to change the web.config settings. The element you have to change is the maxRequestLength attribute on the <system.web><httpRuntime> element. The size is specified in KB, so for a 32 MB limit, use the following:

<system.web> <httpruntime maxrequestlength="32768" /> </system.web>

References

<httpRuntime> Element (Microsoft MSDN)

Versions

Windows Server 2003
Windows XP
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Metadata

Categories: Software Development, ASP.NET, IIS, EPiServer
Additional keywords: import, POST, error, upload limit
Technorati Tags: software development, IT Management, .NET, ASP.NET, EPiServer, import, problem

EPiServer: FindPagesWithCriteria and Publishing Dates

Stephen Horsfield — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:18:35 GMT

Overview

EPiServer does not exclude pages outside of publishing schedules when retrieved using the FindPagesWithCriteria method.

UPDATE

I've found the following article on the EPiServer website: How Do I Search for Unpublished Pages. The reverse logic should be applied, but it has the advantage of performing the filter at the data layer. It involves adding two property criteria, one for PageStartPublish and one for PageStopPublish.

Don't be fooled by the EPiServer.Filters namespace, the FilterPublished class doesn't help!

Since that page is only visible to EPiServer site members, here's an example:

PropertyCriteriaCollection criterias = new PropertyCriteriaCollection(); startPublishCriteria.Condition = CompareCondition.LessThan; startPublishCriteria.Name = "PageStartPublish"; startPublishCriteria.Value = DateTime.Now.ToString(); startPublishCriteria.Type = PropertyDataType.Date; criterias.Add(startPublishCriteria); PropertyCriteria stopPublishCriteria = new PropertyCriteria(); stopPublishCriteria.Condition = CompareCondition.GreaterThan; stopPublishCriteria.Name = "PageStopPublish"; stopPublishCriteria.Value = DateTime.Now.ToString(); stopPublishCriteria.Type = PropertyDataType.Date; criterias.Add(stopPublishCriteria); PageDataCollection pages = Global.EPDataFactory.FindPagesWithCriteria( Global.EPConfig.StartPage, criterias);

Workaround

Once matching pages have been retrieved using FindPagesWithCriteria, apply a futher filter on the basis of the Page class's CheckPublishedStatus method.

Example

PageDataCollection pages = DataFactory.Instance.FindPagesWithCriteria(
    parent, col, AccessLevel.Read);

pages.Sort(new PageDataListComparer(SortType.DisplayDate,

    SortDirection.Descending));

System.Collections.Generic.List<PageData> removeList =

    new System.Collections.Generic.List<PageData>();

foreach (PageData p in pages)

{

if (p.CheckPublishedStatus(PagePublishedStatus.Published)) continue;

removeList.Add(p);

}

foreach (PageData pr in removeList) pages.Remove(pr);

return pages;

Versions

Microsoft .NET Framework v3.0
EPiServer 5
Windows Server 2003

Metadata

Categories: .NET, ASP.NET, Software Development, EPiServer
Additional keywords: FindPagesWithCriteria EPiServer, Search, Permissions, Published, FindPagesWithCriteria EPiServer Publishing Dates
Technorati Tags: software development, EPiServer, .NET, ASP.NET, FindPagesWithCriteria, search, publishing, security