EpiCommonUtils

This is a set of common stuff which might be helpful with your day to day EpiServer work

Installation

It's available as a nuget package

Then, in your Startup, you need to register the package by running

services.AddEpiCommonUtils();

You can pass optional Action which will change default values for EpiCommonUtilsOptions

Key features

Treating Index() as default action

In Optimizely CMS 12, Index is not treated as default action in controllers, which inherit from PageController<>. So when you create 2 methods in single controller and Index method is placed as second, then trying to render view without typing "/index" at the end would cause first action to invoke. By default our package changes this behavior and makes Index a default action despite the order of methods in Controller. If you would like to revert to Optimizely's default convention, you can disable our logic by passing IndexAsDefaultAction with false value like this:

services.AddEpiCommonUtils(options => options.IndexAsDefaultAction = false);

Validation attributes

There are a couple of additional validation attributes for Episerver model classes available:

MaxItemsAllowed

This attribute can be placed on a property/field of type ContentArea, LinkItemCollection, or any IEnumerable to limit the maximum number of items linked to them

AllowedItemsCount

This attribute, placed on property/field of type ContentArea, LinkItemCollection or any IEnumerable, will constrain a number of items to the given range (inclusive).

XHtmlStringAllowedTypes

Can be placed on property/field of XHtmlString type. It limits the types of content that can be placed in the content (via TinyMCE), similar to Episerver-builtin AllowedTypesAttribute. Keep in mind that it works for both block and media types.

XhtmlStringAllowedBlockTypes

Same as [XhtmlStringAllowedTypes], but restricts only block types, not media.

ContentWithSameTemplate

Validates if content placed in Content Area uses the same template for rendering. Useful when modeling list blocks.

Editor descriptors

Additionally defined editor descriptors:

EnumEditorDescriptor

Allow to use enums in Episerver models, selectable by editors. Usage:

public enum EnumType {
    [Display(Name = "Custom text")] // set value displayed to editor manually (if you don't want to use translations)
    Value1 = 1,
    Value2 = 2,
    [EpiUnselectable] IgnoredValue = 3 // add explicit values to make it less fragile for refactoring
}

public class SomePage: PageData {
    [BackingType(typeof(PropertyNumber))]
    [EditorDescriptor(EditorDescriptorType = typeof(EnumEditorDescriptor<EnumType>))]
    public virtual EnumType SomeEnum { get; set; }
}

In order to translate enum values for editor, define following in language XML files:

<languages>
    <language>
        <enum>
            <EnumType>
                <Value1>Value 1</Value1>
                <Value2>Value 1</Value2>
                <IgnoredValue>This value is irrelevant, as won't be shown to editors</IgnoredValue>
            </EnumType>
         </enum>
    </language>
</languages>

NullableEnumEditorDescriptor

This is a variation of EnumEditorDescriptor with one difference: by using NullableEnumEditorDescriptor you will get an extra "empty" choice in the dropdown which will set a null value to your property

Webpack

It offers two methods.

public static string GetStylesheetUrl(string name)

public static string GetScriptUrl(string name)

Those return paths to script/stylesheet containing unique hash generated by webpack. If the solution is running on Development environment it returns the path to local webpack dev server.

You can configure the path to the local webpack dev server by setting EpiCommonUtilsOptions.WebpackDevServerUrl property (the default is http://localhost:8080/dist/)

In order for this tool to work properly, it requires a file generated by Assets webpack plugin. The default path checked is set to /dist/webpack-assets.json. You can override it by setting EpiCommonUtilsOptions.WebpackManifestPath property

TranslationFileGenerator

TranslationFileGenerator generates strongly typed class out of .xml language files. Invoke static Generate method in TranslationGenerationInitializer for easy use, passing source, and target directory as arguments, or run Generate method directly on generator providing source directory, root namespace, and class name.

TransformedXhtmlString and IHtmlTransformation

A @Html.TransformedXhtmlString helper method is registered. You can pass XhtmlString instance together with two optional class names which will be used as css classes to wrap xhtml and block.

Example:

Let's imagine this piece of TinyMCE (XhtmlString) content:

First paragraph
Second paragraph
[Inline block embedded into XhtmlString field]
Third paragraph

By rendering @Html.TransformedXhtmlString(XhtmlStringValue, "textWrapperClass", "blockWrappedClass") you will get this piece of html:

<div class="textWrapperClass">
    <p>First paragraph</p>
    <p>Second paragraph</p>
</div>
<section class="blockWrappedClass">
    <!-- block rendered -->
</section>
<div class="textWrapperClass">
    <p>Third paragraph</p>
</div>

Optionally, you can pass a list of types of blocks that should be not wrapped by the container. Let's assume [Inline block embedded into XhtmlString field] is an instance of DummyBlockType. By doing this: @Html.TransformedXhtmlString(XhtmlStringValue, "textWrapperClass", "blockWrappedClass", new [] {typeof(DummyBlockType)})

you will get this html rendered:

<div class="textWrapperClass">
    <p>First paragraph</p>
    <p>Second paragraph</p>
</div>
<!-- block rendered -->
<div class="textWrapperClass">
    <p>Third paragraph</p>
</div>

Additionaly, you can create class which implements IHtmlTransformation and register it within ServiceLocator as IHtmlTransformation implementation. This way you can define additional transformations which will be applied to your XhtmlString content.

HtmlTransformationAttribute

There's HtmlTransformationAttribute defined. It has Order field which might be used to manipulate the order of transformation applied (a lower number means higher precedence). Use this attribute to annotate your class implementing IHtmlTransformation.

NOTE: you don't need HtmlTransformation attribute in order for transformation to be applied. It's only used for order manipulation purposes.