I would add to your HomePageDateItemsModel:

public List<DateTimeElement> DateTimeElemenets { get; set; }

And add a class:

public class DateTimeElement
{
    public string Header { get; set; }
    public string BodyText { get; set; }
}

Then in return new HomePageDateItemsModel add:

private pUmbracoHelper _helper = new UmbracoHelper(UmbracoContext.Current);


foreach (string nodeId in PickDatetimeElements.Split(','))
{
    var node = _helper.TypedContent(nodeId);
    var header = node.GetPropertyValue<string>("header");
    var bodyText = node.GetPropertyValue<string>("bodyText");
    DateTimeElemenets.Add(new DateTimeElement { Header = header, BodyText = bodyText });
}

Damn, beat me to it. Yeah same approach but without the nasty SQL looking LINQ syntax.. ;-)

My example will compile ;)

But yes, LINQ can be a challenge if not a regular user. At Skybrud.dk we have isolated this into a couple of extension method, so we can simply call content.TypedCsvContent("propertyAlias") or even content.TypedCsvContent("propertyAlias", PickerDateElement.GetFromContent).

public static class PublishedContentExtensions {

    /// <summary>
    /// Converts a comma separated string into an array of integers.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="source">The comma separated string to be converted.</param>
    public static int[] CsvToInt(this string source) {
        return (
            from piece in (source ?? "").Split(new[] { ',' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
            where Regex.IsMatch(piece, "^[0-9]+$")
            select Int32.Parse(piece)
        ).ToArray();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns whether a given node should be hidden in navigation (if the <em>umbracoNaviHide</em> property has
    /// been checked in Umbraco).
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="content">IPublishedContent</param>
    public static bool Hidden(this IPublishedContent content) {
        return content.GetPropertyValue<bool>("umbracoNaviHide");
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Converts a property with comma seperated IDs into a list of <code>IPublishedContent</code> by using the
    /// content cache. Instances are converted to the type of <code>T</code> using the specified
    /// <code>func</code>.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="content">IPublishedContent</param>
    /// <param name="propertyAlias">The alias of the property containing the IDs.</param>
    /// <param name="func">The delegate function to be used for the conversion.</param>
    /// <returns>Collection of <code>T</code>.</returns>
    public static IEnumerable<T> TypedCsvContent<T>(this IPublishedContent content, string propertyAlias, Func<IPublishedContent, T> func) {
        if (func == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("func");
        return (
            from id in content.GetPropertyValue<string>(propertyAlias).CsvToInt()
            let item = UmbracoContext.Current.ContentCache.GetById(id)
            where item != null
            select func(item)
        );
    }

}

Given this class with extension methods, Jan's code could instead look something like:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Web;
using Umbraco.Core.Models;
using Umbraco.Web;

namespace IsItCgYetApp.ApiModels {
    public class HomePageDateItemsModel {
        [JsonProperty("umbracoNodeId")]
        public int UmbracoNodeId { get; set; }
        [JsonProperty("header")]
        public string Header { get; set; }
        [JsonProperty("bodyText")]
        public string BodyText { get; set; }
        [JsonProperty("startDate")]
        public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
        [JsonProperty("endDate")]
        public DateTime EndDate { get; set; }
        [JsonProperty("pickDatetimeElements")]
        public IEnumerable<PickerDateElement> PickDatetimeElements { get; set; }

        public static HomePageDateItemsModel GetFromContent(IPublishedContent a) {
            return new HomePageDateItemsModel {
                UmbracoNodeId = a.Id,
                Header = a.GetPropertyValue<string>("header"),
                BodyText = a.GetPropertyValue<string>("bodyText"),
                StartDate = a.GetPropertyValue<DateTime>("startDate"),
                EndDate = a.GetPropertyValue<DateTime>("endDate"),
                PickDatetimeElements = a.TypedCsvContent("pickDatetimeElements", PickerDateElement.GetFromContent)
            };
        }
    }

    public class PickerDateElement {

        [JsonProperty("header")]
        public string Header { get; set; }

        [JsonProperty("bodyText")]
        public string BodyText { get; set; }

        public static PickerDateElement GetFromContent(IPublishedContent a) {
            return new PickerDateElement {
                Header = a.GetPropertyValue<string>("header"),
                BodyText = a.GetPropertyValue<string>("bodyText")
            };
        }

    }

}

It gives some cleaner code :D

Hmm. Regarding my comment that your example wouldn't compile, it appears that generics are stripped in the notification emails. So node.GetPropertyValue<string>("header") becomes node.GetPropertyValue("header") in the email.

Hi guys

Thanks for the input - I'll try it out and see if I can get it to work :)

Would I be able to create the PickerDateElement class as it's own .cs file to keep things clean?

/Jan

Yes, it is in fact considered best procedure to keep classes in their own files, so go ahead ;)

I Had a notion about that - Not only does your sample compile...it bloody works too! :)

So...I guess it's more like keg of beer that I owe you now - Thank you very much sir.

/Jan

Oh! I just have one more final question...Say that I don't want to pass a node id to my controller in order to get the data but just want to call it and have the data by going to /Umbraco/Api/HomePage/GetAllItems ? Currently I'm using /Umbraco/Api/HomePage/GetAllItems?umbracoNodeId=1061

I bet it's something really simple that will make me feel embarrased once I figure it out. But right now I can't wrap my head around it :-/

/Jan

By declaring two method with different signatures (parameters), your code could look something like this:

public object GetAllItems() {
    return GetAllItems(1061);
}

public object GetAllItems(int umbracoNodeId) {

    var c = _helper.TypedContent(umbracoNodeId);

    return Request.CreateResponse(JsonMetaResponse.GetSuccessFromObject(c, HomePageDateItemsModel.GetFromContent));

}

For method parameters in C#, you can also define a default value of simple types, so rather than declaring two method, you just declare one like:

public object GetAllItems(int umbracoNodeId = 1061) {

    var c = _helper.TypedContent(umbracoNodeId);

    return Request.CreateResponse(JsonMetaResponse.GetSuccessFromObject(c, HomePageDateItemsModel.GetFromContent));

}

It gives somewhat the same result, so it really comes down to your personal code style.

Hi Anders

Yeah, I know that I can just hardcode the id in...but was thinking if I could just tell the controller to get the homepage properties without hard-coding the id...but of course I can't since it somehow needs to know exactly what node to get the data from...so brainfart by me :)

/Jan

Hi Jan,

There are still a few options left - these two are probably the two that makes the most sense:

App Settings
Rather than hardcoding the ID somewhere in a DLL, you can add the ID to app settings in your Web.config. You can read from app settings like:

string value = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["NaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaBatJan"];

Or:

int value = Int32.Parse(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["NaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaBatJan"]);

You can find the WebConfigurationManager class in the System.Web.Configuration namespace.

XPath
Another way is using an XPath query to match a specific node - eg:

UmbracoContext.Current.ContentCache.GetSingleByXPath("//BatCave/BatMobile")

Have you tried to play with TypedContentAtRoot? If you know where your content lives under the root then it should be easy to use a combination of .Childern.First() and .Descendants.

Am on mobile so this code won't compile.. :p

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