Overview

This is step 3 in the Property Editor tutorial. In this part, we will integrate one of the built-in Umbraco Services. For this sample, we will use the notificationsService to show a dialog with a custom view when you click in a textbox. The dialog will appear if the content is longer than 35 characters.

Injecting the service

First up, we need to get access to the service. This is done in the suggestion.controller.js, where we add it as a parameter:

Hooking into Textbox

To hook the service with the textbox, we will use the add method of the notificationsService. This will be used to render our own view by setting the view property. We will also pass an args object which contains the Property Value and a callback function that we are going to call from our notification.

The callback is used to return data to the editor.

Now that we have access to the editor events, we will trim the text to a length of 35.

Now let's edit the getSuggestion method to call showNotification on clicking Get Suggestions button.

At this point your controller should look like this:

Add the directive in the suggestion.html

Add the JavaScript file in package.manifest

Creating custom Notification View and Controller

We will add 2 files to the /App_Plugins/Suggestions/ folder:

• notification.html

• notification.controller.js

In the notification.html, we'll add:

In the notification.controller.js we will add:

Restart the application and either enter a suggestion longer than 35 characters or click on the Get Suggestions button. When you do so and click in the textarea, you will be presented with a notification like this:

The notification object contains the args object that we passed to the view in our suggestion.controller.js. When we click the Yes button in the notification, we use the callback function from the Suggestions controller. This function is executed in the scope of our Suggestions Property Editor.

Wrap up

Over the 3 previous steps, we have:

• Created a plugin.

• Defined an editor.

• Registered the Data Type in Umbraco.

• Added a $scope object to pass information from the controller to the view.

• Added configuration to the Property Editor.

• Connected the editor with the Notification Service.

• Looked at the notification dialog in action.

Overview

In this tutorial, we will add a server-side API controller, which will query a custom table in the Umbraco database. It will then return the data to an angular controller + view.

The result will be a person-list, populated from a custom table. When clicked it will store the ID of the selected person.

Setup the database

The first thing we need is some data; below is an SQL Script for creating a people table with some random data in it. You could also use https://generatedata.com for larger amounts of data:

CREATE TABLE people (
    id INTEGER NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1),
    name VARCHAR(255) NULL,
    town VARCHAR(255) NULL,
    country VARCHAR(100) NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
GO

INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Myles A. Pearson','Tailles','United Kingdom');
INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Cora Y. Kelly','Froidchapelle','Latvia');
INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Brooke Baxter','Mogi das Cruzes','Grenada');
INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Illiana T. Strong','Bevel','Bhutan');
INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Kaye Frederick','Rothesay','Turkmenistan');
INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Erasmus Camacho','Sint-Pieters-Kapelle','Saint Vincent and The Grenadines');
INSERT INTO people(name,town,country) VALUES('Aimee Sampson','Hawera','Antigua and Barbuda');`

Setup ApiController routes

Next, we need to define an ApiController to expose a server-side route that our application will use to fetch the data.

For this, you can create a new class at the root of the project called PersonApiController.cs

In the PersonApiController.cs file, add:

    using Umbraco.Cms.Web.BackOffice.Controllers;
    using Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.Attributes;
    using Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Scoping;



    namespace YourProjectName;
    [PluginController("My")]
    public class PersonApiController : UmbracoAuthorizedJsonController
    {
        // we will add a method here later
    }

This is a basic API controller that inherits from UmbracoAuthorizedJsonController. This specific class will only return JSON data and only to requests that are authorized to access the backoffice.

Setup the GetAll() method

Now that we have a controller, we need to create a method, which can return a collection of people, which our editor will use.

So first of all, we add a Person class to the My.Controllers namespace:

public class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Town { get; set; }
    public string Country { get; set; }
}

We will use this class to map our table data to a C# class, which we can return as JSON later.

Now we need the GetAll() method which returns a collection of people, insert this inside the PersonApiController class:

public IEnumerable<Person> GetAll()
{

}

Inside the GetAll() method, we write a bit of code. The code connects to the database, creates a query, and returns the data, mapped to the Person class above:

private readonly IScopeProvider scopeProvider;


public PersonApiController(IScopeProvider scopeProvider)
{
    this.scopeProvider = scopeProvider;
}

public IEnumerable<Person> GetAll()
{
    using (var scope = scopeProvider.CreateScope(autoComplete: true))
    {
        // build a query to select everything the people table
        var sql = scope.SqlContext.Sql().Select("*").From("people");

        // fetch data from the database with the query and map to the Person class
        return scope.Database.Fetch<Person>(sql);
    }
}

We are now done with the server side of things, with the file saved you can now open the URL: /umbraco/backoffice/My/PersonApi/GetAll.

This will return our JSON data.

Create a Person Resource

Now that we have the server side in place and a URL to call, we will set up a service to retrieve our data. As an Umbraco-specific convention, we call these services a resource, so we always indicate what services fetch data from the DB.

Create a new file as person.resource.js and add:

// adds the resource to umbraco.resources module:
angular.module('umbraco.resources').factory('personResource',
    function($q, $http, umbRequestHelper) {
        // the factory object returned
        return {
            // this calls the ApiController we setup earlier
            getAll: function () {
            return umbRequestHelper.resourcePromise(
                $http.get("backoffice/My/PersonApi/GetAll"),
            "Failed to retrieve all Person data");
            }
        };
    }
);

This uses the standard angular factory pattern, so we can now inject this into any of our controllers under the name personResource.

The getAll() method returns a promise from an $http.get call, which handles calling the URL, and will return the data when it's ready. You'll notice that the $http.get method is wrapped inside umbRequestHelper.resourcePromise, the umbRequestHelper.resourcePromise will automatically handle any 500 errors for you which is why the 2nd string parameter is there - it defines the error message displayed.

Create the view and controller

We will now finally set up a new view and controller, which follows previous tutorials, so you can refer to those for more details:

The view

<div ng-controller="My.PersonPickerController">
    <ul>
        <li ng-repeat="person in people">
            <a href ng-click="model.value = person.Name">{{person.Name}}</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

The controller

angular.module("umbraco")
    .controller("My.PersonPickerController", function($scope, personResource){
        personResource.getAll().then(function(response){
            $scope.people = response.data;
        });
    });

The flow

So with all these bits in place, all you need to do is register the property editor in a package.manifest - have a look at the first tutorial in this series. You will need to tell the package to load both your personpicker.controller.js and the person.resource.js file on app start.

With this, the entire flow is:

1. The view renders a list of people with a controller

2. The controller asks the personResource for data

3. The personResource returns a Promise and asks the my/PersonAPI ApiController

4. The ApiController queries the database, which returns the data as strongly typed Person objects

5. The ApiController returns those Person objects as JSON to the resource

6. The resource resolves the Promise

7. The controller populates the view

There is a good amount of things to keep track of, but each component is tiny and flexible.

Wrap-up

The important part of the above is the way you create an ApiController call to the database for your own data. And finally, expose the data to angular as a service using $http.

For simplicity, you could have skipped the service part and called $http directly in your controller. However, having your data in services it becomes a reusable resource for your entire application.

This tutorial guides you through creating a property editor, integrating it with Umbraco's Data Types, AngularJS modules and its injector. Finally, it explains how we can test our property editor.

The steps we will go through in part 1 are:

• Setting up a Plugin

• Writing basic HTML and JavaScript

• Registering the Data Type in Umbraco

• Implementing AngularJS Dependency Injection

Prerequisites

This tutorial covers how to use AngularJS with Umbraco, so it does not cover AngularJS itself. To read about AngularJS, you can take a look at some of the resources here:

• Egghead.io

• Angularjs.org/tutorial

• Pluralsight

The End Result

We will have a "Suggestions" Data Type in Umbraco. It is registered as a Data Type in the backoffice, and assigned to a Document Type. The Data Type can create and suggest values.

Setting up a plugin

To begin with, let's create a new folder inside /App_Plugins folder. We will call it Suggestions.

Next, we will create a Package Manifest file to describe what the plugin does. This manifest will tell Umbraco about our new Property Editor and allow us to inject any needed files into the application.

Create the file /App_Plugins/Suggestions/package.manifest.

For more information about the package.manifest file, see the Package Manifest article.

Inside the package.manifest file, we will add the following JSON to describe the Property Editor. Have a look at the inline comments in the JSON below for details on each bit:

{
    // we can define multiple editors
    "propertyEditors": [
        {
            /*this must be a unique alias*/
            "alias": "Suggestions editor",
            /*the name*/
            "name": "Suggestions",
            /*the icon*/
            "icon": "icon-list",
            /*grouping for "Select editor" dialog*/
            "group": "Common",
            /*the HTML file we will load for the editor*/
            "editor": {
                "view": "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html",
                /*Optional: Add 'read-only' support. Available from Umbraco 10.2+*/
                "supportsReadOnly": true
            }
        }
    ],
     // array of files we want to inject into the application on app_start
    "css": [
        "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.css"
    ],
    "javascript": [
        "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.controller.js"
    ]
}

Setting up a Property Editor with Csharp

You can also create a property editor with C# instead of defining it in a package.manifest. Create a Suggestion.cs file at the root of your project to register the editor this way.

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors;

namespace YourProjectName;

[DataEditor(
    alias: "Suggestions editor",
    name: "Suggestions",
    view: "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html",
    Group = "Common",
    Icon = "icon-list")]
public class Suggestions : DataEditor
{
    public Suggestions(IDataValueEditorFactory dataValueEditorFactory)
        : base(dataValueEditorFactory)
    {            
    }
}

As the above C# code is adding the Property Editor, the package.manifest file can be simplified like this:

{
    // array of files we want to inject into the application on app_start
    "css": [
        "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.css"
    ],
    "javascript": [
        "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.controller.js"
    ]
}

Writing basic HTML and JavaScript

Now, we will add 3 files to the /App_Plugins/Suggestions/ folder:

• suggestion.html

• suggestion.controller.js

• suggestion.css

These will be our main files for the editor, with the .html file handling the view, .js file handling the functionality and the .css file containing the stylesheet.

In the .html file we'll add:

<div class="suggestion" ng-controller="SuggestionPluginController">
    <p>{{model.value}}</p>
    <input type="text" ng-model="model.value" />
    <button type="button"> Give me Suggestions!</button>
</div>

In the .js file, we'll add a basic AngularJS controller declaration

angular.module('umbraco').controller('SuggestionPluginController', function () {
        alert("The controller has landed");
    });

In the .css file, we'll add:

.suggestion {
    cursor: pointer;
    text-align: left;
    font-size: 20px;
    color: Highlight;
}

Now our basic parts of the editor are done, namely:

• The package manifest, telling Umbraco what to load

• The HTML view for the editor

• The controller for wiring up the editor with angular

• The stylesheet for defining our data type styles

Registering the Data Type in Umbraco

We will now restart our application. In the Document Type, add a new property called "Suggestion" and add to it the newly created property editor "Suggestions" and save it.

Now open the content item of that Document Type and there will be an alert message saying "The controller has landed", which means all is well.

We can now edit the assigned property's value with our new property editor.

Implementing AngularJS Dependency Injection

Now, open the suggestion.controller.js file and edit it so it looks like this:

angular.module("umbraco")
.controller("SuggestionPluginController",
// Scope object is the main object which is used to pass information from the controller to the view.
    function ($scope) {

    // SuggestionPluginController assigns the suggestions list to the aSuggestions property of the scope
   $scope.aSuggestions = ["You should take a break", "I suggest that you visit the Eiffel Tower", "How about starting a book club today or this week?", "Are you hungry?"];

    // The controller assigns the behavior to scope as defined by the getSuggestion method, which is invoked when the user clicks on the 'Give me Suggestions!' button.
    $scope.getSuggestion = function () {

        // The getSuggestion method reads a random value from an array and provides a Suggestion. 
        $scope.model.value = $scope.aSuggestions[$scope.aSuggestions.length * Math.random() | 0];

    }

});

Then update the HTML file with the following, where we add the id to the button:

<div class="suggestion" ng-controller="SuggestionPluginController">
    <p>{{model.value}}</p>
    <input type="text" ng-model="model.value" />
    <button type="button" ng-disabled="getState()" ng-click="getSuggestion()"> Give me Suggestions!</button>
</div>

Now, clear the cache, reload the document, and see the Suggestions Data Type running.

When we save or publish, the value of the Data Type is automatically synced to the current content object and sent to the server, all through the power of Angular and the ng-model attribute.

Learn more about extending this service by visiting the Property Editors page.

Overview

This is step 2 in our guide to building a Property Editor. This step continues work on the Suggestion Data Type we built in step 1, but goes further to show how to add configuration options to our editor.

Configuration

An important part of building good Property Editors is to build something flexible, so we can reuse it many times, for different things. Like the Rich Text Editor in Umbraco, which allow us to choose which buttons and stylesheets we want to use on each instance of the editor.

An editor can be used again and again, with different configurations, and that is what we will be working on now.

There are two ways to add configuration to the Property Editor. If in the previous step you chose to create the property editor using a package.manifest file, read the package.manifest section below. If you have chosen the C# variant, read the Csharp part of the article.

Package.manifest

To add configuration options to our Suggestion Data Type, open the package.manifest file. Right below the editor definition, paste in the prevalues block:

...
"editor": {
    "view": "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html"
}, // Remember a comma separator here at the end of the editor block!
"prevalues": {
    "fields": [
        {
            "label": "Enabled?",
            "description": "Provides Suggestions",
            "key": "isEnabled",
            "view": "boolean"
            },
        {
            "label": "Default value",
            "description": "Provide a default value for the property editor",
            "key": "defaultValue",
            "view": "textarea"
        }
    ]
}

So what did we add? We added a prevalue editor, with a fields collection. This collection contains information about the UI we will render on the Data Type configuration for this editor.

The label "Enabled?" uses the "boolean" view. This will allow us to turn the suggestions on/off and will provide the user with a toggle button. The name "boolean" comes from the convention of all preview editors.

Same with the "Default value" label, it will provide the user with a textarea. The user can input a default value for the property editor that should be displayed when the property editor is blank.

To hide the property editor label, add the hideLabel parameter in the editor block:

 "editor": {
        "view": "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html",
        //Turn the label on or off by using true or false, respectively.
        "hideLabel": true,
        /*Optional: Add 'read-only' support. Available from Umbraco 10.2+*/
        "supportsReadOnly": true
      }

Your package.manifest file should now look something like this:

{
  // we can define multiple editors
  "propertyEditors": [
    {
      /*this must be a unique alias*/
      "alias": "Suggestions editor",
      /*the name*/
      "name": "Suggestions",
      /*the icon*/
      "icon": "icon-list",
      /*grouping for "Select editor" dialog*/
      "group": "Common",
      /*the HTML file we will load for the editor*/
      "editor": {
        "view": "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html",
        //Turn the label on or off by using true or false, respectively.
        "hideLabel": true,
        /*Optional: Add 'read-only' support. Available from Umbraco 10.2+*/
        "supportsReadOnly": true
      }, // Remember a comma separator here at the end of the editor block!
      "prevalues": {
        "fields": [
          {
            "label": "Enabled?",
            "description": "Provides Suggestions",
            "key": "isEnabled",
            "view": "boolean"
          },
          {
            "label": "Default value",
            "description": "Provide a default value for the property editor",
            "key": "defaultValue",
            "view": "textarea"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  // array of files we want to inject into the application on app_start
  "css": [
    "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.css"
  ],
  "javascript": [
    "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.controller.js"
  ]
}

Csharp

It is also possible to add configuration if you have chosen to create a property editor using C#. Create two new files at the root of your project and update the existing Suggestion.cs file to add configuration to the property editor.

First create a SuggestionConfiguration.cs file with three configuration options: Enabled?, Default Value, and Hide Label?:

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors;

namespace YourProjectName;

public class SuggestionConfiguration
{
    [ConfigurationField("isEnabled", "Enabled?", "boolean", Description = "Provides Suggestions")]
    public bool Enabled { get; set; }

    [ConfigurationField("defaultValue", "Default Value", "textarea", Description = "Provide a default value for the property")]
    public string? DefaultValue { get; set; }
    
    [ConfigurationField("hideLabel", "Hide Label?", "boolean", Description = "Hide the property label.")]
    public bool HideLabel { get; set; }
}

Then create a SuggestionConfigurationEditor.cs file:

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.IO;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors;

namespace MyProject;
public class SuggestionConfigurationEditor : ConfigurationEditor<SuggestionConfiguration>
    {
        [Obsolete]
        public SuggestionConfigurationEditor(IIOHelper ioHelper) : base(ioHelper)
        {
        }
    }

Finally, edit the Suggestion.cs file from step one until it looks like the example below:

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.IO;

namespace YourProjectName;

[DataEditor(
    alias: "Suggestions editor",
    name: "Suggestions Editor",
    view: "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html",
    Group = "Common",
    Icon = "icon-list")]
public class Suggestions : DataEditor
{
    private readonly IIOHelper _ioHelper;
    public Suggestions(IDataValueEditorFactory dataValueEditorFactory,
        IIOHelper ioHelper)
        : base(dataValueEditorFactory)

    {
        _ioHelper = ioHelper;
    }
    protected override IConfigurationEditor CreateConfigurationEditor() => new SuggestionConfigurationEditor(_ioHelper);

}

Save the file, rebuild the application and have a look at the Suggestions Data Type. You should see that you have one configuration option.

Using the configuration

The next step is to gain access to our new configuration options. For this, open the suggestion.controller.js file.

1. Let's add the isEnabled functionality. Before the closing tag, we will add a getState method:

// The controller assigns the behavior to scope as defined by the getState method, which is invoked when the user toggles the enable button in the data type settings.
$scope.getState = function () {
            
//If the data type is enabled in the Settings the 'Give me Suggestions!' button is enabled
    if (Boolean(Number($scope.model.config.isEnabled))) {
            return false;
        }
    return true;
}

1. Next, we'll add the defaultValue functionality. When the $scope.model.value is empty or null, we want to use the default value. To do that, we add the following to the start of the controller:

if($scope.model.value === null || $scope.model.value === ""){
    $scope.model.value = $scope.model.config.defaultValue;
}

See what's new? The $scope.model.config object. Also, because of this configuration, we now have access to $scope.model.config.defaultValue which contains the configuration value for that key.

Your suggestion.controller.js file should now look like:

angular.module("umbraco")
    .controller("SuggestionPluginController",
        // Scope object is the main object which is used to pass information from the controller to the view.
        function ($scope) {
            if ($scope.model.value === null || $scope.model.value === "") {
                $scope.model.value = $scope.model.config.defaultValue;
            }
            // SuggestionPluginController assigns the suggestions list to the aSuggestions property of the scope
            $scope.aSuggestions = ["You should take a break", "I suggest that you visit the Eiffel Tower", "How about starting a book club today or this week?", "Are you hungry?"];

            // The controller assigns the behavior to scope as defined by the getSuggestion method, which is invoked when the user clicks on the 'Give me Suggestions!' button.
            $scope.getSuggestion = function () {

                // The getSuggestion method reads a random value from an array and provides a Suggestion. 
                $scope.model.value = $scope.aSuggestions[$scope.aSuggestions.length * Math.random() | 0];
            }
        
            // The controller assigns the behavior to scope as defined by the getState method, which is invoked when the user toggles the enable button in the data type settings.

            $scope.getState = function () {

                //If the data type is enabled in the Settings the 'Give me Suggestions!' button is enabled
                if (Boolean(Number($scope.model.config.isEnabled))) {
                    return false;
                }
                return true;
            }

});

1. Finally, we'll add the hideLabel functionality. For this, we'll open the Suggestion.cs file and override the GetValueEditor method with configuration as a parameter.

   Copy

   public override IDataValueEditor GetValueEditor(object? configuration)
   {
   
       var editor = base.GetValueEditor(configuration);
   
       if (editor is DataValueEditor valueEditor && configuration is SuggestionConfiguration config)
       {
           valueEditor.HideLabel = config.HideLabel;
       }
   
       return editor;
   
   }

   Your Suggestion.cs file should now look like:

   Copy

   using Umbraco.Cms.Core.IO;
   using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models;
   using Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors;
   
   namespace YourProjectName;
   
   [DataEditor(
   alias: "Suggestions editor",
   name: "Suggestions Editor",
   view: "/App_Plugins/Suggestions/suggestion.html",
   Group = "Common",
   Icon = "icon-list")]
   public class Suggestions : DataEditor
   {
       private readonly IIOHelper _ioHelper;
       public Suggestions(IDataValueEditorFactory dataValueEditorFactory,
           IIOHelper ioHelper)
           : base(dataValueEditorFactory)
   
       {
           _ioHelper = ioHelper;
       }
       protected override IConfigurationEditor CreateConfigurationEditor() => new SuggestionConfigurationEditor(_ioHelper);
   
       public override IDataValueEditor GetValueEditor(object? configuration)
       {
   
           var editor = base.GetValueEditor(configuration);
   
           if (editor is DataValueEditor valueEditor && configuration is SuggestionConfiguration config)
           {
               valueEditor.HideLabel = config.HideLabel;
           }
   
           return editor;
   
       }
   }

Save the files and rebuild the application. To access the configuration options, enable/disable the Enabled? and Hide Label? options. Additionally, you can set a default value in the Default Value field and see the Suggestions Data Type at play.