Umbraco UI Builder is the Umbraco v10+ backoffice UI builder for custom data structures configured via a fluent API.

If you have a custom data store that you want to content manage from within Umbraco, then you can use Umbraco UI Builder. With some lines of code, you can configure a custom administration UI, and reuse many core components with a consistent look and feel.

With Umbraco UI Builder, custom backoffice integrations can now take a matter of minutes, rather than days.

Using the Documentation

This documentation is aimed at developers who have at least a basic understanding of Umbraco, as well as C#/MVC principles.

If you are new to Umbraco UI Builder, it is recommended that you start by taking a look at the section. This provides details on the system requirements and how to install Umbraco UI Builder.

Once you have Umbraco UI Builder installed and are wondering "What next?" then you'll want to take a look at the section. This provides a quick-start example of how to configure Umbraco UI Builder.

Use the main menu to dive deeper into Umbraco UI Builder and get to know all of its features in detail. You can then jump to the specific topic you are interested in to find out more.

Finally, for all other resources/useful information you can head over to the section.

Getting Help

If you require assistance you can use our support channels to seek assistance.

This section will guide you through the key steps necessary to get you started with Umbraco UI Builder.

It is assumed that you have an Umbraco 10+ website configured, and ready to install Umbraco UI Builder.

System Requirements

At this time, the minimum requirements for using Umbraco UI Builder are as follows:

• Umbraco CMS version 10.0/12.0+

• SQL Server Database (SQLite is fine for testing, but not recommended for live deployments)

Versioning

This is an add-on product to Umbraco CMS. Umbraco UI Builder follows the .

This page covers specific upgrade documentation for when migrating to major 13 of Umbraco UI Builder.

Version Specific Upgrade Notes History

Version 13 contains a number of breaking changes from the previous, Konstrukt product.

See the for full details.

Legacy version specific upgrade notes

You can find the version specific upgrade notes for versions out of support in the .

Umbraco UI Builder is installed via the NuGet package manager by issuing the following command in your web project.

dotnet add package Umbraco.UIBuilder

If you wish to install Umbraco UI Builder into a class library without the UI elements, you can add a reference to the Umbraco.UIBuilder.Startup package instead.

dotnet add package Umbraco.UIBuilder.Startup

Alternatively, you can also find and install the NuGet package via the NuGet Package Manager graphical user interface (GUI) in Visual Studio.

Installing a License

See the for details on how to install a license.

Umbraco UI Builder can be configured directly via the AddUIBuilder extension method on IUmbracoBuilder.

AddUIBuilder

To configure Umbraco UI Builder via the AddUIBuilder extension method, you can look at the Program.cs file at the root of your web project. From within this file, before the call to

This documentation platform covers only major versions of Umbraco UI Builder. If you are using an unsupported version, you need to go elsewhere.

Umbraco UI Builder is a commercial product. You can run an Umbraco UI Builder unrestricted locally without the need a license. Running Umbraco UI Builder on a public domain will display a warning banner in the backoffice and will limit usage to a single editable collection. To remove these restrictions, you'll need to have a valid license.

How does it work?

Licenses are sold per backoffice domain and will also work on all subdomains. If you have alternative staging/qa environment domains, additional domains can be added to the license on request.

Let's say that you have a license configured for your domain, mysite.com, and you've requested two development domains, devdomain.com and devdomain2.com.

The license will cover the following domains:

• localhost

• *.local

• *.mysite.com

What does a license cover?

There are a few differences as to what the licenses cover:

• A single license covers the installation of Umbraco UI Builder in 1 production backoffice domain, as well as in any requested development domains.

• The production domain includes all subdomains (e.g. *.mysite.com).

• The development domains work with or without the www subdomain.

Purchasing your license

You can look at the pricing, features, and purchase a license on the page. On this page, you can fill out the form with your project details and requirements. A member of the Sales team will manage this process. In the process, you will need to provide all domains you wish to have covered by the license such as primary and staging/QA domains. You should then receive a license code to be installed in your solution.

Add additional domains

If you require to add additional domains to the license, . They will manage your request and take care of the process.

Configuring your license

Once you've purchased your license with the correct domains, you are ready to configure the license key on your Umbraco installation.

The license key should be added to your configuration using product ID: Umbraco.UIBuilder.

For detailed instructions on how to install and configure your license, including version-specific examples and additional configuration options, see the article.

Before you get to know Umbraco UI Builder, you need to become familiar with the Umbraco UI and a few of its concepts. This is because Umbraco UI Builder reuses these same concepts for constructing its UI.

1. Section A distinct area of the Umbraco backoffice.2. Tree A hierarchical structure to help organize a section. 3. Dashboard An intro screen for a section, usually with useful links for that section.

4. List View A list-based view of items in a tree node.

5. Editor The main content editing area is made up of tabs, fieldsets, and fields.

6. Context Apps A contextual section of a given editor UI.7. Tabs A tabbed container of content.

8. Menu Item A context menu item + action.

9. Bulk Action An action to perform on multiple list view items at once.

Umbraco UI Builder tries its best to mimic the content pipeline as closely as possible whilst sticking to public and supported APIs. This is so that the Data Type suite can be used fully for editing properties. There are some features in the Umbraco Core that are locked away in internal methods. This means that some features may not be fully supported. Below is a list of known issues to date.

Property Editors

There are different areas of the Umbraco UI that Umbraco UI Builder can be injected into. Before you get to managing your actual content you need to choose which area makes the most sense to present that data in. Then you can review how to go about configuring that particular type of area.

Choose an area type from the list below to find out more.

A summary dashboard is automatically displayed at the root of a defined Umbraco UI Builder section. It displays summaries of collections found within it that are told to display on the dashboard. It also provides quick links to jump to that collections list view. It can also add quickly a new entry to that collection (if the collection isn't read-only).

Showing a collection on a summary dashboard

Showing a collection in the summary dashboard is controlled via the collection configuration.

Umbraco UI Builder comes with some inbuilt actions that are available for you to use straight away.

ExportEntityAction

Namespace Umbraco.UIBuilder.Infrastructure.Configuration.Actions

Provides a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) export functionality converting all properties to column headings and rendering each entity property values on each row.

ImportEntityAction

Namespace Umbraco.UIBuilder.Infrastructure.Configuration.Actions

Provides a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) import functionality matching column headings with entity properties and mapping row values to an entity.

A collection is the cornerstone Umbraco UI Builder config and it represents a collection of entities for a given data model. From this config object, you can configure everything about how this collection integrates into the UI. You can also configure how it should display in a list view as well as how it should be edited.

Get started by reviewing the basics of collection configuration.

A child collection is a container for a given data model that is tied to a parent collection data model. It shares all of the Collections config builder API except child collections cannot contain further child collections.

Defining a child collection

You define a child collection by calling one of the AddChildCollection methods on a given collection config builder instance.

AddChildCollection<TChildEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, Lambda childCollectionConfig = null) : ChildCollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a child collection to the current collection with the given names and description and default icons. A property accessor expression is required for both the entity ID field and FK (Foreign Key) field of the entity.

AddChildCollection<TChildEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, string iconSingular, string iconPlural, Lambda childCollectionConfig = null) : ChildCollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a child collection to the current collection with the given names, description and icons. A property accessor expression is required for both the entity ID field and FK (Foreign Key) field of the entity.

Configuring a child collection

Child collections share the same API as the Collection config builder API, except child collections cannot contain further child collections. For more information check the .

Retrieving child collections in one-to-many relationships with UI Builder, can be achieved with the support of child repositories. One-to-many relations are where one parent entity of a collection is associated with multiple entities from another.

Models Representation

The models would look like this:

[TableName("Students")]
[PrimaryKey("Id")]
public class Student
{
    [PrimaryKeyColumn]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public string Email { get; set; }
}

[TableName("StudentProjects")]
[PrimaryKey("Id")]
public class StudentProject
{
    [PrimaryKeyColumn]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public int StudentId { get; set; }
}

Child Repositories

You can create child repository instances via the IRepositoryFactory and use them to retrieve information from the child collection.

In this guide, you can find the necessary steps needed for a basic implementation using Umbraco UI Builder to manage a single custom database table.

Set up the database

Out of the box, Umbraco UI Builder works using PetaPoco as the persistence layer as this is what ships with Umbraco. If you prefer, it is possible to use a custom Repository. However, for getting started, it is expected that you are using this default strategy.

Start by setting up a database table for your model (you might want to populate it with some dummy data as well while learning). We’ll use the following as an example:

Set up your model

With the database table setup, we then need to create the associated Poco model in our project.

Configure Umbraco UI Builder

With the database and model setup, we can now start to configure Umbraco UI Builder itself. The entry point for the Umbraco UI Builder configuration is via the AddUIBuilder extension method. On this method, we call on the IUmbracoBuilder instance within the Program.cs class.

For our example, we will use the following configuration:

Access your UI

With your configuration defined and your project compiled, there is one last step to perform before you can access your UI. And that is to give your backoffice user account permission to access the newly defined section. To do this you'll need to login to the backoffice, head to the user's section, and update the user group. There you will need to make sure that your user belongs to the allowed access.

With the permissions set, you can refresh your browser and you should now see your new section available in the site navigation.

Summary

As you can see, with little code you can start to create powerful interfaces for your custom data structures.

If you want to work with a subset of data within a given collection then this is where the global filters come in handy. These allow you to define a filter to apply to all queries for a given collection.

Applying a global filter

Applying a global filter is controlled via the collections configuration.

SetFilter(Lambda whereClauseExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the filter where clause expression. Expression must be a boolean expression.

Beyond listing collection entities, if you need to be able to locate specific entities within a collection then Umbraco UI Builder provides a search API.

Get started by reviewing how to define searchable properties.

Actions provide an API to perform custom tasks against a collection and its entities from multiple locations in the UI. Examples: menu actions, bulk actions, or individual table row actions.

Get started with actions by learning about the basics.

A child collection group is a container for other child collections. Its purpose is mainly to provide a logical grouping of multiple child collections to help with organization and an improved user experience.

Defining a child collection group

You can define a child collection group by calling one of the AddChildCollectionGroup methods on a given collection config builder instance.

Umbraco stores identifiers in UDI format for most Umbraco object types.

You can read more about them in the section of the documentation.

If you want to reference an Umbraco object in your model and retrieve its Integer or Guid value, you must convert the UDI value.

Use one of UI Builder's converters - EntityIdentifierToIntTypeConverter or EntityIdentifierToGuidTypeConverter. Add it as a [TypeConverterAttribute] to your model's foreign key property.

An entity that references an Umbraco object would look like this:

Beyond there might be times when you need to be able to create specific views of a collection's data. To help with this Umbraco UI Builder has different filtering mechanisms available.

Choose a filtering method from the list below to find out more.

Data views allow you to define multiple, pre-filtered views of the same data source. This can be useful when entities exist in different states and you want a way to toggle between them.

Defining data views

Data views are defined via the configuration.

If needed to collect sensitive information in a collection but don't want to persist in a plain text format to the data storage mechanism. Umbraco UI Builder can help with this by allowing you to define properties as encrypted. After which any time the value is persisted or retrieved from persistence, Umbraco UI Builder will automatically encrypt and decrypt the value.

As well as the API for managing your custom data source, Umbraco UI Builder also comes with some property editors. Those property editors help you work with your data inside Umbraco content nodes.

The property editors available are:

A value mapper is an Umbraco UI Builder helper class that sits between the editor UI and the database. It also lets you tweak the stored value of a field. By default Umbraco UI Builder will save a datatype value as it would be stored in Umbraco. Value mappers let you change this.

When Umbraco UI Builder resolves a value mapper it will attempt to do so from the global DI container. This means you can inject any dependencies that you require for your mapper. If there is no type defined in the DI container, Umbraco UI Builder will fall-back to manually instantiating a new instance of value mapper.

Defining a value mapper

To define a mapper create a class that inherits from the base class ValueMapper and implements the methods EditorToModel and ModelToEditor.

Setting a field value mapper

Value mappers are defined as part of a collection editor field configuration.

SetValueMapper<TMapperType>() : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Set the value mapper for the current field.

SetValueMapper(Type mapperType) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Set the value mapper for the current field.

SetValueMapper(Mapper mapper) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Set the value mapper for the current field.

Cards provide an API to display basic summary information in a card-based format and are useful for displaying key metrics about a collection.

Cards can be defined in one of two ways:

This guide provides a step-by-step approach to migrating a default Konstrukt solution to Umbraco UI Builder.

Key changes

Before outlining the exact steps, there are a few key changes to be aware of.

These changes will dictate the steps to take in the process of migrating to Umbraco UI Builder.

A folder can appear in either a tree or as a sub folder to other folders. Folders can contain either other (sub)folders or .

Defining a folder

You can define a folder by calling one of the AddFolder methods on a given or parent Folder config builder instance.

The Entity Picker property editor is an Umbraco property editor that lets you select one or more entities from an Umbraco UI Builder collection.

Configuring an entity picker

To configure an entity picker you need to create a Data Type in the Umbraco backoffice. From the property editor dropdown choose 'Umbraco UI Builder Entity Picker'.

From there choose 'Section' and 'Collection' you wish to pick entities from. You can also choose an optional list view 'Data View' if there are any configured.

This article shows how to manually upgrade Umbraco UI Builder to run the latest version. When upgrading Umbraco UI Builder, be sure to also consult the notes to learn about potential breaking changes and common pitfalls.

A list view is a list-based view of a collection entity providing features: pagination for large collections, custom data views, searching, and bulk actions.

Configuring a list view

The list view configuration is a sub-configuration of a config builder instance and is accessed via its ListView method.

Data views builders allow you to create a collection data views list dynamically at run time. By default, Umbraco UI Builder will use the hard-coded data views defined in your Umbraco UI Builder config. However, if you need to build your data views list dynamically, then this is when you'd use a data views builder.

When Umbraco UI Builder resolves a data views builder it will attempt to do so from the global DI container. This means you can inject any dependencies that you require for your builder. If there is no type defined in the DI container, Umbraco UI Builder will fall-back to manually instantiating a new instance of value mapper.

Defining a data views builder

To define a data views builder you can create a class that inherits from the base class DataViewsBuilder<TEntityType>

Umbraco UI Builder can dynamically build a filter dialog choosing appropriate editor views for you based on a basic property configuration. Properties of a number or date types will become range pickers and enums. Properties with options defined will become select/checkbox lists and all other properties will become text input filters.

Defining filterable properties

Defining filterable properties is controlled via the configuration.

Count cards allow you to define cards directly against the configuration, providing a basic where clause to use in a count SQL statement. These work perfectly for basic data visualizations based on counts of entities in a collection.

If you need to do more than a basic count, you'll want to take a look at the documentation.

Adding a count card to a collection

Cards allow you to display basic summaries of key information that may be useful to the editor.

Fluent Conventions

Most configuration methods in Umbraco UI Builder aim to be fluent. This means that they return a relevant config instance allowing to chain multiple methods calls together in one. For those who prefer to be a bit more verbose, many methods also accept an optional lambda expression. This allows you to pass in a delegate to perform the inner configuration of the element being defined.

// Chaining example
config.AddSection("Repositories").Tree().AddCollection<People>(p => p.Id, "Person", "People");

// Delegate example
config.AddSection("Repositories", sectionConfig => {
    sectionConfig.Tree(treeConfig => {
        treeConfig.AddCollection<People>(p => p.Id, "Person", "People");
    });
});

Naming Conventions

Throughout the API, where a method name starts with Add then multiple configurations can be declared. Whereas if a method name starts with Set then only one instance of the configuration can be declared within the current configuration context.

Related collections add support for editing many-to-many relationships with UI Builder. These are found when multiple entities from one collection are associated with multiple entities from another. They are modeled in a database via two tables related to a junction table.

A classic example is with Students and Courses. Each course has many students, and each student takes many courses.

Collections Representation

A representation of your collections would look like this:

And the entities would be represented using the following Models:

Defining a related collection

You can get started with related collection through a two step process:

1. Add collection definition

2. Add related collection entity picker and definition

Collection definition

Define a related collection by calling the AddRelatedCollection method on a given collection config builder instance.

AddRelatedCollection<TEntityType, TRelatedEntityType, TJunctionEntityType>(Expression<Func<TRelatedEntityType, object>> idPropertyExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, Action<RelationConfigBuilder<TBuilder, TEntity, TRelatedEntityType, TJunctionEntityType>> relationConfig)

Adds a related collection to the current collection with the given names, descriptions, and default icons. A property accessor expression is required for the entity ID field of the entity. The relation configuration will define the junction entity by specifying the references to parent and child entities.

Configuring a related collection entity picker

Define the child collection entity picker by calling the AddRelatedCollectionPickerField method on the parent collection fieldset config.

AddRelatedCollectionPickerField<TValueType>(string alias, string dataTypeName, string label)

Adds an entity picker with the specified Data Type name to the editor of the parent collection.

Defining repository methods

IEnumerable GetRelationsByParentIdImpl(int parentId, string relationAlias)

Retrieves the related collections based on the ID of the parent entity.

StudentCourse SaveRelationImpl(StudentCourse entity)

Adds a new related collection to the current parent entity.

A dashboard is a view that is displayed at the root of a section and contains welcome information. It also includes useful tools relevant to the given section. When there are multiple dashboards to display in a section these are presented in a tabbed layout to allow you to switch between the dashboards.

Defining a dashboard

You can define a dashboard by calling one of the AddDashboard methods on either a SectionConfigBuilder or a WithSectionConfigBuilder instance.

AddDashboard(string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name.

AddDashboardBefore(string beforeAlias, string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name before the dashboard with the given alias.

AddDashboardAfter(string afterAlias, string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name after the dashboard with the given alias.

Changing a dashboard alias

SetAlias(string alias) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Sets the alias of the dashboard.

Optional: When adding a new dashboard, an alias is automatically generated from the supplied name for you. However, if you need a specific alias you can use the SetAlias method to override this.

Changing when a dashboard should display

Changing when a dashboard is displayed is controlled via an inner config. Options on the inner config are ShowForUserGroup and HideForUserGroup to control the visibility of the dashboard for given user groups. You can call these config methods multiple times to add multiple role configurations.

By default, will pre-filter dashboards to display only on the section it is defined in. This will be combined with the SetVisibility config to decide when to display the dashboard.

SetVisibility(Lambda visibilityConfig) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Sets the dashboard visibility config.

Setting the collection of a dashboard

Dashboards are only able to display a single collection. If you need to display multiple collections, then you need to configure multiple dashboards.

SetCollection<TEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, Lambda collectionConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Sets the collection of the current dashboard with the given names, descriptions, and default icons. An ID property accessor expression is required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property is the ID property. For more information check the .

SetCollection<TEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, string iconSingular, string iconPlural, Lambda collectionConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Sets the collection of the current dashboard with the given names, description and icons. An ID property accessor expression is required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property is the ID property. For more information check the .

Field Views allow you to customize the markup used by a field when displayed in a list view. Field Views are implemented as .NET Core View Components that are passed a single FieldViewsContext argument with information about the entity/field being rendered.

Defining a field view

You can define a field view in one of two ways.

1. A basic view file for the built in FieldView view component

The simplest way to define a field view for non-complex fields is to place a view file in the /Views/Shared/Components/FieldView folder with the following markup.

When registering a basic file view you can pass the name of the view file (excluding the .cshtml file extension) to the relevant API method.

2. A complete custom view component

To define a more complex field view you can create your own view component class (which can use dependency injection for any required dependencies). This can be done by using the following signature:

For the view element of your component, based on the example above, you would place a file Default.cshtml into the /Views/Shared/Components/MyComplexFieldView folder with the following markup:

The field view context

Field view components are passed a FieldViewContext object with the following information:

Setting the field view of a list view field

A field view is assigned to a list view field as part of the list view configuration. For more information you can check the .

Custom cards allow you to perform more complex metric calculations and are defined via a class implementing the Card base class.

When Umbraco UI Builder resolves a card it will attempt to do so from the global DI container. This means you can inject any dependencies that you require for your card to calculate its value. If there is no type defined in the DI container, Umbraco UI Builder will fall-back to manually instantiating a new instance of value mapper.

Defining a custom card

To define a card you create a class that inherits from the base class Card and configure it within the constructor like so.

The required configuration options are:

• Name: The name of the card.

• Alias: A unique alias for the card.

• GetValue(object parentId = null): A method to get the cards value.

Additional optional configuration options are:

• Icon: An icon to display in the card.

• Color: The color of the card.

• Suffix: A suffix to display after the card value.

Adding a custom card to a collection

AddCard() : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a card of the given type to the collection.

AddCard(Type cardType) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a card of the given type to the collection.

In this section, we have summarized the changes to Umbraco UI Builder released in each version. Each version is presented with a link to the showing a list of issues resolved in the release. We also link to the individual issues themselves from the detail.

If there are any breaking changes or other issues to be aware of when upgrading they are also noted here.

Actions are a powerful way of adding custom functionality to Umbraco UI Builder without needing to create custom UI elements. By providing an action to run, Umbraco UI Builder can automatically trigger actions from a number of UI locations.

Defining an action

To define an action create a class that inherits from the base class Action<> and configure it like below:

The required configuration options are:

Searchable properties allow you to define any String based properties on a model. They will be searchable via Umbraco UI Builder's list view and entity picker search controls.

You can also use any String based property of nested objects of a model, as long as the parent object is not null.

Defining searchable properties

A section is a distinct area of the Umbraco backoffice, such as content, media, etc. The section is accessed via a link in the main menu at the top of the Umbraco interface. Umbraco UI Builder allows you to define multiple sections in order to organise the management of your models into logical sections.

Defining a section

You can define a section by calling one of the AddSection methods on the root level UIBuilderConfigBuilder instance.

AddSection(string name, Lambda sectionConfig = null) : SectionConfigBuilder

Adds a section to the Umbraco menu with the given name.

AddSectionBefore(string beforeAlias, string name, Lambda sectionConfig = null) : SectionConfigBuilder

Adds a section to the Umbraco menu with the given name before the section with the given alias.

AddSectionAfter(string afterAlias, string name, Lambda sectionConfig = null) : SectionConfigBuilder

Adds a section to the Umbraco menu with the given name after the section with the given alias.

Changing a section alias

SetAlias(string alias) : SectionConfigBuilder

Sets the alias of the section.

Optional: When adding a new section, an alias is automatically generated from the supplied name for you. However, if you need a specific alias you can use the SetAlias method to override this.

Configuring the section tree

Tree(Lambda treeConfig = null) : TreeConfigBuilder

Accesses the tree config of the current section. For more information check the .

Adding a dashboard to the section

AddDashboard(string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name. For more information check the .

AddDashboardBefore(string beforeAlias, string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name before the dashboard with the given alias. For more information check the .

AddDashboardAfter(string afterAlias, string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name after the dashboard with the given alias. For more information check the .

Extending an existing section

You can extend existing sections by adding Umbraco UI Builder trees and dashboards, context apps, and virtual subtrees. This can be done by calling the WithSection method on the root level UIBuilderConfigBuilder instance.

WithSection(string alias, Lambda sectionConfig = null) : WithSectionConfigBuilder

Starts a sub-configuration for the existing Umbraco section with the given alias.

Adding a tree to an existing section

AddTree(string name, string icon, Lambda treeConfig = null) : TreeConfigBuilder

Adds a tree to the current section. For more information check the .

AddTree(string groupName, string name, string icon, Lambda treeConfig = null) : TreeConfigBuilder

Adds a tree to the current section in a group with the given name. For more information check the .

AddTreeBefore(string treeAlias, string name, string icon, Lambda treeConfig = null) : TreeConfigBuilder

Adds a tree to the current section before the tree with the given alias. For more information check the .

AddTreeAfter(string treeAlias, string name, string icon, Lambda treeConfig = null) : TreeConfigBuilder

Adds a tree to the current section after the tree with the given alias. For more information check the .

Adding a dashboard to an existing section

AddDashboard (string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name. For more information check the .

AddDashboardBefore (string beforeAlias, string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name before the dashboard with the given alias. For more information check the .

AddDashboardAfter (string afterAlias, string name, Lambda dashboardConfig = null) : DashboardConfigBuilder

Adds a dashboard with the given name after the dashboard with the given alias. For more information check the .

Context Apps in Umbraco UI Builder are analogous to Content Apps in Umbraco. They allow you to provide contextual apps that appear in the editor UI of content. From Umbraco UI Builder's perspective, defining context apps allows you to expose collections as content apps. This is where a collection has a relation to the content in question. An example could be something like blog post comments which are linked to individual blog posts. Exposing these as a content app allows them to be managed in context next to the blog post they are linked to.

Defining a context app

You can define a context app by calling one of the AddContextApp methods on a instance.

AddContextApp(string name, Lambda contextAppConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a context app with the given name and default icon.

AddContextApp(string name, string icon, Lambda contextAppConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a context app to the Umbraco menu with the given name and icon.

AddContextAppBefore(string beforeAlias, string name, Lambda contextAppConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a context app with the given name and default icon before the context app with the given alias.

AddContextAppBefore(string beforeAlias, string name, string icon, Lambda contextAppConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a context app to the Umbraco menu with the given name and icon before the context app with the given alias.

AddContextAppAfter(string afterAlias, string name, Lambda contextAppConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a context app with the given name and default icon after the context app with the given alias.

AddContextAppAfter(string afterAlias, string name, string icon, Lambda contextAppConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a context app to the Umbraco menu with the given name and icon after the context app with the given alias.

Changing a context app alias

SetAlias(string alias) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Sets the alias of the context app.

Optional: When adding a new context app, an alias is automatically generated from the supplied name for you. However, you can use the SetAlias method to override this if you need a specific alias.

Changing a context app icon color

SetIconColor(string color) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Sets the context app icon color to the given color. Possible options are black, green, yellow, orange, blue or red.

Changing when a context app should display

Changing when a context app is displayed, is controlled by a delegate method which is passed a ContextAppVisibilityContext instance. This method contains a Source property which holds a reference to the source object that the content app is being displayed on (i.e., an IContent instance). It also holds a reference to a UserGroups collection of the currently logged-in user's user groups. You can use any value from those to return a boolean result which sets whether to display the context app or not.

By default, Umbraco UI Builder will pre-filter context apps to only display on the tree it is defined in. This will be combined with the SetVisibility config to decide when to display the context app.

SetVisibility(Func<ContextAppVisibilityContext, bool> visibilityExpression) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Sets the context app visibility delegate.

Adding a collection to a context app

Context apps can consist of one or more collections. If a context app contains multiple collections, the collection list views will be displayed in tabs within the context app.

AddCollection<TEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, Lambda collectionConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a collection to the current content app with the given names, descriptions and default icons. An ID property accessor expression is required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property is the ID property. A foreign key property accessor is also required so that the Umbraco UI Builder knows which property holds the Umbraco nodes UDI value. You can read more about this in the .

AddCollection<TEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, Lambda fkFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, string iconSingular, string iconPlural, Lambda collectionConfig = null) : ContextAppConfigBuilder

Adds a collection to the current context app with the given names, description and icons. An ID property accessor expression is required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property is the ID property. A foreign key property accessor is also required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property holds the Umbraco nodes UDI value. You can read more about this in the .

Repositories are used by Umbraco UI Builder to access the entity data stores. By default, collections will use a generic built-in NPoco repository. However, you can define your own repository implementation should you wish to store your entities via an alternative strategy.

Defining a repository

To define a repository create a class that inherits from the base class Repository<TEntity, TId> and implements all of its abstract methods.

Note: For all Impl methods there are public alternatives without the Impl suffix. However, there are separate implementation methods in order to ensure all repositories fire the relevant Umbraco UI Builder events. This is whether triggered via the Umbraco UI Builder's UI or not.

Changing the repository implementation of a collection

SetRepositoryType<TRepositoryType>() : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the repository type to the given type for the current collection.

SetRepositoryType(Type repositoryType) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the repository type to the given type for the current collection.

Accessing a repository in code

To help with accessing a repository (default or custom) Umbraco UI Builder has an IRepositoryFactory you can inject into your code base. This includes a couple of factory methods to create the repository instances for you. Repositories should only be created via the repository factory as there are some injected dependencies that can only be resolved by Umbraco UI Builder.

IRepositoryFactory.GetRepository<TEntity, TId>() : Repository<TEntity, TId>

Creates a repository for the given entity type. Umbraco UI Builder will search the configuration for the first section/collection with a configuration for the given entity type. Then it will use that as a repository configuration.

IRepositoryFactory.GetRepository<TEntity, TId>(string collectionAlias) : Repository<TEntity, TId>

Creates a repository for the given entity type from the collection with the given alias.

By default actions are not visible in the UI and you must expressly define when and where an action should display. This can be achieved in two ways, either on the action definition itself or at the point of registration on the collections config.

Controlling the default action visibility

To define the default visibility of an action at the action level you can do this by overriding the IsVisible method of the Action<> base class.

The IsVisible method is passed a ActionVisibilityContext which you should use to decide whether the action should display, returning true if it should, or false if it should not. For more information check the .

Overriding an actions visibility

Overriding an actions visibility is controlled via the configuration.

AddAction<TMenuActionType>(Lambda actionConfig = null) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds an action of the given type to the collection with the given visibility.

AddAction(Type actionType, Lambda actionConfig = null) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds an action of the given type to the collection with the given visibility.

AddAction(IAction action, Lambda actionConfig = null) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds the given action to the collection with the given visibility.

Action visibility context

When controlling the visibility of an action you will be given a ActionVisibilityContext object from which you can decide whether to show the action or not. The visibility context contains two key pieces of information on which you can base this decision.

ActionType

The action type property is an enum property that define which area of the UI it is that wishes to access this action. Enabling an action to display for a given action type will determine where an action is displayed.

ContainerMenu

The ContainerMenu action type determines that the action will be displayed in both the tree of the collection and its list view actions menu.

EntityMenu

The EntityMenu action type determines that the action will be displayed in the actions menu of a collection editor UI.

Bulk

The Bulk action type determines that the action will be displayed in the collection list view bulk actions menu.

Row

The Row action type determines that the action will be displayed in the collection list view action row menu.

Save

The Save action type determines that the action will be displayed as a sub button in an entity editors save button. All Save action types trigger a save before the action is executed and so to convey this, all Save action type button labels are prefixed Save & [Action Name]

UserGroups

The user groups collection contains a list of Umbraco IReadOnlyUserGroup objects for the current logged-in backoffice user. This allows you to control the visibility of actions for given user group members.

A tree is a hierarchical structure that helps organize a section into logical sub-sections. A tree is accessed in the main side panel of the Umbraco interface. In Umbraco UI Builder, a section may only have a single tree definition. However, you can use folder nodes to help organize the tree structure as you need it.

Configuring a Umbraco UI Builder section tree

The tree configuration for Umbraco UI Builder sections is a sub-configuration of a config builder instance and is accessed via its Tree method.

Virtual subtrees are a powerful feature that allows you to inject an Umbraco UI Builder tree structure into another Umbraco tree at a desired location. Thus acting as child nodes to the node chosen as the injection point. With virtual subtrees it allows you to extend built in or even 3rd party package trees with additional features. An example could be developing a "loyalty point" program for your e-commerce site and injecting the related database tables into a Vendr store tree. This allows the management of the program in its most logical location.

Defining virtual SubTrees

You define a virtual subtree by calling one of the AddVirtualSubTree

An editor is the user interface used to edit an entity and is made up of tabs and property editors.

Configuring an editor

The editor configuration is a sub-configuration of a Collection config builder instance and is accessed via its Editor method.

Editor(Lambda editorConfig = null) : EditorConfig<TEntityType>

Accesses the editor config of the given collection.

Adding a tab to an editor

AddTab(string name, Lambda tabConfig = null) : EditorTabConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a tab to the editor.

Configuring a sidebar to a tab

A slidebar is a smaller area that is displayed to the right of the main editor. The sidebar can also contain fieldsets and fields in the same way tabs can. However, it is a much more limited display area so you'll need to choose your field types carefully. The sidebar is a great location to display entity metadata.

Sidebar(Lambda sidebarConfig = null) : EditorTabSidebarConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Configures the sidebar for the tab.

Setting the visibility of a tab

SetVisibility(Predicate<EditorTabVisibilityContext> visibilityExpression) : EditorTabConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the runtime visibility of the tab.

Adding a fieldset to a tab

AddFieldset(string name, Lambda fieldsetConfig = null) : EditorFieldsetConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds the given fieldset to the tab.

Setting the visibility of a fieldset

SetVisibility(Predicate<EditorFieldsetVisibilityContext> visibilityExpression) : EditorFieldsetConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the runtime visibility of the fieldset.

Adding a field to a fieldset

AddField(Lambda propertyExpression, Lambda propertyConfig = null) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Adds the given property to the editor.

Changing the label of a field

By default, Umbraco UI Builder will build the label from the property name, including splitting camel case names into sentence cases. However, you can set an explicit label if preferred.

SetLabel(string label) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Sets the label for the editor field.

Hiding the label of a field

Sometimes you may have a field editor that would work better in full width. You can achieve this by explicitly hiding the field label.

HideLabel() : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Hides the label for the editor field.

Adding a description to a field

SetDescription(string description) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Sets the description for the editor field.

Changing the Data Type of a field

By default, Umbraco UI Builder will automatically choose a relevant Data Type for basic field types. However, if you wish to use an alternative Data Type then you can override this.

SetDataType(string dataTypeName) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Set the Data Type of the current field to the Umbraco Data Type with the given name.

SetDataType(int dataTypeId) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Set the Data Type of the current field to the Umbraco Data Type with the given id.

Setting the default value of a field

SetDefaultValue(TValueType defaultValue) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Sets the default value to a known constant.

SetDefaultValue(Func defaultValueFunc) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Sets the default value via a function that gets evaluated at time of entity creation.

Making a field required

MakeRequired() : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the given field required.

Validating a field

SetValidationRegex(string regex) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Defines the regular expression to use when validating the field.

Making a field read-only

MakeReadOnly() : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the current field read-only disabling editing in the UI.

MakeReadOnly(Func<TValueType, string> format) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the current field read-only disabling editing in the UI. Provides a custom formatting expression to use when rendering the value as a string.

MakeReadOnly(object dataTypeNameOrId) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the current field read-only disabling editing in the UI. Provides the name or id of a datatype to use when in read-only mode.

MakeReadOnly(Predicate<EditorFieldReadOnlyContext> readOnlyExp) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the current field read-only disabling editing in the UI if the given runtime predicate is true.

MakeReadOnly(Predicate<EditorFieldReadOnlyContext> readOnlyExp, Func<TValueType, string> format) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the current field read-only disabling editing in the UI if the given runtime predicate is true. Provides a custom formatting expression to use when rendering the value as a string.

MakeReadOnly(Predicate<EditorFieldReadOnlyContext> readOnlyExp, object dataTypeNameOrId) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Makes the current field read-only disabling editing in the UI if the given runtime predicate is true. Provides the name or id of a datatype to use when in read-only mode.

Setting the visibility of a field

SetVisibility(Predicate<EditorFieldVisibilityContext> visibilityExpression) : EditorFieldConfigBuilder<TEntityType, TValueType>

Sets the runtime visibility of the field.

There is a lot that can be configured from the collection config, but what follows are the core basics. You can find more configuration options about specific topics from the other configuration sections in the main menu.

Defining a collection

You can define a collection by calling one of the AddCollection methods on a given Tree or parent Folder config builder instance.

AddCollection<TEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, Lambda collectionConfig = null) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a collection to the given container with the given names and description and default icons. An ID property accessor expression is required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property is the ID property.

AddCollection<TEntityType>(Lambda idFieldExpression, string nameSingular, string namePlural, string description, string iconSingular, string iconPlural, Lambda collectionConfig = null) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Adds a collection to the given container with the given names, description and icons. An ID property accessor expression is required so that Umbraco UI Builder knows which property is the ID property.

Changing a collection alias

SetAlias(string alias) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the alias of the collection.

Optional: When creating a new collection, an alias is automatically generated from the supplied name for you. However, if you need a specific alias you can use the SetAlias method to override this.

Changing a collection icon color

SetIconColor(string color) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the collection icon color to the given color. Possible options are black, green, yellow, orange, blue or red.

Defining an entity name

Within Umbraco, it is expected that an entity has a name property. So we need to let Umbraco UI Builder know which property to use for the name. If the entity doesn't have a name property, then it needs to know how to construct a name from an entity's other properties. We do this by using either the SetNameProperty or SetNameFormat methods on a Collection config builder instance.

SetNameProperty(Lambda namePropertyExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of your entity to use as the name property. Property must be of type string. By defining a property as the name property, its value will be used as the label for the entity in trees and list views. It will also be editable in the header region of the editor interface. The property will also automatically be added to the searchable properties collection and be used for the default sort property.

SetNameProperty(Lambda namePropertyExpression, string heading) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of your entity to use as the name property and what custom heading should the list view column heading be. Property must be of type string. By defining a property as the name property, its value will be used as the label for the entity in trees and list views. It will also be editable in the header region of the editor interface. The property will also automatically be added to the searchable properties collection and be used for the default sort property.

SetNameFormat(Lambda nameFormatExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets a format expression to use to dynamically create a label for the entity in things like trees and list views. By providing a name format it is assumed there is no single name property available on the entity. And as such none of the default behaviors described for the SetNameProperty method will apply.

Defining a default sort order

SetSortProperty(Lambda sortPropertyExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of our entity to sort against, defaulting to ascending sort direction.

SetSortProperty(Lambda sortPropertyExpression, SortDirection sortDirection) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of our entity to sort against in the provided sort direction.

Defining time stamp properties

SetDateCreatedProperty(Lambda dateCreatedProperty) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of our entity to use as the date created property. Property must be of type DateTime. When set and a new entity is saved via the repository, then the given field will be populated with the current date and time.

SetDateModifiedProperty(Lambda dateCreatedProperty) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of our entity to use as the date modified property. Property must be of type DateTime. When set and an entity is saved via the repository, then the given field will be populated with the current date and time.

Configuring soft deletes

By default, in Umbraco UI Builder any entity that is deleted via the Umbraco UI Builder repository is definitively removed from the system. The SetDeletedProperty method can be used if needed to keep the records in the data repository despite having them marked as deleted. This is so they do not show the the UI.

SetDeletedProperty(Lambda deletedPropertyExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets which property of our entity to use as the deleted property flag. Property must be of type boolean or int. When a deleted property is set, any delete actions will set the deleted flag instead of deleting the entity. For boolean based properties, deleted entities will have a value of True when deleted. For int based properties, deleted entities will have a UTC Unix timestamp value of the date the entity was deleted. In addition, any fetch actions will also pre-filter out any deleted entities.

Disabling create, update or delete features

DisableCreate() : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Disables the option to create entities on the current collection. An entity could be created via code and only then editing is allowed in the UI for example.

DisableCreate(Predicate<CollectionPermissionContext> disableExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Disables the option to create entities on the current collection if the given runtime predicate is true. An entity could be created via code and only then editing is allowed in the UI.

DisableUpdate() : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Disables the option to update entities on the current collection. An entity can be created, but further editing is not allowed.

DisableUpdate(Predicate<CollectionPermissionContext> disableExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Disables the option to update entities on the current collection if the given runtime predicate is true. An entity can be created, but further editing is not allowed.

DisableDelete() : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Disables the option to delete entities on the current collection. Useful if the data needs to be retained and visible. See also .

DisableDelete(Predicate<CollectionPermissionContext> disableExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Disables the option to delete entities on the current collection if the given runtime predicate is true. Useful if the data needs to be retained and visible. See also .

MakeReadOnly() : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the collection as read-only and disables any Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations from being performed on the collection via the UI.

MakeReadOnly(Predicate<CollectionPermissionContext> disableExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the collection as read-only if the given runtime predicate is true. It also disables any Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations from being performed on the collection via the UI.

Set the visibility of the collection

SetVisibility(Predicate<CollectionVisibilityContext> visibilityExpression) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the runtime visibility of the collection.

Changing a collection connection string

By default, Umbraco UI Builder will use the Umbraco connection string for its database connection. However, you can change this by calling the SetConnectionString method on a Collection config builder instance.

SetConnectionString(string connectionStringName) : CollectionConfigBuilder<TEntityType>

Sets the connection string name for the given collection repository.

In a number of places in the Umbraco UI Builder API, you are required to know the aliases of other elements. For example, when you are adding sections, context apps, or dashboards before/after other instances. This is basic enough when it's referencing aliases of things defined in the Umbraco UI Builder config. However, for existing Umbraco instances it can be hard to find them so below is documented a number of known aliases for different elements.

Dashboard aliases

Content

Media

Settings

Members

Content App aliases

Content

Media

Members

ContentTypes

Section aliases

Tree aliases

Umbraco UI Builder fires a number of notification events during regular operation to allow for extending of the default behaviour.

Registering event handlers

Umbraco UI Builder uses the same Notification Mechanism built into Umbraco v9+ and so uses the same registration process. First you will need to define a notification event handler for the event you wish to handle like below:

Then register your event handler in the Program.cs file like below:

Repository events

EntitySavingNotification

Raised when the repository Save method is called and before the entity has been persisted. The notification contains an Entity property with Before and After inner properties. These properties provide access to a copy of the currently persisted entity (or null if a new entity) and the updated entity that´s saved. Changes can be made to the After entity and they will be persisted as part of the save operation. If the Cancel property of the notification is set to true then the save operation will be canceled and no changes will be saved.

EntitySavedNotification

Raised when the repository Save method is called and after the entity has been persisted. The notification contains an Entity property with Before and After inner properties. These properties provide access to a copy of the previously persisted entity (or null if a new entity) and the updated entity that´s saved.

EntityDeletingNotification

Raised when the repository Delete method is called and before the entity is deleted. The notification contains an Entity property providing access to a copy of the entity about to be deleted. If the Cancel property of notification is set to true then the delete operation will be cancelled and entity won't be deleted.

EntityDeletedNotification

Raised when the repository Delete method is called and after the entity has been deleted. The notification contains an Entity property providing access to a copy of the entity that´s deleted.

SqlQueryBuildingNotification

Raised when the repository is preparing a SQL query. The notification contains the collection alias + type, the NPoco Sql<ISqlContext> object, and the where clause/order by clauses. These will be used to generate the SQL query.

SqlQueryBuiltNotification

Raised when the repository has repaired a SQL query. The notification contains the collection alias + type, the NPoco Sql<ISqlContext> object and the where clause/order by clauses that was used to generate the SQL query.