London Dev Meetup Rescheduled! Due to unavoidable reasons, the event has been moved to 21st May. Speakers remain the same—any changes will be communicated. Seats are limited—register here to secure your spot!

AI OnAI Off
Anders Hattestad
Anders Hattestad
Feb 16, 2011
  9754
(2 votes)

Auto create sub page(s) when a page is created

imageThere are times when I want to make a structure of pages when one page is created. Sometimes it would be easy to just add an attributes to your page type, so each time a page of that type is created we will auto magically add a sub page.

 

First I made myself a attribute

Code Snippet
  1. [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, AllowMultiple = true)]
  2. public class EnsureSubPageAttribute : Attribute
  3. {
  4.     public Type PageType { get; set; }
  5.     public string PageName { get; set; }
  6.     public string URLSegment { get; set; }
  7.     public int SortIndex { get; set; }
  8.     public string SetReferenceToProperty { get; set; }
  9.     public string[] SetPropertyNames { get; set; }
  10.     public string[] SetPropertyValues { get; set; }
  11. }

Then I add myself to the Created Page event. I do this stuff there since created page is only triggered once, and if I change my attributes I will ensure my sub pages on startup.

Code Snippet
  1. [ModuleDependency(typeof(PageTypeBuilder.Initializer))]
  2. public class EnsureSubPages : IInitializableModule
  3. {
  4.     #region IInitializableModule Members
  5.     public void Initialize(EPiServer.Framework.Initialization.InitializationEngine context)
  6.     {
  7.         EPiServer.DataFactory.Instance.CreatedPage += new EPiServer.PageEventHandler(Instance_CreatedPage);
  8.         EnsureAllExistingPages();
  9.     }
  10.        
  11.     public void Preload(string[] parameters) { }
  12.  
  13.     public void Uninitialize(EPiServer.Framework.Initialization.InitializationEngine context)
  14.     {
  15.         EPiServer.DataFactory.Instance.CreatedPage -= new EPiServer.PageEventHandler(Instance_CreatedPage);
  16.     }
  17.     #endregion

The method for created page looks like this

Code Snippet
  1. void Instance_CreatedPage(object sender, EPiServer.PageEventArgs e)
  2. {
  3.     EnsureSubPagesForPage(e.Page);
  4. }
  5. static void EnsureSubPagesForPage(PageData page)
  6. {
  7.     var type = page.GetType();
  8.     PageDataCollection subPages = null;
  9.     foreach (var attribute in type.GetCustomAttributes(true))
  10.     {
  11.         var myAttribute = (attribute as EnsureSubPageAttribute);
  12.         if (myAttribute != null && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(myAttribute.URLSegment))
  13.         {
  14.             if (subPages == null)
  15.                 subPages = EPiServer.DataFactory.Instance.GetChildren(page.PageLink, LanguageSelector.MasterLanguage());
  16.             var result = (from subPage in subPages where subPage.URLSegment == myAttribute.URLSegment select subPage).ToList();
  17.             if (result.Count == 0)
  18.                 page = CreatePage(page, myAttribute);
  19.             else
  20.                 UpdatePage(myAttribute, result[0]);
  21.         }
  22.     }
  23.     if (page.IsModified)
  24.         EPiServer.DataFactory.Instance.Save(page, EPiServer.DataAccess.SaveAction.ForceCurrentVersion | EPiServer.DataAccess.SaveAction.Publish, EPiServer.Security.AccessLevel.NoAccess);
  25. }

but the cool (and dangerous ) task is the method that checks all the page types and find all that uses the attribute.Then finds all pages of that type and ensure them.

Code Snippet
  1. private static void EnsureAllExistingPages()
  2. {
  3.     foreach (var pagetype in EPiServer.DataAbstraction.PageType.List())
  4.     {
  5.         var typedPageType = PageTypeResolver.Instance.GetPageTypeType(pagetype.ID);
  6.         if (typedPageType != null && typedPageType.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(EnsureSubPageAttribute), true).Length > 0)
  7.         {
  8.             var pages = FindPagesByPageType(typedPageType, PageReference.StartPage);
  9.             foreach (var page in pages)
  10.                 EnsureSubPagesForPage(page);
  11.         }
  12.     }
  13. }

 

So now one can in the code behind mark page types with attributes like this

Code Snippet
  1. [PageType(Name = "Department structur", Filename = "/Custom/Pages/Department.aspx", DefaultSortIndex = 10)]
  2. [EnsureSubPage(
  3.     PageType = typeof(AttachPageProviderPageType),
  4.     PageName = "Community pages",
  5.     SetPropertyNames=new string[] {"AttachChildrenFrom"},
  6.     SetPropertyValues=new string[] {"22"},
  7.     SetReferenceToProperty = "OneClubPage",
  8.     URLSegment = "CommunityPages",
  9.     SortIndex = 10)]
  10. [EnsureSubPage(
  11.     PageType = typeof(UDPageType),
  12.     PageName = "dummy page",
  13.     URLSegment = "DummyPage",
  14.     SortIndex=20)]
  15. [EnsureSubPage(
  16.     PageType = typeof(UDPageType),
  17.     PageName = "dummy page 2",
  18.     URLSegment = "DummyPage2",
  19.     SortIndex = 30)]
  20. public class DepartmentPageType : TypedPageData, OnCreatedPage, IClubRoot

Full code is here. Its just one file :)

Feb 16, 2011

Comments

Feb 17, 2011 04:03 PM

Neat solution.
I think I'll have to replace my global event handlers with your code.

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
From Agentic Theory to Practicality: Using Optimizely Opal’s Instructions Feature

A practical look at Optimizely Opal’s Instructions feature — from built-in agents to creating and managing custom instruction workflows. Ideal for...

Andy Blyth | May 19, 2025 |

First time speaking at NDC Oslo

This is my thirteenth time attending the conference – and my first time giving a talk.

Tomas Hensrud Gulla | May 19, 2025 |

Common Mistakes in Headless Projects with Optimizely

Adopting a headless architecture with Optimizely is a major shift from the traditional MVC-based development that has been the standard for years....

Szymon Uryga | May 19, 2025

Render ContentArea without wrapping them in surrounding div

CustomContentAreaRenderer is a specialized class that overrides the default ContentAreaRenderer. It customizes the rendering behavior for content...

sunylcumar | May 18, 2025

See all blogs