Bartosz Sekula
Sep 28, 2021
  4550
(2 votes)

How to resolve current content context

With the release of CMS UI 11.36.2 it is now possible to resolve the current loaded content context from anywhere you may need.

It might be useful if you need any custom logic in any of the Content Events:

[ModuleDependency(typeof(EPiServer.Shell.UI.InitializationModule))]
public class CustomModule : IConfigurableModule
{
    public void Initialize(InitializationEngine context)
    {
        context.Locate.ContentEvents().CreatedContent += CreatedContent;
        context.Locate.ContentEvents().CreatingContent += CreatingContent;
    }

    private void CreatingContent(object sender, ContentEventArgs e)
    {   
        var currentContentContext = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<CurrentContentContext>();
        // we know which content context initiated the CREATE operation        
        var currentContentLink = currentContentContext.ContentLink;

        var newlyCreatedContentLink = e.ContentLink; // --> null as at this point the ContentReference was not assigned yet
    }

    private void CreatedContent(object sender, ContentEventArgs e)
    {
        var newlyCreatedContentLink = e.ContentLink; // this is the ContentReference of the newly created content item
        // but we might need the ContentReference of the content that was being viewed when the CREATE operation was run
        var currentContentContext = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<CurrentContentContext>();
        // this gives us the content context the editor was in
        var currentContentLink = currentContentContext.ContentLink;
    }

    public void Uninitialize(InitializationEngine context)
    {
        context.Locate.ContentEvents().CreatedContent -= CreatedContent;
        context.Locate.ContentEvents().CreatingContent -= CreatingContent;
    }

    public void ConfigureContainer(ServiceConfigurationContext context)
    {

    }
}

You might also need to know the current context in metadata aware components, like for example in this Editor Descriptor:

public class FooPageType : PageData 
{
    [EditorDescriptor(EditorDescriptorType = typeof(CollectionEditorDescriptor<OfferDetailsItem>))]
    public virtual IList<OfferDetailsItem> OfferDetailsItems { get; set; }
}

public class OfferDetailsItem
{
    [Display(Order = 1)]
    [UIHint("test")]
    public string Label { get; set; }
}

[PropertyDefinitionTypePlugIn]
public class OfferDetailsItemPropertyList : PropertyList<OfferDetailsItem>
{
}

[EditorDescriptorRegistration(TargetType = typeof(string), UIHint = "test")]
public class CustomXhtmlDescriptor : StringEditorDescriptor
{
    private readonly CurrentContentContext _currentContent;

    public CustomXhtmlDescriptor(CurrentContentContext currentContent)
    {
        _currentContent = currentContent;
    }

    public override void ModifyMetadata(ExtendedMetadata metadata, IEnumerable<Attribute> attributes)
    {
        base.ModifyMetadata(metadata, attributes);

        var ownerContent = metadata.FindOwnerContent(); // --> will return null because the object we annotate is not ContentData but simple POCO
        // https://world.optimizely.com/forum/developer-forum/CMS/Thread-Container/2016/1/current-content-for-propertylist-item-selection-factory/
        // and
        // https://world.optimizely.com/forum/developer-forum/CMS/Thread-Container/2021/9/tinymce-customization-depending-on-page-context/
        var currentContent = _currentContent.ContentLink; // --> will return correct page id
    }
}

Related forum posts that describe the problem:

https://world.optimizely.com/forum/developer-forum/CMS/Thread-Container/2021/9/tinymce-customization-depending-on-page-context/

https://world.optimizely.com/forum/developer-forum/CMS/Thread-Container/2020/12/get-value-of-contextepi-cms-contentdata/#234848

https://world.optimizely.com/forum/developer-forum/CMS/Thread-Container/2016/1/current-content-for-propertylist-item-selection-factory/

Sep 28, 2021

Comments

Tomas Hensrud Gulla
Tomas Hensrud Gulla Sep 28, 2021 11:54 AM

Will there be release notes describing this?

Bartosz Sekula
Bartosz Sekula Sep 28, 2021 11:55 AM

Yes, documentation is scheduled to be published. It will be available soon.

Tomas Hensrud Gulla
Tomas Hensrud Gulla Sep 28, 2021 11:59 AM

Excellent work, by the way. Thanks! :-)

Ravindra S. Rathore
Ravindra S. Rathore Sep 30, 2021 07:11 AM

👍

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Optimizely Opal: How to Build Effective Workflow Agents

If you're building workflow agents in Optimizely Opal, this post covers how specialized agents pass context to each other, why keeping agents small...

Andre | May 20, 2026

ReviewPR: An Azure Function That Reviews Your Azure DevOps Pull Requests With Claude

A while back I wrote about an  Azure Function App for PDF creation that we use to offload PDF rendering from our Optimizely DXP site. That same...

KennyG | May 19, 2026

Accelerating Optimizely CMS and Commerce upgrades with agentic AI (Part 2 of 2)

The Real Transformation in Optimizely CMS 13: Why the Upgrade Itself Is the Easy Part. A field-tested playbook for enterprise teams moving from...

Hung Le Hoang | May 18, 2026

Is the most powerful AI model really the best value?

Artificial Intelligence is already becoming part of everyday software development. Developers now use AI tools to generate code, write documentatio...

K Khan | May 16, 2026

Optimizely London Dev Meetup 2026

Well, everyone, it's that time of the year again, and we have another London Developer meet up coming for this summer. The date is set for the 2nd ...

Scott Reed | May 15, 2026

Semantic Search - Deep Dive

Deep dive into semantic search with Optimizely Graph

Michał Mitas | May 14, 2026 |