Ravindra S. Rathore
OMVPPaaS CMS Developer CertificationPaaS CMS Administrator Certification +8
Jun 24, 2019
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(8 votes)

Render Episerver Page tree on View

Hi All,

I have a scenario on our website where I need to display the Episerver tree on our view.

Like-

Blog tree

So I thought that we can use the “GetDescendents” method and it will render the tree but I was wrong. It basically gives you all the page items in a single list so you need to build the tree by your own.

So to build the tree I wrote below code-

public class BlogItemTree
    {
        public int PageId { get; set; }

        public int? ParentPageId { get; set; }

        public PageData ContentPage { get; set; }

        public List<BlogItemTree> Children { get; set; }
    }
 
   public static class GenericExtensions
    {
        private static readonly IContentLoader _contentLoader;

        static GenericExtensions()
        {
            _contentLoader = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentLoader>();
        }
        public static void FindDescendantsOfType<T>(PageData page, ICollection<T> descendants)
            where T : class
        {
            var children = _contentLoader.GetChildren<PageData>(page.PageLink);
            foreach (var child in children)
            {
                if (child is T)
                {
                    descendants.Add(child as T);
                }

                FindDescendantsOfType(child, descendants);
            }
        }

        public static List<BlogItemTree> BlogItemTrees(List<PageData> descendants)
        {
            var blogItemTree = new List<BlogItemTree>();
            foreach (var blogItem in descendants)
            {
                var item = new BlogItemTree() { PageId = blogItem.PageLink.ID, ParentPageId = blogItem.ParentLink.ID };
                blogItemTree.Add(item);
            }

            var tree = blogItemTree.BuildTree();
            return tree;
        }

        public static List<BlogItemTree> BuildTree(this IEnumerable<BlogItemTree> source)
        {
            var groups = source.GroupBy(i => i.ParentPageId);

            var roots = groups.FirstOrDefault().ToList();

            if (roots.Count > 0)
            {
                var dict = groups.Where(g => g.Key.HasValue).ToDictionary(g => g.Key.Value, g => g.ToList());
                for (int i = 0; i < roots.Count; i++)
                {
                    var pageRef = new PageReference(roots[i].PageId);

                    roots[i].ContentPage = _contentLoader.Get<PageData>(pageRef);
                    AddChildren(roots[i], dict);
                }
            }

            return roots;
        }

        private static void AddChildren(BlogItemTree node, IDictionary<int, List<BlogItemTree>> source)
        {
            if (source.ContainsKey(node.PageId))
            {
                node.Children = source[node.PageId];
                var pageRef = new PageReference(node.PageId);
                node.ContentPage = _contentLoader.Get<PageData>(pageRef);
                for (int i = 0; i < node.Children.Count; i++)
                {
                    AddChildren(node.Children[i], source);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                var pageRef = new PageReference(node.PageId);
                node.ContentPage = _contentLoader.Get<PageData>(pageRef);
                node.Children = new List<BlogItemTree>();
            }
        }
    }

And then created one more class to call these functions and get the proper output

public class BlogListByYearBlockService
    {
        public List<ContentPage> Descendants = new List<ContentPage>();

        private readonly IContentLoader _contentLoader;

        public BlogListByYearBlockService(IContentLoader contentLoader)
        {
            _contentLoader = contentLoader ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(contentLoader));
        }

        public List<BlogItemTree> GetTreeData(BlogListByYearBlock block)
        {
            GenericExtensions.FindDescendantsOfType(StartPage, Descendants);
            List<BlogItemTree> tree = GenericExtensions.BlogItemTrees(Descendants);
            return tree;
        }
    }

Now the tree object will give you the exact same tree that is in your Episerver you just need to render this.

Jun 24, 2019

Comments

Keshav Dave
Keshav Dave Jun 24, 2019 03:31 PM

Hi Ravindra,

 

Thanks, I just use this approach and it's saved my day.

valdis
valdis Jun 25, 2019 07:19 AM

sorry for being picky here, but to keep my ServiceLocator guy title, I need to comment (at least something) :)

why you are requesting `IContentLoader` as constructor argument and still retrieving it from ServiceLocator?

also in `GenericExtensions` class - how you can get rid of ServiceLocator? By creating extension methods on `IContentLoader`! this will move responsibility of retrieving instance of `IContentLoader` from your class to the "consumer" class. where and how "consumer" gets that instance - becomes "not my problem anymore" :)

Ravindra S. Rathore
Ravindra S. Rathore Jun 25, 2019 10:48 AM

Hey Valdis,

Thanks for laying out what's really needed to be done on the extension methods for 'IContentLoader'.

I'll cover this in the next blog and that's definitely going to be a good step for future users.

Thanks a ton , Appreciate!

RR

Antti Alasvuo
Antti Alasvuo Jun 26, 2019 08:10 AM

Hi Ravindra, adding to Valdis comments, your extension uses DataFactory.Instance.GetChildren(xxx). Don't use it, but use you IContentLoader instances GetChildren(xxx) method or one of the overloads. DataFactory should not be used, it is history.

Ravindra S. Rathore
Ravindra S. Rathore Jun 26, 2019 12:48 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Antti Alasvuo, I have updated the post with your suggestion.

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