Property attributes

Introduction

This document describes attributes available for properties in EPiServer.

How it works

For properties of content types we use different attributes to describe how they should behave.

The following are located in the EPiServer.DataAnnotations namespace.

The following are located in the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace.

The following images show how the attributes are mapped to settings in admin view:

Default backing types

If the BackingType attribute has not been set for a property, the backing type will be automatically assigned to a PropertyDefinitionType where the corresponding EPiServer.Core.PropertyData.PropertyValueType matches the property type. That means that if there is a PropertyData implementation (can be a custom property) with matching PropertyValueType that definition will be used. Otherwise the backing type is assigned according to this table.

See built-in property types for details on using the correct type.

Sample code

Sample code using many of the attributes described in this article.

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using EPiServer.Core;
using EPiServer.DataAnnotations;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using EPiServer.Security;
using EPiServer;
using EPiServer.Web;
using EPiServer.Shell.ObjectEditing.EditorDescriptors;
using EPiServer.Shell.ObjectEditing;
using EPiServer.DataAbstraction;

namespace CodeSamples
{
    [ContentType(
        DisplayName="My Page Type",
        Description="Description for this page type",
        Order=1024,
        GUID="9CBBF910-CB5A-4C72-83AA-EDCF02E8A2BD",
        GroupName="My Group",
        AvailableInEditMode=true)]
    [AvailableContentTypes(Include = new Type[] { typeof(MyPageType2), typeof(MyPageType3) })]
    [Access(Users = "niis", Roles = "CmsEditors")]
    public class TypedPageWithAttributeSample : PageData
    {
        [Required]
        [Searchable]
        [CultureSpecific]
        [Editable(true)]
        [Display(
            Name = "My Heading",
            Description = "Heading for my page type.",
            GroupName = "My Tab",
            Order = 64)]
        public virtual string Heading { get; set; }

        //An integer between 0 and 130.
        [Range(0, 130)]
        public virtual int Age { get; set; }

        //Validating against a given regular expression.
        [RegularExpression("[SomeRegularExpression]")]
        public virtual string CustomValidation { get; set; }

        //A string with a maximum length of 20 characters.
        [StringLength(20)]
        public virtual string Header { get; set; }

        //Any URL
        public virtual Url RedirectPage { get; set; }

        //Reference to an image in the EPiServer media system.
        [UIHint(UIHint.Image)]
        public virtual ContentReference Logotype { get; set; }

        //URL to image is also supported but mostly for upgrade support or when there is a need to add custom query parameters to the URL.
        [UIHint(UIHint.Image)]
        public virtual Url LogotypeAsUrl { get; set; }

        //Creates a selection of predefined values.
        [SelectOne(SelectionFactoryType=typeof(CustomLanguageSelectionFactory))]
        public virtual string LanguageSelection { get; set; }

         //Creates a selection of predefined values with the option to select several items.
        [SelectMany(SelectionFactoryType=typeof(CustomLanguageSelectionFactory))]
        public virtual string MultipleLanguageSelection { get; set; }
    }

    public class CustomLanguageSelectionFactory : ISelectionFactory
    {
        public IEnumerable<ISelectItem> GetSelections(ExtendedMetadata metadata)
        {
            var languages = new List<SelectItem>();

            languages.Add(new SelectItem() { Text = "English", Value = "en"});
            languages.Add(new SelectItem() { Text = "Swedish", Value = "sv" });
            languages.Add(new SelectItem() { Text = "Norwegian", Value = "no" });

            return languages;
        }
    }

    [AvailableContentTypes(IncludeOn = new Type[] { typeof(TypedPageWithAttributeSample) })]
    [ContentType]
    public class MyPageType1 : PageData { }

    [AvailableContentTypes(Exclude = new Type[] { typeof(TypedPageWithAttributeSample) })]
    [ContentType]
    public class MyPageType2 : PageData { }

    [AvailableContentTypes(ExcludeOn = new Type[] { typeof(MyPageType1) })]
    [ContentType]
    public class MyPageType3 : PageData { }

    [AvailableContentTypes(Availability = Availability.None)]
    [ContentType]
    public class MyPageType4 : PageData { }
}

Last updated: Feb 23, 2015