Catalog data sources

This document provides an overview of the Catalog Data Sources features.

All classes referred to here are available in the Mediachase.Commerce.Catalog.DataSources namespace.

Key classes and files

• CatalogIndexSearchDataSource - represents a catalog search data source for data-bound controls.
• CatalogItemsDataSource.cs - represents a catalog items data source for data-bound controls.
• CatalogSearchDataSource.cs - represents catalog search data source for data-bound controls

Overview

Below is an overview of the Catalog Data Sources API structure.

How it works

Example: creating a CatalogIndexSearchDataSource

private CatalogIndexSearchDataSource CreateCatalogIndexSearchDataSource()
            {
              // Set up CatalogEntrySearchCriteria object.
              SearchFilterHelper sfHelper = SearchFilterHelper.Current;
              string keywords = Request.QueryString["search"];
              SearchSort sortObject = CatalogEntrySearchCriteria.DefaultSortOrder
              CatalogEntrySearchCriteria criteria = sfHelper.CreateSearchCriteria(keywords, sortObject);

              // Set up CatalogIndexSearchDataSource object.
              int startIndex = SomeListView.StartRowIndex;
              int recordsToRetrieve = pageSize;
              int count = 0;
              CatalogEntryResponseGroup responseGroup = new CatalogEntryResponseGroup(CatalogEntryResponseGroup.ResponseGroup.CatalogEntryInfo);
              bool cacheResults = true;
              TimeSpan cacheTimeout = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 30);

              //...

              CatalogIndexSearchDataSource dataSource = null;

              // No need to perform search if there are no catalogs specified.
              if (criteria.CatalogNames.Count != 0)
              {
                Entries entries = sfHelper.SearchEntries(criteria, startIndex, recordsToRetrieve, out count, responseGroup, cacheResults, cacheTimeout);
                dataSource = new CatalogIndexSearchDataSource();
                dataSource.TotalResults = count;
                dataSource.CatalogEntries = entries;
              }

              return dataSource;
            }

Once the CatalogIndexSearchDataSource object is created, you can bind it to an ASP.NET server control that supports data binding, such as the ListView control. When this is done, you will have access to a collection of catalog entry results.

Example: accessing a catalog entry results collection

SomeListView.DataSource = CatalogIndexSearchDataSource
        CatalogIndexSearchDataSource.CatalogEntries // propety of type Entries
        CatalogIndexSearchDataSource.CatalogEntries.Entry // array of type Entry[]