Working with meta-field controls

Meta-field controls are rendered for custom fields. You can see examples of them when you edit an entry or catalog nodes in the Catalog Management subsystem (legacy). This topic explains how to extend and customize meta-field controls.

How it works

Meta-fields are rendered using default controls that are defined in the Admin/Apps/Core/MetaData/Controls/ folder. For example, the meta-field string is rendered using ShortStringControl.ascx.

You may have more specific data entry constraints than the default controls provided. For example, you want to add a custom status text field, and you want to ensure that only specific possible values are entered in that field. You want to keep that field a simple string field (to improve performance) in the database, but also do not want users entering data to add invalid data.

The simplest way to do this is to:

1. Create a new custom user control (make a copy of ShortStringControl.ascx).
2. Change the textbox to a drop-down control with hard-coded values.
3. Make the system automatically pick-up your control instead of the default one. To do that, the name of the control must match the name and metadata type of the meta-field you are mapping the control to. See table and description below.

Another example is when you want to override ImplementationStatus fields with a metadata field type of ShortString.

This can be done as follows:

1. Name the control ImplementationStatus.ShortStringControl.ascx.
2. Create the ImplementationStatusmeta-field  as a Short String in the Catalog portion of the Administration tab.
3. Add the field to a meta-class.

When you edit an entry in the catalog with this meta-class (containing the ImplementationStatus field), the field is represented with your custom control.

Note: When you use custom meta-fields (such as year) with search filters in places like the Shopping Options sidebar control, use the Float type instead of Decimal.

The engine lets you override how the meta-field is rendered for the scopes listed in the following table. The position reflects the order engine validating the controls, if the control exists, which renders the field and evaluation stops.

Last updated: Oct 12, 2015