Setting default name for a shared block

Dag Stuan

Vote:

Does anyone know how I can set the default name of a shared block? The standard way of overriding SetDefaultValues(ContentType contentType) in the class declaration does not work since blocks by default do not implement IContent. Does anyone have a solution for this?

#112459

Oct 28, 2014 15:32

Johan Björnfot

Vote:

SetDefaultValues is not part of IContent. It is definied on interface IInitializableContent which is implemented by ContentData (which BlockData inherits). So overriding of SetDefaultValues should be possible for blocks.

#112460

Oct 28, 2014 15:50

Dag Stuan

Vote:

SetDefaultValues is a valid override for block classes, and works for other properties on them, but not on the block name.

#112461

Oct 28, 2014 15:59

Johan Björnfot

Vote:

You could have code as:

IContent blockAsContent = this as IContent;

if (blockAsContent != null)

{

//Shared block instance

blockAsContent.Name = "MyName";

}

#112462

Oct 28, 2014 16:06

Dag Stuan

Vote:

I have tried to code it the way you are proposing Johan, but it doesnt work. I still get the popup asking me to specify a better name than "New Block" when I try to create the block.

#112482

Oct 29, 2014 7:54

Ben McKernan

Vote:

If you want to change the "New Block" name that is set when creating blocks via the UI then you can change it by overriding that specific key in the language files. Since the default name is language specific, it is therefore stored in the language files ;)

<languages>
    <language name="English" id="en">
        <contenttypes>
            <blockdata>
                <newitemdefaultname>Please enter a name for this block</newitemdefaultname>
            </blockdata>
        </contenttypes>
    </language>
</languages>

You can do the same for pages with a pagedata node or folders with a contentfolder

#112779

Nov 05, 2014 12:50

Vote:

Ben, really magic strings here ;)

Would be nice to be able to set this through code though

#112783

Nov 05, 2014 13:37

Ben McKernan

Vote:

Haha, well I guess it wasn't intended to be changed. Linus has blogged on the actual XML structure here http://world.episerver.com/Blogs/Linus-Ekstrom/Dates/2013/12/New-standardized-format-for-content-type-localizations/

It is the same structure for when you want to localize the name or description of a content type. But in this case we add the localizations to the base types; PageData, BlockData, ContentFolder.

#112785

Nov 05, 2014 13:48

Vote:

What I meant was the newitemdefaultname element which I've not seen any documentation on :\

#112786

Nov 05, 2014 13:50

Dag Stuan

Vote:

Setting newitemdefaultname doesnt seem to work correctly, when the block is created the name in the top left input field is still "new block", but when the user doesnt change the name, the value of newitemdefaultname is shown in the popup asking the user to change the name to something better than "new block". This means the editor still has to change the name. Any other solutions to this problem?

#112792

Nov 05, 2014 14:57

Vote:

Consider that EPiServer can't know what the default name should be in the first step since you have not yet selected which content type you want to use.

As you say, the suggestion to name will be your provided default name unless the editor starts with editing the name.

#112793

Nov 05, 2014 15:01

Dag Stuan

Vote:

Obviously i'm not expecting episerver to know the default name before a content type has been selected, but episerver should be able to know the default name after I have selected a type, since this works for pages right now (by overriding SetDefaultValues and setting PageName).

#112795

Nov 05, 2014 15:07

Vote:

Just because EPiServer asks the editor to change the name to something better than "new block" (or in Ben's example "Please enter a name for this block"), it doesn't mean that the user must change name.

In my example I could use the following to work but EPiServer seems to have the resources cached for a while.

<contenttypes>
	<teaserblock>
		<newitemdefaultname>Teasy tease</newitemdefaultname>
	</teaserblock>
</contenttypes>

and the editor can select "Teasy tease" even if EPiServer says "Consider renaming the content to something more descriptive than default."

However I'm not able to set the PageName using SetDefaultValues. I'm testing in Alloy and 7.16. Which version are you running on?

#112891

Nov 06, 2014 22:50