Custom IContent Property on Page/Block/IContent

Patrick McCaffrey

Vote:

Is it possible to use a custom IContent type as a property on a page/block/content?

For example, lets say I have the following class:

[ContentType(DisplayName = "Address", GUID = "89d1de01-1963-478f-bc27-1cdff8470c69", Description = "")]
    public class Address : IContent, ContentBase
    {
        //ContentBase and custom properties omitted for brevity
    }

And I want to use it as a property (like a local block, but not a block) on a page/block/content:

    [ContentType(DisplayName = "Location", GUID = "e6c37d80-1de3-434e-a1d1-7a050e15a97f", Description = "")]
    public class Location : ContentBase
    {
        //other properties omitted for brevity
        public virtual Address Address { get; set; }
    }

This errors complaining about the property not being able to be mapped to a PropertyDefinitionType.

I know that I can implement complex custom properties (storing the values as JSON) using PropertyDefinitionTypePlugIn, but if possible, I'd like to leverage the "local block" functionality to render those fields automatically. Is there a way to treat custom IContent properties the same as a "local block?"

#188392

Edited, Feb 21, 2018 23:42

Johan Björnfot

Vote:

No it is not possible, block is a special kind of content explicitly designed to be used both as property on other content but also as stand alone instances (shared blocks).

If you look at the definition of BlockData you can see that it does not implement IContent, instead is the interface "injected" at runtime for shared block instances.

#188397

Feb 22, 2018 8:17