Episerver Layout Model inside the Model or outside ?

Giuliano Dore

Vote:

With my team we are starting a new project and we are discussing architecture regarding the components like header or footer navigation. I noticed that the Alloy template uses IPageViewModel<T> interface which has a property Layout of type LayoutModel. It is solving a real problem and I think it could be a good fit for our solution.

Because this approach requests to implement a ViewModel for every model that we want to return, I started to look at other potential trade-offs with this approach and I found this article: https://marisks.net/2015/05/18/episerver-strongly-typed-layout-model-without-ipageview/.

And now I am considering a custom WebViewPage to keep a "clean" model but I feel like I might be missing some trade-offs with approach. What are your thoughts on 'Layout' components ? Do you put them inside your model or outside ?

#228480

Edited, Sep 27, 2020 17:04

Johan Petersson

Vote:

I don't like the IPageViewModel since then you cannot re-use your layout for pages without Episerver content. So I would rather recommend having a LayoutModel without any dependencies to Episerver content. Similar to:

// Use this model in you layout
public class LayoutModel
{
   // Properties that your layout requires
}

// Use this model in your page views
public class PageModel<TPage> : LayoutModel
   where TPage : PageData
{
   public TContent CurrentPage { get; set; }
}

#229154

Edited, Oct 08, 2020 9:22

- Oct 12, 2020 9:34

This is a very nice alternative solution. What are your thoughts on having a custom WebViewPage ?

valdis

Vote:

`IPageViewModel` is quite constraining you. Why would you need to implement / inherit some interfaces in order to get layout. Injected layout is decoupled.

#229190

Oct 08, 2020 22:49

- Oct 12, 2020 9:34

It makes absolute sense. What are your thoughts on having a custom WebViewPage ?

valdis - Oct 12, 2020 10:29

I see no objections against it. It helps to decouple model requirements to get some layout stuff to the views. If this is a solution for that - I would go for it.