JOS.ContentSerializer - Converts any Episerver ContentData object to JSON

Serialize any ContentData object to JSON(or xml, or something else)

Installation

Nuget: Install-Package Jos.ContentSerializer

OR

Just check out the desired branch and add the Jos.ContentSerializer project to your solution.

Features

Support for the most common built in properties:

• BlockData
• bool
• double
• ContentArea
• ContentReference
• DateTime
• IEnumerable<ContentReference>
• IEnumerable<string> ICollection/IList works as well
• IEnumerable<int> ICollection/IList works as well
• IEnumerable<double> ICollection/IList works as well
• IEnumerable<DateTime> ICollection/IList works as well
• int
• LinkItemCollection
• PageReference
• PageType
• string[]
• string SelectOne/SelectMany support as well.*
• Url
• XhtmlString

Nested ContentAreas are supported as well. When the code finds a ContentArea, it will load all items recursively so you can have multiple levels of "nesting".

Extensible, really easy to add support for custom properties

Example: You're using the property Jos.PropertyKeyValueList on your StartPage like this.

public class StartPage : PageData
{
    ...
    public virtual string Heading { get; set; }
    public virtual IEnumerable<KeyValueItem> KeyValueItems{ get; set; }
    ...
}

Now, if you call .ToJson on a StartPage instance you would only get the Heading property in the json output since IEnumerable<KeyValueItem> isn't handled out of the box.

{
    "heading" : "Where is my KeyValueItems??"
}

To add support for it, first create a new class that implements the IPropertyHandler<> interface

public class KeyValueItemListPropertyHandler : IPropertyHandler<IEnumerable<KeyValueItem>>
{
    public object Handle(IEnumerable<KeyValueItem> value, PropertyInfo property, IContentData contentData)
    {
        // Do whatever you want with the property here.
        return value;
    }
}

Then register your class in your DI container. Example

[InitializableModule]
[ModuleDependency(typeof(EPiServer.Web.InitializationModule))]
public class MyConfigurationModule : IConfigurableModule
{
    public void ConfigureContainer(ServiceConfigurationContext context)
    { 
    context.Services.AddSingleton<IPropertyHandler<IEnumerable<KeyValueItem>>, KeyValueItemListPropertyHandler>();
    }
}

Now, if you would call .ToJson again on your StartPage instance, you would see the following output.

{
    "heading": "Where is my KeyValueItems??",
    "keyValueItems": [
        {
            "key": "Some key",
            "value": "Hello there"
        },
        {
            "key": "Another key",
            "value": "Another value!"
        }
    ]
}

Extend/Replace built in PropertyHandlers

Say that you, for some reason, want all strings to return "JOSEF OTTOSSON!!" instead of their actual value.

Just create a new propertyhandler for strings like this.

public class JosefStringPropertyHandler : IPropertyHandler<string>
{
    public object Handle(string value, PropertyInfo property, IContentData contentData)
    {
        return "JOSEF OTTOSSON!!";
    }
}

Then swap out the default StringPropertyHandler in the DI container like this:

context.Services.AddSingleton<IPropertyHandler<string>, JosefStringPropertyHandler>();

Don't forget to unregister the default IPropertyHandler<string> as well

Other interfaces

• IContentJsonSerializer - The default Json serializer. Implent it and register your own if you want to replace it.
• IContentSerializer - The default serializer. The default one is the same as IContentJsonSerializer.
• IPropertyManager - Handles the mapping from a property to a PropertyHandler.
• IPropertyNameStrategy - Handles how the serialized properties should be named.
• IPropertyResolver - Handles which properties that should be serialized.
• IUrlHelper - Handles how ContentReferences/Url-properties should be serialized.

IPropertyNameStrategy

The default implementation checks for the ContentSerializerNameAttribute attribute, if found, the name from the attribute will be used. If not found, the name of the property will be used.

IPropertyResolver

The default implementation works like this on a ContentData object.

1. It looks for the ContentSerializerIgnoreAttribute, if found, the property will be skipped.
2. If no ContentSerializerIgnoreAttribute was found, it looks for the DisplayAttribute, if found, the property will be included.
3. If no DisplayAttribute was found, it looks for the ContentSerializerIncludeAttribute, if found, the property will be included.

Customizable

The .Serialize and .ToJson methods both have an overload where you can pass in ContentSerializerSettings. You can change the following settings:

• GlobalWrapContentAreaItems - Default = true. Decides if items in a contentarea should be grouped by their ContentType or not.
• UrlSettings
  • UseAbsoluteUrls - Default = true. Decides if the urls returned should be absolute or relative.
  • FallbackToWildcard - Default = true. If set to true, the site matched with wildcard (if any) is returned if no mapping could be found for the current hostname when using the GetByHostname method.

Attributes

The following attributes exists

• ContentSerializerIgnoreAttribute - If added to a property, the property will not be included in the result.
• ContentSerializerIncludeAttribute - If added to a property that doesn't have the DisplayAttribute, the property will be included in the result
• ContentSerializerNameAttribute - Makes it possible to set a custom name of the property when serialized.
• ContentSerializerWrapItemsAttribute - When used on a ContentArea, it's possible to override the global GlobalWrapContentAreaItems setting for that specific ContentArea.
• ContentSerializerPropertyHandlerAttribute - Makes it possible to specify a custom PropertyHandler for a specific property.

Examples

Use it like this:

public class DemoPageController : PageController<Demopage>
{
    public string Index(DemoPage currentPage)
    {
        return currentPage.ToJson();
    }
}

[ContentType(DisplayName = "DemoPage", GUID = "a6762bfb-973b-41c1-acf8-7d26567cd71d")]
public class DemoPage : PageData
{
    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "String",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 100)]
    public virtual string String { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "ContentArea",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 200)]
    public virtual ContentArea MainContentArea { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "Degrees",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 300)]
    public virtual double Degrees { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "Int",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 400)]
    public virtual int Int { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "Date",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 500)]
    public virtual DateTime DateTime { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "Bool",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 600)]
    public virtual bool Bool { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "PageType",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 700)]
    public virtual PageType PageType { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "ContentReference",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 800)]
    public virtual ContentReference ContentReference { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "PageReference",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 900)]
    public virtual PageReference PageReference { get; set; }

    [CultureSpecific]
    [Display(
        Name = "Url",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1000)]
    public virtual Url Url { get; set; }

    [Display(
        Name = "InternalBlock",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1100)]
    public virtual VimeoVideoBlock InternalBlock { get; set; }

    [Display(
        Name = "ContentReferenceList",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1200)]
    public virtual IList<ContentReference> ContentReferenceList { get; set; }

    [Display(
        Name = "XhtmlString",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1300)]
    public virtual XhtmlString XhtmlString { get; set; }

    [Display(
        Name = "LinkItemCollection",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1400)]
    public virtual LinkItemCollection LinkItemCollection { get; set; }

    [Display(
        Name = "SelectOne",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1500)]
    [SelectOne(SelectionFactoryType = typeof(ContactPageSelectionFactory))]
    public virtual string SelectOne { get; set; }

    [Display(
        Name = "SelectMany",
        GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content,
        Order = 1600)]
    [SelectMany(SelectionFactoryType = typeof(ContactPageSelectionFactory))]
    public virtual string SelectMany { get; set; }
}

{
	"string": "This is a string",
	"mainContentArea": {
		"vimeoVideoBlock": [{
			"name": "Josef"
		}]
	},
	"degrees": 133.7,
	"int": 1337,
	"dateTime": "2017-05-18T00:00:00+02:00",
	"bool": true,
	"pageType": "DemoPage",
	"contentReference": "http://localhost:52467/about-us/management/",
	"pageReference": "http://localhost:52467/alloy-plan/download-alloy-plan/",
	"url": "http://localhost:52467/globalassets/alloy-meet/alloymeet.png",
	"internalBlock": {
		"name": "Josef is my name",
		"mainContentArea": {
			"youtubeVideoBlock": [{
				"name": "I am a youtube block"
			}]
		}
	},
	"contentReferenceList": ["http://localhost:52467/search/", "http://localhost:52467/alloy-meet/"],
	"xhtmlString": "<p>I am a xhtmlstring, do you like it?</p>\n<p>Im <strong>bold not <em>bald</em></strong></p>",
	"linkItemCollection": [{
		"href": "http://localhost:52467/alloy-plan/?query=any",
		"title": "Josef Ottossons sida",
		"target": "_blank",
		"text": "Josef Ottosson"
	}, {
		"href": "https://josef.guru",
		"title": "External link",
		"target": "_blank",
		"text": "External"
	}, {
		"href": "mailto:[email protected]",
		"title": "Email link",
		"target": null,
		"text": "Email"
	}],
	"selectOne": [{
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Amar Gupta",
		"value": "34"
	}, {
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Fiona Miller",
		"value": "33"
	}, {
		"selected": true,
		"text": "Michelle Hernandez",
		"value": "30"
	}, {
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Robert Carlsson",
		"value": "32"
	}, {
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Todd Slayton",
		"value": "31"
	}],
	"selectMany": [{
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Amar Gupta",
		"value": "34"
	}, {
		"selected": true,
		"text": "Fiona Miller",
		"value": "33"
	}, {
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Michelle Hernandez",
		"value": "30"
	}, {
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Robert Carlsson",
		"value": "32"
	}, {
		"selected": false,
		"text": "Todd Slayton",
		"value": "31"
	}]
}