Episerver Adventures

Using methods from IContentLoader or IContentRepository to get existing data, it will be returned as read-only version. If you try to update and save it, you will get a ReadOnly exception, although the model has the public set available

Since the API assume that most of the time are read operations, than it shares the instance object on multiple threads. This reduces the amount of short-lived objects and reduce the memory need for the website.

If you want to change programmatic the property, you need to access to a writable clone of the current instance object. Then you can change it and request to save it. The property IsReadOnly gives information about if is a read-only or cloned instance.

The following code, update a property named “MyProperty” with a new text and publish the page with the new content.

var contentRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IContentRepository>();

var contentReference = new ContentReference(23123);

var readOnlyPage = contentRepository.Get<ContentPage>(contentReference);

var clonedPageInstance = readOnlyPage.CreateWritableClone<ContentPage>();

clonedPageInstance.MyProperty = "The new value";

contentRepository.Save(clonedPageInstance, SaveAction.Publish, AccessLevel.NoAccess);

The SaveAction is an enum type of save to perform on the page data object

Member name	Member summary
None	Do not save data.
Save	Save a page, leaving it in a checked out state.
CheckIn	Save and check in page, creating a new version only if necessary.
Publish	Publish page, creating a new version only if necessary.
Reject	Reject a checked-in page.
ForceNewVersion	Flag that is used to force the creation of a new version.
ForceCurrentVersion	Save and check in page, always updating the current version
SkipValidation	Does not validate the data against IValidationService
DelayedPublish	Save and check in page, creating a new version only if necessary and sets the content as delayed publish.
ActionMask	Mask to clear Force… settings from SaveAction
GetOriginalType	Gets the Type of the current object, ensuring that the eventual type that could be generated by a proxy interceptor is ignored.

The AccessLevel determine the minimum access level that the current user must have to save the content.

Member name	Member summary
NoAccess	No access to an item
Read	Read access to an item
Create	Create access for an item, i e create new items below this item
Edit	Change / create new versions of this item
Delete	Delete this item
Publish	Publish/unpublish items and versions of an item
Administer	Set access rights for an item
FullAccess	Full access for an item
Undefined	Access level not defined.
GetOriginalType	Gets the Type of the current object, ensuring that the eventual type that could be generated by a proxy interceptor is ignored.

Settings:

Visual studio 2019 Version 16.1.3
Episerver CMS Visual Studio Extension Installed 11.6.0.421
Episerver NuGets package source configure to https://nuget.episerver.com/feed/packages.svc/

Open Visual Studio and create a new Episerver project.

Select Empty Project

After press OK, you will have a new solution with a web project on it.

The connection string to a database is set to a localDb instance. Lets change to a SQL Express.

Before:

<connectionStrings>
    <add name="EPiServerDB" connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDb)\MSSQLLocalDB;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|EPiServerDB_d6814c74.mdf;Initial Catalog=EPiServerDB_d6814c74;Connection Timeout=60;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>

After:

  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="EPiServerDB" connectionString="Server=.\\SQLExpress;Database=EpiserverAdventures;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>

Add EPiserver Forms to the project. Run on the Package Manager console:

Install-Package EPiServer.Forms -ProjectName EpiserverAdventures

Lets update all the need packages of the project.

Update-Package EPiServer.CMS -ProjectName EpiserverAdventures -ToHighestMinor

After getting the Episerver.Forms need to authentication and updated all the packaged, we can create the database on the SQLExpress that we had configured before.

Initialize-EPiDatabase

The database is populated with schema for episerver.

Update the database with latest schema need.

Update-EPiDatabase

Since we dont want to use Windows authentication to login, we need to change the provider and create a new sql user as administrator for our episerver account.

Add an entry to <appSettings>, as shown in the following markup:

<add key="EpiserverAdventures:RegisterAdmin" value="true" />

Find the element <membership> and set the defaultProvider to SqlServerMembershipProvider, as shown in the following markup:

<membership defaultProvider="SqlServerMembershipProvider" ...

Find the element <roleManager> and set the defaultProvider to SqlServerRoleProvider, as shown in the following markup:

<roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="SqlServerRoleProvider" ...

Add a new IInitializableModule module to the project:

using EPiServer.Framework;
using EPiServer.Framework.Initialization;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web.Security;
namespace AlloyTraining.Business.Initialization
{
    [InitializableModule]
    [ModuleDependency(typeof(EPiServer.Web.InitializationModule))]
    public class RegisterAdminInitializationModule : IInitializableModule
    {
        private const string roleName = "Administrators";
        private const string userName = "Admin";
        private const string password = "Pa$$w0rd";
        private const string email = "admin@EpiserverAdventures.com";
        public void Initialize(InitializationEngine context)
        {
            string enabledString =
                ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["EpiserverAdventures:RegisterAdmin"];
            bool enabled;
            if (bool.TryParse(enabledString, out enabled))
            {
                if (enabled)
                {
                    #region Use ASP.NET Membership classes to create the role and user
                    // if the role does not exist, create it
                    if (!Roles.RoleExists(roleName))
                    {
                        Roles.CreateRole(roleName);
                    }
                    // if the user already exists, delete it
                    MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(userName);
                    if (user != null)
                    {
                        Membership.DeleteUser(userName);
                    }
                    // create the user with password and add it to role
                    Membership.CreateUser(userName, password, email);
                    Roles.AddUserToRole(userName, roleName);
                    #endregion
                }
            }
        }
        public void Uninitialize(InitializationEngine context) { }
    }
}

Start the site, enter /EPiServer/CMS/, and confirm that you can log in as a CMS admin with the following credentials:

Username: admin

Password: Pa$$w0rd

Close the browser.

Modify or remove the entry in <appSettings> to disable the registration of Admin, as shown in the following markup:

<add key="alloy:RegisterAdmin" value="false" />

Episerver Adventures

Update an existing page property

Add Episerver site from scratch