ObjectQuery API

The Xperience ObjectQuery API provides an abstraction layer over the SQL database. Developers use ObjectQuery to retrieve data from the Xperience database. The main advantages of using ObjectQuery are:

• strongly typed and enumerable results
• independence on specific versions of SQL syntax
• security

ObjectQuery call example:

var query = UserInfo.Provider.Get();

The example query retrieves all users stored within Xperience.

The resulting collection contains Info objects. One instance of an Info object represents one row of data from the database. In this case, the result is a set of UserInfo objects holding the data of individual users. The result allows you to iterate through the records using a foreach statement.

Similarly to users, you can use ObjectQuery to retrieve any other type of object. The Xperience API offers IInfoProvider interfaces (services) for individual object types, with a Get method that performs an appropriate ObjectQuery call. The IInfoProvider services can be added to your code using dependency injection or accessed through the Provider property of the corresponding Info class.

The following table provides an example of the naming conventions.

Select specific columns

ObjectQuery allows you to select only those columns that you need to work with. Selecting only the required columns is a good practice that prevents issues with performance of your code by transferring only the necessary data from the database server to the application server.

var columnsQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get().Columns("FirstName", "LastName", "UserName");

This example query retrieves all users but limits the data to the users’ first names, last names, and usernames.

Limit retrieved results (SQL WHERE)

ObjectQuery provides a way to narrow down the resulting data using SQL syntax independent where conditions.

Use predefined where condition methods that provide optimized performance and make your code easily readable. The predefined where condition methods include, but are not limited to:

• WhereEquals("ColumnName", value) – checks the equality of the value in the specified column with the value specified in the second parameter.
• WhereGreaterThan("ColumnName", value) – compares the value in the specified column with the second parameter.
• WhereNull("ColumnName")– select only rows where the specified column has a NULL value.
• WhereNot(whereCondition) – negates the specified where condition.
• WhereStartsWith("ColumnName", "Value") – only works for text columns. Selects only rows whose value in the specified column starts with the given value.

// Retrieves all users whose first name is "Joe"
var whereQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get().WhereEquals("FirstName", "Joe");

Logical operators

ObjectQuery allows you to join together multiple where conditions.

• By default, the conditions are combined using an AND parameter.
• To place an OR operator between conditions, call the Or() method between the given Where methods.
• You can also explicitly call the And() method if you wish to make the code of your conditions clearer and easier to read.

Example 1:

// Retrieves users whose first name is "Joe" or last name is "Smith"
var whereQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .Where("FirstName", QueryOperator.Equals, "Joe")
    .Or()
    .Where("LastName", QueryOperator.Equals, "Smith");

DECLARE @FirstName nvarchar(max) = N'Joe';
DECLARE @LastName nvarchar(max) = N'Smith';

...

WHERE [FirstName] = @FirstName OR [LastName] = @LastName

Example 2:

// Retrieves all enabled users whose first name is "Joe" and email address ends with "localhost.local"
var whereQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .WhereEquals("FirstName", "Joe")
    .WhereEquals("UserEnabled", 1)
    .WhereEndsWith("Email", "localhost.local");

DECLARE @FirstName nvarchar(max) = N'John';
DECLARE @UserEnabled int = 1;
DECLARE @Email nvarchar(max) = N'%localhost.local';

...

WHERE [FirstName] = @FirstName AND [UserEnabled] = @UserEnabled AND [Email] LIKE @Email

Nested where conditions

If you need to construct complex where conditions with multiple AND/OR operators, use nested where conditions:

Note: You must use the newkeyword to construct nested where conditions.

// Retrieves users named "Smith", whose first name is "Joe" or "John"
var nestedWhereQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .WhereEquals("LastName", "Smith")
    .Where(new WhereCondition()
        .WhereEquals("FirstName", "Joe")
        .Or()
        .WhereEquals("FirstName", "John")
    );

DECLARE @LastName nvarchar(max) = N'Smith';
DECLARE @FirstName nvarchar(max) = N'Joe';
DECLARE @FirstName1 nvarchar(max) = N'John';

...

WHERE [LastName] = @LastName AND ([FirstName] = @FirstName OR [FirstName] = @FirstName1)

Order query results (SQL ORDER BY)

ObjectQuery can also sort data. Use the OrderBy, OrderByAscending, or OrderByDescending methods.

var orderedQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .WhereGreaterThan("UserCreated", DateTime.Now.AddDays(-7))
    .OrderByDescending("UserCreated");

This example retrieves users who registered or were created in the system during the past week. The results are in descending order.

Limit the number of query results (SQL TOP N)

ObjectQuery can also retrieve only a specified number of results.

var topNQuery = EventLogInfo.Provider.Get()
    .TopN(5)
    .OrderByDescending("EventTime");

This example retrieves the latest 5 event log records with the newest ordered first.

Join multiple tables (SQL JOIN)

With ObjectQuery, you can combine data from two or more tables based on a common field.

var joinQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .Source(sourceItem => sourceItem.Join<MediaFileInfo>("UserID", "FileModifiedByUserID"))
    .WhereEmpty("Email");

This example retrieves users who have an empty email value, together with data about media files modified by the given users.

The code on the second line appends Media_File table rows to the appropriate user records based on their ID. The code on the third line then selects only rows where the Email column is empty.

Joining 3 or more tables

You can chain together multiple Join methods to combine rows from 3 or more database tables.

Note: When you call the Join method for a query source, the left column parameter works with columns within the given query source table by default. When using multiple joins, we recommend that you explicitly specify both the table and column by adding a table name prefix to the left column name, for example: “CMS_User.UserID”

The following example joins together rows from 3 tables based on shared user IDs and returns the result as a DataSet.

using System.Data;

using CMS.ContactManagement;
using CMS.MediaLibrary;
using CMS.Membership;

...

DataSet data = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .Source(sourceItem => sourceItem.Join<MediaFileInfo>("CMS_User.UserID", "FileModifiedByUserID")
                                    .Join<ContactInfo>("CMS_User.UserID", "ContactOwnerUserID")
            )
    .Columns("UserID, UserName, ContactEmail, FileTitle")
    .Result;

Work with ObjectQuery results

ObjectQuery results are lazy-loaded. Lazy loading increases performance by executing queries only when you need to work with their results. Most of the examples on this page only construct the proper queries. The SQL queries are executed when you either enumerate the results (using the foreach statement or by calling GetEnumerableTypedResult), or cast the query as a different type. When you work with the results after the query executed, the system does not perform any additional requests to the database.

The most common example of working with query results is iterating through them. Use a standard foreach loop.

var userQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get();

foreach (UserInfo user in userQuery)
{
    // Do something with the UserInfo object
}

Asynchronous execution of queries

The ObjectQuery API supports asynchronous loading of data from Xperience.

After you prepare a query with any required parameters, you can execute it asynchronously by enumerating the results via the GetEnumerableTypedResultAsync() method.

// Prepares a query that loads all users
var userQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get();

// Asynchronously executes the query and loads the results into an enumerable collection
IEnumerable<UserInfo> users = await userQuery.GetEnumerableTypedResultAsync();

To asynchronously load a single Xperience object, call the GetAsync method of the corresponding IInfoProvider service.

// Asynchronously loads a UserInfo object representing a specified user (by ID or GUID)
Task<UserInfo> user = UserInfo.Provider.GetAsync(userId);

Reuse queries (mutability)

ObjectQuery instances are mutable by default. This means that any changes (method calls) made to existing instances also modify the original query.

If you wish to reuse an ObjectQuery instance without modifying the original, use one of the following approaches:

• Call the Immutable() method for the original query. This ensures automatic cloning of the ObjectQuery instance when it is modified.
• If you want to leave a query mutable, you can call the Clone() method to create a new instance which can then be modified without affecting the original.

using System.Linq;
using CMS.Membership;

...

// Creates an immutable query for loading users ordered by their full name
var userQuery = UserInfo.Provider.Get()
    .OrderBy("FullName")
    .Immutable();

// Gets a subset of users based on the original query
var enabledUserList = userQuery
    .WhereEquals("UserEnabled", 1)
    .ToList();

// Gets a list of users using the original unmodified query
var userList = userQuery.ToList();