Customizing providers

Providers in the Kentico API are classes that allow the system to manipulate objects and perform various actions. The following list presents the providers that the system uses and their purpose:

  • Info providers contain methods for working with specific types of objects stored in the database, such as users, contacts, custom table records, etc.
  • Data provider handles low-level database operations. The Info providers are built on top of the Data provider and use it to store and fetch data.
  • Email provider manages the email queue and sends emails.
  • Search provider ensures the functionality of the SQL search.
  • File system providers allow you to access various file systems. They extend the CMS.IO namespace. See Working with physical files using the API to learn how to write a custom file system provider.

By developing custom providers and using them instead of the standard ones, you can modify the behavior of the application (or a specific feature) according to your exact requirements.

Adding your custom code files

When developing custom functionality, we recommend that you place your code files into a separate Class Library project (assembly), which you can then reference from the Kentico web project.

Customizing MVC projects

When utilizing the MVC development model, you may need to deploy the assembly containing your custom provider classes to the separate MVC application (in addition to the Kentico administration project).

This is required if you are customizing any provider that affects functionality on the live site (registration of users, e-commerce activity, automatic sending of emails based on the actions of visitors, etc.).

For additional information, see Customizing MVC projects.

Writing the custom code

Every class used to customize the application must inherit from the original class. This allows you to implement your modifications or additions by overriding the members of the given class. When creating overrides for existing methods, it is recommended to call the original base method within your custom code.

Registering custom providers

After you write the code, you must register your custom classes to ensure that the system uses them instead of the default providers. You can choose between two options of registering custom provider classes:

Other customization options

In addition to providers, you can also customize the following helper and manager classes:

Helper class name

Namespace

Description

AutomationHelper

CMS.SalesForce.Automation

Provides marketing automation support for common actions related to Salesforce integration.

CacheHelper

CMS.Helpers

Handles operations with cache items.

ClassHelper

CMS.Base

Takes care of dynamically loaded classes and assemblies.

CookieHelper

CMS.Helpers

Contains methods for managing cookies.

DirectoryHelper

CMS.IO

Manages directories in the file system.

LeadReplicationHelper

CMS.SalesForce

Replicates contacts into SalesForce leads.

LocalizationHelper

CMS.Localization

Retrieves localized text from resource strings.

MediaHelper

CMS.Base.Web.UI

Provides methods for rendering media content.

MFAuthenticationHelper

CMS.Membership

Contains methods and properties that implement and configure multi-factor authentication.

OutputHelper

CMS.OutputFilter

Manages the HTML output and the output cache.

TriggerHelper

CMS.Automation

Manages marketing automation triggers.

Manager class name

Namespace

Description

AutomationManager

CMS.Automation

Handles the marketing automation process.

SyncManager

CMS.Synchronization

Synchronizes page and object data to other instances of the application when using Content staging.

VersionManager

CMS.DocumentEngine

Provides page versioning functionality.

WorkflowManager

CMS.DocumentEngine

Handles the workflow process.

You can also use  global event handlers to customize the behavior of the system. Handlers allow you to execute custom code whenever a specific event occurs in the system, such as page or object changes, various parts of the user authentication process, etc.

Examples