Working with pages in the API

The Kentico API allows you to retrieve and manage page content using custom code.

Use the following classes from the CMS.DocumentEngine namespace to work with pages in the API:

• TreeNode – object that represents pages. The TreeNode class encapsulates data from the CMS_Tree and CMS_Document tables, and the coupled data tables of individual page types.
• DocumentQuery and MultiDocumentQuery – classes that represent a query for loading pages. You can further parametrize the query to only retrieve the pages you need. Both are similar in functionality:
  • DocumentQuery allows you to retrieve pages of a single page type (when an instance is created with a page type class name as the constructor parameter) or general pages of any type (when using a parameterless constructor). If used for a single specific page type, the resulting query automatically includes coupled data of the given page type (e.g., news, articles, blogs). DocumentQuery is also used internally by generated page type providers and any custom providers or repositories built around them.
  • MultiDocumentQuery allows you to retrieve pages of multiple page types in a single query at the cost of effectiveness. The coupled data of page types is not retrieved unless explicitly requested using the WithCoupledColumns parametrization method.
• DocumentHelper – provides static methods for retrieving and managing the latest edited versions of pages. Internally, the DocumentHelper class utilizes DocumentQuery or MultiDocumentQuery to retrieve pages and then further adjusts the query, for example by applying the CombineWithDefaultCulture parametrization method based on the value of the Combine with default culture setting.

Retrieving pages

For basic retrieval of pages in your code, use the DocumentHelper.GetDocuments method and parameterize it using parametrization methods to only include the pages you need. If you have generated page type providers available, you can use them with the same parametrization methods, and then work with strongly typed page objects.

// Retrieves the published English version of articles that are in the '/Articles/May' section of the 'MySite' site's content tree
// Only loads pages that are currently published on the live site according to the value of their Published from/to setting
var pages = DocumentHelper.GetDocuments("MySite.Articles")
                    .OnSite("MySite")
                    .Culture("en-us")
                    .Path("/Articles/May", PathTypeEnum.Children)
                    .PublishedVersion()
                    .Published();

Retrieving pages under workflow

When working with pages under workflow, you may want to retrieve the latest edited version in some cases and the published version in others.

• Use the PublishedVersion parametrization method to retrieve the published version of pages under workflow (when retrieving pages to be displayed on the live site).
• Use the LatestVersion method to retrieve the latest edited version of pages under workflow (when retrieving pages for further editing or previewing of unpublished changes).

Retrieving content in the preview mode and page builder

When retrieving page content in the code of your MVC application for the preview mode or the page builder interface, you want to get the latest version of the content, but you want the published version to be displayed on the live site. To achieve this, you can parametrize queries to conditionally serve a different version of content based on where the content is displayed.

using CMS.DocumentEngine;

using Kentico.Content.Web.Mvc;
using Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc;
using Kentico.Web.Mvc;

// Checks whether the current page is displayed in preview mode or the edit mode of the page builder
bool showLatest = HttpContext.Kentico().PageBuilder().EditMode || HttpContext.Kentico().Preview().Enabled;

// Retrieves the latest edited version of pages in preview mode or the page builder, but the published version in other cases
DocumentQuery pages = DocumentHelper.GetDocuments("Custom.Smartphone")
                                        .LatestVersion(showLatest);

Retrieving pages for custom scenarios

DocumentHelper automatically performs some parameterization of the query to simplify the code for the most common scenarios. However, if you require full control over the query, you can directly use the DocumentQuery or MultiDocumentQuery classes to ensure that there is not any unexpected parametrization done in the background.

// Retrieves all pages that match the query
var pages = new MultiDocumentQuery()
                    .OnCurrentSite()
                    .Path("/Articles/Reviews")
                    .Culture("en-us")
                    .PublishedVersion()
                    .WithCoupledColumns();

// Retrieves pages of the specified page type that match the query
var pages = new DocumentQuery("Custom.Smartphone")
                    .OnCurrentSite()
                    .Path("/Products")
                    .Culture("en-us")
                    .PublishedVersion();

Working with retrieved pages

You can iterate through the retrieved collection to access the properties of individual pages. The available columns depend on how you parametrized the query when retrieving the pages.

// Retrieves smartphone pages
DocumentQuery smartphones = DocumentHelper.GetDocuments("CMS.Smartphone")
                                .Path("/Products/", PathTypeEnum.Children)
                                .OnSite("CorporateSite");

// Writes the 'DocumentName' and 'SmartphoneOS' values of each of the retrieved smartphones into an HTTP output response stream
foreach (TreeNode smartphone in smartphones)
{      
    string smartphoneOS = smartphone.GetValue<string>("SmartphoneOS", "Default OS");
    Response.Write(HTMLHelper.HTMLEncode(smartphone.DocumentName) + " - " + HTMLHelper.HTMLEncode(smartphoneOS) + "<br />");
}

Updating pages

To update a page (TreeNode object):

1. Retrieve the latest edited version of a page using the methods described above.
2. Modify the page’s data:
   • For general page fields, directly set the corresponding TreeNode properties.
   • For the fields of specific page types, call the TreeNode.SetValue(“FieldName”, value) method.
3. Call the TreeNode.Update() method.