UniView

The UniView is a templated listing control that supports displaying of hierarchical data from grouped data sources.

You can use the UniView with any bindable data source — not only Kentico data and objects.

Getting started

The following is a step-by-step tutorial that shows how to display all pages (CMS.MenuItem pages) from the sample Corporate Site using the UniView control:

1. Create a new Web form in your web project.

2. Drag the UniView control from the toolbox onto the form.

3. Add the following code marked by the UniView templates comments between the <cms:UniView> tags:

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    <cms:UniView ID="UniView1" runat="server">
   
        <%-- UniView templates ----------------------------------------------------------------- --%>
   
        <ItemTemplate>
            <li>
                <%# HTMLHelper.HTMLEncode(Convert.ToString(Eval("NodeName"))) %>
            </li>
        </ItemTemplate>
   
        <AlternatingItemTemplate>
            <li>
                <font color="#999999">
                    <%# HTMLHelper.HTMLEncode(Convert.ToString(Eval("NodeName"))) %>
                </font>
            </li>
        </AlternatingItemTemplate>
   
        <HeaderTemplate>
            <ul>
        </HeaderTemplate>
   
        <FooterTemplate>
            </ul>
        </FooterTemplate>
   
        <%-- UniView templates ------------------------------------------------------------------ --%>
   
    </cms:UniView>
   
   
    

   This sets the templates used when displaying the menu items. The control dynamically replaces the <%#  … %> inline code with values of the currently displayed record. This is then repeated for every record in the data source.

4. Add the following references to the beginning of the web form’s code behind:

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    using System.Data;
   
    using CMS.DocumentEngine;
    using CMS.Helpers;
   
   
   
    

5. Add the following code to the Page_Load method:

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    // Creates a DataSet containing all menu item pages in the system
    DataSet ds = DocumentHelper.GetDocuments("CMS.MenuItem").Path("/", PathTypeEnum.Children).OrderBy("NodeLevel, NodeOrder");
   
    // Checks that the DataSet isn't empty
    if (!DataHelper.DataSourceIsEmpty(ds))
    {
        // Binds the DataSet to the UniView control
        this.UniView1.DataSource = ds;
        this.UniView1.DataBind();
    }
   
   
    

   This code reads pages from the database and provides them to the UniView control as a DataSet.

6. Save the changes to the web form and its code behind file.

7. Right-click the web form in the Solution explorer and select View in Browser.

The control displays all page (menu item) pages in the system.

Using grouped data sources

A flat list is not ideal for displaying pages that are actually organized in a hierarchy. The following steps show how to set up the UniView to display a hierarchical structure:

1. Add another reference to the beginning of the web form’s code behind:

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    using CMS.Base;
   
   
    

2. Modify the code of the Page_Load method according to the following:

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    // Creates a DataSet containing all menu item pages in the system
    DataSet ds = DocumentHelper.GetDocuments("CMS.MenuItem").Path("/", PathTypeEnum.Children).OrderBy("NodeLevel, NodeOrder");
   
    // Checks that the DataSet isn't empty
    if (!DataHelper.DataSourceIsEmpty(ds))
    {
        // Creates a GroupedDataSource from the DataSet
        // You need to specify the columns that the data uses to identify parent items, and each item's level in the hierarchy
        GroupedDataSource gpd = new GroupedDataSource(ds, "NodeParentID", "NodeLevel");
   
        // Specifies the column that the data uses as an identifier (to determine parent-child relationships)
        this.UniView1.RelationColumnID = "NodeID";
   
        // Binds the DataSet to the UniView control
        this.UniView1.DataSource = gpd;
        this.UniView1.DataBind();
    }
   
   
    

   This code takes the DataSet containing the pages, groups them according to the NodeID of their parent page and determines their level in the hierarchy according to their NodeLevel.

3. Switch to the web form’s markup, and add the SubLevelPlaceHolder control into the UniView’s ItemTemplate and AlternatingItemTemplate:

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    <ItemTemplate>
        <li>
            <%# HTMLHelper.HTMLEncode(Convert.ToString(Eval("NodeName"))) %>
            <cms:SubLevelPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="plcSub" />
        </li>
    </ItemTemplate>
   
    <AlternatingItemTemplate>
        <li>
            <font color="#999999">
                <%# HTMLHelper.HTMLEncode(Convert.ToString(Eval("NodeName"))) %>
            </font>
            <cms:SubLevelPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="plcSub" />
        </li>
    </AlternatingItemTemplate>
   
   
   
    

   The SubLevelPlaceHolder specifies where exactly the control inserts child levels in the output code. For items that have descendants in the hierarchy, the control renders the child level instead of the placeholder (including the header and footer template for the new level).

4. Save the changes.

When you refresh the web form’s output, the control displays the pages in a hierarchical structure:

Configuration

You can set the following properties for the UniView control:

Appearance and styling

You can use two different approaches to define the output format of the UniView control:

• Item templates
• A hierarchical transformation assigned through the Transformations property in the API (see the UniView section)

You can define the following item templates within the UniView tags:

<li>
<font color="#999999">
<%# Eval("NodeName") %>
</font>
<cms:SubLevelPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="plcSub" />
</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>
<%# Eval("NodeName") %>
<cms:SubLevelPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="plcSub" />
</li>

Setting the location of sublevels

When displaying hierarchical data, you can add a placeholder that specifies the position of sublevels inside the code of item templates:

<cms:SubLevelPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="plcSub" />

For items that have descendants in the hierarchy, the placeholder is replaced by the child level under the given item (including the header and footer for the new level). If you do not add the sublevel placeholder, the system automatically renders child levels after the code of parent items.

You can add the placeholder into any type of item template (Item, AlternatingItem, FirstItem, LastItem, SingleItem).

Note: To use the sublevel placeholder, the HierarchicalDisplayMode property of the control must be set to Inner (this is the default state).

Displaying data using hierarchical transformations

The following example demonstrates how to use hierarchical transformations with the UniView control. The sample scenario displays a hierarchy of forum posts from the Kentico database, based on the forum thread structure. You can use the same approach for any type of hierarchical data.

1. Create a new Web form in your web project.

2. Add the UniView control onto the form:

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    <cms:UniView ID="UniViewForumPosts" runat="server" />
   
   
    

3. Switch to the web form’s code behind file and add the following references:

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    using System.Data;
   
    using CMS.Forums;
    using CMS.Helpers;
    using CMS.Base;
    using CMS.Controls;
    using CMS.PortalEngine;
   
   
    

4. Set up the UniView control in the web form’s Page_Load method:

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    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Loads a DataSet containing all forum posts, ordered according to the PostLevel and PostTime
        DataSet forumPosts = ForumPostInfoProvider.GetForumPosts().OrderBy("PostLevel, PostTime").Columns("PostID, PostForumID, PostParentID, PostIDPath, PostLevel, PostSubject, PostText, PostTime");
   
        // Checks that the DataSet isn't empty
        if (!DataHelper.DataSourceIsEmpty(forumPosts))
        {
            // Creates a GroupedDataSource from the forumPosts DataSet
            GroupedDataSource groupedForumPosts = new GroupedDataSource(forumPosts, "PostParentID", "PostLevel");
   
            // Assigns the grouped data source to the UniView
            UniViewForumPosts.DataSource = groupedForumPosts;
   
            // Sets the display mode of the UniView
            UniViewForumPosts.HierarchicalDisplayMode = HierarchicalDisplayModeEnum.Inner;
   
            // Specifies the column that the data uses as an identifier (to determine parent-child relationships)
            UniViewForumPosts.RelationColumnID = "PostID";
   
            // Gets the hierarchical transformation from the system
            TransformationInfo ti = TransformationInfoProvider.GetTransformation("CMS.Root.ForumPosts");
   
            // Checks that the transformation exists
            if (ti != null)
            {
                // Checks that the transformation is hierarchical
                if (ti.TransformationIsHierarchical)
                {
                    // Stores the structure of the hierarchical transformation into a HierarchicalTransformations object
                    HierarchicalTransformations transformation = new HierarchicalTransformations("PostID");
                    transformation.LoadFromXML(ti.TransformationHierarchicalXMLDocument);
   
                    // Assigns the hierarchical transformation to the UniView control
                    UniViewForumPosts.Transformations = transformation;
                }
            }
   
            // Binds the UniView's data
            UniViewForumPosts.DataBind();
        }                                     
    }
   
   
    

5. Save the changes to the web form and its code behind file.

6. Define the hierarchical transformation in the Kentico administration interface (named CMS.Root.ForumPosts).

   Creating the hierarchical transformation

   For example, you can create the following transformation for this scenario:

   1. Open the Page types application.
   2. Edit the Root page type.
   3. Open the Transformations tab.
   4. Click New hierarchical transformation.
   5. Name the transformation ForumPosts.
   6. Click Save.Add 4 sub-transformations:

   • Transformation type: Item transformation

   • Page types: All (empty)

   • Level: 0

   • ASCX transformation code:

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       <div style="background-color:#FFFBE8;">
         <a href="<%# ForumFunctions.GetPostURL(Eval("PostIDPath"), Eval("PostForumID")) %>"><%# Eval("PostSubject", true) %></a>
         <p><%# HTMLEncode(LimitLength(StripTags(RemoveDynamicControls(RemoveDiscussionMacros(Eval("PostText")))), 400)) %></p>
       </div>
     
     
       

   • Transformation type: Item transformation

   • Page types: All (empty)

   • Level: 1

     • Apply to sublevels: yes (checked)

   • ASCX transformation code:

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       <div>
         <a href="<%# ForumFunctions.GetPostURL(Eval("PostIDPath"), Eval("PostForumID")) %>"><%# Eval("PostSubject", true) %></a>
         <p><%# HTMLEncode(LimitLength(StripTags(RemoveDynamicControls(RemoveDiscussionMacros(Eval("PostText")))), 400)) %></p>
       </div>
     
     
       

   • Transformation type: Header transformation

   • Level: All (empty)

     • Apply to sublevels: yes (checked)

   • Transformation code:

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       <div style="margin-left:30px">
     
     
       

   • Transformation type: Footer transformation

   • Level: All (empty)

     • Apply to sublevels: yes (checked)

   • Transformation code:

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       </div>
     
     
       

7. Return to Visual Studio, right-click the web form in the Solution explorer and select View in Browser.

The page displays the forum posts according to the hierarchical transformation: