Generating classes for Kentico objects

This page describes how to use code generators to prepare wrapper classes for working with specific object types (Page types, Custom tables and Forms).

Code generators are available for the following objects, in their respective applications:

• Page types - allow you to generate a class with the page type’s fields as properties and a provider to retrieve the individual pages.
  • Generate code for individual page types on the Code tab of the specific types.
  • Generate code for all site page types on the Code tab of the Page types application.
• Custom tables - allow you to generate a class with the custom table’s fields as properties.
  • Generate code for individual custom tables on the Code tab of the specific custom tables.
• Forms - allow you to generate class with the form’s fields as properties.
  • Generate code for individual forms on the Code tab of the specific forms.

Code generators allow you to create classes for working with specific objects types (Page types, Custom tables, Forms) in the API.

Working with page type code generators

The page type code generators allow you to generate both properties and providers for your custom page types. The generated properties represent the page type fields. You can use the providers to work with published or latest versions of a specific page type.

Generating code for all site page types

1. In the Page types application, navigate to the Code tab.

2. Select a Site.

3. (Optional) Select a different default folder to place the code files in.

4. (Optional) If you want to generate code for container page types, enable Include container page types.

5. Save code.

   Note: The generated class names are not guaranteed to be unique. The system can in certain cases (usually when also generating code for container page types) generate multiple classes with the same name. In that case, you need to rename the classes manually.

6. Copy the generated code files to your MVC application project. By default, the generated code files are stored in ~/App_Code/CMSClasses folder of your Kentico project.

7. If you want to use the code files in a separate library or external application, allow the system to detect the generated classes in a custom assembly. Add the ‘AssemblyDiscoverable’ assembly attribute in the library/application project’s AssemblyInfo.cs file:

   Copy

   
   
   
    using CMS;
    ...
    [assembly: AssemblyDiscoverable] 
   
   
    

8. Use the generated properties in your code.

9. Build your MVC application solution.

Generating code for a specific page type

1. Create a custom Page type.

2. In the Page types application, navigate to the page type’s Code tab.

3. Save code.

4. If you want to use the code files in a separate library or external application , allow the system to detect the generated classes in a custom assembly. Add the ‘AssemblyDiscoverable’ assembly attribute in the library/application project’s AssemblyInfo.cs file:

   Copy

   
   
   
    using CMS;
    ...
    [assembly: AssemblyDiscoverable] 
   
   
    

5. Use the generated properties in your code.

6. Build your solution.

Customizing generated classes

We do not recommended modifying the generated classes as they contain object properties only.

The classes are generated as partial classes. This means that you can extend them in a separate code file. Using this approach, you avoid the need to merge custom changes made to the generated code every time the class is generated again after the object’s properties are changed.

Example of customizing generated classes

namespace CMS.DocumentEngine.Types
{
    public partial class Article : TreeNode
    {
        ...

        /// <summary>
        /// Article name.
        /// </summary>
        [DatabaseField]
        public string ArticleTitle
        {
            get
            {
                return ValidationHelper.GetString(GetValue("ArticleTitle"), "");
            }
            set
            {
                SetValue("ArticleTitle", value);
            }
        }
        ...
    }
}

namespace CMS.DocumentEngine.Types
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Custom article page type class.
    /// </summary>
    public partial class Article : TreeNode
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Loads sample data into this object.
        /// </summary>
        public void LoadSampleData()
        {
            ArticleTitle = "Sample article title";
            ArticleSummary = "Sample article summary";
            ArticleText = "Sample article text";
        }
    }
}