Dynamic Content rendering outside of EPiServer Property

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I am trying to get my dynamic content to render in a page that uses a PropertyDataCollection instead of an EPiServer property.  Initially it was just rendering the Dynamic Content control itself instead of the content.  I found the following page that explains how to get around this issue but I am encountering a runtime exception with this method.  

http://tedgustaf.com/sv/blogg/2009/9/parse-an-episerver-xhtml-property-with-dynamic-content/

I get a null reference error on the call to SetupControl() within GetRenderedXHTMLText below when rendering Dynamic Content.  Here is the relevant code...

1- As we iterate over the properties, output the content...

protected void OnItemDatabound(object sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item || e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem)
    {
        PropertyXhtmlString pd = (PropertyXhtmlString)e.Item.DataItem;
        var litContent = (Literal)e.Item.FindControl("litContent");
        //For each property, attempt to get the rendered output
        litContent.Text = GetRenderedXhtmlText(pd);
    }
}

2- Try to render the content.  This method works fine for any property that doesn't have a dynamic content control in it.

public static string GetRenderedXhtmlText(PropertyXhtmlString content)
{
    // Create a Property control which will parse the XHTML value for us
    PropertyXhtmlStringControl ctrl = new PropertyXhtmlStringControl();// PropertyLongStringControl();

    // Set the PropertyData to the property we want to parse
    ctrl.PropertyData = content;

    // Initialize the Property control
    ctrl.SetupControl();//***Fails with null reference error on dynamic content***
    
// Create a string writer... StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(); // ...and an HtmlTextWriter using that string writer HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw); // Render the Property control to get the markup ctrl.RenderControl(htw); // Return the parsed markup return sw.ToString(); }

My dynamic content is a user control decorated with the DynamicContentPlugin attribute.

3- Here is my custom editor user control

public partial class NewsListCustomEditor : DynamicContentEditControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                txtTags.Text = Content.Properties["TagList"].Value as string;
                IList<string> tagList = txtTags.Text.Split(new string[] { "$" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
                txtNumItems.Text = Content.Properties["NumberOfItemsPerPage"].Value as string;
            }
        }

        public override void PrepareForSave()
        {
            Content.Properties["TagList"].Value = txtTags.Text;
            Content.Properties["NumberOfItemsPerPage"].Value = txtNumItems.Text;
            Content.Properties["DynamicContentDisplayMode"].Value = true;
        }
    }

4- Here are the relevant parts of the dynamic content user control itself

[DynamicContentPlugIn(
        DisplayName = "The Title",
        Description = "Widget to do stuff",
        ViewUrl = "~/Absolute path to this control...",
        Url = "~/Absolute path to custom editor control",
        Area = PlugInArea.DynamicContent)]
    public partial class NewsList : UserControlBase
    {
... body of control, do stuff, get data etc.

public Control GetControl(PageBase hostPage)
        {
            //try
            //{
                if(hostPage==null)
                    hostPage=(HttpContext.Current.Handler as PageBase); 
                //Return dynamic content controls
                return (NewsList)hostPage.LoadControl("~/Templates/Responsive/Controls/NewsList.ascx");
            //}
        }

        #endregion
        

        private static string GetPropertyString(string PropertyName, PageData pageData)
        {
            return pageData[PropertyName] as string ?? String.Empty;
        }

Well, sorry for the long post, but would like to get this working and have no idea what is missing from my dynamic content control that makes SetupControl fail...

Any ideas?

#73941
Aug 14, 2013 18:29
Vote:
 

Here is the stack trace for the exception.  This only happens when it encounters a dynamic content control...

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   EPiServer.DynamicContent.DynamicContentAdapter`1.GetControl(PageBase hostPage) +236
   EPiServer.Core.Html.StringParsing.DynamicContentFragment.GetControl(PageBase hostPage) +66
   EPiServer.Web.PropertyControls.PropertyLongStringControlBase.CreateDefaultControls() +455
   EPiServer.Web.PropertyControls.PropertyDataControl.CreateChildControls() +173
   System.Web.UI.Control.EnsureChildControls() +102
   EPiServer.Web.PropertyControls.PropertyDataControl.SetupControl() +31
   EPiServer.Web.PropertyControls.PropertyLongStringControl.SetupControl() +110
   *.Web.Templates.Public.Pages.LandingPage.GetRenderedXhtmlText(PropertyXhtmlString content)
   *.Web.Templates.Public.Pages.LandingPage.OnItemDatabound(Object sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs e)
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.OnItemDataBound(RepeaterItemEventArgs e) +115

 
#73968
Aug 15, 2013 17:33
Vote:
 

bump

#74009
Aug 16, 2013 23:12
Vote:
 

I actually figured this out.  Basically I was just decorating the UserControl with the DynamicContent attributes but this wasn't enough.  I had to implement IDynamicContent for EPiServer to recognize GetControl method.

#74374
Aug 26, 2013 18:50
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