UniSelector in the Kentico Administration Interface

The UniSelector is a user control that provides an interface for selecting items. The source of the selectable items is a list of objects of a specified data class, such as users, sites, document types, etc. The control supports several different selection modes and extensive customization options. You can find examples of the UniSelector in the Kentico administration interface.

The UniSelector is optimized to handle very large amounts of objects, so it has greater performance and scalability than standard selection controls, such as the DropDownList.

Note: Using the UniSelector control beyond its most basic functions requires some knowledge of coding and Kentico API. When a user selects an item, the control only stores the values of the selected object internally. Any additional functionality, such as database changes, must be implemented in the handlers of the control's events or using the Click event of a Button control used for confirmation.

On this page 

• Getting started
• Properties
• Events

Related Controls 

• UniGrid

Getting started

1.    Create a new Web form named User_UniSelector.aspx in your web project.
2.    Register the UniSelector control by adding the following directive to the beginning of the page code:
 <%@ Register src="~/CMSAdminControls/UI/UniSelector/UniSelector.ascx" tagname="UniSelector" tagprefix="cms" %>
3.    Add the following code into the content area of the page (inside the <form> element):
4.    <div class="cms-bootstrap">
5.    
6.        <ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager ID="manScript" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" />
7.        <table>
8.            <tr>
9.              <td>
10.                <cms:UniSelector ID="UserSelector" runat="server" ObjectType="cms.user" SelectionMode="SingleDropDownList" ReturnColumnName="UserName" />
11.              </td>
12.              <td>
13.                <asp:Button runat="server" ID="OKButton" onclick="OKButton_Click" CssClass="btn btn-primary" Text="OK" />
14.              </td>
15.            </tr>
16.            <tr>
17.              <td>
18.                <asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblButton" Visible="false" />
19.              </td>
20.            </tr>
21.        </table>
22.    </div>
 

• The ToolkitScriptManager control is required by the UniSelector control. The sample code manually adds the script manager to be functional as a standalone example. The ToolkitScriptManager is typically included on your website's master page, so you do not need to add it in real-world scenarios.
• The UniSelector control is configured to allow the selection of user objects from a drop down list and to use the content of the UserName column in its value. See the Properties section for more information about the control's properties.
• The code also contains a Button and Label control, organized in a basic table layout, are used to demonstrate how to perform a basic task with the value of the UniSelector.

The cms-bootstrap class is required if you wish to use the default UniSelector styles.

23.    Switch to the code behind of the web form (User_UniSelector.aspx.cs) and add the following code:

Note: Adjust the name of the class according to the location of your web form.

using CMS.Helpers;

public partial class UniSelectorExample_User_UniSelector : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Registers the default CSS and JavaScript files onto the page (used to style the UniSelector)
        CSSHelper.RegisterBootstrap(Page);
        ScriptHelper.RegisterBootstrapScripts(Page);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Handles the Click event of the submit button.
    /// </summary>
    protected void OKButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Assigns the value of the UniSelector control to be displayed by the Label
        lblButton.Visible = true;
        lblButton.Text = ValidationHelper.GetString(UserSelector.Value, null);
    }
}

This code displays the user name of the selected user when the button on the page is clicked. The code also works if you switch the UniSelector to a SelectionMode that allows the selection of multiple users — the user names are all displayed separated by semicolons.

This example only serves as a demonstration and the selection has no permanent effect. You can implement any required functionality, such as changes in the database, using the Kentico API.

An alternative way to work with the selected values is to use handlers of the UniSelector's events.

24. Save the web form and its code behind file.
25. Right-click the web form in the Solution explorer and select View in Browser.

The resulting page displays a drop‑down list containing user names and an OK button. If you select a user and click the button, the page displays the corresponding user name below.



Properties

You can set the following properties for the UniSelector control:

 

Events

You can handle the following events in the UniSelector's life cycle:
 

 

ObjectTypes available

 http://devnet.kentico.com/articles/tips-and-tricks-listing-object-types

System classes and their object types

System classes are the ones provided within modules. Here is how you list them:

1.    <h1>Object types</h1>
2. <table>
3.  <thead>
4.    <th>Object name</th>
5.   <th>Object type</th>
6.  <thead>  
7.  {% foreach (type in ObjectTypes.AllObjectTypes) { %}
8.  <tr>
9.    <td>{% GetResourceString("ObjectType." + type.Replace(".", "_")) %}</td>
10.    <td>{% type %}</td>
11.  </tr>
12.  {% } |(user)prasanna|(hash)574592c9e71efd7b1e58e756d4ad3fd854ccc5e9dac87634b2da233adfc3dfae%}
13. </table>

With the following output:



Online forms and their object types

Here is how you list the object types of forms. Note that all object types are in format “bizformitem.<classname>”

1. <h1>Online form object types</h1>
2. <table>
3.  <thead>
4.   <th>Form class name</th>
5.    <th>Object type</th>
6.  <thead>  
7.  {% foreach (cls in GlobalObjects["cms.formclass"]) { %}
8.  <tr>
9.    <td>{% cls.ClassDisplayName %}</td>
10.   <td>bizformitem.{% cls.ClassName.ToLower() %}</td>
11.  </tr>
12.  {% } |(user)prasanna|(hash)41df0195091215e451d8f52f94d84a262e4a8306c2399b609eace2987b06ca90%}
13. </table>

With the following output:



Object types of custom tables

Here is how you list the object types of custom tables. Note that all object types are in format “customtableitem.<classname>”

1. <h1>Custom table object types</h1>
2. <table>
3.  <thead>
4.    <th>Custom table name</th>
5.    <th>Object type</th>
6.  <thead>  
7.  {% foreach (cls in GlobalObjects.CustomTables) { %}
8.  <tr>
9.    <td>{% cls.ClassDisplayName %}</td>
10.    <td>customtableitem.{% cls.ClassName.ToLower() %}</td>
11.  </tr>
12.  {% } |(user)prasanna|(hash)c934788b7a5bc5a64fb05c427934328ca7a4b170600b9a1d01f1c07d002f7f7b%}
13. </table>

With the following output:



Object types of page types

Similar to the previous two examples, page types also have automatically generated object types. In this case the format is “cms.document.<classname>”

1. <h1>Page object types</h1>
2. <table>
3.  <thead>
4.    <th>Page type name</th>
5.    <th>Object type</th>
6. <thead>  
7.  {% foreach (cls in GlobalObjects.DocumentTypes) { %}
8.  <tr>
9.   <td>{% cls.ClassDisplayName %}</td>
10.    <td>cms.document.{% cls.ClassName %}</td>
11.  </tr>
12. {% } |(user)prasanna|(hash)7a52c7d91cb78dbc048c48e66adc78a46898491c4f0d095dcd1cc4c17714bc51%}
13. </table>

With the following output:



Customizable classes

Kentico contains a set of classes that can be customized, formerly known as system tables. Here is how you list them including the modules that contain each class (so you can find the classes more easily in the Modules application):

1. <h1>System tables (customizable classes)</h1>
2. <table>
3.  <thead>
4.    <th>Display name</th>
5.    <th>Class name</th>
6.    <th>Module</th>
7.  <thead>  
8.  {% foreach (cls in GlobalObjects.SystemTables) { %}
9.  <tr>
10.   <td>{% cls.ClassDisplayName %}</td>
11.    <td>{% cls.ClassName %}</td>
12.    <td>{% GlobalObjects.Resources.Where("ResourceID = " + cls.ClassResourceID).FirstItem.ResourceDisplayName %}</td>
13.  </tr>
14.  {% } |(user)prasanna|(hash)93b54289a4b18f11f099f2e356712d0db02ea02f9c929bacece61f20deeb3ac7%}
15. </table>

With the following output:



Class table names

Sometimes you may just need to perform a service action directly in the database. Here is a macro that returns a list of all classes in the system and their corresponding database tables.

1. <h1>All classes and their DB tables</h1>
2. <table>
3.  <thead>
4.    <th>Class display name</th>
5.    <th>Class name</th>
6.    <th>Table name</th>
7.  <thead>  
8.  {% foreach (cls in GlobalObjects["cms.class"]) { %}
9.  <tr>
10.    <td>{% cls.ClassDisplayName %}</td>
11.    <td>{% cls.ClassName %}</td>
12.    <td>{% cls.ClassTableName %}</td>
13.  </tr>
14.  {% } |(user)prasanna|(hash)91daa9bbfc0a07fdb13d1cb89fb5039c7392708cbe7d59216f4841d88095dcc2%}
15. </table>

With the following output:




Author: Kaleem Pasha