Event Handlers

An event is an activity that occurs within Ektron and is exposed through the Extension Framework. An event handler is a method that executes when an event occurs.

NOTE: onBefore lets you manipulate the current data before it is updated. In contrast, onAfter events do not let you change a value in the contentData object for the content being affected. onAfter events only update data somewhere else (such as within Ektron or a third party database).

Using Visual Studio to Create a New Extension

1. In Visual Studio, open your website.
2. Add a new C# class to the App_Code directory.
3. The Class1.cs code page appears in the editor.
   

   

4. Add references to the following assemblies if they are not already added.

   Ektron.CMS.Common
   Ektron.CMS.Contracts
   Ektron.CMS.ObjectFactory

   If the assemblies are not installed in Visual Studio, you can find them in the siteroot/bin directory.

5. Add the following using statements to the top of the class.

   using Ektron.Cms;
   using Ektron.Cms.Common;
   using Ektron.Cms.Extensibility;
   using Ektron.Cms.Extensibility.Content; 

6. Update the class to extend Ektron.Cms.Extensibility.ContentStrategy.

   namespace Cms.Extensions.Samples { public class ContentExtensionsSample : ContentStrategy { } }

   NOTE: The namespace in the code above is Cms.Extensions.Samples. This information is needed for Step 8.

7. Override the method for the event you wish to catch. In this example, override OnBeforeAddContent(). The code to modify the Title looks like this.

   public override void 
     OnBeforeAddContent(ContentData contentData, CmsEventArgs eventArgs)
     { contentData.Title += " modified"; } 

8. This is what the final code looks like.
   

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Text;
   using Ektron.Cms;
   using Ektron.Cms.Common;
   using Ektron.Cms.Extensibility;
   using Ektron.Cms.Extensibility.Content;
   namespace Cms.Extensions.Samples
   {
   public class ContentExtensionsSample : ContentStrategy 
     { public override void 
       OnBeforeAddContent(ContentData contentData, CmsEventArgs eventArgs) 
       { contentData.Title += " modified"; }
     }
   }
   

Register the New Extension in the ObjectFactory

After creating the extension in the steps above, register it in the <webroot>/ObjectFactory.config file.

This file already contains GoogleGeoCoder objectStrategies, so you need to add a new Name in the Content area. In this example, the code looks like this.

<objectFactory>
  <objectStrategies>
    <add name="Content">
      <strategies>
        <add name="MyFirstExample" 
          type="Cms.Extensions.Samples.ContentExtensionsSample"/>
        <add name="GoogleGeoCoder" 
          type="Cms.Extensions.GoogleGeoCoder.ContentStrategy"/>
      </strategies>
    </add>
    <add name="User">
      <strategies>
        <add name="GoogleGeoCoder" 
          type="Cms.Extensions.GoogleGeoCoder.UserStrategy"/>
      </strategies>
    </add>
  </objectStrategies>
</objectFactory> 

More Information about ObjectFactory objectStrategies

• Register extensions in the <objectStrategies> element of the siteroot/ObjectFactory.config file.
• For the element directly below <objectStrategies>, <addname>, enter a name to identify extension type. A list of valid names is in the following list.
  —Valid names—

  • Basket
  • BasketCalculator
  • Blog
  • CatalogEntry
  • CommunityGroup
  • Content
  • Country
  • Coupon
  • CouponCalculator
  • Customer
  • Folder
  • Forum
  • Inventory
  • MessageBoard
  • MicroMessage
  • Order
  • Region
  • ShippingCalculator
  • Tag
  • TaxCalculator
  • Taxonomy
  • User
  • WebEvent
• Within a <strategies> element, add one or more content extensions. For each extension, insert a name and type. For example:

  <strategies> 
    <add name="MyFirstExample" 
      type="Cms.Extensions.Samples.ContentExtensionsSample"/>
  </strategies>

  • name is free-text.
  • Type is a fully-qualified name of the extension you are registering. It consists of namespace + “.” + name of the class.

Test the New Extension

The new extension (created in the examples above) adds "modified" to the end of a new content item's title. To test this, create new content in the Workarea; "modified" will be appended to the end of the title.

More Examples of Extensions

More examples of Extensions are found in the Ektron SDK folder. The default location for this folder is Program Files\Ektron\CMS400SDK\CMS Extensions. Also, sample eCommerce extensions are found in Program Files\Ektron\CMS400SDK\Commerce\Events.