user control xpath nightmare

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Nigel Wilson 945 posts 2077 karma points

Nov 23, 2010 @ 10:32
0

User Control xPath Nightmare
Hi there

I have been going round in circles trying to get this to work.

My tree structure is:

Home
    - Galleries
          - Competitions
                   - Competition Year
                             - Competition
                             - Competition
                   - Competition Year
                             - Competition
                             - Competition

The competition document type has a property within it for a "close off" date.

And so what I am wanting to do within my User Control is output a select list of all competitions that have a close off date in the future - ie competitions still open for entering.

From sniffing around the forums, etc I have tried the following:
```
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load(Server.MapPath(umbraco.GlobalSettings.ContentXML));
XmlNodeList xnList = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/root/descendant-or-self::node [@id = 1186]/competition");

        foreach (XmlNode xn in xnList)
        {
            selMembComp.Items.Add(new ListItem(xn.Attributes["id"].Value, xn.Attributes["nodeName"].Value));
        }
```
The above is an initial attempt to get all competitions in the select list - after I get that working I will look to add the additional conditional checking for the date.

Can anyone please advise where I am going wrong - I am off to bed as I have a headache (self created through frustration)!

Thanks in anticipation

Nigel
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Ismail Mayat 4511 posts 10092 karma points MVP 2x admin c-trib

Nov 23, 2010 @ 10:59

0

Nigel,

Is there reason why you are doing this in code why not do it in xslt macro?

Regards

Ismail

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Hendy Racher 863 posts 3849 karma points MVP 2x admin c-trib

Nov 23, 2010 @ 11:29
0
Hi Nigel,

Would the method GetNodesFromXpath() in this Helper Class be of any use ? (an updated version of this class will be included in the next uComponents release)
```
foreach (Node competition in UmbracoHelper.GetNodesFromXpath("/competition"))
{
  selMembComp.Items.Add(new ListItem(competition.Name, competition.Id));
}
```
You'll just need to add the filtering to your XPath expression to get the required competition nodes.

HTH,

Hendy
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Nigel Wilson 945 posts 2077 karma points

Nov 23, 2010 @ 19:40

0

Hi Ismail and Hendy

Thanks for your replies.

Ismail - I am using a user control as I have an image upload component - step 1 is to select the competition, step 2 (when I get that far!) is to upload images to the chosen competition.

Hendy - I downloaded your helper class but it didn't work :-( , looked like a nice class tho with useful methods

So I tried the following and managed to get the select list populating as desired

XmlNodeList xnList = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/root/Home/galleryParent/competitionParent/competitionYear/competition");

But being hard coded isn't a good thing so did a bit more Googling and stumbled across a forum post can't find geo datatype and Tmi Geyssens contrubutions regarding 4.5 schema made me realise how simple the required code is . . .

XmlNodeList xnList = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("//competition");

This is simply selecting all competition nodes - I just have to add the logic to check for the date property . . .

Yet again 2 lessons learnt:

1. Umbraco rocks and more often than not the answer is blindingly simple.

2. A good nights sleep always helps

Regards

Nigel

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Nigel Wilson 945 posts 2077 karma points

Nov 26, 2010 @ 00:40
0
Hi Hendy

I have just revisited this and have made some progress, so will persevere with your Helper class - definitely liking the cleanliness of code.

The following is now outputting all competition nodes in the select list (double slash is where I was going wrong previously).
```
foreach (Node competition in UmbracoHelper.GetNodesFromXpath("//competition"))
{
    selMembComp.Items.Add(new ListItem(competition.Name.ToString(), competition.Id.ToString()));
}
```
So the next step is to get the filtering working on the competition nodes based on the competition close date property.

I tried the following but it returned no items
```
DateTime todaysDate = DateTime.Now
foreach (Node competition in UmbracoHelper.GetNodesFromXpath("//competition[/competitionCloseDate >= '" + todaysDate + "']"))
{
    selMembComp.Items.Add(new ListItem(competition.Name.ToString(), competition.Id.ToString()));
}
```
Obviously the close off date value isn't being recognised as a date value

Can anyone please enlighten me as to how to do a date comparison ?

Thanks

Nigel
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Nigel Wilson 945 posts 2077 karma points

Nov 26, 2010 @ 01:04

0

I have just Googled and read that date format isn't recognised and you must convert dates to numbers and compare that way.

So I tried the following but am getting no results - can anyone advise where I am going wrong ?

foreach (Node competition in UmbracoHelper.GetNodesFromXpath("//competition[number(concat(substring(/competitionCloseDate, 1, 4), substring(/competitionCloseDate, 6, 2), substring(/competitionCloseDate, 9, 2))) >= number(" + todaysDate + ")]"))

I read the index starts at 1 and with the date being output as 2010-11-30T00:00:00 I assume I have the indexes correct for the substring

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Nigel Wilson 945 posts 2077 karma points

Nov 26, 2010 @ 02:26

OK - I have cracked it . . .

foreach (Node competition in UmbracoHelper.GetNodesFromXpath("//competition[number(concat(substring(competitionCloseDate, 1, 4), substring(competitionCloseDate, 6, 2), substring(competitionCloseDate, 9, 2))) >= number(" + todaysDate + ")]"))
{
    selMembComp.Items.Add(new ListItem(competition.Name.ToString(), competition.Id.ToString()));
}

So Hendy - a tick for you - your Help Class is wicked. Now to get me media issue working

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