Hi Louis

There is a 'special' Umbraco way to map a route to a controller and associated a particular IPublishedContent item with the route, called 'MapUmbracoRoute'

https://our.umbraco.com/documentation/reference/routing/custom-routes

When using MapUmbracoRoute instead of MapRoute, you can associate a 'VirtualNodeRouteHandler' implementation with the route, whose job is to map an IPublishedContent item with the route - usually this is a node in Umbraco.

You create a class that implements IRouteHandler, the easiest way to do this is inherit from the base: UmbracoVirtualNodeRouteHandler

There is an example in the core of implementing a handler that using a hardcoded 'udi' to make the association of IPublishedContent with the route:

https://github.com/umbraco/Umbraco-CMS/blob/4be1c3b4c4f26bd0925a3164d32f554b679045da/src/Umbraco.Web/Mvc/UmbracoVirtualNodeByUdiRouteHandler.cs

(so to experiment you could use this implementation to see how it works, by passing the Udi of the Umbraco node you want to associate with the route)

Your Controller needs to inherits from the special base controller RenderMvcController

and the action of the controller you are mapping the route to should accept a parameter of type (ContentModel model)

This 'model' will be populated with the IPublishedContent item that your RouteHandler decided to associate with the route.

You can then create your own custom view model that inherits another special base Umbraco class: PublishedContentWrapped.

eg

public class MyProductViewModel : PublishedContentWrapped
{
    // The PublishedContentWrapped accepts an IPublishedContent item as a constructor
    public MyProductViewModel(IPublishedContent content) : base(content) { }

    // Custom properties here...
    public int StockLevel { get; set; }
    public IEnumerable<Distributor> ProductDistributors { get; set; }
}

See how the constructor accepts an IPublishedContent item and because PublishedContentWrapped implements IPublishedContent - now your custom view model does - and you can add whatever additional properties you like to it.

Then in your controller you use the IPublishedContent item from the ContentModel model parameter, to construct your new ViewModel - set your non umbraco properties and pass this to your View

Update your view to inherits from

@using UmbracoViewPage<MyProductViewModel>

regards

Marc

Hi Marc,

Thanks for detailed reply.

I actually did go down the route of using the MapUmbracoRoute and passing in an instance of a custom class that inherits from VirtualNodeRouteHandler, but I got stuck with the same issue of the constructor requires an instance of IPublishedContent, similar to what you said above. So I don't actually have any instance of IPublishedContent, and that's where my problem lies... if I could create and instance of this somehow, then it would work.

To clarify, my custom route of /products/details/123 is not associated with any content node... the '123' id comes from a custom property editor and the /products/details/ is sort of hard coded.

Does this make sense?

Hi Marc,

As usual, you answer is as informative as ever!

Your explaination above is pretty good, and I got my head wrapped round most of this out of shear trial and error :) and it confirms that what you said validates my learning curve...

And you'll be glad to know that I came to the same conclusion you mentioned above. I did try and code my our own implementation of IPublishedContent, and then I saw all the interface fields, I was like.... "uhhh, nope!"

Anyway... long story short... I got it working by using the site root nodes' PublishedContent and passing that into the UmbracoVirtualNodeRouteHandler... not ideal, but better than making my own. My only concern now is how will I figure out which Culture the request is coming in on (currently the root node is for a particular culture). I might adopt your idea of a 'Products' node instead of the home page though... might be easier actually.

And yes, your guess as to what I'm trying to do is spot on! I'm toying with creating an external Product Catalogue system that I can hook into Umbraco. I've done all the property editors, PropertyValueConvertors, App Section/Dashboards, etc.... and this is the last piece. Once I got all this firgured out and polished, I may create a YT series on it (Similar to what Paul Seal did)... a sort of 'Deep Dive' series ;)

Anyway, for completeness of this thread, here is what I got so far:

public class RegisterCustomRouteComposer : ComponentComposer<RegisterCustomRouteComponent>
{ }

public class RegisterCustomRouteComponent : IComponent
{
    private readonly IUmbracoContextFactory _context;

    public RegisterCustomRouteComponent(IUmbracoContextFactory context)
    {
        _context = context;
    }

    public void Initialize()
    {

        using (var cref = _context.EnsureUmbracoContext())
        {
            var umbracoHelper = cref.UmbracoContext.Content;
            var root = umbracoHelper
                .GetAtRoot()
                .DescendantsOrSelfOfType("home", Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.Name)
                .FirstOrDefault();

            RouteTable.Routes.MapUmbracoRoute(
                "ProductCatalogueRoute",
                "products/{action}/{id}",
                new
                {
                    controller = "Products",
                    id = UrlParameter.Optional
                }, new ProductsRouteHandler(root));
        }
    }

    public void Terminate() { }
}

public class ProductsRouteHandler : UmbracoVirtualNodeRouteHandler
{
    private readonly IPublishedContent _root;
    private IProductCatalogueClient _service => Current.Factory.GetInstance<IProductCatalogueClient>();

    public ProductsRouteHandler(IPublishedContent root)
    {
        _root = root;
    }

    protected override IPublishedContent FindContent(RequestContext requestContext, UmbracoContext umbracoContext)
    {
        var id = requestContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("id");
        var productDto = Task.Run(() => _service.GetProductById(int.Parse(id))).Result;
        if (productDto == null) return null;
        var productModel = new ProductViewModel(_root)
        {
            ProductDto = productDto
        };
        return productModel;
    }

}

public class ProductsController : Umbraco.Web.Mvc.RenderMvcController
{

    public ActionResult Details(ContentModel model)
    {
       return View("~/Views/Products/Details.cshtml", model);
    }
}


public class ProductViewModel : PublishedContentWrapped
{
    public ProductViewModel(IPublishedContent content) : base(content) { }
    public ProductDto ProductDto { get; set; }
}

And finally, the View...

@inherits Umbraco.Web.Mvc.UmbracoViewPage<ProductCatalogue.Core.Web.ViewModels.ProductViewModel>
@{
    Layout = "~/Views/master.cshtml";
}

<section class="section">
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
            <div class="col-sm-12">
                <h2>@Model.ProductDto.Name</h2>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

</section>

Any suggestions on improvement? Particularly insterested in getting Culture working with this.

Thanks again for your help so far Marc.

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