return nested content items as json with controller

Morten Peter Hagh Jensen 25 posts 85 karma points

May 24, 2021 @ 07:00

Return nested content items as JSON with controller

I am trying to learn controllers and have searched a ton without finding a solution to my problem.

I have some meeting dates and times created as nested content in nested content.

The meeting dates being a nested content and the meeting times being nested content inside meeting dates giving a structure like this

> date (24-05-2021) 
>> 10:30
>> 12:30
>> 13:30

> date (25-05-2021) 
>> 11:30
>> 14:30
>> 15:30

What I am trying to achieve is to create an endpoint with a Umbraco controller to get the times for a specific date chosen on a calendar on the front end.

So if I f.x. select 25-05-2021 in the calendar, the click event should make a call to /umbraco/api/meetingdates/getdates/ with the date 25-05-2021 as the ID to select the content in Umbraco, like ?date=25-05-2021

and return something like

{
    date: "25-05-2021",
    times: [{
        "11:30",
        "14:30",
        "15:30"
    }]
}

The date item has the alias MeetingDateItemDay and the time item has meetingdateTimeItem with the overall property containing the items aliased meetingDatesAvailable

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Huw Reddick 1932 posts 6722 karma points MVP 2x c-trib

May 24, 2021 @ 07:21

Hi,

Don't know if this will help at all, but this is something I wrote to export the metadata from pages.

public JsonResult ExportMetaData()
{
    int count = 0;
    List<string> pages = new List<string>();
    IPublishedContent homePage = Umbraco.Content(Guid.Parse("a53c075a-61a2-456e-a73d-e65e52efea92"));
    var pageNotes = homePage.Children;
    CountNodes(homePage.Children,ref pages, ref count);

    JsonResult ret = Json("{\"Synchronised\":[" + string.Join(",", pages.ToArray()) + "]}");

    return ret;
}

private void CountNodes(IEnumerable<IPublishedContent> children, ref List<string> pages, ref int count)
{
    count += children.Count();
    foreach (IPublishedContent item in children)
    {
        if(item.Children != null)
        {
            var test = (PublishedContentModel)item;
            if (test.GetProperty("metaName") != null)
            {
                pages.Add("{\"Id\":\"" + test.Id + "\",\"Name\":\"" + test.Name + "\",\"metaName\":\"" + test.GetProperty("metaName").GetValue().ToString() + "\",\"Description\":\"" + test.GetProperty("metaDescription").GetValue().ToString() +"\"}");
            }

            CountNodes(item.Children, ref pages, ref count);
        }
    }
}

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Morten Peter Hagh Jensen 25 posts 85 karma points

May 24, 2021 @ 07:45

Just making a 1:1 copy of your code, which I would try to edit gives me

cannot implicitly convert type system.web.http.results.jsonresult to system.web.mvc.jsonresult

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Huw Reddick 1932 posts 6722 karma points MVP 2x c-trib

May 24, 2021 @ 08:17

Change the signature of the method from jsonresult to actionresult, that should mix it :)

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Morten Peter Hagh Jensen 25 posts 85 karma points

May 24, 2021 @ 08:28

That unfortunately didn't do the trick :-(

I have pasted my code here

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Umbraco.Web.WebApi;
using System.Web.Http;
using HttpGet = System.Web.Http.HttpGetAttribute;
using Umbraco.Web;
using System.Web.Http.Results;
using Umbraco.Core.Models.PublishedContent;

namespace test_inspection_website.umbraco.Controllers
{
    public class MeetingDatesController : UmbracoApiController
    {
        // GET: MeetingDates
        public ActionResult ExportMetaData()
        {
            int count = 0;
            List<string> pages = new List<string>();
            IPublishedContent homePage = Umbraco.Content(Guid.Parse("a53c075a-61a2-456e-a73d-e65e52efea92"));
            var pageNotes = homePage.Children;
            CountNodes(homePage.Children, ref pages, ref count);

            JsonResult ret = Json("{\"Synchronised\":[" + string.Join(",", pages.ToArray()) + "]}");

            return ret;
        }

        private void CountNodes(IEnumerable<IPublishedContent> children, ref List<string> pages, ref int count)
        {
            count += children.Count();
            foreach (IPublishedContent item in children)
            {
                if (item.Children != null)
                {
                    var test = (PublishedContentModel)item;
                    if (test.GetProperty("metaName") != null)
                    {
                        pages.Add("{\"Id\":\"" + test.Id + "\",\"Name\":\"" + test.Name + "\",\"metaName\":\"" + test.GetProperty("metaName").GetValue().ToString() + "\",\"Description\":\"" + test.GetProperty("metaDescription").GetValue().ToString() + "\"}");
                    }

                    CountNodes(item.Children, ref pages, ref count);
                }
            }
        }
    }   
}

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Huw Reddick 1932 posts 6722 karma points MVP 2x c-trib

May 24, 2021 @ 08:32

Does that give the same error?

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Huw Reddick 1932 posts 6722 karma points MVP 2x c-trib

May 24, 2021 @ 08:33

Ah, I see you are using an API controller, mine is in a surface controller so that explains the arror :)

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Huw Reddick 1932 posts 6722 karma points MVP 2x c-trib

May 24, 2021 @ 10:12

With an Api controller, you should just return a normal c# object or list, it will get returned either as xml or json depending on the request, so you can do something similar to below

private List<Markers> GetLocations()
{
    List<Markers> locations = new List<Markers>();
    var filePath = HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/App_Data");
    using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(Path.Combine(filePath, "MapMarkers.csv")))
    using (var reader = new CsvReader(streamReader))
    {
        // the CSV file has a header record, so we read that first
        reader.ReadHeaderRecord();

        while (reader.HasMoreRecords)
        {
            var dataRecord = reader.ReadDataRecord();

            var loc = new Markers()
            {
                Name = dataRecord["title"],
                Id = new Guid(dataRecord["id"]), //Convert.ToInt32(dataRecord["id"]),
                Description = dataRecord["description"],
                Address = dataRecord["address"],
                Link = dataRecord["link"],
                Categories = dataRecord["category"].Split(','),
                Geolocation = new Geolocation() { Latitude = Convert.ToDouble(dataRecord["lat"]), Longitude = Convert.ToDouble(dataRecord["lng"]) }
            };
            locations.Add(loc);
        }
    }

    return locations;
}

Obviously this isn't reading umbraco data, but the List is returned as a json array of marker objects

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Morten Peter Hagh Jensen 25 posts 85 karma points

May 24, 2021 @ 13:46

Thanks a lot, @Huw Reddick - Your answer pointed me in the right direction.

I have created this

public class MeetingDatesController : UmbracoApiController
    {
        // GET: MeetingDates
        [HttpGet]
        public Object MeetingDates(String theDate)
        {
            IPublishedContent content = Umbraco.Content(Guid.Parse("ff3e93f6-b34f-4664-a08b-d2eae2a0adbd"));
            var meettypes = content.Value<IEnumerable<IPublishedElement>>("meetingDatesAvailable");

            var items = new List<object>();

            foreach(var item in meettypes)
            {
                if (item.Value("meetingItemDay").ToString().Substring(0, 8) == theDate) {
                    var times = item.Value<IEnumerable<IPublishedElement>>("meetingItemDayTimes");

                    foreach (var time in times)
                    {
                        items.Add(time.Value("meetingdateTimeItem").ToString());
                    }
                }
            }

            return new { dateChosen = theDate, meetingTimes = items };           
        }
    }
}

Which actually works.

Calling it with /umbraco/api/meetingdates/MeetingDates/?theDate=26-05-20´ give me a response with

{
    "dateChosen": "26-05-20",
    "meetingTimes": [
        "12:30",
        "15:30",
        "10:30"
    ]
}

which is what I wanted. Calling a date without any times gives an empty meetingTimes: []

The code above can without a doubt be better! Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

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Return nested content items as JSON with controller