@Mike, not possible with the default data editor settings types, but you could do it with a custom one

Will see if I can find some time to put an example together

For now here is some details on creating a custom data editor setting type:

http://www.nibble.be/?p=96

Hi Tim

Thanks for looking at this - really appreciate it.

I've been experimenting based on your article, and am trying to create a data editor setting type which also uses a DropDownList control, but I want to populate the items of that control with the prevalues of a second type.

Initially, I had thought of passing the name of the "Values" type to my new type in the prevalues parameter, like this:

    [DataEditorSetting("Statuses", type=typeof(umbraco.editorControls.SettingControls.Values), description="Enter list of possible statuses")]
 public string TestValues { get; set; }
 
   [DataEditorSetting("Test", type = typeof(MT.TestDataEditorSetting.ValuesDefault), description = "Testing dropdown", prevalues="Statuses")]
  public string TestDefaultValue { get; set; }

But then, I'm not sure how to access the prevalues of the Values type... this is kind of what I was thinking:

        public override System.Web.UI.Control RenderControl(DataEditorSetting setting)
        {
            ddl.ID = setting.GetName();
            ddl.Items.Clear();
 
            // we have the name of the other DataEditorSetting type in the Prevalue of this type
            // want to do something like: 
            
            // Values vals = new Values(Prevalue); <--- to get a reference to the other type, but this doesn't work
 
            // and then:
 
            // foreach (string thisVal in vals.Prevalues)
            // {
            //     ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(thisVal));
            // }
            
            return ddl;
        }

Am I completely off track?

Thanks,

Mike

Yup would also do it like that, then you'll simply need to fetch the stored values based on the name

That's good to know :-)

The bit I'm missing is how to fetch the stored values... is there a method I can call which will return them?

Cheers,

Mike

Yup you should be able to use

umbraco.cms.businesslogic.datatype.DataEditorSettingsStorage

use the GetSettings(int dataTypeNodeID) method to fetch all setting values and then simply select the one with the correct alias

Thanks Tim, it's now working :-)

One follow-up question - instead of hard-coding the dataTypeNodeID in GetSettings, is is possible to work out the ID of the containing (parent?) data type from within the new DataEditorSettingType's RenderControl method?

Thanks again,

Mike

Sure, guess easiest way is to simply fetch it from the request collection (id param)

httpcontext.current.request['id']

It's so simple when you know how! Thanks for all your help - here's the final class.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using umbraco.cms.businesslogic.datatype;
using umbraco.editorControls.SettingControls;
 
namespace MT.TestDataEditorSettings
{
    public class DefaultValue : DataEditorSettingType
    {
 
        private System.Web.UI.WebControls.DropDownList ddl = new System.Web.UI.WebControls.DropDownList();
 
        private string _val = string.Empty;
        public override string Value
        {
            get { return ddl.SelectedValue; }
            set
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
                {
                    _val = value;
                }
            }
        }
 
 
        public override System.Web.UI.Control RenderControl(DataEditorSetting setting)
        {
            ddl.ID = setting.GetName();
            ddl.Items.Clear();
 
            // get ID of this data type from querystring
            int dataTypeId;
            if (Int32.TryParse(HttpContext.Current.Request["id"], out dataTypeId))
            {
 
                // get all data editor settings for this data type
                DataEditorSettingsStorage des = new DataEditorSettingsStorage();
                var settings = des.GetSettings(dataTypeId);
 
                // find the setting where the key matches the prevalue passed in
                Setting<string, string> thisSetting = settings.Find(s => s.Key == this.Prevalues[0]);
                if (thisSetting.Key != null)
                {
                    // split the semi-colon separated values into a string array
                    string[] listValues = thisSetting.Value.Trim(';').Split(';');
                    foreach (string thisVal in listValues)
                    {
                        // add the items into the dropdown list
                        ddl.Items.Add(new ListItem(thisVal));
 
                        // set the dropdown list's selected value (if applicable)
                        if (thisVal == _val) { ddl.SelectedValue = thisVal; }
                    }
                }
            }
            return ddl;
        }
    }
}

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