Hey Lachlann,

OK, you definitely want to make a custom Property Value Converter for your property-editor. Just to be clear, this is an Umbraco thing, not a Ditto thing :-)

For reference there are docs on how to make these:
https://our.umbraco.org/Documentation/Extending/Property-Editors/value-converters

An example would be like this...

public class Time
{
    public int Hours { get; set; }
    public int Mins { get; set; }
}

[Umbraco.Core.PropertyEditors.PropertyValueType(typeof(Time))]
public class MyTimePropertyValueConverter : Umbraco.Core.PropertyEditors.PropertyValueConverterBase
{
    public override bool IsConverter(PublishedPropertyType propertyType)
    {
        return propertyType.PropertyEditorAlias == "YourPropertyEditorAlias";
    }

    public override object ConvertSourceToObject(PublishedPropertyType propertyType, object source, bool preview)
    {
        if (source == null)
            return null;

        return Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Time>(source.ToString());
    }
}

What this does is that whenever you make a call to Model.Content.GetPropertyValue("someAlias"), then Umbraco will use your custom PropertyValueConverter to convert the value to your desired object-type, (in this case your Time model).

...and when you call Model.Content.GetPropertyValue<Time>("someAlias"), then Visual Studio will understand the object-type and use intellisense, etc.

So far this has nothing to do with Ditto. Where Ditto comes into play is that behind the scenes it will make a call to GetPropertyValue, meaning that your custom PropertyValueConverter will be used.

I hope all this makes sense?

Cheers,
- Lee