Defining widget properties

When developing page builder widgets, you can define properties that allow content editors to adjust the widget content or behavior directly in the administration interface. Users interact with widget properties through the widget configuration dialog or inline editors, which you need to implement.

Use the following process to develop properties for a widget:

Create a model class that defines the widget properties.
Allow content editors to modify the widget properties:
- Define the configuration dialog
- Implement inline editors
Configuration dialog and inline editors
You can combine the configuration dialog and inline editors in a single widget.
Handle the properties in the widget’s code.
(Optional) Add support for POST actions.

To see a scenario with full code samples which will guide you through the process of developing a simple widget with a property, visit Example - Developing a widget.

Areas

Widgets are designed as global components. Adding related files, such as property model classes, into Areas is not supported and may lead to unexpected behavior.

Creating property models

The properties of a widget must be defined within a model class that implements the IWidgetProperties interface (available in the Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc namespace).

Specify each widget property by creating a corresponding property in the model class. You can also set default values for the properties.

Example




public class CustomWidgetProperties : IWidgetProperties
{
    // Defines a property and sets its default value
    public int Number { get; set; } = 22;
}

You can use the Newtonsoft.Json.JsonIgnore attribute to exclude dynamically computed widget properties from database serialization.

We recommend storing widget property models in the ~/Models/Widgets/<widget name> folder.

The properties of a widget must be defined within a model class that implements the IWidgetProperties interface (available in the Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc namespace).

Specify each widget property by creating a corresponding property in the model class. You can also set default values for the properties.




    public class CustomWidgetProperties : IWidgetProperties
    {        
        // Defines a property and sets its default value
        public int Number { get; set; } = 22;
    }

You can use the Newtonsoft.Json.JsonIgnore attribute to exclude dynamically computed widget properties from database serialization.

We recommend storing widget property models in the ~/Components/Widgets/<widget name> folder together with other files required by the widget.

Defining the configuration dialog

The configuration dialog is a simple way to allow content editors to set values for widget properties. In the property model class, you need to define editing form components for widget properties which you want to make editable in the configuration dialog. You can use the system’s default form components or develop custom form components.

Edit the widget’s property model class in your MVC project.
Define the visual interface of the configuration dialog:
- Decorate the appropriate properties using the EditingComponent attribute (available in the Kentico.Forms.Web.Mvc namespace).
- The attribute assigns and configures a form component, which is used as the input element for the given property in the configuration dialog.
  Note: To learn about the available options when using and configuring editing components for properties, see Assigning editing components to properties.
Example - Setting an editing component
```
 [EditingComponent(TextInputComponent.IDENTIFIER, Order = 0, Label = "Text")]
 public string Text { get; set; }


 
```

Edit the widget’s property model class in your Core project.
Define the visual interface of the configuration dialog:
- Decorate the appropriate properties using the EditingComponent attribute (available in the Kentico.Forms.Web.Mvc namespace).
- The attribute assigns and configures a form component, which is used as the input element for the given property in the configuration dialog.
  Note: To learn about the available options when using and configuring editing components for properties, see Assigning editing components to properties.
```
 [EditingComponent(TextInputComponent.IDENTIFIER, Order = 0, Label = "Text")]
 public string Text { get; set; }


 
```

Users can now click the Configure () icon when working with widgets in the administration interface. This opens the widget properties dialog, and the configured property values affect the appearance and functionality of the widget on the live site.

Advanced property options

You can add dynamic visibility conditions that restrict how and when properties are displayed in the widget configuration dialog.
If you need to create advanced property editors, you can implement modal dialogs. This allows users to set the widget property’s value in a custom dialog (a new window separate from the configuration dialog).

For properties to have an effect on a widget’s appearance or functionality, you need to retrieve their values and reflect them in the widget’s output code or logic. The required steps depend on the development approach used to create the widget (see Developing widgets for more information).

Basic widgets

For basic widgets without a custom controller class, handle the property values in the widget’s partial view.

The view must use the generic ComponentViewModel<TPropertyModel> class as its model, with the appropriate property model class as the generic type parameter. The system’s default controller ensures that the property values configured for the currently processed widget are passed to the view. Retrieve the property values from the model’s Properties member, which returns an object of the specified property model class.

Example




@using Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc

@model ComponentViewModel<CustomWidgetProperties>

<p>The value of the widget's 'Number' property is: @Model.Properties.Number</p>

Widgets with a custom controller

To work with properties in your widget controllers, the controller class must inherit from the generic WidgetController<TPropertyModel> base class, with the appropriate property model class as the generic type parameter.




public class CustomWidgetController : WidgetController<CustomWidgetProperties>

Retrieve the properties as a strongly typed object via the IComponentPropertiesRetriever service (Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc namespace) and its Retrieve<TWidgetProperties> method. The method returns an object of the specified property model class. The object’s property values are loaded from the current configuration of the processed widget.




// Contains an instance of the IComponentPropertiesRetriever service (e.g., obtained via dependency injection).
private readonly IComponentPropertiesRetriever componentPropertiesRetriever;

// Gets the value of a widget property (e.g. within the widget controller's Index action)
CustomWidgetProperties properties = componentPropertiesRetriever.Retrieve<CustomWidgetProperties>();
int propertyValue = properties.Number;

You can then adjust the code of your controller based on the values of individual widget properties, or pass them to the widget’s view using the appropriate view model.

Do not directly pass the property model to your widget views. Passing data to views is the responsibility of the widget’s view model, and we strongly recommend keeping the logic separate.

Basic widgets

For basic widgets that consist only of a partial view file and a properties class, handle the property values in the widget’s partial view.

The view must use the generic ComponentViewModel<TPropertyModel> class as its model, with the appropriate property model class as the generic type parameter. The system ensures that property values configured for the currently processed widget are passed to the view. Retrieve the property values from the model’s Properties member, which returns an object of the specified property model class.

Example




@using Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc

@model ComponentViewModel<CustomWidgetProperties>

<p>The value of the widget's 'Number' property is: @Model.Properties.Number</p>

Widgets based on a view component

To work with widget properties in view components, the component’s Invoke or InvokeAsync method signature must declare the ComponentViewModel<TPropertiesType> parameter, with the appropriate property model class as the generic type.




// The signature of a view component's InvokeAsync method for widgets with custom properties
public Task<IViewComponentResult> InvokeAsync(ComponentViewModel<CustomWidgetProperties> widgetProperties)

The widget’s properties are accessible via the Properties property of the ComponentViewModel parameter, which contains an object of the specified property model class. The property values are loaded from the current configuration of the processed widget.




// Gets the value of a widget property from within a component's Invoke method
int propertyValue = widgetProperties.Properties.Number;

You can then adjust the flow of your logic based on the values of various properties, or pass them to the component’s view using an appropriate view model.

Do not directly pass the property model to your widget views. Passing data to views is the responsibility of the widget’s view model, and we strongly recommend keeping the models separate.

Widget properties cannot be automatically retrieved during POST requests. Common POST requests do not contain sufficient information to identify the page and widget instance from which they originate.

To retrieve widget properties in POST actions, you first need to include the properties into the data submitted by the corresponding HTML form in the widget’s output. Call the Html.Kentico().ComponentPropertiesData extension method within the given form tag in your widget view.

Example




using System.Web.Mvc.Ajax
using Kentico.Web.Mvc
using Kentico.PageBuilder.Web.Mvc

...

@using (Ajax.BeginForm("PostAction", "CustomWidget", null, new AjaxOptions
{
    HttpMethod = "POST",
    UpdateTargetId = "widgetForm"
}, new { id = "widgetForm" }))
{
    @Html.Kentico().AntiForgeryToken()
    @Html.Kentico().ComponentPropertiesData()
    ...
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
}

The method renders a hidden field that persists the widget’s properties and makes them available via the properties retriever in the targeted controller action.

Basic POST requests do not by default contain widget properties data. To access the properties of a widget during POST actions (in the controller class handling POST requests), you first need to include the properties into the data submitted by the corresponding HTML form in the widget’s output. Call the Html.Kentico().ComponentPropertiesData extension method (or its Tag Helper equivalent) within the given form tag in your widget view.

Example




using Kentico.Content.Web.Mvc

...

<form asp-controller="WidgetPostController" asp-action="HandlePost" method="post">
    ...

    @Html.Kentico().ComponentPropertiesData()

    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

The method renders a hidden field that persists the widget’s current properties configuration.

On the server, access the widget’s properties in the corresponding controller class via the IComponentPropertiesRetriever service and its Retrieve<TWidgetProperties> method. Specify the widget’s properties class as the method’s generic parameter:

Controller class handling the request




// Contains an instance of the IComponentPropertiesRetriever service (e.g., obtained via dependency injection)
private readonly IComponentPropertiesRetriever componentPropertiesRetriever;

// Gets the properties of the widget as a strongly typed object 
NumberWidgetProperties properties = componentPropertiesRetriever.Retrieve<NumberWidgetProperties>();

Defining widget properties

Creating property models

Defining the configuration dialog

Handling properties in widget code

Basic widgets

Widgets with a custom controller

Basic widgets

Widgets based on a view component

Accessing widget properties in POST actions