Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData is a package with a strongly typed model for the grid in Umbraco. The package makes it easy to work the grid in your MVC views, master pages or even in your custom logic - eg. to index the grid data in Examine for better searches.
Version 13 of this package specifically targets Umbraco 3, but past major versions also support older versions of Umbraco. For the Umbraco 10-12 package, see v4/main branch. For the Umbraco 9 package, see v4/main branch. For the Umbraco 8 package, see v3/main branch.
The Umbraco 13 version of this package is only available via NuGet. To install the package, you can use either .NET CLI:
dotnet add package Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData --version 13.0.0
or the older NuGet Package Manager:
Install-Package Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData -Version 13.0.0
Umbraco 10-12
For the Umbraco 9 version of this package, see the v5/main branch instead.
**Umbraco 9**
For the Umbraco 9 version of this package, see the [**v4/main**](https://github.com/skybrud/Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData/tree/v4/main) branch instead.
**Umbraco 8**
For the Umbraco 8 version of this package, see the [**v3/main**](https://github.com/skybrud/Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData/tree/v3/main) branch instead.
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## Add-ons
- [**Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData.Dtge**](https://github.com/skybrud/Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData.Dtge)
Adds support for working with [**Doc Type Grid Editor**](https://github.com/skttl/umbraco-doc-type-grid-editor).
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## Examples
The package has its own property value converter, so you can simply get the grid model as:
```C#
GridDataModel grid = Model.Content.GetPropertyValue<GridDataModel>("content");
If you have the raw JSON string, you can parse it like:
GridDataModel grid = GridDataModel.Deserialize(json);But you can also just call an extension method to get the grid model:
GridDataModel grid = Model.Content.GetGridModel("content");The benefit of the extension method is that it will always return an instance of GridDataModel - even if the property doesn't exists or doesn't have a value, so you don't have to check whether the returned value is null. However if you need it, you can use the IsValid property to validate that the model is valid (eg. not empty).
As of v2.0, the GridDataModel contains a GetSearchableText method that will return a textual representation of the entire grid model - see the example below:
@using Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData
@using Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData.Extensions
@inherits UmbracoTemplatePage
@{
GridDataModel grid = Model.Content.GetGridModel("content");
<pre>@grid.GetSearchableText()</pre>
}The GetSearchableText method works by traversing all the controls of the grid, and calling a similar GetSearchableText method on each control. The end result will then be a string combined of the returned values from all the controls.
This of course requires that each control (or the model of it's value, really) can provide a textual representation of it's value.
If you need further control of the indexing, you can have a look at this example Gist:
The package supports a number of different ways to render the grid. If we start out with the entire grid model, you can do something like (Fanoe is the framework/view that should be used for rendering the grid):
@using Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData
@using Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData.Extensions
@inherits UmbracoTemplatePage
@{
GridDataModel grid = Model.Content.GetGridModel("content");
@Html.GetTypedGridHtml(grid, "Fanoe")
}This works by first getting the grid value, and then rendering the model into the current view. This can also be done in a single line instead (Model.Content as specified for the first parameter is an instance of IPublishedContent):
@using Skybrud.Umbraco.GridData.Extensions
@inherits UmbracoTemplatePage
@Html.GetTypedGridHtml(Model.Content, "content", "Fanoe")Since both examples specifies the Fanoe view, the package will look for a partial view located at ~/Views/Partials/TypedGrid/Fanoe.cshtml and with an instance of GridDataModel as the model. You can find an example of this partial view at the link below:
You can also have a look at an example partial view for rendering the individual rows of the grid:
The package will only provide models for the grid editors thats comes with Umbraco by default (as well as the editors from the Fanoe starter kit), but it is also possible to create your own models for custom controls.
This process might however be a bit complex, so I've written an article for Skrift.io that describes this a bit further:
http://skrift.io/articles/archive/strongly-typed-models-in-the-umbraco-grid/