Content model and views

Content in Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) consists of pages, blocks, media files, and folders. It can also be catalog content in Optimizely Customized Commerce.

CMS has built-in template support for ASP.NET Core MVC and Razor pages, which are covered in this section. However, CMS can also be used by other rendering techniques, such as client-side rendering frameworks.

MVC stands for Model-View-Controller meaning:

MVC bases the rendering on views and templates. A template corresponds to a controller and a view, where the controller selects the view to display. The view contains the HTML template with embedded code, generating content sent to the client.

By default, MVC applications rely heavily on conventions. For example, when resolving view templates, the system will look for a view template file in a folder with a specific path and name.

A typical Optimizely MVC project often uses the following folder structure to help you organize your code:

See Create a starter projectCreate a starter project for more details.

The content system in CMS supports strongly typed models and is based on content types in the CMS content model. Content in CMS can be almost anything as long as it is a class that implements the IContent interface. Content also provides a set of important basic properties, such as the content display name, references, and unique identifiers for a content item. See ContentContent.

Content instances, content types, and content templates, for example, are linked together in the following way:

Optimizely has a wide range of base classes. You usually define page types in code as classes based on a model inheriting from EPiServer.Core.PageData. A PageData object is the programmatic representation of a page containing the properties defined in your .NET class. The value of currentPage is automatically set to the PageData object that the client requests. 

During website initialization, the synchronization engine in CMS scans and validates available content types and properties created in code or from the CMS admin view. CMS scans the bin folder for .NET classes inheriting PageData . For each class found, it creates a page type and a corresponding property on the page type for public properties on the class.

The synchronization merges the settings stored in the database (from the admin view) with the settings defined in the code. If the settings conflict, the database setting values take precedence. Any settings saved through the admin view will override the settings defined in the code. See SynchronizationSynchronization.

Properties store and present data for content in a page type. They are added in code and can be accessed using inline expressions, markup, or code-behind. The property data type dictates the kind of values that can be entered or rendered. Episerver comes with a set of built-in property types, and you can also define your own. See PropertiesProperties.

Editors create pages based on a specific page type. Pages build up the page tree structure in edit view. The CMS database stores saved information (content and metadata) on a page instance.

You can define several templates (such as Controllers or Views, Razor Pages, view components, or partial views) for displaying content in certain contexts, for example, inside another page or through different channels and devices such as a mobile phone. There are several ways to control the rendering. You can work with TemplateDescriptor, Tags, TemplateResolver, and DisplayChannel, to ensure the correct rendering is applied depending on the display context. See Render contentRender content.

Views are .cshtml files stored in the Views folder. If your view only needs the page object, you can pass the currentPage into the view. Use action-specific views, partial views or controllers, and layouts to reduce code repetition. You can also create view models to make your views more flexible. See View models and partial viewsView models and partial views.

A view contains HTML to specify the markup. HTML Helpers render property values based on their property type. Properties can be rendered as markup using the Html.PropertyFor() method. Properties automatically become editable in edit view. ASP.NET MVC Core and Optimizely CMS come with a predefined set of Html.Helper methods to specify the HTML needed for the view. You can also create your own HTML Helpers.