Set up editor templates

8 min

Criteria editor templates

Describes how to set up custom templates for the criteria editor.

Prerequisites Node

Important The sample below uses TypeScript. To use this example, the custom implementation needs to install and use TypeScript to transpile into JavaScript that can be used.

Install packages using npm in your terminal. npm install

Custom script

The VisitorGroupCriterion attribute has a ScriptUrl property where you can specify a script file used when creating the user interface for criteria. The ScriptUrl should refer to a JavaScript file that contains a valid CommonJS module which exports a React component as default.

Your component can rely on shared packages that do not have to be bundled with the editor. These shared packages are currently:

React ^16

axios ^0.22

@episerver/ui-framework ^0.17

Props

The props passed to your component is a CriteriaEditorProps that looks like this:

import React, {useEffect} from 'react';
import { TextField, ExposedDropdownMenu } from "@episerver/ui-framework";

export interface CriteriaEditorProps {
  /** Id of this criteria in database */
  id: string;
  /** An id unique for this instance */
  uiGuid: string;
  /** The display name */
  name: string;
  /** Criteria description */
  description: string;
  /** The selected audience's id */
  visitorGroupId: string;
  /** The url where the remote editor component can be downloaded */
  scriptUrl: string;
  /** Props to pass along to the remote editor component */
  editorConfig: Array<CriteriaEditorModelPropertyConfig>;
  /** Stored settings for a criteria */
  settings: any;
  /** Points value */
  points: number;
  /** List of criterion errors */
  errors: CriterionError[];
  /** Callback when the value has changed */
  onValueChange: (value: string) => void;
  /** Callback when the criteria editor is deleted */
  onEditorDelete: (id: string) => void;
  /** Flag indicating if the criteria is required or not */
  required: boolean;
  /** Localization function */
  localization(key: string, fallbackText?: string, values?: any[]): string;
  /** Init function for partner localizations */
  initLocalization(path: string): any;
  /** Property indicating whether partner translations has been loaded or not */
  translationsLoaded: boolean;
}

export interface CriterionError {
  type: CriterionErrorType;
  message: string;
}
export enum CriterionErrorType {
  Error,
  Warning,
  Info,
}

interface CriteriaEditorModelPropertyConfig {
  defaultValue: any;
  required: boolean;
  range: ValidRange;
  pattern: string;
  stringLength: ValidRange;
  selectItems: any;
  additionalProps: any;
  label: string;
  typeName: string;
  order: number;
  }
  
interface ValidRange {
  min: number;
  max: number;
}

The editorConfig property on CriteriaEditorProps is an array of CriteriaEditorModelPropertyConfig containing information about each property on the criteria model. The keys are mapped to your model’s property names in camelCase. Attribute decorations and rules for each property are populated here. The property additionalProps contains your additional configuration defined in the CriterionPropertyEditor as JSON.

To use front-end localization, you have to call props.initLocalization(‘path.to.xml.node’) with the path to your XML node. Your translations are fetched and put in the state. There is a Boolean property, translationsLoaded, which indicates when the call is complete. You can then call the localization function to get your translations. This is described further in Localizing the audience criterion.

If your model property is an ISelectionFactory, the items are available in the selectItems property.

The settings property holds the saved data for your criteria. It matches the object you emit in the onValueChange function described below.

Save data

For your custom component to be able to save data, you have to pass the data on using the onValueChange prop. Whenever you change your local state, also calledprops.onValueChange, passing in the state.

const CustomCriteriaEditor = (props: CriteriaEditorProps) => {
  const [localModelState, setLocalModelState] = React.useState<any>({});

  useEffect(() => {
    const state = { ...props.settings };
    setLocalModelState(state);
  }, []);

  const emitValueChange = (newState: any) => {
    setLocalModelState(newState);
    props.onValueChange(newState);
  };

  const editorConfig = props.editorConfig as any;

  return (
    <>
      <ExposedDropdownMenu
        label="Language"
        options={
          props &&
          editorConfig.language.selectItems.map((item: any) => {
            return {
              label: item.text ?? "",
              value: item.value?.toString() ?? "",
            };
          })
        }
        value={localModelState.language?.toString()}
        onValueChange={(value) => {
          let newState = { ...localModelState };
          newState.language = value;
          emitValueChange(newState);
        }}
      />
    </>
  );
};

export default CustomCriteriaEditor;

Bundling

To serve your custom criteria editor as a remote component that is useable in audiences, you should use webpack to bundle the JavaScript files. There are other options like vite; currently, you have only verified webpack functionality. The bundling process should as mentioned earlier output a CommonJS module. This is specified in the example below by specifying the libraryTarget to commonjs. Webpack is also instructed to treat react, axios, and ui-framework as externals, not needing to be bundled.

webpack.config.js

const path = require('path');

module.exports = {
	entry: './src/CustomCriteriaEditor.tsx',
	module: {
		rules: [{
			test: /\.tsx?$/,
			use: 'ts-loader',
			exclude: /node_modules/,
		}, ],
	},
	resolve: {
		extensions: ['.tsx', '.ts', '.js'],
	},
	output: {
		filename: 'CustomCriteriaEditor.js',
		libraryTarget: "commonjs",
		path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
	},
	externals: {
		react: "react",
		reactDOM: "react-dom",
		"@episerver/ui-framework": "@episerver/ui-framework"
	},
	mode: 'development'
};

The output.filename represents the js file to reference in your VisitorGroupCriterionAttribute in the ScriptUrl property, that decorates your C# implementation that inherits CriterionBase.

tsconfig.json

{
    "compilerOptions": {
      "outDir": "dist",
      "target": "es5",
      "jsx": "react",
      "esModuleInterop": true
    }
  }

Minimal configuration for TypeScript.

Example C# classes needed to run this React sample.

[VisitorGroupCriterion(
  Category = "Custom Criteria",
  DisplayName = "Custom Audience",
  Description = "Sample of a custom critera",
  ScriptUrl = "CustomCriteria/main.js")]
public class CustomCriterion: CriterionBase<CustomCriterionModel> {
  public override bool IsMatch(IPrincipal principal, HttpContext httpContext) {
    return System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.Name == Model.Language;
  }
} >

public class SimpleLanguageSelectionFactory: ISelectionFactory {
  public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> GetSelectListItems(Type propertyType) {
    return new List<SelectListItem> {
      new SelectListItem {
        Text = "English",
          Value = "en"
      },
      new SelectListItem {
        Text = "Swedish",
          Value = "sv"
      }
    };
  }
}

[EPiServerDataStore(AutomaticallyCreateStore = true, AutomaticallyRemapStore = true)]
public class CustomCriterionModel: CriterionModelBase, IValidateCriterionModel {
  [CriterionPropertyEditor(SelectionFactoryType = typeof (SimpleLanguageSelectionFactory))]
  public string Language {
    get;
    set;
  }

  public override ICriterionModel Copy() {
    return ShallowCopy();
  }

  public CriterionValidationResult Validate(VisitorGroup currentGroup) {
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Language)) {
      return new CriterionValidationResult(false, "Please select a Language");
    }

    return new CriterionValidationResult(true);
  }
}