Update BlockData custom property for nodes and entries

3 min

Starting in Version 7.3.0 of Optimizely Service API, you can use custom properties with BlockData type in nodes and entries for GET, PUT, and POST endpoints with JSON format.

Sample

The following code sample defines a BlockData property class for nodes and entries:

[ContentType(DisplayName = "Header Component", GUID = "625221a8-e7e4-4d78-b099-e8d472b83ed2")]
 public class HeaderBlock : BlockData
 {
     [Display(Name = "Title", GroupName = "Header", Order = 20)]
     [CultureSpecific]
     [Required]
     public virtual string Title { get; set; }

     [Display(Name = "Date", GroupName = "Header", Order = 25)]
     [CultureSpecific]
     public virtual DateTime Date { get; set; }

     [Display(Name = "Number", GroupName = "Header", Order = 26)]
     [CultureSpecific]
     public virtual int Number { get; set; }

     [CultureSpecific]
     [Display(Name = "Main body", GroupName = "Header", Order = 27)]
     public virtual XhtmlString MainBody { get; set; }

     [CultureSpecific]
     [Display(Name = "Page Reference", Order = 14)]
     public virtual PageReference PageReference { get; set; }

     [CultureSpecific]
     [Display(Name = "ContentArea", Order = 8)]
     public virtual ContentArea ContentArea { get; set; }

     [CultureSpecific]
     [Display(Name = "ContentReference", Order = 21)]
     [UIHint(UIHint.AllContent)]
     public virtual ContentReference ContentItem { get; set; }
 }

The following code sample adds a property to products and nodes:

public class FashionVariant : VariationContent
 {
     [Searchable]
     [Tokenize]
     [IncludeInDefaultSearch]
     [BackingType(typeof(PropertyString))]
     [Display(Name = "Size", Order = 1)]
     public virtual string Size { get; set; }

     [Searchable]
     [CultureSpecific]
     [Tokenize]
     [IncludeInDefaultSearch]
     [BackingType(typeof(PropertyString))]
     [Display(Name = "Color", Order = 2)]
     public virtual string Color { get; set; }

     [Display(Name = "Color2", Order = 3)]
     public virtual string Color2 { get; set; }

     [Display(Name = "Header", Description = "", GroupName = "Header", Order = 10)]
     public virtual HeaderBlock HeaderBlock { get; set; }
 }

Updates

Before

GET – Does not return data of BlockData.

PUT and POST – Do not support BlockData.

After version 7.3.0

GET – Returns BlockData property data as below and other data is as before (truncated here for short).

{
  "MetaFields": [
    {
      "Data": [
        {
          "Language": "en",
          "Value": "{\"MainBody\":\"<p>content</p>\",\"ContentArea\":[{\"Name\":\"Exported Catalog Files\",\"ContentGroup\":\"\",\"ContentLink\":\"6\",\"TypeIdentifier\":\"episerver.commerce.catalog.contenttypes.catalogimportexportfolder\",\"ContentTypeName\":\"CatalogImportExportFolder\",\"RoleIdentities\":[],\"Attributes\":{},\"ContentGuid\":\"ad102694-cada-3df9-9c12-1eb275648801\",\"InlineBlockData\":null,\"ContentTypeId\":44,\"InlineBlockDataIndex\":0}],\"pagereference\":\"26\",\"Title\":\"tiddddddtile\",\"ContentItem\":\"25\",\"Date\":\"2025-03-05T17:00:00Z\",\"Number\":323,\"contentTypeGuid\":\"625221a8-e7e4-4d78-b099-e8d472b83ed2\"}"
        }
      ],
      "Name": "HeaderBlock",
      "Type": "LongString"
    }
  ]
}

Based on JSON format from GET endpoint, you can update BlockData type property as MetaField by using PUT and POST endpoints.

Optimizely supports nodes and entries and does not support DraftNode and DraftEntry. The following list are the supported data types:

Primitive data types, such as string, number, and datetime

XhtmlString

PageReference

ContentArea

ContentReference