Extending Document Manager metadata on assets

8 posts, 0 answers
  1. Gavin Pollock
    Gavin Pollock avatar
    62 posts
    Member since:
    Jan 2005

    Posted 22 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Hi there,

    I am thinking about a way to extend the Document/Image managers in the Editor to allow a user to store actual metadata about each item somewhere. It is similar in a way to the concept of your custom content provider:
    http://demos.telerik.com/aspnet-ajax/editor/examples/dbfilebrowsercontentprovider/defaultcs.aspx

    But really I am more interested in reading additional data about a file into fields on the properties tab and then allowing a way for the user to save it. I'm thinking the easiest route might be to have an xml document somewhere that I can store this metadata per item in. Then I need to override the Dialogs and build in code that loads the info into extra fields on the properties tab.

    Is there any existing framework I can tie into? Client-side or Server-side events? Or any existing examples of something similar to this?

    Many thanks
    Gavin
  2.
  3. Gavin Pollock
    Gavin Pollock avatar
    62 posts
    Member since:
    Jan 2005

    Posted 28 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Hey guys, any ideas on this?

    Cheers
    Gavin
  5. Dobromir
    Admin
    Dobromir avatar
    1633 posts

    Posted 28 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Hi Gavin,

    The recommended approach to achieve the required functionality is to implement a custom content provider to the RadEditor's dialogs, and pass that information as a custom attribute of the FileItem object, e.g.:
    // Create the FileItem
    {
        FileItem fileItem = new FileItem(filename, extension, length, path, string.Empty, string.Empty, permissions);
     
        // Add a custom attribute
        fileItem.Attributes.Add("CustomAttribute", "AttributeValue");
    }

    Then you can use the custom attribute in the dialog as highlighted bellow (getResult method may differ for the different dialogs):
    getResult: function ()
    {
        var newImage = this._imageProperties.getModifiedImage();
        if (newImage == null && this._currentItem)
        {
            //for example if image size is large and the user clicks insert before it is loaded.
            newImage = new Image();
            newImage.src = this._currentItem.get_url();
        }
      
        if (this._imageProperties.isThumbLinkChecked() && this._thumbOriginalUrl)
        {
            if (!newImage.style.border) newImage.style.borderWidth = "0px";
            var oDoc = newImage.ownerDocument;
            var oLink = oDoc.createElement("a");
            oLink.setAttribute("href", this._thumbOriginalUrl);
            if (this._imageProperties.isThumbNewWindowChecked())
            {
                oLink.setAttribute("target", "_blank");
            }
            oLink.appendChild(newImage);
            newImage = oLink;
        }
      
        var fileExplorer = this.get_browser().get_fileBrowser();
        var customAttribute = fileExplorer.get_grid().get_selectedItems()[0]._dataItem.Attributes.CustomAttribute
        newImage.setAttribute("alt", customAttribute);
      
        return newImage;
    },

    I hope this helps.

    Regards,
    Dobromir
    the Telerik team
    Vote for the 7 Telerik products at the 2011 Great Indian Developer Awards!
  7. Gavin Pollock
    Gavin Pollock avatar
    62 posts
    Member since:
    Jan 2005

    Posted 28 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Thanks Dobromir,

    So to check my understanding... I can create my Custom Content Provider, and in the override of GetFiles:

    protected FileItem[] GetFiles(DirectoryInfo directory, PathPermissions permissions, string location)


    I would add extra attributes to the FileItem objects.

    Then I would need to add extra UI code to actually do things with these attributes in the dialogs themselves? Which controls would these actually be where I would add in the getResult function?

    Cheers
    Gavin
  8.
  9. Gavin Pollock
    Gavin Pollock avatar
    62 posts
    Member since:
    Jan 2005

    Posted 28 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Thanks I got them... in DocumentManager.ascx etc.
  11. Gavin Pollock
    Gavin Pollock avatar
    62 posts
    Member since:
    Jan 2005

    Posted 28 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Is it possible to extend the FileBrowser.ascx control to add on of these Attributes to the columns? I can see the example at
    http://www.telerik.com/help/aspnet-ajax/radfileexplorer-adding-custom-columns.html

    But unsure how to go about this by extending the control.
  13. Dobromir
    Admin
    Dobromir avatar
    1633 posts

    Posted 30 Mar 2011 Link to this post

    Hi Gavin,

    In order to achieve the required result you need to add a WebUserControl to the FileBrowser.ascx. To access the RadFileExplorer on the server. You can use the approach provided in the this KB article.

    Greetings,
    Dobromir
    the Telerik team
    Vote for the 7 Telerik products at the 2011 Great Indian Developer Awards!
  15. Phil
    Phil avatar
    25 posts
    Member since:
    Sep 2012

    Posted 07 Jun 2012 Link to this post

    Hi

    We were using the JavaScript extended technique discussed here in the Image Manager, but it didnt work after upgrading to 2012 Q1 controls.
    It turns out it was due to new Client-side API changes, and moving from listing Images to showing as thumbnails.

    We found that modifying the JavaScript with the following solved this.

    fileExplorer.get_fileList().get_selectedItems()[0].Attributes

    Cheers
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