Use 2sxc Instances or App-Data from External C# Code

Warning

This is obsolete documentation for older versions of 2sxc and not best practice. We left it here for old-timers who may still need to use this.

Please use Use 2sxc Instances or App-Data from External C# Code instead.

If you can in any way, do not use this, these APIs are deprecated.

Sometimes you want to leverage 2sxc to create a solution, provide data input etc. but want to output or re-use the data in your own Module, Skin, Script or something else. This is easy to do.

Simple Example

Imagine this was your C# code in your WebForms Code-Behind:

// the app id
var appId = 42;

// create a simple app object to then access data
var appSimple = ToSic.Sxc.Dnn.Factory.App(appId);

// example getting all data of content type Tag
var tags = appSimple.Data["Tag"];

// example accessing a query
var tagsSorted = appSimple.Query["Tags sorted"];

// Creating an entity
var vals = new Dictionary<string, object>();
vals.Add("Tag", "test-tag");
vals.Add("Label", "Test Tag");

App.Data.Create("Tag", vals);

Example of Gaining Access to Links Managed in a simple 2sxc Content App

Imagine you have a theme using DDR Menu with Razor Templates. The theme has a MegaMenu and you want to include one or more featured links that will change often and those links are easily managed in the Content App using the Links Content-Type with any of the default Views.

Your C# code in your MegaMenu.cshtml file could get access to those Links like this:

// the details you need to know
// var appId = 2;       // Content App is usually 2, but thanks to DynamicCode, we don't need this
var tabId = 234;        // this is the page with the Links View on it
var modId = 678;        // this is the module ID of the Links View

// get the BlockBuilder
var block = ToSic.Sxc.Dnn.Factory.CmsBlock(tabId, modId);

// the get the DynamicCode instance (Code.DnnDynamicCodeRoot) of the block
var dynCode = ToSic.Sxc.Dnn.Factory.DynamicCode(block);

// if we were running "inside" 2sxc, we would just do this:
// var links = AsList(Data["Default"]);
// but instead we use our magical DynamicCode instance like this
var links = dynCode.AsList(dynCode.App.Data["Default"]);

<ul>
foreach (var link in links) 
{
  <li>
    @link.EntityTitle, <a href="@link.Link">@link.LinkText</a>
  </li>
}
</ul>

Read also

History

  1. Introduced in 2sxc 08.03