Orchard Custom Widget with Form - asp.net

Question

I built a custom module that manages appointments for a service-based company. All of the current functionality is contained in the admin section. I have not used a single ContentItem or ContentPart. All the models are just plain records.
I'm looking to create a widget to expose the ability to sign up for an appointment from the front end. I have a partial view and a controller that handles the display and form submit, but I'm not sure how to tie that into a widget that can be placed in one of the content zones of the front-end.
I've spent quite a bit of time researching this, and can't find a good path to follow. (I've tried a few and got sub-optimal results)
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The best answer for me was to create a widget Type definition in the migration.cs file of the module:
ContentDefinitionManager.AlterTypeDefinition("CreateAppointmentWidget",
cfg => cfg
.WithPart("WidgetPart")
.WithPart("CommonPart")
.WithSetting("Stereotype", "Widget"));
Then create a handler for that widget at /MyModule/Handlers/CreateAppointmentWidgetHandler.cs:
public class CreateAppointmentWidgetHandler : ContentHandler
{
private readonly IRepository<FieldTechRecord> _repository;
public CreateAppointmentWidgetHandler(IRepository<FieldTechRecord> repository)
{
_repository = repository;
}
protected override void BuildDisplayShape(BuildDisplayContext context)
{
base.BuildDisplayShape(context);
if (context.ContentItem.ContentType == "CreateAppointmentWidget")
{
CreateAppointmentViewModel model = new CreateAppointmentViewModel(_repository.Fetch(x => x.IsActive));
context.Shape.AppointmentModel = model;
}
}
}
Then create a matching widget template at /MyModule/Views/Widget-CreateAppointmentWidget.cshtml that inserts the Partial View:
#Html.Partial("CreateAppointment", (MyModule.Models.Views.CreateAppointmentViewModel)Model.AppointmentModel)
The above code grabs the partial view /MyModule/Views/CreateAppointment.cshtml.
Thanks to Giscard's suggestion, I was able to correct the links rendered from CreateAppointment.cshtml by using #Url.RouteUrl() and defining named routes to point where I needed the action and ajax requests to go.
The nice thing about this solution is that it provided a way to create the widget without having to rework my models to use Orchards ContentPart functionality.

Answer 2

Something is not connecting in my head, because I have been able to create a theme with zones, and then dispatch a shape from my module into that zone without much more than doing #Display.Shape(). So I am curious if it's absolutely necessary to use a handler to override the BuildDisplayShape.
Again, this is in the scenario where you have models as plain records (not using ContentItem or ContentPart - and even if not using them, you've shown an example of creating one through migrations).
Something like this - Controller:
public ShapeResult MyShape()
{
var shape = _orchardServices.New.MyPath1_MyShape();
return new ShapeResult(this, shape);
}
Then create a MyShape.cshtml shape with whatever code I have (no need for example).
NOTE: I use a custom IShapeTemplateHarvester file which adds paths where I can store my shapes (instead of using "Views", "Views/Items", "Views/Parts", "Views/Fields", which is the stock in Orchard). It goes something like this:
NB: I hate that code doesn't automatically wrap in SO.
[OrchardSuppressDependency("Orchard.DisplayManagement
.Descriptors.ShapeTemplateStrategy.BasicShapeTemplateHarvester")]
public class MyShapeTemplateHarvester : BasicShapeTemplateHarvester,
IShapeTemplateHarvester
{
public new IEnumerable<string> SubPaths()
{
var paths = base.SubPaths().ToList();
paths.Add("Views/MyPath1");
paths.Add("Views/MyPath2");
return paths;
}
}
Say I have Index.cshtml in my Theme. I have two choices (I use both and use the Theme as the default presentation).
Index.cshtml in Theme folder:
#*Default Content*#
Index.cshtml in Module folder:
#*Special Content overriding Theme's Index.cshtml*#
Display.MyPath1_MyShape()
Even better for me is that I can do this in the Index.cshtml in Theme folder:
#*Whatever content*#
Display.MyPath1_MySecondShape()
There is no ~/MyPath1/MySecondShape.cshtml in the Theme, but there is one in the Module, which the Theme displays! This is great because I can have a special Theme and have multiple modules (that are placed on separate sites) go back and forth with the theme (think Dashboard for different services in the same profession on different sites).
NOTE: The above may only be possible with IThemeSelector implementation such as:
public class MyThemeSelector : IThemeSelector
{
public ThemeSelectorResult GetTheme(RequestContext context)
{
if (MyFilter.IsApplied(context))
{
return new ThemeSelectorResult { Priority = 200,
ThemeName = "MyDashboard" };
}
return null;
}
}
Just my two bits.