Thread: Extension Data

can anyone here please explain a step by step way of displaying an extension data of a product.. for example...

I have a product with a description and a specification...

i want to display the description in a tab and the specification on the other tab..

can you please help me out on how I can do this???

well, the tab part will depend on how you want to do it, usually CSS driven now. There are many tab scripts, and people on the forum here will surely suggest their own favorites. To bring out the data fields, from the XmlPackage, you just refer to them like we do the description, usually with disable-output-escaping set, so HTML is rendered. Try it out first on our simple product display formats, and make sure you get the hang of bring out different fields. you MAY have to add those new fields to the query/proc in the top of the package, if we are not bring the field out from the db by default (e.g. I don't think we bring summary out automatically).

can you please provide be example on how to bring out summary and data extension?

ok I got i working now

How can I format the extension data to display html..

I want it to display a list . <ul><li></li></ul>

but it will render it as text not html...

got the thing working....

cool

want to post a summary here? This is a very common thing to do. We can post this all in our manual (which no-one reads of course LOL) so hearing this all from a live customer is very helpful

[QUOTE=AspDotNetStorefront;70751]well, the tab part will depend on how you want to do it, usually CSS driven now. There are many tab scripts, and people on the forum here will surely suggest their own favorites. To bring out the data fields, from the XmlPackage, you just refer to them like we do the description, usually with disable-output-escaping set, so HTML is rendered. Try it out first on our simple product display formats, and make sure you get the hang of bring out different fields. you MAY have to add those new fields to the query/proc in the top of the package, if we are not bring the field out from the db by default ...

Where are the code examples of using Extension Data? And examples of how to stack data in the Extesnsion Data fields. I read the XML storage article in Knowledge base, but still need hard coding in the appropriate fields or code to understand what is intended. The manual has little to offer.

I would love to see an example as well.

Again, going to wholly depend on the xmlpackage you are using. Let's say for example you are using the product.simpleproduct.xml.config xmlpackage. This package uses the aspdnsf_ProductInfo stored procedure to retrieve data to be used in the xmlpackage. This is contained in a query node in the xmlpackage with a name of Products and a rowElementName of Product

Code:

<query name="Products" rowElementName="Product" runif="showproduct">
    <sql>
        <![CDATA[
            exec dbo.aspdnsf_ProductInfo @ProductID, @CustomerLevelID, 1, 0, @affiliateID
        ]]>
    </sql>

Essentially, this means that any data returned by the stored procedure will be found in the root/products/product node of the xml that the xmlpackage transforms (you can see this xml for yourself by setting debug="true" in the top of the xmlpackage, and then browsing to the page where the xmlpackage is being used)

Code:

<package version="2.1" displayname="Simple Product" debug="true" includeentityhelper="true">

Further down in the xmlpackage, you'll see

Code:

<xsl:template match="Product">

which is used as a starting point (for lack of a better word) for where the cursor in xml currently exists. Since the query places the data in root/Products/Product, anything that occurs within the Product template essentially places you at the /root/Products/Product node and you can access the nodes there directly. For extension data, you could do

Code:

<xsl:value-of select="ExtensionData" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

You could also get any other value returned in the Product node (again, to see this xml you can set debug="true" for the xmlpackage) just by referencing the name of the node

Code:

<xsl:value-of select="NodeName" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

If the value you need is not returned in the XML (let's say you've added a custom field or need to reference a field from the database that isn't returned by the sql query at the top of the package), you can modify the sql that is being called to return the value you need and then reference it the same way...or you can create an entirely separate query...give it your own name (instead of Products/Product) and then reference it in it's own template or using full path syntax (if you're only returning a single value and don't need to traverse through multiple child nodes)

Code:

<xsl:value-of select="/root/CustomQueryName/CustomQueryRowElementName/ValueYouRetrieved" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

Great Info. Thanks.

This article does provide some good value. I see how you can output additional fields by modifing the .config file. Now I can't seem to get how we can use the Extension Data area.

1) I went into the admin, found the category and entered '.......' into the Extension area textarea box.
2) I then went to my corresponding .xml.config file and added the line

C#/VB.NET Code:

<xsl:value-of select="ExtensionData" disable-output-escaping="yes"/> 


Should my data in the Extension Data now show up in the spot I put the new node? Do I have to turn on something so Extension Data works?