Thread: Complex Category Updating

If I had a category layout like the following:

Rods/Polls

1/2"

3/4"

1"

How would I add a 1 1/2" subcategory? Every time I try I end up with:

Rods

Polls

1 1

2"

The reason is that XPath doesn't allow the '/' character in a path and the WSI import mechanism doesn't allow the specifying the ParentEntityID.

I tried modifying the source code of WSI.vb to include this line in the ProcessEntity function just after all the initial Dim statements:

If ParentEntityID = 0 Then ParentEntityID = XmlCommon.XmlFieldNativeInt(node, "ParentEntityID")

While logically that should have worked, I can't get a clean compile with the source/solution that was provided.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It seems to me that WSI needs to be updated to allow Entity creation to support ParentEntityID.

Chris

I was able to get my modification to compile and that fixed the problem. I can now specify a ParentEntityID in the WSI XML and have it populate correctly in the database. So I have set up a table to keep track of the descriptive name of the categories and the ID that is assigned to them. When I want to add or delete a child of a category with a '/' in it I do a lookup in my custom table and then specify the ID directly.

It seems that this one line of code should be merged in to the code-base for WSI.

If anyone has any other suggestions about how something like this could be handled without modifications to the code-base for WSI I would like to hear them.

Chris

Not sure if you ever ran into the document named "ASPDNSF ERP Provider SyncV3.pdf". I don't have a link but I downloaded it from here somewhere.

Anyways... there's a section as follows:

To add a new category with a Name, XPath (used to specify location in the category is a
child of another category), Description, XmlPackage, and Published value, you could use
as follows:

Code:

XElement xeImport = new XElement("AspDotNetStorefrontImport", new XAttribute("Version",
"7.1"));
XElement xeCategory = new XElement("Entity",
new XAttribute("Action", "Add"),
new XAttribute("EntityType", "Category"),
new XElement("Name", "CategoryName"),
new XElement("XPath", "/Main Category/Sub Category/CategoryName"),
new XElement("Description", new XCData("category description")),
new XElement("Display",
new XElement("XmlPackage", "entity.gridwithprices.xml.config")),
new XElement("Published", true));
xeImport.Add(xeCategory);
DoIt(xeImport.ToString(SaveOptions.DisableFormatting));

The resulting xeImport in this case would be:

Code:

<AspDotNetStorefrontImport Version="7.1">
<Entity Action="Add" EntityType="Category">
<Name>CategoryName</Name>
<XPath>/Main Category/Sub Category/CategoryName</XPath>
<Description><![CDATA[category description]]></Description>
<Display>
<XmlPackage>entity.grid.xml.config</XmlPackage>
</Display>
<Published>true</Published>
</Entity>
</AspDotNetStorefrontImport>

I'm running into the same issue myself, and I'm about ready to test it. I agree though, it would make much more sense to be able to specify a ParentID for the entity.

When you come up with your solution, please let me know. I've found it to be a headscratcher myself.

What is wrong with the solution presented?

Originally Posted by cjbarth

What is wrong with the solution presented?

I've gotten to this section of my coding and I have to admit it's a bummer than I can't just specify the Parent ID. The part I dislike is that I have to make a call (via wsi) to get the parent's xpath (if there is one).

Just adds more communication that I'd prefer to have, but I want to ensure I have the correct XPath.

OP, if you are still having an issue with this, I can post some VB code showing how I do this.

When I mentioned about the solution presented I guess I was referring to the modification I made to add in processing for ParentID to WSI. I agree that the XPath solution doesn't work at all. It is slow and it doesn't work with all possible names of Categories.

Originally Posted by cjbarth

When I mentioned about the solution presented I guess I was referring to the modification I made to add in processing for ParentID to WSI. I agree that the XPath solution doesn't work at all. It is slow and it doesn't work with all possible names of Categories.

Sorry about that. I miss read you initial post.