U4-3782 - Propertyeditor datatype JSON

I cannot replicate this, JSON values are stored as Ntext. This is the code that checks in PropertyValueEditor:

/// <summary>
/// Returns the true DataTypeDatabaseType from the string representation ValueType
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
public DataTypeDatabaseType GetDatabaseType()
{
    switch (ValueType.ToUpper())
    {
        case "INT":
        case "INTEGER":
            return DataTypeDatabaseType.Integer;
        case "STRING":
            return DataTypeDatabaseType.Nvarchar;
        case "TEXT":
        case "JSON":
        case "XML":
            return DataTypeDatabaseType.Ntext;
        case "DATETIME":
        case "DATE":
        case "TIME":
            return DataTypeDatabaseType.Date;
        default:
            throw new FormatException("The ValueType does not match a known value type");
    }
}

I've just tested this with a custom property editor of type JSON and it goes into the NText column in the db.

OK, then it probably has to do with the fact that I started with valueType = STRING and then changed it to JSON later on. At least what happened was that I had to go to the data type table and change Nvarchar to Ntext (manually) in order to make it save my data (string or binary data would be truncated exception was thrown on save).

Should I open a new issue about this or (I mean changing valueType in the package.manifest file)??

Cheers Joachim

Sure, if you open the issue please provide steps to replicate.

After some more work I looked in the cmsDataType table in the database and noticed that all my data types were set to Nvarchar. This puzzled me so I looked in my package.manifest to confirm the valueTypes were set to what I remembered - and they were (I use both INT, TEXT, JSON and STRING). I then looked into the code to see where the valueType was read when building the propertyeditors from the manifest - The deserialize method looks like this (from PropertyEditorConverter.cs)

protected override void Deserialize(JObject jObject, PropertyEditor target, JsonSerializer serializer) { if (jObject["editor"] != null) { //since it's a manifest editor, we need to create it's instance. //we need to specify the view value for the editor here otherwise we'll get an exception. target.ManifestDefinedPropertyValueEditor = new PropertyValueEditor ;

            //the manifest JSON is a simplified json for the validators which is actually a dictionary, however, the
            //c# model requires an array of validators not a dictionary so we need to change the json to an array 
            //to deserialize properly.
            JArray converted;
            if (TryConvertValidatorDictionaryToArray(jObject["editor"]["validation"] as JObject, out converted))
            {
                jObject["editor"]["validation"] = converted;
            }

        }
        if (jObject["prevalues"] != null)
        {
            target.ManifestDefinedPreValueEditor = new PreValueEditor();

            //the manifest JSON is a simplified json for the validators which is actually a dictionary, however, the
            //c# model requires an array of validators not a dictionary so we need to change the json to an array 
            //to deserialize properly.
            var fields = jObject["prevalues"]["fields"] as JArray;
            if (fields != null)
            {
                foreach (var f in fields)
                {
                    JArray converted;
                    if (TryConvertValidatorDictionaryToArray(f["validation"] as JObject, out converted))
                    {
                        f["validation"] = converted;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        base.Deserialize(jObject, target, serializer);
    }

The valueType is not read!

If I modify the method to the following:

    protected override void Deserialize(JObject jObject, PropertyEditor target, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (jObject["editor"] != null)
        {
            var valueType = jObject["valueType"] ?? "string";

            //since it's a manifest editor, we need to create it's instance.
            //we need to specify the view value for the editor here otherwise we'll get an exception.
            target.ManifestDefinedPropertyValueEditor = new PropertyValueEditor
                {
                    View = jObject["editor"]["view"].ToString(),
                    ValueType = valueType.ToString()
                };

            //the manifest JSON is a simplified json for the validators which is actually a dictionary, however, the
            //c# model requires an array of validators not a dictionary so we need to change the json to an array 
            //to deserialize properly.
            JArray converted;
            if (TryConvertValidatorDictionaryToArray(jObject["editor"]["validation"] as JObject, out converted))
            {
                jObject["editor"]["validation"] = converted;
            }

        }
        if (jObject["prevalues"] != null)
        {
            target.ManifestDefinedPreValueEditor = new PreValueEditor();

            //the manifest JSON is a simplified json for the validators which is actually a dictionary, however, the
            //c# model requires an array of validators not a dictionary so we need to change the json to an array 
            //to deserialize properly.
            var fields = jObject["prevalues"]["fields"] as JArray;
            if (fields != null)
            {
                foreach (var f in fields)
                {
                    JArray converted;
                    if (TryConvertValidatorDictionaryToArray(f["validation"] as JObject, out converted))
                    {
                        f["validation"] = converted;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        base.Deserialize(jObject, target, serializer);
    }

I get the expected behaviour.

Can you reproduce that?

Perhaps you are putting your valueType in the wrong place?

I've just noticed that the first example documentation is wrong - will update: http://umbraco.github.io/Belle/#/tutorials/manifest

But if you look further down, all of these fields:

hideLabel: true,
valueType: "TEXT",
validation: {},
isReadOnly: false 

belongs under the 'editor' item.

FYI, this totally helped me. I was getting the same issue until I realized the 'valueType' had to be set.

Cheers.