EpiServer Extension methods

Following on from my previous post I realised that the majority of the Extension methods that I use in everyday coding are EpiServer related.

Here are some really useful ones:


/// <summary>
/// Gets the children.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static PageDataCollection GetChildren(this PageData page)
{
PageDataCollection children = new PageDataCollection();

if (page.PageLink != null && page.PageLink.ID > 0)
{
children = DataFactory.Instance.GetChildren(page.PageLink);

FilterPublished publishedDateFilter = new FilterPublished(PagePublishedStatus.Published);
FilterSort indexSorter = new EPiServer.Filters.FilterSort(FilterSortOrder.Index);

publishedDateFilter.Filter(children);
indexSorter.Sort(children);
}

return children;
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the external URL.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string GetExternalUrl(this PageData page)
{
string result = String.Empty;

if (page != null)
{
UrlBuilder builder = new UrlBuilder(page.LinkURL);

EPiServer.Global.UrlRewriteProvider.ConvertToExternal(builder, page, Encoding.UTF8);

result = builder.ToString();
}

return result;
}


/// <summary>
/// Returns a concrete PropertyData (or child class)
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <param name="propertyName">Name of the property.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static T ToProperty<T>(this PageData page, string propertyName) where T : PropertyData
{
return page.Property[propertyName] as T;
}

/// <summary>
/// Returns a PageData property or string.Empty if null
/// </summary>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <param name="propertyName">Name of the property.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string SafeProperty(this PageData page, string propertyName)
{
return (page.HasProperty(propertyName)) ? page[propertyName].ToString() : string.Empty;
}


/// <summary>
/// Gets the page for a Pagereference.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pageRef">The Pagereference.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static PageData GetPage(this PageReference pageRef)
{
return DataFactory.Instance.GetPage(pageRef);
}