Remembering Ancestors in MvcSiteMapProvider - mvcsitemapprovider

Question

I have a general need to maintain a reference to my ancestors as I traverse down the sitemap.
Mvc.sitemap
<mvcSiteMap xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns="http://mvcsitemap.codeplex.com/schemas/MvcSiteMap-File-4.0"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://mvcsitemap.codeplex.com/schemas/MvcSiteMap-File-4.0 MvcSiteMapSchema.xsd">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Home" controller="Home" action="Index" >
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Products" url="~/Home/Products" roles="*">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Harvest MAX" url="~/Home/Products/HarvestMAX" >
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Policies" url="~/Home/Products/HarvestMAX/Policy/List" productType="HarvestMax" type="P" typeFullName="AACOBusinessModel.AACO.HarvestMax.Policy" roles="*">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Policy" controller="Object" action="Details" typeName="Policy" typeFullName="AACOBusinessModel.AACO.HarvestMax.Policy" preservedRouteParameters="id" roles="*">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Counties" controller="Object" action="List" collection="Counties" roles="*">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="County" controller="Object" action="Details" typeName="County" typeFullName="*" preservedRouteParameters="id" roles="*">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Land Units" controller="Object" action="List" collection="LandUnits" roles="*">
<mvcSiteMapNode title="Land Unit" controller="Object" action="Details" typeName="LandUnit" typeFullName="AACOBusinessModel.AACO.LandUnit" preservedRouteParameters="id" roles="*">
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMapNode>
</mvcSiteMap>
Controller
[SiteMapTitle("Label")]
public ActionResult Details(string typeFullName, decimal id)
{
return View(AACOBusinessModel.AACO.VersionedObject.GetObject( typeFullName?.ToType() ?? Startup.CurrentType,
ApplicationSignInManager.UserCredentials.SessionId,
id));
}
There are many reasons I want this, but here are some specific examples.
Example 1: Vanishing ID's
Let's say the url that got me to the Policy node is http://localhost:36695/AACOAgentPortal/details/Policy/814861364767412.
Once I navigate down past that to the County node, my breadcrumbs looks like this:
However if I hover over the Policy breadcrumb, the url given is http://localhost:36695/AACOAgentPortal/Object/Details?typeName=Policy&typeFullName=AACOBusinessModel.AACO.HarvestMax.Policy. As you can see, the id is gone.
Example 2: Vanishing Titles
As you can see in my controller, I'm telling mvc sitemap that I want to use the Label property to display the node title. It does that when it's the leaf node:
But once I go past that, it disappears:
Both of these issues may have a common cause. There are other reasons why I may want a reference to an ancestor along the breadcrumb trail, but these are two concrete ones to exemplify the issue.

Answer 1

I solve this by keeping my objects in a hierarchy in session, and each object has the same key that it's node has so that it can find the node upon processing each request.
MenuItems.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using AtlasKernelBusinessModel;
using MvcSiteMapProvider;
using CommonBusinessModel.Commands;
using CommonBusinessModel.Extensions;
using CommonBusinessModel.Security;
namespace AtlasMvcWebsite.Code
{
[Serializable]
public class MenuItems : Dictionary<string, MenuItem>
{
#region Properties
public IEnumerable<Command> AvailableCommands
{
get
{
return CurrentItem?.Commandable?.AvailableCommands() ?? new List<Command>();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Each User has his own copy because it has to track his travel through the hierarchy
/// </summary>
public static MenuItems Current
{
get
{
return (MenuItems)(HttpContext.Current.Session["MenuItems"] =
HttpContext.Current.Session["MenuItems"] ??
new MenuItems());
}
}
private MenuItem currentItem;
public MenuItem CurrentItem
{
get
{
return currentItem =
CurrentNode == null ?
null :
this[CurrentNode.Key] =
ContainsKey(CurrentNode.Key) ?
this[CurrentNode.Key] :
new MenuItem(CurrentNode,
CurrentNode.ParentNode != null ? this[CurrentNode.ParentNode.Key] : null);
}
}
public ISiteMapNode CurrentNode { get; private set; }
#endregion
#region Methods
private void Build()
{
Build(SiteMaps.Current.RootNode);
}
private void Build(ISiteMapNode node)
{
foreach (var childNode in node.ChildNodes)
{
foreach (var att in node.Attributes.Where(a => !childNode.Attributes.Any(na => na.Key == a.Key)).ToDictionary(kvp => kvp.Key, kvp => kvp.Value))
{
switch (att.Key)
{
case "productType":
case "typeFullName":
case "typeName":
childNode.Attributes[att.Key] = att.Value;
childNode.RouteValues[att.Key] = att.Value;
break;
}
}
Build(childNode);
}
}
/// <summary>
/// We finally have an object from the details controller and we want to set it to the current menu item
/// </summary>
/// <param name="versionedObject"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public AtlasKernelBusinessModel.VersionedObject Set(AtlasKernelBusinessModel.VersionedObject versionedObject)
{
((ICommandable)versionedObject).UserAccess = User.Credentials.BusinessObjectAccessFor(versionedObject.ObjectType());
if (CurrentItem != null)
this[CurrentItem.Node.Key].Object = versionedObject;
//else
// for commands
//SiteMapNodeObjects[SiteMapNodeObjects.Last().Key] = versionedObject;
return versionedObject;
}
public void Sync()
{
//Build();
CurrentNode = SiteMaps.Current.CurrentNode;//cache value of current node
Values.ToList().ForEach(m => m.Sync());
}
#endregion
}
}
MenuItem.cs
using AtlasKernelBusinessModel;
using MvcSiteMapProvider;
using System;
using CommonBusinessModel.Commands;
namespace AtlasMvcWebsite.Code
{
[Serializable]
public class MenuItem
{
#region Constructors
public MenuItem(ISiteMapNode node, MenuItem parent)
{
Node = node;
Parent = parent;
}
#endregion
public ISiteMapNode Node;
public readonly MenuItem Parent;
private ICommandable commandable;
public ICommandable Commandable
{
get
{
return commandable;
}
}
private VersionedObject #object;
public VersionedObject Object
{
get
{
return #object;
}
set
{
#object = value;
Type = #object.GetType();
commandable = (ICommandable)#object;
Sync();
}
}
public Type Type;
public void Sync()
{
// sync the node to the object
if (Object == null) return;
Node = SiteMaps.Current.FindSiteMapNodeFromKey(Node.Key);
Node.Title = Type.GetProperty("Label").GetValue(Object).ToString();
Node.RouteValues["id"] = Object.Id;
}
public override string ToString()
{
return $"{Parent?.Node?.Title}.{Node.Title}";
}
}
}
Usage Example
var menuItem = MenuItems.Current.CurrentItem; // ensure current item exists
if (menuItem != null)
{
<!-- CHILD ITEM MENU -->
#Html.MvcSiteMap().Menu(menuItem.Node, true, false, 1)
<!-- COMMAND BUTTONS -->
if (!viewModel.ReadOnly)
{
#Html.DisplayFor(m => menuItem.Commandable.BusinessOperations.Commands)
}

Answer 2

When using preservedRouteParameters, the source of the values it retrieves is from the current request. Therefore, you cannot reuse id for a different purpose if you expect to navigate up the hierarchy. Also, you must ensure that all ancestral preservedRouteParameters are included in the current request or the URLs will not be built correctly.
There is a demo of how to use preservedRouteParameters here: https://github.com/NightOwl888/MvcSiteMapProvider-Remember-User-Position.