How to render out a multivalue component link to link list components in DXA

Question

• I am using DXA 1.7.
• I have a schema with a component link field called navigationSet.
• navigationSet is multivalue field
• navigationSet links to only a LinkList

My footerNavigation model looks something like this:

public class GlobalFooterNavigation : EntityModel
{
    [SemanticProperty("c:navigationSet")]
    public List<Link> NavigationSets { get; set; }

}

I've created the NavigationSets model to look like this, which essentially a duplicate of LinkList

[Serializable]
public class NavigationSet<T> : EntityModel
{
    public string Headline { get; set; }
    public List<T> Links { get; set; }
    public NavigationSet()
    {
        Links = new List<T>();
    }
}

Unfortunately, I still cannot access the Headline inside of my template:

@model GlobalFooterNavigation

<div class="footer-navigation">
    <div class="footer-panel">
        @if (Model.NavigationSets != null)
        {
            foreach (var navigationSet in Model.NavigationSets)
            {

                <div class="footer-panel-inner">
                    <h3>@navigationSet.Headline</h3> <!--comes up empty -->
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href="#">Contact company</a></li>    
                    </ul>
                </div>
            }
        }

am I making a mistake in the model, the template, or both?

Answer 1

I was mostly making a mistake in my initial model for my component

    public class GlobalFooterNavigation : EntityModel
    {

    [SemanticProperty("c:navigationSet")]
    public List<NavigationSet> NavigationSets { get; set; }

    }

I wanted my NavigationSet to be a list. I was a copy-pasta of LinkList, but I found that I could simplify it a bit. Since I limited the schema field to only be able to link to LinkList components, I don't have to have a generic type.

[Serializable]
public class NavigationSet : EntityModel
{
    public string Headline { get; set; }
    public List<Link> Links { get; set; }
}

This pattern would work any time I have a multivalue component link field, but it's a component link field for exactly one type of component.

This now enables the following, in the template:

<div class="footer-panel desktop-only">
    @if (Model.NavigationSets != null)
    {
        foreach (var navSet in Model.NavigationSets)
        {

            <div class="footer-panel-inner">

                <h3>@(navSet != null ? navSet.Headline: String.Empty)</h3>
                <ul>
                    @foreach(var navLink in navSet.Links)
                    {
                        <li>
                            <a href="@navLink.Url">@navLink.LinkText</a>
                        </li>
                    }
                </ul>
            </div>
        }
    }
</div>