NestedDataModelCollection and [CustomEntity] int property with PreviewTitle only showing ID

[mcockrellsana]

Hello,

As the title suggests, I'm trying to figure out a solution to show the name of the custom entity in the NestedDataModelCollection when it shows on the Admin UI for editing in the list. Right now, if I set the [PreviewTitle] attribute on the [CustomEntity] property like so:

On a ICustomEntityDataModel

[Display(Name = "Rankings")]
    [NestedDataModelCollection(IsOrderable = true)]
    public ICollection<SchoolRankingDataModel> Rankings { get; set; }
}

public class SchoolRankingDataModel : INestedDataModel
 {
     [Display(Description = "Ranking Category")]
     [CustomEntity(RankingCategoryEntityDefinition.DefinitionCode)]
     [Required]
     [PreviewTitle]
     public int RankingCategory { get; set; }

     [Display(Description = "Score")]
     [Required]
     [PreviewDescription]
     public decimal Score { get; set; }

     [Display(Description = "Rank")]
     [Required]
     public int Rank { get; set; }
 }

This only shows the CustomEntity ID on the Admin UI editing screen when viewing the list. Is there a way to configure this, or route in a custom way for the listing to show the custom entities [PreviewTitle] property itself? I have [PreviewTitle] set on a string property in the custom entity that is being selected, but this seems to be ignored, and either only uses the int property or if I take it off of the int property, shows nothing.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[mcockrellsana]

[HeyJoel]

Unfortunately thats not a supported scenario. The preview title will just show the raw value of the property it annotates, and is only documented as working on strings.

It's a reasonable feature request, but it gets a bit tricky with dependency graphs and circular references.

[mcockrellsana]

Thanks for the response Joel, I figured it would be something a bit difficult.

I guess an alternative solution could be, to provide a custom OptionSource, that saves the value as the name (though I lose hard linkage through ID for other portions where this data is used) - and put a unique name validation on the custom entities themselves.