Getting started with sensenet and the .Net client

In this tutorial we will connect to a sensenet service and load a collection of content items in a folder, using the .Net Client library for sensenet.

You'll find a similar sample application on GitHub.

If you already have an application set up with the client API, you can learn more about how to work with content items using this client API if you visit the following article.

Create a new console application

Create a new .Net console application either in command line (dotnet new), Visual Studio or VS Code.

Install the following NuGet packages:

SenseNet.Client
Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json
Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting
Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console

Add the following namespace registrations to the beginning of your Program.cs file:

using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using SenseNet.Client;
using SenseNet.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

Register services

Although this is a command line tool, we recommend using the same dependency injection technique as in a web application. This makes working with our features a lot easier.

// The default host builder adds all the necessary features
// for logging and configuration.
var host = Host.CreateDefaultBuilder()
    .ConfigureServices((context, services) =>
    {
        // add the sensenet client feature and configure the repository
        services
            .AddLogging(logging => logging.AddConsole())
            .AddSenseNetClient()
            .ConfigureSenseNetRepository(repositoryOptions =>
            {
                // Load configuration from a path of your choice.
                // This configuration should contain at least the repository url
                // and optionally authentication values.
                context.Configuration.GetSection("sensenet:repository").Bind(repositoryOptions);
            });
    }).Build();

Configuration

The registration code above loads connection values from configuration. It is also possible to simply set them here in source code, but making these things configurable is always a good idea.

A sample appsettings.json file.

{
    "sensenet": {
        "repository": {
            "url": "https://example.sensenet.cloud",
            "authentication": {
                "ClientId": "",
                "ClientSecret": "",
                "ApiKey": ""
            }
        }
    }
}

When you add a configuration file (like the default one above), please do not forget to set its Copy to output directory property so that .Net copies the file automatically when building the app.

Access the repository

A sensenet repository service is represented by an IRepository object. This is an instance that contains methods for creating or loading content items. You can get the repository through the IRepositoryCollection service the following way:

// Get the main entry point for the client API. In a web app you would
// get this service through the constructor of you controllers or other
// services.
var repositoryCollection = host.Services.GetRequiredService<IRepositoryCollection>();
// Get the repository instance. This instance is already set up with
// authentication, can be pinned or you can get it using this API 
// any number of times (as it is cached in the background).
var repository = await repositoryCollection.GetRepositoryAsync(CancellationToken.None);

Load and iterate through a content collection

First we want to load all child items in an existing folder.

var children = await repository.LoadCollectionAsync(repositoryPath, CancellationToken.None);

Iterate through the collection.

foreach (Content child in children)
{
    // process content items
    Console.WriteLine(child.Path);
}

To learn more about how to work with content items using this client API, please visit the following article.

Connect to multiple repositories

It is possible to register and access multiple repositories using this client API. In that case you have to configure the repositories by name:

services
    .AddSenseNetClient() // call this only once
    .ConfigureSenseNetRepository("repo1", repositoryOptions =>
    {
        context.Configuration.GetSection("sensenet:repo1").Bind(repositoryOptions);
    })
    .ConfigureSenseNetRepository("repo2", repositoryOptions =>
    {
        context.Configuration.GetSection("sensenet:repo2").Bind(repositoryOptions);
    });

Note that you have to configure urls and authentication separately for the two repositories. To work with these repositories you access the repository objects by name:

var repository1 = await repositoryCollection.GetRepositoryAsync("repo1", CancellationToken.None);
var repository2 = await repositoryCollection.GetRepositoryAsync("repo2", CancellationToken.None);

Connecting to multiple repositories is usually required in a migration or import/export scenario. In that case please consider using the Import-export tool or library that adds more features specifically for this use case.