Using the Kentico API to generate a code name for your object

There may come a time when you find yourself creating new object in Kentico via the API. You may need to generate a code name. I’ve dug through some of the internal processes and assemblies and found the following methods:

CMS.GlobalHelper.ValidationHelper.GetIdentifier(object name)
CMS.GlobalHelper.ValidationHelper.GetCodeName(object name)

Let’s talk briefly about these.

GetIdentifier

This one is pretty straightforward if you use a reflection tool to examine the assembly and view the code. The first overload of the method actually calls into the second overload, which does a simple Regex removal of all non-alphanumeric characters, along with underscores. The 2nd overload allows you to specify the character used to replace offending characters with. It has the following signature:

public static string GetLanguage(object lang, string replacement)

GetCodeName

This method is significantly more complicated than the last. It features 8 overloads that each feature fewer default values and more parameters than the last. The most complicated overload has the following signature:

public static string GetCodeName(object name, string replacement, int maxLength, bool useUnicode, bool removeDiacritics, string allowedCharacters, bool useCamelCase)

Conclusion

Just remember that these methods do not prevent code name collisions from happening. If you’re worried about that, I think there is a EnsureUniqueCodeName() method on the BaseInfo abstract class that I think will take care of that.