EPiServer 7: Save name/value pairs in epi database

Question

I'm trying to create a custom edit interface for a specific block type in EPi7.

I need to create a "+" button which brings up a modal popup where you can add name/value pairs and then save them in the episerver database. I know I can extend the user interface with DOJO.

What kind of property can I use to save name/value pairs, like a dictionary, to the database?

Any recommendations on how to do this?

Answer 1

Use string/longstring/xhtmlstring and save your data as json (preferably using Newtonsoft.Json as episerver themselves uses that library for json serialization) or xml, there are only a few number of data types supported in the episerver database due to how their page (or content as of cms7) data model is structured.

If you check their own properties, like LinkItemCollection, you will see that they serialize the links as xml and save them in a LongString property.