Contentful.ModelsGenerator.Cli

A dotnet CLI to automatically generate strongly typed C# models/DTO's from Contentful contenttypes.

The generated classes are based on the content-types in your Contentful space/environment and are generated as .NET/C# partial records with properties that match the (required or optional) fields in the content-types. The generated files do have a dependency on Contentful.Core.Models in the contentful.csharp-package.

This project is a clone and refactor of the Contentful.ModelsCreator.Cli that at the time of creating this project ran on .NET Core 2.1. This repository is now a public archive. The Contentful.ModelsGenerator.Cli is a .NET 8.0/9.0 project and is intended to be used in projects with the same or newer version number. It fixes some issues in the original project and adds some new features like:

1. using records
2. making required/optional explicit
3. generate the types as partial
4. generate the types with an internal or public access modifier

Prerequisites

The CLI tool uses the "global tools" feature of .NET 8.0/9.0 and requires the .NET SDK to be installed: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/ .

Before installation the project must be published and packed (default to Nuget). Otherwise, run this command as a console app (Debug | Start without debugging).

Installation

Run dotnet tool install -g contentful.modelsgenerator.cli from your command line.

Usage

Once installed you should now be able to run contentful.modelsgenerator.cli --help to list all the available commands.

• Miscelenious parameters:

  • -h to list this help
  • -v to show the version of the tool installed

• Parameters for communicating with Contentful:

  • -k or -apikey: sets the Contentful (delivery) Api Key. Required.
  • -s or -spaceid: sets the Contentful Space id of your Contentful instance Required.
  • -e or -environment: specifies the environment that contains the content-types that need to be generated. Optional, defaults to master.

• Code generation parameters:

  • -ns or -namespace: sets the namespace for the classes being created, Optional, defaults to Contentful.Models.
  • -f or -force: a flag that forces an overwrite of any existing files. Optional, default is true.
  • -p or -path: sets the output folder where the class files should be generated. Optional, defaults to a Models-folder under the current directory.
  • -i or -internal: a flag to generate the classes with an internal access modifier. Optional, is default false. If omitted classes will be generated with a public access modifier. If -i is provided, an internal access modifier is used.

Examples

Running contentful.modelsgenerator.cli -k YOUR_API_KEY -s YOUR_SPACE_ID -e YOUR_ENVIRONMENT will create a number of public classes (records) in a Models-folder under your current working directory.

If you want to specify the namespace of the created classes use the -ns switch: contentful.modelsgenerator.cli -k YOUR_API_KEY -s YOUR_SPACE_ID -e YOUR_ENVIRONMENT -ns MyProject.ASubNamespace.Models

If you want to specify the path to create the DTO's in use the -p switch: contentful.modelsgenerator.cli -k YOUR_API_KEY -s YOUR_SPACE_ID -e YOUR_ENVIRONMENT -p c:\\\\projects\\MyProject\\ASubNamespace\\Models

If you want to run the tool direclty from within Visual Studio, add a Properties\launchSettings.json-file to the project with the following content:

{
  "profiles": {
    "ModelsGenerator.Cli": {
      "commandName": "Project",
      "commandLineArgs": "-k MY_APIKEY -s MY_SPACE_ID -e MY_ENVIRONMENT"
    }
  }
}

Using the generated code

The generated code contains, besides one file per content type, also a file called GeneratedContentTypeResolver.g.cs. For the Contentful client to be able to deserialize the content types, this file is needed. It also is advised to use the ResolveEntriesSelectively-option in the ContentfulOptions-object when creating the client.

See the code below:

public IContentfulClient BuildClient()
{
    var options = new ContentfulOptions
    {
        DeliveryApiKey = "MY API KEY",
        SpaceId = "MY SPACE ID",
        Environment = "My ENVIRONMENT",
        UsePreviewApi = false,
        ResolveEntriesSelectively = true,
    };

    return new ContentfulClient(factory.CreateClient(nameof(ContentfulClientBuilder)), options)
    {
        ContentTypeResolver = new GeneratedContentTypeResolver()
    };
}

Note: A big thank you to @kheurterincentro for explaining some of the hidden SDK internals and providing the initial implementation of the ContentTypeResolverWriter.

An implementation example can be found here.