value-converters.md

Sometimes, you want to use your custom types in your models and let the IDeliveryClient to deserialize their values. This can be achieved by using so-called "value converters".

You simply decorate properties of models with an attribute implementing the Kontent.Ai.Delivery.Abstractions.IPropertyValueConverter<T> interface.

Model:

[NodaTimeValueConverter]
public ZonedDateTime PostDate { get; set; }

Converter:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property)]
public class NodaTimeValueConverterAttribute : Attribute, IPropertyValueConverter<string>
{
	public Task<object> GetPropertyValueAsync<TElement>(PropertyInfo property, TElement element, ResolvingContext context) where TElement : IContentElementValue<DateTime>
	{
		var udt = DateTime.SpecifyKind(element.Value, DateTimeKind.Utc);
		return Task.FromResult((object)ZonedDateTime.FromDateTimeOffset(udt));
	}
}

Usage:

var item = await client.GetItemAsync<YourModelType>("codename");
ZonedDateTime dt = item.Item.PostDateNodaTime; // Your custom-typed property

See a sample unit test.