In part 1 you saw what Sitecore items were created to for the data exchange process. In part 2 you saw how the backend was connected and the classes defined in the Converters section. In this part I wanted to talk briefly about the item models that are defined for data exchange framework. You can find the source code here for reference.

This is a snapshot of each folder that was created and the corresponding class file. You can see there is a Models folder.

RedditFeedFieldValueValueAccessorItemModel.cs

As mentioned in the previous blog a ItemModel is used to defined the field name for the Value Accessor fields. Using this method is a good practice if you need to rename the field and makes the accessor code cleaner.

The name corresponds to the filed name of the template used for Value Accessor fields.

RedditReadStepItemModel.cs

As shown in the last blog in the RedditEndPointConverter class the RedditReadStepItemModel is used to correspond to the field name that holds the selection to the required EndPoint. As the previous item model mentioned this a good practice if you need to rename the field and makes the code cleaner.

Sitecore ItemModel class

The ItemModel Sitecore method that this item models inherit from is below.

So this blog was brief, but hopefully it gives a little glimpse of the value of having the item models defined. In part 4 I will get into the pipeline step processor. The most important piece that brings the functionality together. Let me know if you have any questions.