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Custom Data Integration Provider - Provider Selection Not Persisting

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Martin Moen
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Posted on 27/10/2025 10:25:38
Hi forum!

I have an issue with custom integration provider not persisting the settings.
DynamicWeb Version: 10.18.12
 
Issue:
Custom Integration Providers (BaseProvider) are not persisting in Activity Groups.
 
Questions:
 
Attachments:

Replies

 
Dmitriy Benyuk Dynamicweb Employee
Dmitriy Benyuk
Posted on 27/10/2025 12:00:46
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This post has been marked as an answer

Hi Martin,
it is supported, but your code is not complete, so that is why it doesn't work.
Try to add:
1) one more constructor:
public TestSimpleProvider(XmlNode xmlNode)
        {
            ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(xmlNode);
            
            foreach (XmlNode node in xmlNode.ChildNodes)
            {
                switch (node.Name)
                {
                    case "SourceTestParameter":
                        if (node.FirstChild is not null)
                        {
                            SourceTestParameter = node.FirstChild.Value ?? "";
                        }
                        break;
                    case "DestinationTestParameter":
                        if (node.FirstChild is not null)
                        {
                            DestinationTestParameter = node.FirstChild.Value ?? "";
                        }
                        break;
                    case "Schema":
                        _schema = new Schema(node);
                        break;                    
                }
            }
        }

2)Change SaveAsXml method as shown here:
public override void SaveAsXml(XmlTextWriter textWriter)
        {
            if (textWriter is null)
                return;
            textWriter.WriteElementString("SourceTestParameter", SourceTestParameter);
            textWriter.WriteElementString("DestinationTestParameter", DestinationTestParameter);
            ((ISource)this).GetSchema().SaveAsXml(textWriter);
        }

BR, Dmitrij

Votes for this answer: 1
 
Martin Moen
Posted on 27/10/2025 12:23:43
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Hi Dmitrij!

Thank you for the solution! The XmlNode constructor and SaveAsXml fixes worked perfectly - settings now persist as expected.

However, we discovered a critical gap in the official documentation at:
https://doc.dynamicweb.dev/documentation/extending/integrations/newintegrationprovider.html

What's missing:

  1. XmlNode constructor - Completely absent from documentation, yet absolutely required for settings persistence
  2. Element name casing - Not specified that SaveAsXml element names must match property names in PascalCase
  3. Null check in SaveAsXml - Example doesn't include if (textWriter is null) return;
  4. Settings lifecycle - No explanation of when each constructor is called or why both are needed

Current documentation shows:

  • ✅ How to serialize (Serialize method)
  • ✅ How to write XML (SaveAsXml method)
  • ❌ How to deserialize (XmlNode constructor) ← Missing!

Suggested addition (below). Without this constructor, providers appear to save successfully (200 OK) but settings are lost when reopening the activity - exactly the issue we experienced.
Would greatly appreciate if this could be added to the documentation to help future developers avoid this confusion.

/// <summary>
/// Constructor for deserializing saved settings from XML
/// REQUIRED for settings persistence
/// </summary>
public MyProvider(XmlNode xmlNode)
{
    ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(xmlNode);
   
    foreach (XmlNode node in xmlNode.ChildNodes)
    {
        switch (node.Name)
        {
            case "SourceParameter":
                if (node.FirstChild is not null)
                {
                    SourceParameter = node.FirstChild.Value ?? "";
                }
                break;
            case "Schema":
                _schema = new Schema(node);
                break;
        }
    }
}

 

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