How do you do that? Well I google several things and found Javier G. Lozano’s Great Example and some others that would work very good. Of course I was not satisfied with that, oh no I had to take it up a level and ask what if I wanted the property names different. Well that is where reflection & custom attributes comes in.

Let’s say my sql query returns a datatable with the following columns:

• Art_ID
• CMR
• Client_Number
• Artwork_Number

But my object has the following properties:

• ID
• CMR
• ClientNumber
• ArtNumber

They do not match. We could loop through the datatable and fill a list that way, but it is not very reusable.

Step 1:

Create custom attribute class:

Add the custom attributes to your properties:
public class myArtwork
{
[ArtworkName("Art_ID")]
public int ID { get; set; }

public string CMR { get; set; }

[ArtworkName("Client_Number")]
public string ClientNumber { get; set; }

[ArtworkName("Artwork_Number")]
public string ArtNumber { get; set; }
}
Step 3:
Create an extension class:
public static IList ConvertTo(this DataTable dt)
{
IList list = null;

if (dt.Rows.Count>0)
{
list = new List();

foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
{
T item = Activator.CreateInstance();

var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties();

foreach (var p in properties)
{
var fieldnames = p.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ArtworkName), false);

if (fieldnames.Count() > 0)
{
var fn = fieldnames[0] as ArtworkName;

p.SetValue(item, row[fn.FieldName], null);

}
else
{
if (dt.Columns.Contains(p.Name))
{
p.SetValue(item, row[p.Name], null);
}
}

}

list.Add(item);
}
}

return list;
}

}
Step 3 explained some:

1. Get all the properties of your object:
   var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties();
2. Loop through the collection of properties:
   foreach (var p in properties)
3. Get the custom attribute for the current property:
   var fieldnames = p.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ArtworkName), false);
4. Get the field name from the custom attribute: *Note: Since my custom atribute had only one element, I know it would be the first one.
   var fn = fieldnames[0] as ArtworkName;
5. Populate the property change with the current row value:
   p.SetValue(item, row[fn.FieldName], null);
6. Repeat

Here is the whole thing:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;

namespace TestDTToList
{
public class myArtwork
{
[ArtworkName("Art_ID")]
public int ID { get; set; }

public string CMR { get; set; }

[ArtworkName("Client_Number")]
public string ClientNumber { get; set; }

[ArtworkName("Artwork_Number")]
public string ArtNumber { get; set; }
}

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property,AllowMultiple = true)]
public class ArtWorkName : Attribute
{
public ArtworkName(string fieldname)
{
FieldName = fieldname;
}
public string FieldName { get; set; }
}

public static class DataTableHelper
{

public static IList ConvertTo(this DataTable dt)
{
IList list = null;

if (dt.Rows.Count>0)
{
list = new List();

foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
{
T item = Activator.CreateInstance();

var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties();

foreach (var p in properties)
{
var fieldnames = p.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ArtworkName), false);

if (fieldnames.Count() > 0)
{
var fn = fieldnames[0] as ArtworkName;

p.SetValue(item, row[fn.FieldName], null);

}
else
{
if (dt.Columns.Contains(p.Name))
{
p.SetValue(item, row[p.Name], null);
}
}

}

list.Add(item);
}
}

return list;
}

}
}

• Custom post types in WordPress
• Including Page Templates from a WordPress Plugin
• WordPress Custom Post Type Code Generator

To display the widget I extend the widget function.

  function widget($args, $instance){
	extract( $args );
    	$title = apply_filters( 'widget_title', $instance['title'] );	
    	$nextSunday = strtotime("next sunday");
	$wn = ceil( date( 'j', $nextSunday) / 7 );
	$ldom = mktime(0, 0, 0, (date('m') + 1), 0, date('Y'));
		
	$diff = round(abs($nextSunday-$ldom)/86400);
	$text = "";
				
	switch ($wn) {
    	  case 1:
            $text= $instance['Sunday1'];
            break;
    	  case 2:
            $text= $instance['Sunday2'];
            break;
    	  case 3:
             $text= $instance['Sunday3'];
             break;
          case 4:
             if (diff>=7){
        	$text= $instance['Sunday4'];
             }else {
        	$text= $instance['Sunday5'];
             }
           break;
           case 5:
        	$text= $instance['Sunday5'];
        	break;
	}?>
		
		<?php echo $before_widget; ?>
		
		<div class="clsPageContent">
		
		
		<?php if ($title) { echo $before_title 
                                           . "<h3>" 
                                           . $title 
                                           . "" 
                                           . $after_title; } ?>
		
		<ul>
			<li>Sunday:</li>
			<li>< ?php echo $text ?> </li>
			<li> </li>
			<li>< ?php echo  $instance['MidWeekName'] ?> :</li>
			<li>< ?php echo  $instance['MidWeekTime'] ?> </li>
		</ul><ul>
		
		<p>
			< ?php echo  $instance['ExtraMessage'] ?>
		</p>
		</ul></div>
		
		< ?php echo $after_widget; ?>
		
    	< ?php
	
	}

Of course you need to have enter the information.

function form($instance){
      $defaults = array( 'title' => 'Example', 
                         'name' => 'John Doe', 
			'Sunday1' => '10 AM and 5 PM',
			'Sunday2' => '2 PM and No Evening Service',
			'Sunday3' => '10 AM and 5 PM',
			'Sunday4' => '10 AM and 5 PM',
			'Sunday5' => '10 AM and No Evening Service',
			'MidWeekName' => 'Monday',
			'MidWeekTime' => '7 PM',
			'ExtraMessage' => ''
			);
								
       $instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, $defaults ); ?>
			
	<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>"> Title:</label>
	<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'title' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'title' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['title']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
		<br/>
		<br/>
					
	<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday1' ); ?>"> First Sunday:</label>
	<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday1' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'Sunday1' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['Sunday1']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
		<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday2' ); ?>"> Second Sunday:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday2' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'Sunday2' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['Sunday2']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday3' ); ?>"> Third Sunday:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday3' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'Sunday3' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['Sunday3']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday4' ); ?>"> Fourth Sunday:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday4' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'Sunday4' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['Sunday4']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday5' ); ?>"> Fifth Sunday:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'Sunday5' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'Sunday5' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['Sunday5']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
					<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'MidWeekName' ); ?>"> Mid Week Service:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'MidWeekName' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'MidWeekName' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['MidWeekName']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'MidWeekTime' ); ?>"> Mid Week Time:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'MidWeekTime' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'MidWeekTime' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['MidWeekTime']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
					<br/>
					
					<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'ExtraMessage' ); ?>"> Extra Message:</label>
					<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( 'ExtraMessage' ); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name( 'ExtraMessage' ); ?>" value="<?php echo $instance['ExtraMessage']; ?>" style="width:100%;" />
					<br/>
			<?php
	}

Here is the file to download and install:Sunday Widget

Example:

1. Church is at 10am and 5pm
2. Church is at 2pm and no evening service
3. Church is at 10am and 5pm
4. if last sunday of month then 10am and no evening service else 10am and 5pm
5. Church is at 10am and no evening service

So how do you figure out how to do this?

PHP has a great function called strtotime. It will take plain english and return a unix timestamp. You then take that date and get it’s week number and divide by 7 and take the ceiling and …. let me just show you the code.

try {
     $nextSunday = strtotime("next sunday");
     $wn = ceil( date( 'j', $nextSunday) / 7 );
     $ldom = mktime(0, 0, 0, (date('m') + 1), 0, date('Y'));

     $diff = round(abs($nextSunday-$ldom)/86400);

     switch ($wn) {
          case 1:
               echo "First Sunday";
             break;
          case 2:
               echo "Second Sunday";
             break;
          case 3:
               echo "Third Sunday";
             break;
         case 4:
              if (diff>=7){
                   echo "Fourth Sunday";
              }else {
                   echo "Last Sunday";
              }
            break;
         case 5:
             echo "Last Sunday";
         break;
       }

     echo "<br />";
   }
     catch(Exception $e) {
     echo($e);
   }

See that makes sense right? Ok it took me a little bit too. Next post I hope to show how to wrap this into a wordpress widget.

Happy Coding