Session 1: Advanced Content Model

Wednesday 06 February 2007

Sitecore for Experts “Sitecore skills for real men”

Introduction to the subject

1. Wildcard Items2. Linkdatabase3. Proxy items4. Discussion: Relations

Questions & Additional readingEnd

Today’s Program

1. Single simple modelExamples: Yoursite.com

2. Simple division divided modelExamples: Yoursite.com/Divsion1, Yoursite.com/Division2

3. Multi site modelExamples: Yoursite.com, Yoursite.nl, Yoursite.dk, Yoursite.fr

4. Multi language modelExamples: Yoursite.com/Int, Yoursite.com/nl Yoursite.com/dk

5. Multi languagal and site modelExamples: Yoursite.com/Int, Yoursite.com/nl Yoursite.com/dk Yoursite.be/Int, Yoursite.be/nl Yoursite.be/fr

Different Content Models

• Sharing of navigation• Sharing of layouts• Sharing of applications• Sharing of news• And legal content• Relations in different sites and languages• Thesauri?

Different models have in common…

Sitecore solution schematic

1. Wildcards items

• It’s required to allow all kind of url’s. Even those who doesn’t represent an item in Sitecore.• You want to make sure you can validate your input• Without using the QueryString, you are still possible to pass parameter trough (SEO)

The case

Solution: Wildcards

Item resolving in the pipeline

1. Good argument to prevent the usage of the QueryString

2. Ability to control the return messages such as 404’s.3. It’s processed in the Pipelines, so it’s easily

extendable.4. Protects you against possible security issues such as

database injections

Advantages:

1. Aren’t able to set restrictions, so you have to write lots of code* for right processing.

2. No native code* support3. It’s processed in the Pipelines, so it’s might cxause

some preformence(not fully cachable on DataProvider level)

4. It responds by default as a valid page(in headers) but in your opinion this might not be right.

5. Support is limited to 4.3 and 5.3

Disadvantages:

* Code in this context means XSLT/C#/…?

    1 <xsl:template match="*" mode="main">    2   <!-- Retrieve the first level and display when exists -->    3   <xsl:variable name="level1" select="webutil:GetUrlName(0)" />    4   <xsl:if test="$level1 != ''">    5     <xsl:value-of select="$level1"/>    6     7     <!-- Retrieve the first level and display when exists -->    8     <xsl:variable name="level2" select="webutil:GetUrlName(1)" />    9     <xsl:if test="$level2 != ''">   10       &gt; <xsl:value-of select="$level2"/>   11     </xsl:if>   12   </xsl:if>   13 </xsl:template>

XSLT Usage Example

<% Sitecore.Data.Items.Item currItem = Sitecore.Context.Item; int currLevel = 0; int maxLevel = GetWebRootLevel(); do { Response.Write(currItem.DisplayName+ "<br/>"); Response.Write(currLevel + "<br/>"); Response.Write(GetUrlName(currLevel) + "<br/>"); Response.Write("<hr/>"); currItem = currItem.Parent; currLevel++; } while (currItem.Parent != null && currLevel <= maxLevel); %>

C# Usage Example

public string GetUrlName(Int32 index) {

string url = Sitecore.Web.WebUtil.GetRawUrl();

string path = url.Substring(1, url.LastIndexOf(".")-1);

string[] parts = path.Split("/".ToCharArray());

if (index < parts.Length) return parts[parts.Length - 1 - index]; else return ""; } public int GetWebRootLevel() { string path = Sitecore.Context.Site.ContentStartPath; return path.Split("/".ToCharArray()).Length; }

C# Usage Helpers

2. Linkdatabase

You want to have a full list:1.Family members in the Tree2.Items you do link to3.Items who links to you

The case

Solution: Linkdatabase

1. Easily access from the API (Item.Links, Sitecore.Links)2. Based on logical concept3. Very fast(no preformence penalties)

Advantages:

1. ‘Native’ not supported for XSLT2. Seperated database, which implicates sync problems.3. Hard to extend4. Not all fields are supported

Disadvantages:

* Code in this context means XSLT/C#/…?

private static Item[] GetFeedsInDatabase(Database database, Language language){   TemplateItem feedTemplate = database.Templates[Constants.FeedTemplateID];   if (feedTemplate == null)   {      return null;   }   // Get all items refering to the feed template   ItemLink[] links = Globals.LinkDatabase.GetReferers(feedTemplate.InnerItem);   if (links == null)   {      return null;   }   ArrayList result = new ArrayList(links.Length);   // and filter the referers - we dont need to include masters   foreach(ItemLink link in links)   {      if (link.SourceDatabaseName == database.Name)      {         Item item = database.Items[link.SourceItemID, language];         if ((item != null) && (IsMaster(item) == false))         {            result.Add(item);         }      }   }   return (Item[])result.ToArray(typeof(Item));}

C# Example

Where would you use this?• ‘Related to’ links on the bottom of news/articles• Navigations (Item groups, etc)• As the technical basis for a Thesauris solution• Others?

Possible cases

3. Proxy items

• You want to reuse content nodes in different trees or sites.• For SEO, you want to make sure /sitecore/content will not appear in URI’s.Or• Divide navigation management from content

The case

Proxy Items…

The solution

• Source item: The item to copy it from• Target item: Place where the item will be located• Exclude subitems: In or exclude subitems• Source database: Might be any database

Proxy template

Creation of Proxy items

1. Very fast as virtual items are also cached in the dataprovider

2. Easily to configure in the client(even more simple module available)

3. Very powerfull as the API seems to think it are real items

4. Ability to publish virtal items to real items for preformence improvements

Advantages:

1. Solution seems to change in every version of Sitecore?

2. Might be confusing for users3. There are no visible possibilities to select an item in

another database

Disadvantages:

• Item.RuntimeSettings.IsVirtualIndicates whether the item is a virtual item or not.

• Item.RuntimeSettings.IsExternalIndicates whether the source item is from a database other than the target database.

• Item.RuntimeSettings.OwnerDatabaseThe database that owns the source item. Note the Item.Database property will always return the target database!

Programmatically enable or disable proxies:• bool Sitecore.Context.ProxiesActiveEnable (set to true) or disable (set to false) proxies for the current session.

• Sitecore.Data.Proxies.ProxyDisablerDisable proxies for a block of code.

using (new Sitecore.Data.Proxies.ProxyDisabler()) { // Proxies disabled here}

Proxies in the API

4. Discussion: Relations

You want to create a collections of items, which aren’t always linked.

This collections should be changeable. And is the members of this collections should ofcourse be defined by your own criteria.

The case 1

That’s up to the experts…1.What are the requirements?2.What do you want to store?3.Where do you want to store it?4.How should it be retrievable?

The solution?

You want to create a collections of items divided by keywords or

maybe the alphabet. Preformence is not an issue.

How can we solve this?

The case 2

Some review questions:1.What kind of relations are available in Sitecore?2.Why do you want to introduce more relations?3.Are the examples provided clear? Do you have a better example?4.What would be a nice addition to Sitecore for extending the content model?

Next steps: Think about it!

• http://sdn5.sitecore.net• http://www.lfn.dk• http://www.alexeyrusakov.com/sitecoreblog/• http://sitecore.alexiasoft.nl

Next steps: Additional reading

This is your last change…

Questions?

Next month…

In the Sitecore API

Thank you for your attention!

And please, think about it and spread the word…

Mistakes, corrections and additions can be mailed to Alex de Groot: a.degroot@lectric.nl

The presentation is part of LECTRIC / Alex de Groot but can be used without any premission.

The end…