Debugging Sitecore pipelines

June 16, 2011 by boro

A quick tip for checking data flowing through the Sitecore pipelines is to setup empty processors and then move them sequentially through the required pipeline.

An example for the pipeline:

using Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest;

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Pipelines.HttpRequest
{
    public class PipelineDebugger : HttpRequestProcessor
    {
        public override void Process(HttpRequestArgs args)
        {
            
        }
    }
}

using Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest;

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Pipelines.HttpRequest

{

public class PipelineDebugger : HttpRequestProcessor

{

public override void Process(HttpRequestArgs args)

{

}

Then add your debug point and dig into the args.

Some example usage for checking which site has been resolved:

&lt;processor type=&quot;Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.SiteResolver, Sitecore.Kernel&quot; /&gt;
&lt;processor type=&quot;###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Pipelines.HttpRequest.PipelineDebugger, ###.Domain.Cms&quot; /&gt;
&lt;processor type=&quot;Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.UserResolver, Sitecore.Kernel&quot; /&gt;

Sitecore Gutters for updated presentation

June 16, 2011 by boro

Sitecore gutters are a great way of seeing quick summaries of content within the tree. Some existing gutter options include Locked Items, Workflow State, Missing Versions and more. These can be toggled by right clicking in the left column of the content editor.

Its easy to build custom gutters – in the example above we have a new item available – ‘Custom Presentation’. When this is active on an item it shows:

Behind the scenes there is very little code to achieve this:

using System;
using System.Linq;
using ###.DataSource.Cms;
using Sitecore;
using Sitecore.Data.Fields;
using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Globalization;
using Sitecore.Shell.Applications.ContentEditor.Gutters;

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Shell.Applications.ContentEditor.Gutters
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Shows icon if layout field on item doesnt use presentation value set on __StandardValues
    /// </summary>
    public class PresentationGutter : GutterRenderer
    {
        protected override GutterIconDescriptor GetIconDescriptor(Item item)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(item, "item");

            Field layoutField = item.Fields[FieldIDs.LayoutField];

            //ItemKeys.Home is a hard coded Guid elswhere in the app
            if (layoutField == null || !item.Axes.GetAncestors().Any(a => a.ID.Guid == ItemKeys.Home))
            {
                return null;
            }

            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(layoutField.Value) && !layoutField.ContainsStandardValue)
            {
                GutterIconDescriptor descriptor = new GutterIconDescriptor();

                descriptor.Icon = "applications/16x16/document_into.png";

                descriptor.Tooltip = Translate.Text("Item doesn't have same presentation as standard values");

                return descriptor;
            }

            return null;
        }
    }
}

using System;

using System.Linq;

using ###.DataSource.Cms;

using Sitecore;

using Sitecore.Data.Fields;

using Sitecore.Data.Items;

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;

using Sitecore.Globalization;

using Sitecore.Shell.Applications.ContentEditor.Gutters;

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Shell.Applications.ContentEditor.Gutters

{

/// <summary>

/// Shows icon if layout field on item doesnt use presentation value set on __StandardValues

/// </summary>

public class PresentationGutter : GutterRenderer

{

protected override GutterIconDescriptor GetIconDescriptor(Item item)

{

Assert.ArgumentNotNull(item, "item");

Field layoutField = item.Fields[FieldIDs.LayoutField];

//ItemKeys.Home is a hard coded Guid elswhere in the app

if (layoutField == null || !item.Axes.GetAncestors().Any(a => a.ID.Guid == ItemKeys.Home))

{

return null;

}

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(layoutField.Value) && !layoutField.ContainsStandardValue)

{

GutterIconDescriptor descriptor = new GutterIconDescriptor();

descriptor.Icon = "applications/16x16/document_into.png";

descriptor.Tooltip = Translate.Text("Item doesn't have same presentation as standard values");

return descriptor;

}

return null;

}

Gutters then need to be added to the core database at ‘/sitecore/content/Applications/Content Editor/Gutters‘

Setup custom Sitecore MediaProvider

June 16, 2011 by boro

One of Sitecore’s most useful features is the plug-ability of functionality via the configuration factory. Its very easy to add or update custom implementations where necessary.

A typical programming model used throughout this is the Provider model – Membership, Roles, Item, Proxy… the list is endless. Unfortunately one provider thats not exposed in the config factory is the MediaProvider.

No problem, thanks to some help from support they suggested a way to get around this, you can tap into the initialise pipeline. Here is the patch file to enable this:

&lt;configuration xmlns:patch=&quot;http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/&quot;&gt;
  &lt;sitecore&gt;
    &lt;pipelines&gt;
      &lt;initialize&gt;
        &lt;processor patch:after=&quot;processor[@type='Sitecore.Pipelines.Loader.EnsureAnonymousUsers, Sitecore.Kernel']&quot; type=&quot;###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Pipelines.Loader.InitializeMediaProvider, ###.Domain.Cms&quot; /&gt;
      &lt;/initialize&gt;
    &lt;/pipelines&gt;   
  &lt;/sitecore&gt;
&lt;/configuration&gt;

</initialize>

</pipelines>

</sitecore>

</configuration>

This pipeline runs as the application intializes. Next you need the implementation of the pipeline processor:

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Pipelines;
using Sitecore.Resources.Media;

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Pipelines.Loader
{
    /// &lt;summary&gt;
    /// Sets the Provider for Sitecore's MediaManager to a custom version.
    /// &lt;/summary&gt;
    public class InitializeMediaProvider
    {
        public void Process(PipelineArgs args)
        {
            Assert.IsNotNull(args, &quot;args&quot;);

            MediaManager.Provider = new ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Resources.Media.MediaProvider();
        }
    }
}

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;

using Sitecore.Pipelines;

using Sitecore.Resources.Media;

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Pipelines.Loader

{

/// <summary>

/// Sets the Provider for Sitecore's MediaManager to a custom version.

/// </summary>

public class InitializeMediaProvider

{

public void Process(PipelineArgs args)

{

Assert.IsNotNull(args, "args");

MediaManager.Provider = new ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Resources.Media.MediaProvider();

}

And finally the custom implementation:

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Resources.Media
{
    public class MediaProvider : Sitecore.Resources.Media.MediaProvider
    {
        public override string GetMediaUrl(MediaItem item, MediaUrlOptions options)
        {
            ...
        }
    }
}

namespace ###.Domain.Cms.Specialization.Resources.Media

{

public class MediaProvider : Sitecore.Resources.Media.MediaProvider

{

public override string GetMediaUrl(MediaItem item, MediaUrlOptions options)

{

...

}

Our customization allowed us to push certain media extensions to known file types.

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Daily Archives: June 16, 2011

Debugging Sitecore pipelines

Sitecore Gutters for updated presentation

Setup custom Sitecore MediaProvider