The Sitecore Experience

Synkron to Sitecore Migration -Module

2011-03-10T14:34:00.002+01:00

When my team gets a new Sitecore project often we need to deal with some data migration and quite often it is some other CMS that we need to migrate to Sitecore.

We have migrated quite a few sites from Synkron to Sitecore and slowly we built a small but quite powerful migration tool for it instead of getting headaches over the versions and data schemas on every migration.

The Synkron conversion is made as a native Sitecore Application. All operations are Sitecore Jobs, so during the import you can still use Sitecore ;) without any problem.

Synkron to Sitecore App. OK, it is not a prettiest app in Sitecore but it gets job done. :)

User interface

1. Import media
Copies the Files from a location under Sitecore upload folder where a custom UploadWatcher creates the structure into media library

2. Import metadata
This is usually only used once to import the metadata tags from Synkron.

3. Import items
We have 2 .XML files that contains rules of import like Synkron item "x" becomes an item from "y" Sitecore template and one of configurations which says from which Synkron item to start the import, what is the Sitecore parent, default paths... etc...

4. Delete what was imported
Only deletes regular items, not media items , and only under the parent that it's configured into config.xml

5. Stop Importing
Stops the importing of the items.

A. Progress bar
Tells current progress of the import.

B. Number of processed item
Text box that shows how many items are imported in real time.

More technical info

Data is read on direct connection to the Synkron database from where with Stored Procedure, we are reading information and process it at different levels. Naturally we use Sitecore's API for every operation that concerns Sitecore part. (creating items.... changing templates etc.)

Media Library and Links
When the import is running all the links that contains Synkron media (files, images) are replaced with the corresponding Sitecore media links "/~/media/.. ashx".
We also keep the exact hierarchy from Synkron, this way we minimize editor re-training.

Modules
Synkron CMS like Sitecore CMS has many modules but we've only import SearchPlus as I have not seen much use to import more of them (yet). However, if modules is needed it just requires few lines of code to SP (all modules I have seen are pretty straight forward).

SEO (301 redirects)
When importing from Synkron, a table of mapping is filled with the old paths from Synkron like "swID.asp" and the new location like "/Home/myitem.aspx".
This table is used for redirecting the old link to the Sitecore links (if you click a link like "swID.asp" .. we'll know that you must be redirected to "/Home/myitem.aspx" ).

Of course migration is always something that requires some custom configuration and we’ve learned new thing about every migration. But now we can do that effectively with XML configuration and sometimes some changes to SP's in case there are some strange custom stuff in Synkron data.

Announcing: 23Video Module for Sitecore

2010-11-29T08:27:00.000+01:00

We've created the Sitecore module for creating seamless integration with 23Video.com. Uploading, managing and sharing videos in Sitecore using 23Video is simple and easy as 1-2-3.

Introduction
While Sitecore's Media Library is pretty good at storing lot of things, video files have their own needs once the website is starting to have plenty of them. The module allows you to continue working with familiar Sitecore Media Library as if the video would be stored on the local Media Library but we are sending in background the actual video file to 23video.com and stream it from there. This will ease load on your CMS servers and gives you dedicated streaming servers for videos from 23Video.com while whole video management is still been done through Sitecore Media Library.

If you are familiar with 23Video you may have noticed that 23 is a lot more than just a streaming server but since I, as a CMS Consultant, like to keep and maintain my data on Sitecore in order to better handle training, asset management, as well as getting full power of Sitecore OMS on analytics, I decided to use 23Video just as regular CDN.

The 23Video -Module provides several advantages over a standard Medial Library, such as:

External Storage for Video files
Fast Dedicated Streaming servers with CDN capabilities
Store in any common format and stream in FLV, MOV, AVI or M4V
Smaller Media Library / Disk usage

But the best part on this module is that you can just plugin to Sitecore and CMS Editors will not have to learn new tools, in fact in Editorial environment they probably won't even notice that the videos are not streamed from the Media Library.

Video reference pointing to 23Video in Sitecore Media Library

Technical details

Sitecore communicates with 23Video API; we upload and delete video through API calls. The calls are hooked to ItemEventHandler.

When Editor wants to add video to the website s/he goes to Sitecore Media Library and uploads video file normally as it would be a media item internally.
Once video is uploaded successfully we send the actual video file to 23Video.com from the CMS. After successful upload 23Video.com returns us URL for uploaded video in 23Video.com. We, then, delete video from CMS Media Library and replace it with URL reference to 23video.com.
Editor can then continue editing, publishing and adding meta data to the media item in Sitecore.
The module is designed so it can be installed on existing solution without having a risk to break anything.
I have not created migration script (sending existing video files from media library) but that is easy to extend if needed.

Installation
- One package that adds text field to file -template for 23Video ID.
- 3 DLL's: DotNetOpenAuth.dll, 23API.dll and Addition.TwentyThreeVideo.dll
- ItemEventHandler, Hooks and appSettings keys for 23video API calls on Web.Config.

...and yes, it is HTML5 Video ready.

Pricing
23Video service comes with flat monthly price (at the time of writing this $675 per month) check out the price on their website.
For Sitecore module price, please drop me a line at jp at additionconsulting.com in case you are interested.

Sitecore multithreading

2010-02-08T20:20:00.001+01:00

Pretty cool, eh?

Task Manager is Shared Source Module for Sitecore. You can get it from their TRAC

Sitecore OMS - Experience Analytics

2010-01-13T10:46:00.000+01:00

Customize Sitecore Page Edit buttons

2009-11-28T18:56:00.000+01:00

This is mostly for my own reference but I decide it to post here since this blog has been quiet for 2 years.

Here you find the page edit buttons:
Core: /sitecore/system/setttings/html editor profiles/rich text default_old/webeditButtons/ (weird that they use default_old but thats what they do - and that took me a while to figure out )

duplicate an item there and you have a new button.

In the datasection you find 3 options:
Icon - self explanatory
Tooltip - selfexplatory
Click: A call to a javascript function, f.eks.:
Striketrough: javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.execute("strikeThrough", true, true);
Italic: javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.execute("Italic", true, true);

And so on. All the execute commands listed here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Rich-Text_Editing_in_Mozilla (I only tested it with strikeThrough, but it should work)

Regarding calling sitecore functionality. There is only created 2 functions in the js file: (website/shell/applications/weEdit.js)

Insert image:
javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.insertImage($JavascriptParameters)

Insert Link:
javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.insertLink($JavascriptParameters)

So if we wan't to make something more that that we would have to write new functions for that.

Thats it. :-)

Modifying page editor buttons

2009-10-29T15:52:00.006+01:00

What do you do if you wan't to add a button to the page editor default toolbar? I wanted to find out and here is what I found.

Find the page edit buttons:

Core: /sitecore/system/setttings/html editor profiles/rich text default_old/webeditButtons/ (weird that they use default_old but thats what they do - and that took me a while to figure out)

Duplicate an item there and you have a new button. In the datasection on the new item you find 3 options:

Icon - self explanatory

Tooltip - selfexplatory

Click: A call to a javascript function, f.ex.:

Striketrough: javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.execute("strikeThrough", true, true);

Italic: javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.execute("Italic", true, true);

Etc. All the standard javascript execute commands should work: (I found a list here from a google search: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Rich-Text_Editing_in_Mozilla)

Here is my result adding a strikeThough button:

Settings:

Click field: "javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.execute("strikeThrough", true, true);"

Icon field: found an strike through icon in the standard sitecore image library.

Tooltip field: "Strike through"

The javascript-file with functions are found here : website/shell/applications/webEdit.js

Regarding calling sitecore functionality. There is only created 2 functions in the js file:

Insert image:

javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.insertImage($JavascriptParameters)

Insert Link:

javascript:Sitecore.WebEdit.insertLink($JavascriptParameters)

So if you wan't to make something more that that we would have to write new functions for that.

PS: I did this on Sitecore.NET 6.0.0 (rev. 081022) (the nicam demo site)

Get collection of Sitecore Weblogs in Netvibes

2007-12-17T12:45:00.000+01:00

I have been using Netvibes as my starting page. I like that more than iGoogle. Here is my collection of Sitecore RSS feeds. Collection contains about +25 blogs, Sitecore corporate news and Sitecore Developer Network articles and forum posts in RSS. There is also Google Custom Search for Sitecore on Sitecore related blogs.

If you have a Sitecore Blog or another useful resource that is not listed here. Please let me know

Click here to preview:

Workflow

2007-08-24T15:56:00.000+02:00

Some sample code how to manage workflow on Sitecore.

Sitecore Developer Search

2007-01-27T19:51:00.000+01:00

I was playing around with Google's Co-op and Netvibes API (cool services both of them!) and I drafted out simple a little Netvibes module that searches through few Sitecore Sites and Blogs.
If you have a Netvibes account give a try and if you want some more sites into the index drop me a mail at jp at addition.dk.

Netvibes Sitecore Search Module

And... if you want to Subscribe to Sitecore Experience on Netvibes click button below:

Subscribe to The Sitecore Experience on Netvibes

Read image attributes from media library images

2007-01-17T09:43:00.000+01:00

This is nice when you need to know what is the size of the image.
sc:fld('height',sc:item(concat('/sitecore/media library', sc:fld('banner',.,'mediapath')),.))
Returns height of the image in "banner" field.

using Sitecore.Kernel.Webutils

2006-09-14T16:07:00.000+02:00

Webutils functions can be used as helper functions as well. In order to get the url of the server, we can use it as follows:

install it in web.config:


<xslExtensions>
...
        <extension mode="on" type="Sitecore.Web.WebUtil, Sitecore.Kernel" namespace="http://www.sitecore.net/webutil" singleInstance="true" />
    </xslExtensions>

declare it in your xslt:


xmlns:webutil="http://www.sitecore.net/webutil"

then use it (example from a "print page" footer):


<xsl:text>Artiklens placering: </xsl:text><xsl:value-of select="webutil:GetServerUrl()" /><xsl:value-of select="sc:path(.)" />

util:GetString

2006-09-14T15:50:00.000+02:00

It might be not obvious but is common practice to use util:GetString(string, default).

A xsl:choose used to display the title of an item can be replaced as follows:


<xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="sc:fld('menutitle',.)">
    <xsl:value-of select="sc:fld('menutitle',.)">
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:when test="sc:fld('title',.)">
    <xsl:value-of select="sc:fld('title',.)">
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:otherwise>
    <xsl:value-of select="./@name">
  </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

simpler call:


<xsl:value-of select="util:GetString(util:GetString(sc:fld('title',.), sc:fld('menutitle',.)),@name)"/>

Sitecore performance - xslt NONO !

2006-05-22T14:06:00.000+02:00

Fyi -> speed problems could be caused by one single line in xslt ( impressive that you can kill a dual core P4 64bit 4Ghz with 8 GB mem in one single code line ).

Never compare nodeset´s unless you really have to .. what you typically need is to figure out if current node is thye same as home node … do NOT do like this :
xsl:if test=”$home=$sc_current” …. < -- no no no .. verboten !!!! STOP !

The line above will loop all nodes under $home and compare every node with every node in $sc_currentitem.

Ofcourse what you DO want to do is :
xsl:if test=”$home/@id=$sc_current/@id

If you experience speed problems, this could be why !

Two useful tips for dtSearch customization in Sitecore

2006-02-14T10:40:00.000+01:00

dtSearch and Mixing Text Query
In dtSearch when I search with multiple words its always exact match search. For example:
If I write query "Product Foobar". When in my page there is text "Foobar Product".

Solution:
But dtSearch has the following search options defined:

public enum Options
{
AllWords = 2,
AnyWords = 4,
CaseSensitive = 8,
ExactPhrase = 1,
Logic = 0x20,
Ranked = 0x40,
WildCards = 0x10
}

To use these options, you should create the custom xslt extension which will return Sitecore.Modules.Search.dtSearch.Search(searchString, Sitecore.Modules.Search.Options.AllWords)

Multiple indexes

Sometimes you might have multiple sites on same installation of the Sitecore and you want search index also be separated to each sites.
For example if you Sitecore content tree looks like:
Intranet
WebSite
ExtranetSite

Then create normally separate indexes in dtSearch indexer on the server and add the following lines in the web.config file.

Intranet" value="Intranet" />

WebSite" value="/index/" />
WebSite" valueWebSite/>

ExtranetSite" value="/index/" />
ExtranetSite" value="ExtranetSite" />

You of course need XSL helper or custom function below to switch between sites

private string GetSearchResultIndex(string dist)
{
string searchText = txbSearch.Text;

// Instantiate the Search Engine
ISearch engine = Sitecore.Modules.Search.Factory.CreateSearchEngine();

// Get the dtSearch engine implementation
dtSearch your_dtSearch = engine as dtSearch;

// Set index
string pathIndex = Server.MapPath(pathIndexDtSearch(dist) + nameIndexDtSearch(dist) + "\\");
your_dtSearch.Index = pathIndex;

// Execure search
your_dtSearch.SearchTextOptions(searchText, Options.AllWords);

// Get search resalts as XML
System.Xml.XmlDocument searchResult = your_dtSearch.SearchResults;

// Format result
string result = string.Empty;
System.Xml.XmlNodeList list = searchResult.SelectNodes("/sitecore/result/item");
foreach(System.Xml.XmlNode node in list)
{
string url = node.SelectSingleNode("url").InnerText;
result += "" + url + "
";
}
return result;
}

items in a lookup

2006-01-10T13:39:00.000+01:00

If you have a big number of child items and you want to use the parent as source path in a Lookup, Multilink or Valuelookup field you might find that not all items are shown.

The default limit is 100 and is set in web.config and can be changed:


<setting name="Query.MaxItems" value="100" />

Adding an item and publishing in S5

2005-12-29T09:24:00.000+01:00

using System;
using Sitecore;
using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Publishing;
using Sitecore.Configuration;
using Sitecore.SecurityModel;

namespace Addition.Test
{
 /// 
 /// Class to demo creation of an item and publishing.
 /// 

 public class S5Demos
 {
  // alternativelly paths can be used as well
  public const string _masterId = "{E13FA2BC-FBB9-4F36-9601-C620E0FC6ED8}";
  public const string _templateId = "{797D0FE3-16C6-4910-8174-68A226AACE67}";
  public const string _insertionRoot = "{7776B388-75CE-4E06-A2A6-F7F6E053FFF8}";

  // get an item from master database
  public static Item GetItemFromSitecoreMaster(string itemPath)
  {
   return S5Demos.GetItemFromSitecore(itemPath, "master");
  }

  // get an item from web database
  public static Item GetItemFromSitecoreWeb(string itemPath)
  {
   return S5Demos.GetItemFromSitecore(itemPath, "web");
  }

  // get an item based on GUID or path from a specified database
  public static Item GetItemFromSitecore(string itemPath, string dbName) 
  {
   Item itmResult = null;

   Sitecore.Data.Database dataDB = new Sitecore.Data.Database(dbName);
   if (dataDB != null)
   {
    Sitecore.Data.ItemUriBuilder bUri = new Sitecore.Data.ItemUriBuilder(itemPath, dataDB);
    if (bUri != null)
    { 
     Sitecore.Data.ItemUri uri = new Sitecore.Data.ItemUri(bUri.ItemUri);
     if (uri != null)
     {
      itmResult = Sitecore.Data.Database.GetItem(uri);
     }
    }
   }

   return itmResult;
  }

  // create a sitecore node
  protected void CreateAnItem(string itmName)
  {
   // where we insert?
   Item root = GetItemFromSitecoreMaster(_insertionRoot);
   // we can use a master as model
   MasterItem masterItm = GetItemFromSitecoreMaster(_masterId);
   // a tempalte is fine as well
   TemplateItem templateItm = GetItemFromSitecoreMaster(_templateId);

   using(SecurityDisabler disabler1 = new SecurityDisabler())
   {
    root.Editing.BeginEdit();
    
    Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Info("adding " + itmName.ToString(), this);
    Item itmAdd = root.Add(itmName, masterItm);
    // or, by using the template: Item itmAdd = root.Add(itmName, templateItm);
    if (itmAdd != null)
    {
     // modify a field
     Sitecore.Data.Fields.Field fldLoc;

     itmAdd.Editing.BeginEdit();
     try
     {
      fldLoc = itmAdd.Fields["SomeField"];
      if (fldLoc != null)
      {
       fldLoc.Value = "Some Value";
      }
     }
     catch
     {
     }
     finally
     {
      itmAdd.Editing.EndEdit();
     }
    }
   
    root.Editing.EndEdit();
    Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Info("adding done", this);
   }

  }


  // publish a sitecore node
  protected void PublishNode(Item itm)
  {
   Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Info("publishing node " + itm.Paths.Path, this);  
   try
   {
    PublishOptions aOptions  = new PublishOptions(PublishMode.Full,
     Sitecore.Globalization.Language.DefaultLanguage, DateTime.Now);
    aOptions.TargetDatabase = Factory.GetDatabase("web");
    aOptions.RootItem = itm;
    aOptions.SourceDatabase = itm.Database;

    //Create and run a publisher
    Publisher aPublisher = new Publisher(aOptions);
    
    // use a disabler to not be forced to log in
    using (Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler disabler1 = new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler())
    {
     aPublisher.Publish();
    }
    Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Info("publishing done for " + itm.Paths.Path, this);
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
    Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Error("error on publishing node " + itm.Paths.Path, ex, this);
   }
  }
 }
}

S5: getting curent item

2005-12-19T11:28:00.000+01:00

in S4 the current item was accesible via Sitecore.State.CurrentItem

S5 has two ways:
1) Sitecore.Express.Items.CurrentItem
2) Sitecore.Context.Item

Migrating from v4 to v5

2005-11-02T16:09:00.000+01:00

Old class namespace/property ::::::: New one

Sitecore.IMasterItem ::::::: Sitecore.Data.Items.Item
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item.Path ::::::: Sitecore.Data.Items.Item.Paths.Path
Sitecore.Error ::::::: Sitecore.Diagnostics.Error

S4 vs. S5: multiselection

2005-10-25T14:21:00.000+02:00

in S4, a multiselection field, when queried, returned a string with concatenated GUIDs, separated by '|', and _terminated_ with '|'

in S5, the final '|' has gone with the side effect that a loop processing the GUIDs will ignore the last item in the case of a transformation as follows:


<xsl:template match="*" mode="main"> 
 <xsl:variable name="ids" select="sc:fld('Trademark',.)"/> 
 <div class="trademarks">
  <xsl:call-template name="PrintText"> 
   <xsl:with-param name="ids" select="$ids"/>
  </xsl:call-template>
 </div> 
</xsl:template> 

<xsl:template name="PrintText"> 
  <xsl:param name="ids"/> 
  <xsl:if test="$ids"> 
    <xsl:variable name="itm_id" select="substring-before($ids, '|')"/> 
    <xsl:if test="$itm_id"> 
      <xsl:variable name="itm" select="sc:item($itm_id,.)"/> 
      <xsl:value-of select="sc:fld('text', $itm)"/> 
    </xsl:if> 
    <xsl:call-template name="PrintText"> 
      <xsl:with-param name="ids" select="substring-after($ids, '|')"/> 
    </xsl:call-template>
  </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

the (pretty common) code above will fail for S5. The workaround is:


<xsl:template match="*" mode="main">
 <div id="leftcol">
  <xsl:call-template name="PrintSideDocument"> 
   <xsl:with-param name="ids" select="sc:fld('leftsidedocuments',.)" />
  </xsl:call-template>
 </div>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="PrintSideDocument"> 
 <xsl:param name="ids"/>
 
 <xsl:if test="$ids"> 
  <xsl:variable name="itm_id" select="substring-before($ids, '|')"/>
  <xsl:variable name="locID">
   <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="$itm_id">
      <xsl:value-of select="$itm_id"/>
     </xsl:when>
     <xsl:otherwise>
      <xsl:value-of select="$ids"/>
     </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:variable>
  
  <xsl:variable name="itm" select="sc:item($locID,.)"/> 
  <xsl:if test="$itm"> 
   <h3><xsl:value-of select="sc:fld('title', $itm)"/></h3>
   <xsl:value-of disable-output-escaping="yes" select="sc:fld('teaser',$itm)"/>
   <xsl:if test="$itm_id">
    <hr />
   </xsl:if>   
  </xsl:if> 
 
  <xsl:call-template name="PrintSideDocument"> 
   <xsl:with-param name="ids" select="substring-after($ids, '|')" />
  </xsl:call-template>
 </xsl:if>
</xsl:template>

Creating custom Controls

2005-10-04T14:46:00.000+02:00

When you create a custom control, _do_not_ assign a namespace to the class that implements the control. Let it naked there, as follows:

using System.Configuration;
using System.Text;

/// 
/// Summary description for CustomFolderFiles.
/// 

public class CustomFolderFiles: Sitecore.ClientControls.ContentControl
{
 #region Constants

Otherwise, when you try to register your class by defining a template field, Sitecore will concatenate the assembly name and the namespace and you'll have a hard time figuring out why you receive logged errors like

Could not find type in MainUtil.CreateObject: CustomFolderFiles

hth,
/p

ASP,Net 1.x Page Lifecycle

2005-05-31T09:51:00.000+02:00

Found a good overview for the order of events when executing an asp.net page here:
http://authors.aspalliance.com/aldotnet/examples/plediagram.htm

Use the following key for the events below:
Black - every time page is processed
Red - only if the request is transacted
Green - only on postback
Blue - only if tracing is enabled

Begin Transaction (only when transactions are enabled for the page)
	Begin Transaction	ProcessRequestTransacted()
		TransactedCallback() on -------------------- Process Request Main -------------------- (described below) Transactions.InvokeTransacted -- parts of the request that need to be done under transacted context

Process Request Main (every page, this is the main execution path)
	Init	InitRecursive() Raise OnInit (recursive) Begin tracking viewstate
	LoadViewState	LoadPageViewState() LoadPageStateFromPersistenceMedium()
	ProcessPostData1	ProcessPostData(_requestValueCollection, true /* BeforeLoad */); Hand postback data to the controls that exist before Page_Load Page.Validate()
	Load	LoadRecursive(); Fire OnLoad() (recursive)
	ProcessPostData2	ProcessPostData(_leftoverPostData, false /* BeforeLoad */); Hand postback data to controls added in Load (using LoadControl, for example)
	Raise ChangedEvents	RaiseChangedEvents() RaisePostDataChangedEvent() on each control with postback data that is not an IPostBackEventHandler
	Raise PostBackEvent	RaisePostBackEvent(_requestValueCollection) RaisePostBackEvent() on the control that caused the postback
	PreRender	PreRenderRecursive() if Page.Visible EnsureChildControls() -- creates controls if they haven't already been created by databinding Fire OnPreRender (recursive)
	Build Trace Tree	BuildProfileTree("ROOT", EnableViewState)
	SaveViewState	SavePageViewState() Save state recursively for the page and it's controls
	Render	RenderControl(CreateHtmlTextWriter(Response.Output)) if Page.Visible Render() (recursive)

Finish Transaction (only when transactions are enabled for the page)
	End Transaction	Fire OnAbortTransaction() or OnCommitTransaction()

End Trace (only when Tracing is enabled)
	Trace.EndRequest	if PageOutput Trace.Render

Process Request Cleanup (every request) * Set Request and Response to null
	UnloadRecursive	UnloadRecursive() Fire OnUnload() (recursive) Dispose()

Unicode and character sets

2005-05-25T14:02:00.001+02:00

Here is a really good introduction to the little known world of encoding: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

XSLT performance issue using "contains"

2005-01-27T10:47:00.001+01:00

A weird performance error has occurred in one of our solutions.

The following line of XSLT takes up to 1 second to execute:
<xsl:if test="$start/item[contains($templates,concat('!',@template,'!'))] != ''">

$templates contains a string like "!rootfolder!folder!document!externalmenulink!"
@template contains a string like "rootfolder"
The number of items under $start is less than 10

This should not be a hard task and it is not in most cases. In a for-each loop with changing @template and $start values only some calls are slow. Others execute in less than a millisecond. And the fast ones in some cases have the exact same @template value as the slow ones - and even more items under $start to check.

One could imagine that this behavior was related to other elements stressing the server. But as the same four calls fails every time the error must be related to them in someway. They must have some common characteristics. I just have not been able to identify those!

But I did find out that modifying the test attribute to
<xsl:if test="count($start/item[contains($templates,concat('!',@template,'!'))]) != '0'">
...solved the problem! Every call now executes in less than a millisecond.

As the functionality is exactly the same I strongly recommend using the later even though the problem does not occur in general when using the other.

Fallback to a Master Language

2005-01-18T12:51:00.001+01:00

Imagine a scenario where you have two or more content languages on a Sitecore solution. Some of them are regional and one is the global master language f.ex. in English.

When new documents are created in the master language they must be translated to the local language. But as this workflow process might take time it could be nice to be able to show the master language version on the local site until translation is done.

To obtain that you need to be able to show content from any language when doing renderings. Using C# based renderings that is a simple task as the Sitecore object model exposes methods for retrieving field data from a specified language. That is not the case in XSLT renderings where the commonly used sc:fld method does not take a language parameter but assumes the current language as set in the State object.

To expose such a function a new XSLT helper could be created with the following function that has the missing parameter.

public string fld(string sFieldName, XPathNodeIterator ni, string language)
{
string itemID = ni.Current.GetAttribute("id","");
IWebItem currentItem = WebFactory.GetItem(itemID);
return currentItem.GetFieldValue(sFieldName,language);
}

This allows the XSLT designer to start by requesting the local language using the XSLT parameter $lang as input. If it returns empty the master language identifier can the be used instead.

The master language could also be specified in web.config and the switch could then be implemented directly in the new XSLT helper function without any need for requesting the language parameter from the user. Like this:

public string fld(string sFieldName, XPathNodeIterator ni)
{
string itemID = ni.Current.GetAttribute("id","");
IWebItem currentItem = WebFactory.GetItem(itemID);
string sFieldValue = currentItem.GetFieldValue(sFieldName);
if(sFieldValue==””)
{
sFieldValue = currentItem.GetFieldValue(sFieldName,Settings.GetSetting("Masterlanguage");
}
Return sFieldValue;
}

Ideas for further features: The function could be extended for retrieval of sub values and the Masterlanguage setting could be a pipe separated list of prioritized fallback languages.

/Pau

DON'Ts: package name

2004-11-18T16:41:00.001+01:00

When creating a new package, make sure the name does not contain illegal Windows characters for file names. The package will end as a file name on your server (actually two - a zip and an xml) and if you have an illegal name you will simply not be able to save it.

Later edit of name (after adding content) will not work: will change just the file description and not the name of the file.