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Monthly Archives: June 2014

Leverage the Sitecore Configuration Factory: Populate Class Properties with Instances of Types Defined in Configuration

I thought I would jot down some information that frequently comes up when I am asked to recommend plans of attack on projects. The first recommendation I always give for any Sitecore project is: define as much as you possibly can in Sitecore configuration. Doing so introduces seams in your code: code that does not have to change when its underlying behavior changes — think interfaces. 😉

When defining types in Sitecore configuration, you are leveraging Sitecore’s built-in Dependency Injection framework: Sitecore’s Configuration Factory will magically inject instances of classes — yes, you would define these in configuration files — into properties of classes that are used for your pipeline processors, event handlers, and other Sitecore configuration-defined objects.

For example, suppose we have the following interface for classes that change state on an instance of a phony subclass of Sitecore.Pipelines.PipelineArgs:

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.SomePipeline
{
    public interface ISomeThing
    {
        void DoStuff(SomeProcessorArgs args);
    }
}

Let’s create a fake class that implements the ISomeThing interface above:

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.SomePipeline
{
    public class SomeThing : ISomeThing
    {
        public void DoStuff(SomeProcessorArgs args)
        {
            // it would be nice if we had code in here
        }
    }
}

We can then define a class property with the ISomeThing interface type in a class that serves as a pipeline processor:

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.SomePipeline
{
    public class SomeProcessor
    {
        public void Process(SomeProcessorArgs args)
        {
            DoSomethingWithArgs(args);
        }

        private void DoSomethingWithArgs(SomeProcessorArgs args)
        {
            Assert.IsNotNull(SomeThing, "SomeThing must be set in your configuration!");
            SomeThing.DoStuff(args);
        }

        private ISomeThing SomeThing { get; set; } // this is populated magically!
    }
}

The class above would serve as a processor for the dummy <somePipeline> defined in the following configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <somePipeline>
        <processor type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.SomePipeline.SomeProcessor, Sitecore.Sandbox">
          <SomeThing type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.SomePipeline.SomeThing, Sitecore.Sandbox" />
        </processor>  
      </somePipeline>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

In the configuration file above, we defined a <SomeThing /> element within the processor element of the <somePipeline> pipeline, and this directly maps to the SomeThing property in the SomeProcessor class shown above. Keep in mind that names matter here, so the name of the configuration element must match the name of the property.

Until next time, have a Sitecoretastic day!

Omit HTML Breaks From Rendered Multi-Line Text Fields in Sitecore

Earlier today while preparing a training session on how to add JavaScript from a Multi-Line Text field to a rendered Sitecore page, I encountered something I had seen in the past but forgot about: Sitecore FieldControls and the FieldRenderer Web Control will convert newlines into HTML breaks.

For example, suppose you have the following JavaScript in a Multi-Line Text field:

javascript-in-field

You could use a Text FieldControl to render it:

<%@ Control Language="c#" AutoEventWireup="true" TargetSchema="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5" %>
<sc:Text ID="scJavaScript" Field="JavaScript" runat="server" />

Unfortunately, your JavaScript will not work since it will contain HTML breaks:

html-breaks-in-rendered-value

Why does this happen? In the RenderField() method in Sitecore.Web.UI.WebControls.FieldRenderer — this lives in Sitecore.Kernel.dll, and is called by all FieldControls — passes a “linebreaks” parameter to the <renderField> pipeline:

field-renderer-html-breaks

The Process() method in Sitecore.Pipelines.RenderField.GetMemoFieldValue — this serves as one of the “out of the box” processors of the <renderField> pipeline — converts all carriage returns, line feeds, and newlines into HTML breaks:

get-memo-field-value

What can we do to prevent this from happening? Well, you could spin up a new class with a Process() method to serve as a new <renderField> pipeline processor, and use that instead of Sitecore.Pipelines.RenderField.GetMemoFieldValue:

using System;

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Pipelines.RenderField;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.RenderField
{
    public class GetRawMemoFieldValueWhenApplicable
    {
        public void Process(RenderFieldArgs args)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");
            if(!AreEqualIgnoreCase(args.FieldTypeKey, "memo") && !AreEqualIgnoreCase(args.FieldTypeKey, "multi-line text"))
            {
                return;
            }

            bool omitHtmlBreaks;
            if (bool.TryParse(args.Parameters["omitHtmlBreaks"], out omitHtmlBreaks))
            {
                return;
            }

            Assert.IsNotNull(DefaultGetMemoFieldValueProcessor, "DefaultGetMemoFieldValueProcessor must be set in your configuration!");
            DefaultGetMemoFieldValueProcessor.Process(args);
        }

        private static bool AreEqualIgnoreCase(string stringOne, string stringTwo)
        {
            return string.Equals(stringOne, stringTwo, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
        }

        private GetMemoFieldValue DefaultGetMemoFieldValueProcessor { get; set; }
    }
}

The Process() method in the class above looks for an “omitHtmlBreaks” parameter, and just exits out of the Process() method when it is set to true — it leaves the field value “as is”.

If the “omitHtmlBreaks”parameter is not found in the RenderFieldArgs instance, or it is set to false, the Process() method delegates to the Process() method of its DefaultGetMemoFieldValueProcessor property — this would be an instance of the “out of the box” Sitecore.Pipelines.RenderField.GetMemoFieldValue, and this is passed to the new <renderField> pipeline processor via the following configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <renderField>
        <processor patch:instead="processor[@type='Sitecore.Pipelines.RenderField.GetMemoFieldValue, Sitecore.Kernel']"
                   type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.RenderField.GetRawMemoFieldValueWhenApplicable, Sitecore.Sandbox">
          <DefaultGetMemoFieldValueProcessor type="Sitecore.Pipelines.RenderField.GetMemoFieldValue, Sitecore.Kernel" />
        </processor>  
      </renderField>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Let’s test this.

I added the “omitHtmlBreaks” parameter to the control I had shown above:

<%@ Control Language="c#" AutoEventWireup="true" TargetSchema="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5" %>
<sc:Text ID="scJavaScript" Field="JavaScript" Parameters="omitHtmlBreaks=true" runat="server" />

When I loaded my page, I was given a warm welcome:

alert-box-welcome

When I viewed my page’s source, I no longer see HTML breaks:

javascript-no-html-breaks

If you have any thoughts on this, or know of another way to do this, please share in a comment.

Chain Source and Clone Items Together in Sitecore Workflow

Two months ago, I worked on a project where I had to find a solution to chain source Items and their clones together in Sitecore workflow — don’t worry, the clone Items were “locked down” by being protected so content authors cannot make changes to content on the clones — the clones serve as content copies of their source Items for a multi-site solution in a single Sitecore instance.

After some research, a few mistakes — well, maybe more than a few 😉 — and massive help from Oleg Burov, Escalation Engineer at Sitecore USA, I put together a subclass of Sitecore.Workflows.Simple.Workflow — this lives in Sitecore.Kernel.dll — similar to the following:

using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Workflows;
using Sitecore.Workflows.Simple;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Workflows.Simple
{
    public class ChainSourceClonesWorkflow : Workflow 
    {
        public ChainSourceClonesWorkflow(string workflowID, WorkflowProvider owner)
            : base(workflowID, owner)
        {

        }
        public override WorkflowResult Execute(string commandID, Item item, string comments, bool allowUI, params object[] parameters)
        {
            WorkflowResult result = base.Execute(commandID, item, comments, allowUI, parameters);
            foreach (Item clone in item.GetClones())
            {
                base.Execute(commandID, clone, comments, allowUI, parameters);
            }

            return result;
        }
    }
}

The Execute() method above basically moves the passed Item through to the next workflow state by calling the base class’ Execute() method, and grabs all clones for the passed Item — each are also pushed through to the next workflow state via the base class’ Execute() method.

Workflow instances are created by Sitecore.Workflows.Simple.WorkflowProvider. I created the following class to return an instance of the ChainSourceClonesWorkflow class above:

using Sitecore.Workflows;
using Sitecore.Workflows.Simple;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Workflows.Simple
{
    public class ChainSourceClonesWorkflowProvider : WorkflowProvider
    {
        public ChainSourceClonesWorkflowProvider(string databaseName, HistoryStore historyStore)
            : base(databaseName, historyStore)
        {
        }

        protected override IWorkflow InstantiateWorkflow(string workflowId, WorkflowProvider owner)
        {
            return new ChainSourceClonesWorkflow(workflowId, owner);
        }
    }
}

I then replaced the “out of the box” WorkflowProvider with the one defined above using the following configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <databases>
      <database id="master">
        <workflowProvider type="Sitecore.Workflows.Simple.WorkflowProvider, Sitecore.Kernel">
          <patch:attribute name="type">Sitecore.Sandbox.Workflows.Simple.ChainSourceClonesWorkflowProvider, Sitecore.Sandbox</patch:attribute>
        </workflowProvider>
      </database>
    </databases>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Let’s take this for a spin!

I first started with a source and clone in a “Draft” workflow state:

source-clone-draft

Let’s push the source — and hopefully clone 😉 — through to the next workflow state by submitting it:

source-clone-submit

As you can see, both are “Awaiting Approval”:

source-clone-awaiting-approval

Let’s approve them:

source-clone-approve

As you can see, both are approved:

source-clone-approved

If you have any thoughts or comments on this, or know of ways to improve the code above, please drop a comment.

Also, keep in mind the paradigm above is not ideal when content authors are able to make content changes to clones which differ from their source Items. In that scenario, it would be best to let source and clone Items’ workflow be independent.

Accept All Notifications on Clones of an Item using a Custom Command in Sitecore

As I was walking along a beach near my apartment tonight, I thought “wouldn’t it be nifty to have a button in the Sitecore ribbon to accept all notifications on clones of an Item instead of having to accept these manually on each clone?”

I immediately returned home, and whipped up the following command class:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

using Sitecore.Data.Clones;
using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Shell.Framework.Commands;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Shell.Framework.Commands
{
    public class AcceptAllNotificationsOnClones : Command
    {
        public override CommandState QueryState(CommandContext context)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(context, "context");
            IEnumerable<Item> clones = GetClonesWithNotifications(GetItem(context));
            if(!clones.Any())
            {
                return CommandState.Hidden;
            }

            return CommandState.Enabled;
        }

        public override void Execute(CommandContext context)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(context, "context");
            Item item = GetItem(context);
            IEnumerable<Item> clones = GetClonesWithNotifications(item);
            if(!clones.Any())
            {
                return;
            }

            foreach (Item clone in clones)
            {
                AcceptAllNotifications(item.Database.NotificationProvider, clone);
            }
        }

        protected virtual Item GetItem(CommandContext context)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(context, "context");
            return context.Items.FirstOrDefault();
        }

        protected virtual IEnumerable<Item> GetClonesWithNotifications(Item item)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(item, "item");
            IEnumerable<Item> clones = item.GetClones();
            if(!clones.Any())
            {
                return new List<Item>();
            }
            
            IEnumerable<Item> clonesWithNotifications = GetClonesWithNotifications(item.Database.NotificationProvider, clones);
            if(!clonesWithNotifications.Any())
            {
                return new List<Item>();
            }

            return clonesWithNotifications;
        }

        protected virtual IEnumerable<Item> GetClonesWithNotifications(NotificationProvider notificationProvider, IEnumerable<Item> clones)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(notificationProvider, "notificationProvider");
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(clones, "clones");
            return (from clone in clones
                    let notifications = notificationProvider.GetNotifications(clone)
                    where notifications.Any()
                    select clone).ToList();
        }

        protected virtual void AcceptAllNotifications(NotificationProvider notificationProvider, Item clone)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(notificationProvider, "notificationProvider");
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(clone, "clone");
            foreach (Notification notification in notificationProvider.GetNotifications(clone))
            {
                notification.Accept(clone);
            }
        }
    }
}

The code in the command above ensures the command is only visible when the selected Item in the Sitecore content tree has clones, and those clones have notifications — this visibility logic is contained in the QueryState() method.

When the command is invoked — this happens through the Execute() method — all clones with notifications of the selected Item are retrieved, and iterated over — each are passed to the AcceptAllNotifications() method which contains logic to accept all notifications on them via the Accept() method on a NotificationProvider instance: this NotificationProvider instance comes from the source Item’s Database property.

I then registered the above command class in Sitecore using the following configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <commands>
      <command name="item:AcceptAllNotificationsOnClones" type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Shell.Framework.Commands.AcceptAllNotificationsOnClones, Sitecore.Sandbox"/>
    </commands>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

We need a way to invoke this command. I created a new button to go into the ‘Item Clones’ chunk in the ribbon:

accept-notifications-on-clones-button-core

Let’s take this for a test drive!

I first created some clones:

created-clones

I then changed a field value on one of those clones:

changed-field-value-on-clone

On the clone’s source Item, I changed the same field’s value with something completely different, and added a new child item — the new button appeared after saving the Item:

new-child-item-field-value-change

Now, the clone has notifications on it:

notifications-on-clone

I went back to the source Item, clicked the ‘Accept Notifications On Clones’ button in the ribbon, and navigated back to the clone:

notifications-accepted

As you can see, the notifications were accepted.

If you have any thoughts on this, please share in a comment.

Set Default Alternate Text on Images Uploaded to the Sitecore Media Library

For the past couple of years, I have been trying to come up with an idea for adding a custom <getMediaCreatorOptions> pipeline processor — this is no lie or exaggeration — but had not thought of any good reason to do so until today: I figured out that I could add a processor to set default alternate text on an image being uploaded into the Sitecore Media Library.

The following class contains code to serve as a <getMediaCreatorOptions> pipeline processor to set default alternate text on an image Item during upload:

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Pipelines.GetMediaCreatorOptions;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.GetMediaCreatorOptions
{
    public class SetDefaultAlternateTextIfNeed
    {
        public void Process(GetMediaCreatorOptionsArgs args)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");
            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(args.Options.AlternateText))
            {
                return;
            }

            args.Options.AlternateText = GetAlternateText(args);
        }

        protected virtual string GetAlternateText(GetMediaCreatorOptionsArgs args)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");
            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(args.Options.Destination) || args.Options.Destination.IndexOf("/") < 0)
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }

            int startofNameIndex = args.Options.Destination.LastIndexOf("/") + 1;
            return args.Options.Destination.Substring(startofNameIndex);
        }
    }
}

The code above will set the AlternateText property of the Options property of the GetMediaCreatorOptionsArgs instance when its not set: I set it to be the name of the Media Library Item by default — I extract this from the path destination of the Item.

I then registered the above class as a <getMediaCreatorOptions> pipeline processor in the following Sitecore configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <getMediaCreatorOptions>
        <processor type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Pipelines.GetMediaCreatorOptions.SetDefaultAlternateTextIfNeed, Sitecore.Sandbox"/>
      </getMediaCreatorOptions>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Let’s try this out.

I went to my Media Library, and selected an image to upload:

selected-image-upload

During the upload, I did not specify its alternate text.

As you can see, it was given an alternate text value by default:

default-alt-text-set

If you have any thoughts on this, please drop a comment.

But whatever you do, just don’t let this happen to you:

anxiety-cat

Restrict Certain Files from Being Uploaded Through Web Forms for Marketers Forms in Sitecore: an Alternative Approach

This past weekend I noticed the <formUploadFile> pipeline in Web Forms for Marketers (WFFM), and wondered whether I could create an alternative solution to the one I had shared in this post — I had built a custom WFFM field type to prevent certain files from being uploaded through WFFM forms.

After some tinkering, I came up the following class to serve as a <formUploadFile> pipeline processor:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web;

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;

using Sitecore.Form.Core.Pipelines.FormUploadFile;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Pipelines.FormUploadFile
{
    public class CheckMimeTypesNotAllowed
    {
        static CheckMimeTypesNotAllowed()
        {
            MimeTypesNotAllowed = new List<string>();
        }

        public void Process(FormUploadFileArgs args)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");
            string mimeType = GetMimeType(args.File.FileName);
            if (IsMimeTypeAllowed(mimeType))
            {
                return;
            }

            throw new Exception(string.Format("Uploading a file with MIME type {0} is not allowed", mimeType));
        }

        protected virtual string GetMimeType(string fileName)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNullOrEmpty(fileName, "fileName");
            return MimeMapping.GetMimeMapping(fileName);
        }

        protected virtual bool IsMimeTypeAllowed(string mimeType)
        {
            foreach (string mimeTypeNotAllowed in MimeTypesNotAllowed)
            {
                if (AreEqualIgnoreCase(mimeTypeNotAllowed, mimeType))
                {
                    return false;
                }    
            }

            return true;
        }

        private static bool AreEqualIgnoreCase(string stringOne, string stringTwo)
        {
            return string.Equals(stringOne, stringTwo, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
        }

        private static void AddMimeTypeNotAllowed(string mimeType)
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(mimeType) || MimeTypesNotAllowed.Contains(mimeType))
            {
                return;
            }

            MimeTypesNotAllowed.Add(mimeType);
        }

        private static IList<string> MimeTypesNotAllowed { get; set; }
    }
}

The class above adds restricted MIME types to a list — these MIME types are defined in a configuration file shown below — and checks to see if the uploaded file’s MIME type is in the restricted list. If it is restricted, an exception is thrown with some information — throwing an exception in WFFM prevents the form from being submitted.

MIME types are inferred using System.Web.MimeMapping.GetMimeMapping(string fileName), a method that is new in .NET 4.5 (this solution will not work in older versions of .NET).

I then registered the class above as a <formUploadFile> pipeline processor via the following configuration file:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/" xmlns:x="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <formUploadFile>
        <processor patch:before="processor[@type='Sitecore.Form.Core.Pipelines.FormUploadFile.Save, Sitecore.Forms.Core']"
                   type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Pipelines.FormUploadFile.CheckMimeTypesNotAllowed">
          <mimeTypesNotAllowed hint="list:AddMimeTypeNotAllowed">
            <mimeType>application/octet-stream</mimeType>
          </mimeTypesNotAllowed >
        </processor>  
      </formUploadFile>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

In case you are wondering, the MIME type being passed to the processor in the configuration file is for executables.

Let’s see how we did. 😉

I whipped up a test form, and pulled it up in a browser:

form-for-testing

I then selected an executable:

select-executable

I saw this after an attempt to submit the form:

form-upload-exception

And my log file expressed why:

exception-in-log

I then copied a jpeg into my test folder, and selected it to be uploaded:

select-jpg

After clicking the submit button, I was given a nice confirmation message:

success-upload

There is one problem with the solution above that I would like to point out: it does not address the issue of file extensions being changed. I could not solve this problem since the MIME type of the file being uploaded cannot be determined from the Sitecore.Form.Core.Media.PostedFile instance set in the arguments object: there is no property for it. 😦

If you know of another way to determine MIME types on Sitecore.Form.Core.Media.PostedFile instances, or have other ideas for restricting certain files from being uploaded through WFFM, please share in a comment.

Show Submitted Web Forms for Marketers Form Field Values on a Confirmation Page in Sitecore

Recently on my About page, someone had asked me how to show submitted form field values in Web Forms for Marketers.

I had done such a thing in a past project, and thought I would share how I went about accomplishing this.

This solution reuses an instance of a storage class I had used in a previous post.

This is the interface for that storage class:

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Utilities.Storage
{
    public interface IRepository<TKey, TValue>
    {
        bool Contains(TKey key);

        TValue this[TKey key] { get; set; }

        void Put(TKey key, TValue value);

        void Remove(TKey key);

        void Clear();

        TValue Get(TKey key);
    }
}

This is the implementation of the storage class:

using System.Web;
using System.Web.SessionState;

using Sitecore.Diagnostics;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Utilities.Storage
{
    public class SessionRepository : IRepository<string, object>
    {
        private HttpSessionStateBase Session { get; set; }

        public object this[string key]
        {
            get
            {
                return Get(key);
            }
            set
            {
                Put(key, value);
            }
        }

        public SessionRepository()
            : this(HttpContext.Current.Session)
        {
        }

        public SessionRepository(HttpSessionState session)
            : this(CreateNewHttpSessionStateWrapper(session))
        {
        }

        public SessionRepository(HttpSessionStateBase session)
        {
            SetSession(session);
        }

        private void SetSession(HttpSessionStateBase session)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(session, "session");
            Session = session;
        }

        public bool Contains(string key)
        {
            return Session[key] != null;
        }

        public void Put(string key, object value)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNullOrEmpty(key, "key");
            Assert.ArgumentCondition(IsSerializable(value), "value", "value must be serializable!");
            Session[key] = value;
        }

        private static bool IsSerializable(object instance)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(instance, "instance");
            return instance.GetType().IsSerializable;
        }

        public void Remove(string key)
        {
            Session.Remove(key);
        }

        public void Clear()
        {
            Session.Clear();
        }

        public object Get(string key)
        {
            return Session[key];
        }

        private static HttpSessionStateWrapper CreateNewHttpSessionStateWrapper(HttpSessionState session)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(session, "session");
            return new HttpSessionStateWrapper(session);
        }
    }
}

The class above basically serializes a supplied object, and puts it into session using a key given by the calling code.

Plus, you can remove objects saved in it using a key.

I modified this class from the original version: I declared the constructors public so that I can reference them in a Sitecore configuration file (you will see this configuration file further down in this post).

I then created a POCO to house form field values for serialization purposes:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Submit.DTO
{
    [Serializable]
    public class Field
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public string Value { get; set; }
    }
}

Field values belong to a form, so I built another POCO class to store a collection of Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Submit.DTO.Field class instances, and also hold on to the submitted form’s ID:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Submit.DTO
{
    [Serializable]
    public class FormSubmission
    {
        public Guid ID { get; set; }

        public List<Field> Fields { get; set; }
    }
}

Now we need a custom Web Forms for Marketers SaveAction — all custom SaveActions must implement Sitecore.Form.Core.Client.Data.Submit.ISaveAction which is defined in Sitecore.Forms.Core.dll — to create and store instances of the POCO classes defined above:

using System.Collections.Generic;

using Sitecore.Configuration;
using Sitecore.Data;
using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Web;

using Sitecore.Form.Core.Client.Data.Submit;
using Sitecore.Form.Core.Controls.Data;
using Sitecore.Form.Submit;

using Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Submit.DTO;
using Sitecore.Sandbox.Utilities.Storage;

namespace Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Submit
{
    public class StoreForm : ISaveAction
    {
        static StoreForm()
        {
            RepositoryKey = Settings.GetSetting("RepositoryKey");
            Assert.IsNotNullOrEmpty(RepositoryKey, "RepositoryKey must be set in your configuration!");

            Repository = Factory.CreateObject("repository", true) as IRepository<string, object>;
            Assert.IsNotNull(Repository, "Repository must be set in your configuration!");
        }

        public void Execute(ID formid, AdaptedResultList fields, params object[] data)
        {
            StoreFormSubmission(formid, fields);
        }

        protected virtual void StoreFormSubmission(ID formid, AdaptedResultList fields)
        {
            FormSubmission form = CreateNewFormSubmission(formid, fields);
            Repository[GetRepositoryKey()] = form;
        }

        protected virtual FormSubmission CreateNewFormSubmission(ID formid, AdaptedResultList fields)
        {
            return new FormSubmission
            {
                ID = formid.Guid,
                Fields = CreateNewFields(fields)
            };
        }

        protected virtual List<Field> CreateNewFields(AdaptedResultList results)
        {
            Assert.ArgumentNotNull(results, "results");
            List<Field> fields = new List<Field>();
            foreach (AdaptedControlResult result in results)
            {
                fields.Add(new Field{ Name = result.FieldName, Value = result.Value });
            }

            return fields;
        }

        protected virtual string GetRepositoryKey()
        {
            return string.Concat(RepositoryKey, "_", WebUtil.GetSessionID());
        }

        private static string RepositoryKey { get; set; }
        
        private static IRepository<string, object> Repository { get; set; }
    }
}

The SaveAction above creates instances of the POCO classes above using the submitted form field values, and passes these to an instance of a IRepository: this is defined in the configuration file below jointly with a substring of the unique storage key (this is a concatenation of the key defined in the following configuration file and the user’s session ID to guarantee a unique key):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <repository type="Sitecore.Sandbox.Utilities.Storage.SessionRepository" />
    <settings>
      <setting name="RepositoryKey" value="MyRepository"/>
    </settings>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

I then registered the ISaveAction class above in Web Forms for Marketers:

store-form-save-action

I then wired it up to my test form:

add-store-form-to-form

For testing, I created the following sublayout — no, it’s not the prettiest code I have ever written but I needed something quick for testing — which I mapped to a confirmation page:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Form Submission Confirmation.ascx.cs" Inherits="Sandbox.layouts.sublayouts.FormSubmissionConfirmation" %>
<asp:Repeater ID="rptConfirmation" runat="server">
    <HeaderTemplate>
        <h2>What you gave us:</h2>
    </HeaderTemplate>
    <ItemTemplate>
        <%# Eval("Name") %>: <%# Eval("Value") %>
    </ItemTemplate>
    <SeparatorTemplate>
        <br />
    </SeparatorTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

The following class serves as the code-behind for the sublayout:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using Sitecore.Configuration;
using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Sandbox.Form.Submit.DTO;
using Sitecore.Sandbox.Utilities.Storage;
using Sitecore.Web;

namespace Sandbox.layouts.sublayouts
{
    public partial class FormSubmissionConfirmation : System.Web.UI.UserControl
    {
        private static string RepositoryKey { get; set; }
        
        private static IRepository<string, object> Repository { get; set; }

        static FormSubmissionConfirmation()
        {
            RepositoryKey = Settings.GetSetting("RepositoryKey");
            Assert.IsNotNullOrEmpty(RepositoryKey, "RepositoryKey must be set in your configuration!");

            Repository = Factory.CreateObject("repository", true) as IRepository<string, object>;
            Assert.IsNotNull(Repository, "Repository must be set in your configuration!");
        }

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string key = GetRepositoryKey();
            FormSubmission submission = Repository.Get(key) as FormSubmission;
            Repository.Remove(key);
            if (submission == null || !submission.Fields.Any())
            {
               Visible = false;
                return;
            }
            
            rptConfirmation.DataSource = submission.Fields;
            rptConfirmation.DataBind();
        }

        protected virtual string GetRepositoryKey()
        {
            return string.Concat(RepositoryKey, "_", WebUtil.GetSessionID());
        }
    }
}

The code-behind above gets the FormSubmission instance from the IRepository instance defined in the configuration file shown above, and passes the Field POCO instances within it to a repeater.

Let’s see this in action!

I navigated to my test form, and filled it in:
filled-in-form

After submitting the form, I was redirected to my confirmation page. As you can see the form values I had entered are displayed:

form-confirmation

One thing to note: the solution above only works when your Web Forms for Marketers confirmation page is its own page, and you set your form to redirect to it after submitting the form.

If you have any thoughts on this, or know of other ways to show submitted Web Forms for Marketers form field values on a confirmation page, please share in a comment.

Make Bulk Item Updates using Sitecore PowerShell Extensions

In my Sitecore PowerShell Extensions presentation at the Sitecore User Group Conference 2014, I demonstrated how simple it is to make bulk Item updates — perform the same update to multiple Sitecore items — using a simple PowerShell script, and thought I would write down what I had shown.

Sadly, I do not remember which script I had shared with the audience — the scratchpad text file I referenced during my presentation contains multiple scripts for making bulk updates to Items (if you attended my talk, and remember exactly what I had shown, please drop a comment).

Since I cannot recall which script I had shown — please forgive me 😉 — let’s look at the following PowerShell script (this might be the script I had shown):

@(Get-Item .) + (Get-ChildItem -r .) | ForEach-Object { Expand-Token $_ }

This script grabs the context Item — this is denoted by a period — within the PowerShell ISE via the Get-Item command, and puts it into an array so that we can concatenate it with an array of all of its descendants — this is returned by the Get-ChildItem command with the -r parameter (r stands for recursive). The script then iterates over all Items in the resulting array, passes each to the Expand-Token command — this command is offered “out of the box” in Sitecore PowerShell Extensions — which expands tokens in every field on the Item.

Let’s see this in action!

My home Item has some tokens in its Title field:

home-tokens

One of its descendants also has tokens in its Title field:

descendant-tokens

I opened up the PowerShell ISE, wrote my script, and executed:

powershell-ise-tokens

As you can see, the tokens on the home Item were expanded:

home-tokens-expanded

They were also expanded on the home Item’s descendant:

descendant-tokens-expanded

If you have any thoughts or questions on this, please share in a comment.