Experience Sitecore !

Previously I wrote about adding Unicorn to Sitecore LaunchPad to be available for admin users. This time I am adding one more tool icon - Show Config that leads admin users to the page where they can see patched and merged configuration that is used by given Sitecore instance

No more need to remember and manually type https://instance.hostname/sitecore/admin/showConfig.aspx URL in order to access it.

You may download the installation package at the bottom of this blog post.

The actual button item is located in core database under the following path: /sitecore/client/Applications/Launchpad/PageSettings/Buttons/Tools/Show Config.

Download ready to use package (19.7kb, keep in mind that Unicorn icon will be shown to admin users only).

One day I was working on a page that had way too many Content Editor section opened, plus those plenty coming out from Standard fields also added frustration. I thought it would be great to have Collapse All button implemented, that closes all the sections in order to help navigation. 

I went checking the way Content Editor works this out and later wrote a JavaScript snippet, that implements and wires desired functionality. I also added Expand All button bringing the reverse behavior. Here's the code:

scContentEditor.prototype.onDomReady = function (evt) {
    this.addCollapser(window.jQuery || window.$sc);
};
scContentEditor.prototype.addCollapser = function ($) {
    $ = $ || window.jQuery || window.$sc;
    if (!$) { return; }

    $('#EditorTabs').append("<style>.toggler { border: 1px solid #bdbdbd; box-shadow: 0 1px #ffffff inset; cursor: pointer; height: 35px; margin: 16px 1px 0; }</style>");
    $('#EditorTabs').append("<button id='expander' class='toggler'>Expand all</button><button id='collapser' class='toggler'>Collapse all</button>");
    $('#EditorTabs').on("click", "#collapser", function () {

        $('.scEditorSectionCaptionExpanded').each(function () {
            var script = $(this).attr("onclick");
            eval(script);
        });
        return false;
    });
    $('#EditorTabs').on("click", "#expander", function () {

        $('.scEditorSectionCaptionCollapsed').each(function () {
            var script = $(this).attr("onclick");
            eval(script);
        });
        return false;
    });
};

All you need to do is to append to the bottom of <your_web_root>\sitecore\shell\Applications\Content Manager\Content Editor.js and that's it!

For those like me who like automation, I am attaching this JavaScript file, right click this link and save it, and then use PowerShell:

$file2 = Get-Content "ExpanderCollapser.js"
Add-Content "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\<YOUR_WEB_ROOT>\sitecore\shell\Applications\Content Manager\Content Editor.js" $file2

Once done, you'll see the result in Content:

There is also package available for download (compatible with Sitecore 9.0.* - 9.2)

I was working on implementing a subscription model system, where authenticated users visit website with a specific role coming from Identity Server (or, unauthenticated - anonymous, of course), so that I can apply personalization of content, as we normally do.

The difference was, however, that subscription level were logical units, more complicated and not matching IDS roles. They also should be adjustable from Sitecore by business users. That made using personalization by these users type quite complicated, due to complex rules creation, especially those with inverted logic except when. But even with that in mind, I could not simply use personalization for preventing unauthorised users (for example, those registered and logged, but still having insufficient permissions) from accessing specific types of content. The business requirement demands all the pages to be accessible by anyone, but when users don't have required access level - most of content apart from few teasing paragraphs in the beginning, needs to be greyed out by a components encouraging them to increase their subscription level in order to get full access.

So, in order to address these requirements, I decided to implemented a simple role-mapping Subscription Model, something as could be described by this template:

But wait! There is no possibility to use Sitecore security roles in an item!

So I decided to implement the one. After quick googling I came across Mike Reynold's experiments with fields and templates and went similar way on implementing Role Multilist Selector field. 

Once done, core database needs to get a new field type registered - Roles, which is implemented in a way of traditional multi-select field:

So now, I can use it as an ordinary Sitecore item field. Please note, that Source column at first screenshot above contains Domain=ids - that is a set of parameters passed in a format of URL string (UrlString is .NET class that accepts these parameters in the code). I've implemented that as a Sitecore domain filtering parameter, where ids is the domain name.

Now we can select roles - they will be stored in pipe-separated format in given field:

Finally, after implementing a logical layer of Subscription Model, I also had to create custom rules conditions to apply personalization operating these logical subscriptions, but that made business users' life way easier.

Hope this helps!