The next step in the implementation was producing urls for netFORUM entities withing Sitecore application. Solr index is perfect for that. I've extended UrlLink computed field to call custom LinkProvider and produce url for earch of netFORUM entities, and as a result each of the entities should be served from Sitecore solution, get urllink_s value in index.
A new method was added to LinkProvider that would produce a product url for an IIndexable item:
There were a few different types of entities in netFORUM, and each type had to have it's own url, a parent item in sitecore, and an item that would be Sitecore.Context.Item one when netFORUM entities is rendered. To achieve that I've added custom configuration to the sitecore config.
<Custom>
<urls>
<productTypes>
<books name="books" displayName="Books" productTypeId="[GUID]" site="mywebsite" parentSiteItem="[GUID]" item="[GUID]" />
<merchandise name="apparel" displayName="Apparel" productTypeId="[GUID]" site="mywebsite" parentSiteItem="[GUID]" item="[GUID]" />
</productTypes>
<urlExclusions urlPrefix="api|sitecore|~/media|temp|WebResource|~/icon|~/media|~media|ScriptResource|static|speak|.js|.css|.html|.htm|.jpg|.axd|.ahx|.gif|.png" />
</urls>
</Custom>
<linkManager>
<providers>
<add name="sitecore">
<patch:attribute name="type">Custom.Business.Links.LinkProvider, Custom.Business</patch:attribute>
</add>
</providers>
</linkManager>
<providers>
<add name="sitecore">
<patch:attribute name="type">Custom.Business.Links.LinkProvider, Custom.Business</patch:attribute>
</add>
</providers>
</linkManager>
A new method was added to LinkProvider that would produce a product url for an IIndexable item:
internal string GetProductUrl(Sitecore.ContentSearch.IIndexable indexable)
{
Assert.ArgumentNotNull(indexable, "indexable");
if (this.Options.ShortenUrls)
{
var obj = indexable as IndexableProductEntity;
var productType = UrlConfiguration.Instance(_productDatabaseName).ProductTypes.FirstOrDefault(p => p.ProductTypeId == obj.ProductTypeId);
if (productType != null && productType.ParentSiteItem != null && productType.Item != null)
{
var siteInfo = Sitecore.Configuration.Settings.Sites.FirstOrDefault(s => s.Name == productType.Site);
if (siteInfo == null)
{
return string.Empty;
}
var name = ItemUtil.ProposeValidItemName(obj.Name);
var itemPath = string.Empty;
var urlFormat = Settings.GetSetting("ProductUrlFormat", "{0}/{1}/{2}/{3}");
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(productType.ProductCategory) && !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(productType.ProductSubCategory))
{
urlFormat = Settings.GetSetting("ProductWithSubCategoryUrlFormat", "{0}/{1}/{2}");
itemPath = string.Format(urlFormat, productType.ParentSiteItem.Paths.FullPath.Replace(base.GetRootPath(siteInfo, Sitecore.Context.Language, Factory.GetDatabase(_productDatabaseName)), string.Empty), obj.ProductCode, name);
}
else
{
itemPath = string.Format(urlFormat, productType.ParentSiteItem.Paths.FullPath.Replace(base.GetRootPath(siteInfo, Sitecore.Context.Language, Factory.GetDatabase(_productDatabaseName)), string.Empty), productType.Name, obj.ProductCode, name);
}
if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(itemPath))
{
var url = base.BuildItemUrl(string.Empty, itemPath);
return this.Options.LowercaseUrls ? url.ToLowerInvariant() : url;
}
return string.Empty;
}
}
return string.Empty;
}
The same method is used to produce product urls within the solution.
Now as I had the urls in index, it was time to implement resolving of incoming urls into entities. So a new processor for httpRequestBegin pipeline was created and added after Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.ItemResolver, Sitecore.Kernel.
What this processor does is running a query to Solr sitecore_globalsearch_master_index or sitecore_globalsearch_web_index depending on the context and if any of the index documents have matching url in urllink_s field, it saves the object into Sitecore.Context.Items and sets Sitecore.Context.Item to the item property of corresponding productType.
In renderings I can access the value of saved in Sitecore.Context.Items object like this:
Next: Part 3: Implementing cross-core search
public class CustomLinkResolver : HttpRequestProcessor
{
///
/// A list of lowercase site names to enable this processor for
///
protected List m_siteNames = null;
public CustomLinkResolver()
{
m_siteNames = new List();
}
public override void Process(HttpRequestArgs args)
{
if (Context.Item != null)
return;
if (!m_siteNames.Contains(Context.Site.Name.ToLower()))
return;
if (UrlConfigurations == null)
{
return;
}
if (UrlConfigurations.UrlExclusions != null && UrlConfigurations.UrlExclusions.Any(u => args.Url.FilePath.Contains(u)))
{
return;
}
var urlSegments = args.Url.FilePath.Split('/');
// ensure we have at minimum 2 segments for content type and name
if (urlSegments.Length < 2)
return;
// Second last segment in Url is the content type
var contentTypeName = urlSegments[urlSegments.Length - 2];
// Locate the content type item in the Url configuration
var rootItem = (from ct in UrlConfigurations.ContentTypes
where string.Compare(ct.Name, contentTypeName, true) == 0
select ct.Item).FirstOrDefault();
if (rootItem == null)
{
if (urlSegments.Length == 5)
{
contentTypeName = urlSegments[urlSegments.Length - 3];
}
else if (urlSegments.Length == 3)
{
contentTypeName = urlSegments[urlSegments.Length - 1];
}
rootItem = (from ct in UrlConfigurations.ProductTypes
where string.Compare(ct.Name, contentTypeName, true) == 0
select ct.Item).FirstOrDefault();
}
var databaseName = rootItem != null ? rootItem.Database.Name : DatabaseName;
var indexName = string.Format(BusinessConstants.Search.GlobalSearchIndexNameFormat, databaseName.ToLowerInvariant());
// Locate the item by urllink
using (var searchContext = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex(indexName).CreateSearchContext())
{
var predicate = PredicateBuilder.True();
predicate = predicate.And(i => i.Url == args.Url.FilePath);
var query = searchContext.GetQueryable();
var result = query.First(searchContext, predicate, false);
if (result != null)
{
if (result.DatabaseName == BusinessConstants.Search.NetForumDatabaseName)
{
Context.Item = rootItem;
args.Context.Items.Add("product", result);
}
else if (result.TemplateId == ID.Parse(ShortUrlItem.SitecoreItemTemplateId))
{
var contextItem = result.GetItem();
if (contextItem != null)
{
var customItem = contextItem.Convert();
if (customItem != null)
{
Context.Item = customItem.BaseItem;
args.Context.Items.Add("customItem", customItem);
}
}
}
else
{
var contextItem = result.GetItem();
if (contextItem != null)
{
if (!IsValidItemVersion(contextItem))
{
contextItem = contextItem.Database.GetItem(contextItem.ID);
}
Context.Item = contextItem;
}
}
}
else
{
return;
}
}
}
private static bool IsValidItemVersion(Item item)
{
if (item == null)
{
return false;
}
if (item.Versions.IsLatestVersion())
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
///
/// Adds a site by name to the list of site the processor is active for. Called by Sitecore configuration utility
///
/// The name of the site to add
public void AddSite(string siteName)
{
var lowerName = siteName.ToLower();
if (!m_siteNames.Contains(lowerName))
m_siteNames.Add(lowerName);
}
public string DatabaseName
{
get
{
var db = Sitecore.Context.Database ?? Sitecore.Context.ContentDatabase;
return db.Name;
}
}
private UrlConfiguration UrlConfigurations
{
get
{
return UrlConfiguration.Instance(Context.Database.Name);
}
}
What this processor does is running a query to Solr sitecore_globalsearch_master_index or sitecore_globalsearch_web_index depending on the context and if any of the index documents have matching url in urllink_s field, it saves the object into Sitecore.Context.Items and sets Sitecore.Context.Item to the item property of corresponding productType.
In renderings I can access the value of saved in Sitecore.Context.Items object like this:
var product = (ProductSearchEntity)Context.Items["product"];
Next: Part 3: Implementing cross-core search