Sitecore8.1 : Resolve Wildcard (*) Item and fix presentation not cloned from * item

This is the Sitecore structure for wildcard item (*)

• sitecore
  • content
    • Site name
      • Home
        • Blogs
          • *
      • Globals
        • Blogs Folder
          • Year
          • Month
          • Blog Article 1
          • Blog Article 2

So according to this structure, we have #Wildcard Item(*) under the home node. It is like Blog detail page that is under Blog landing page.

Under Globals folder we have all blogs, those are actual blogs Detail Pages, we need to resolve.

First I have added new configuration file (z.wildcard.config) with the following configurations

1. created httpRequestBegin processor as a batch to be executed after Item Resolver  to Call Wildcard processor
2. Sitecore 8.1 observed the following issues
1. 1. Wildcard items no longer work
2. 2. Presentation for cloned items not found

Solution:

If you are using MVC with Sitecore 8.1 then add <mvc.getPageItem> after our processor to avoid any route conflict

The last point is to add settings to disable ItemResolving.FindBestMatch because it's enabled in Sitecore 8.1 which may cause wildcard redirect issues

	<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
	<sitecore>
	<pipelines>
	<httpRequestBegin>
	<processor type="WildcardProject.Pipelines.HttpRequest.WildCardItemResolver,WildcardProject" patch:after="processor[@type='Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.ItemResolver, Sitecore.Kernel']" />
	</httpRequestBegin>
	<mvc.getPageItem>
	<processor type="WildcardProject.Pipelines.GetPageItem.GetWildCardPageItemProcessor,WildcardProject" patch:before="processor[@type='Sitecore.Mvc.Pipelines.Response.GetPageItem.GetFromRouteValue, Sitecore.Mvc']"></processor>
	</mvc.getPageItem>
	</pipelines>
	<setting name="ItemResolving.FindBestMatch">
	<patch:attribute name="value">Disabled</patch:attribute>
	</setting>
	</sitecore>
	</configuration>

view raw Wildcard configurations hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	public class GetWildCardPageItemProcessor : GetPageItemProcessor
	{
	public GetWildCardPageItemProcessor()
	{
	}
	public override void Process(GetPageItemArgs args)
	{
	Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");
	if (args.Result != null)
	{
	return;
	}
	if(Context.Item ==null || !Context.Item.TemplateID.ToString().Equals(Constants.BlogCatgeories.BlogTemplateId)) \\BlogsTemplete ID as constant
	{
	return;
	}
	args.Result = ResolveItem(args);
	}
	protected Item ResolveItem(GetPageItemArgs args)
	{
	return Context.Item;
	}
	}

view raw GetWildCardPageItemProcessor hosted with ❤ by GitHub

    

• Add class WildCardItemResolver which include the processor to resolve wildcard

	public class WildCardItemResolver : HttpRequestProcessor
	{
	public override void Process(HttpRequestArgs args)
	{
	if (Context.Site.Name.Equals("shell", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)
	|| Context.Domain.Name.Equals("sitecore", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
	return;
	Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");
	if (Context.Database == null
	|| args.Url.ItemPath.Length == 0
	|| Context.Item == null
	|| !Context.Item.TemplateID.ToString().Equals(Constants.TemplateID))
	return;
	Item wildCardItem = Repository.FindByUrlPath(args.Url.FilePath);
	if (wildCardItem != null)
	{
	Context.Item = wildCardItem;
	}
	}
	}
	public static Item FindByUrlPath(string urlPath)
	{
	try
	{
	if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(urlPath))
	{
	return null;
	}
	Item blogItem = null;
	string term = urlPath.Split(new[] { "/" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Last();
	term = term.Replace("-", " ");
	if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(term))
	return null;
	var blogIndex = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex("sitecore_web_index");
	using (var context = blogIndex.CreateSearchContext())
	{
	List<SearchResultItem> results = context.GetQueryable<SearchResultItem>()
	.Where(x => x.Paths.Contains(new ID([StartupPathItemID])) && x.TemplateId == new ID([TemplateId]) && x.Name == term).ToList();
	if (results.Any())
	{
	blogItem = results.First().GetItem();
	return blogItem;
	}
	return null;
	}
	}
	catch (Exception e)
	{
	Log.Error("An error occured on blog wildcard FindByUrlPath ", e.InnerException);
	return null;
	}
	}

view raw gistfile1.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub