Monday, June 25, 2007

Briefly about HTTP Request Begin Pipeline


Though SCD2 Training mentions this quite interesting and sometimes useful topic, I decided to give a quick overview of what happens with the HTTP request when it comes to Sitecore.

  • IgnoreList – checks if the requested page is in the ignore URL list in the web.config. The setting is called “IgnoreUrlPrefixes”. If such page is defined, the pipeline terminates.
  • SiteResolver – resolving the site name either by the sc_site query string value or by host name or virtual folder name got as a result of parsing the incoming URL.
  • DatabaseResolver – getting the Sitecore context database by the sc_database query string.
  • DeviceResolver – getting the current Sitecore device by query string, User Agent or in any other supported way.
  • LanguageResolver getting Sitecore context language by the sc_lang query string.
  • CustomHandlers – triggers custom handlers that are defined in the <customHandlers /> section.
  • FilterUrlExtensions – define the allowed/blocked extensions that will be either streamed or not.
  • QueryStringResolver – analyzing such query string as “sc_itemid”. If the ID specified as the value is valid and if the item is found in the context database, then the returning item is set as a context item.
  • AliasResolver – if the requested URL matches an alias that exist in the system, Sitecore processes either external URL or the real item that is associated with this alias.
  • DefaultResolver – getting the start path item for the context site. Sitecore instantiates this item using the “RootPath” and “StartItem” attributes of the context site by simply concatenating these values.
  • ItemResolver – getting the Sitecore context item by the incoming URL.
  • LayoutResolver – returning the presentation logic for the resolved item.
  • ExecuteRequest – context path rewrite and handling of the “item not found”/”layout not found” errors.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Insert Sitecore Link dialog - another icon


This could be irritating for some editors as the icons for the Sitecore Internal Link dialog and Hyperlink Manager are the same.

You can change it by changing the Icon field of the "Insert Sitecore Link" item: /sitecore/system/Settings/Html Editor Profiles/<name of the profile that you use>/Toolbar 1/Insert Sitecore Link

Here is the image you can use as a source.

Copy this image to \sitecore\shell\RadControls\Editor\Skins\Monochrome\Buttons\

Here is the result: Look much better now and less confusing for the editors. Please don’t forget to copy the file when upgrading in future.