Sitecore 'dynamic placeholders' with MVC

Question

I'm looking for a working Dynamic Placeholder solution in MVC. There are at least two good descriptions of this "pattern" for use with WebForms:

• http://trueclarity.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/dynamic-placeholder-keys-in-sitecore/
• http://www.techphoria414.com/Blog/2011/August/Dynamic_Placeholder_Keys_Prototype

And I also found this blog explaining how to do it with MVC:

• http://blogs.perficient.com/portals/2012/10/17/sitecore-mvc-dynamic-placeholders/

First I have tried to implement Techphoria's method (with GUIDs) using techniques from the MVC blogpost (extension of the SitecoreHelper) and I also tried implementing the last described method (uses number suffixes that are incremented Column_1, Column_2, etc).

With all the variations I tried I didn't succeed in creating a working solution. My placeholders don't get properly named (I ended up with strange placeholder structures, or placeholders repeating themselves).

Without going into the specifics of my attempts, I would like to know if anyone else has a working solution ready that I could use.

If I can't find an already working solution, I will describe my problem in more detail and see if I can get that to work.

Answer 1

I created this extension that creates dynamic placholders

public static class SitecoreHelper {     public static HtmlString DynamicPlaceholder(this Sitecore.Mvc.Helpers.SitecoreHelper helper, string dynamicKey)     {         var currentRenderingId = RenderingContext.Current.Rendering.UniqueId;         return helper.Placeholder(string.Format("{0}_{1}", dynamicKey, currentRenderingId));     } } 

It creates a placeholder with the guid in the name. I also created a step in the pipeline that extracts the guid, and checks for placeholder settings.

Code to get placeholder settings to the dynamic placeholder If you create a dynamic placeholder with @Html.Sitecore().DynamicPlaceholder("test") - the following code takes the setting from the placeholder settings named test

 /// <summary> /// Handles changing context to the references dynamic "master" renderings settings for inserting the allowed controls for the placeholder and making it editable /// </summary> public class GetDynamicKeyAllowedRenderings : GetAllowedRenderings {     //text that ends in a GUID     private const string DYNAMIC_KEY_REGEX = @"(.+)_[\d\w]{8}\-([\d\w]{4}\-){3}[\d\w]{12}";      public new void Process(GetPlaceholderRenderingsArgs args)     {         Assert.IsNotNull(args, "args");          string placeholderKey = args.PlaceholderKey;         Regex regex = new Regex(DYNAMIC_KEY_REGEX);         Match match = regex.Match(placeholderKey);         if (match.Success && match.Groups.Count > 0)         {             placeholderKey = match.Groups[1].Value;         }         else         {             return;         }         // Same as Sitecore.Pipelines.GetPlaceholderRenderings.GetAllowedRenderings but with fake placeholderKey         Item placeholderItem = null;         if (ID.IsNullOrEmpty(args.DeviceId))         {             placeholderItem = Client.Page.GetPlaceholderItem(placeholderKey, args.ContentDatabase,                                                              args.LayoutDefinition);         }         else         {             using (new DeviceSwitcher(args.DeviceId, args.ContentDatabase))             {                 placeholderItem = Client.Page.GetPlaceholderItem(placeholderKey, args.ContentDatabase,                                                                  args.LayoutDefinition);             }         }         List<Item> collection = null;         if (placeholderItem != null)         {             bool flag;             args.HasPlaceholderSettings = true;             collection = this.GetRenderings(placeholderItem, out flag);             if (flag)             {                 args.CustomData["allowedControlsSpecified"] = true;                 args.Options.ShowTree = false;             }         }         if (collection != null)         {             if (args.PlaceholderRenderings == null)             {                 args.PlaceholderRenderings = new List<Item>();             }             args.PlaceholderRenderings.AddRange(collection);         }     } } 

The following code removes the guid from the chrome data in the pageeditor

/// <summary> /// Replaces the Displayname of the Placeholder rendering with the dynamic "parent" /// </summary> public class GetDynamicPlaceholderChromeData : GetChromeDataProcessor {     //text that ends in a GUID     private const string DYNAMIC_KEY_REGEX = @"(.+)_[\d\w]{8}\-([\d\w]{4}\-){3}[\d\w]{12}";      public override void Process(GetChromeDataArgs args)     {         Assert.ArgumentNotNull(args, "args");         Assert.IsNotNull(args.ChromeData, "Chrome Data");         if ("placeholder".Equals(args.ChromeType, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))         {             string argument = args.CustomData["placeHolderKey"] as string;              string placeholderKey = argument;             Regex regex = new Regex(DYNAMIC_KEY_REGEX);             Match match = regex.Match(placeholderKey);             if (match.Success && match.Groups.Count > 0)             {                 // Is a Dynamic Placeholder                 placeholderKey = match.Groups[1].Value;             }             else             {                 return;             }              // Handles replacing the displayname of the placeholder area to the master reference             Item item = null;             if (args.Item != null)             {                 string layout = ChromeContext.GetLayout(args.Item);                 item = Sitecore.Client.Page.GetPlaceholderItem(placeholderKey, args.Item.Database, layout);                 if (item != null)                 {                     args.ChromeData.DisplayName = item.DisplayName;                 }                 if ((item != null) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Appearance.ShortDescription))                 {                     args.ChromeData.ExpandedDisplayName = item.Appearance.ShortDescription;                 }             }         }     } } 

Edit

The web.config include settings are included below:

<sitecore>   <pipelines>      <getPlaceholderRenderings>       <processor          type="YourNamespace.Pipelines.GetPlaceholderRenderings.GetDynamicKeyAllowedRenderings, YourAssembly"         patch:before="processor[@type='Sitecore.Pipelines.GetPlaceholderRenderings.GetAllowedRenderings, Sitecore.Kernel']"/>     </getPlaceholderRenderings>      <getChromeData>       <processor         type="YourNamespace.Pipelines.GetChromeData.GetDynamicPlaceholderChromeData, YourAssembly"         patch:after="processor[@type='Sitecore.Pipelines.GetChromeData.GetPlaceholderChromeData, Sitecore.Kernel']"/>     </getChromeData>    </pipelines> </sitecore>