Author: sitecorerunner (@reilleyweb)

Field Ordering When Inheriting Sitecore Templates

/ sitecorerunner (@reilleyweb) / Leave a comment

I have come across this many times before. I will have a base #Sitecore template that is inherited by another template. The fields from both templates are combined in one section. The content editor though wants the order of the fields changed. That is easy to do if the fields are from the same template, but it is not so easy to do it when the fields are from two different #Sitecore templates. I will show you an easy workaround though to get the correct order.

In my example I have a ProductBase template that has a Description field. The Product template inherits from this template so it will have the Description field.

This is what the current product item looks like. As you can see it is currently in the default alphabetical order. What if though the content editor wants the Description under the Name?

In order to have the fields reordered you will need to go to your main template. Select the field you want to reorder and navigate to the Appearance section and then the Sortorder field. Sitecore usually numbers their fields starting at 100, 200, 300 and so on. So in this case we want Name on the top. Giving it a -100 value in the Sortorder field will make it automatically be the top field since it will then be displayed before 100.

As you can see the order has now changed and the content editor will be able to edit in their preferred order.

This was a simple example. For more multiple field reorders changing the Sortorder fields with different values will take a little more of playing with the value, but the concept will be the same. I suggest never changing the Sortorder on a base template. The reason being is that for other templates they may want a different order and it would be the same for all templates that inherit the base template and/or will make it difficult to reorder your main template. Let me know if you have any questions.

Sitecore Rocks Query Analayzer

/ sitecorerunner (@reilleyweb) / 1 Comment

One of the features I like about Sitecore Rocks is the built in the query analyzer. This has speed things a long when I needed to create simple queries or test some more complex ones. To use the query analyzer is very simple.

Right click on an item and select Tools|Query Analyzer.

This is the screen that appears. Notice on this screen there is also a link to a XPath builder if that is what you prefer.

Simple query, but I like that you can use syntax like T-SQL. You will need to convert it to XPath syntax though if you are using this Sitecore query in your code. Please not the Insert Path and Insert Field links. Those are great shortcuts for building your queries.

So that is the simple overview of the query analyzer. Let me know if you have any questions thanks.

Quick Template Creation Options Sitecore Rocks Continued

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I wanted to show you a few more things that you might find useful when creating/editing templates with Sitecore Rocks.

Standard Values

  • Simply right click on the template and select standard values.


  • Once standard values are created you have all the options and more in one place to set for the template.


Insert Options

  • Parent templates are not complete without insert options. Insert options are easy to set in Sitecore Rocks.


  • Using the search function you can find the template(s) you want for an insert option.


Design Layout

  • After you have your template set adding a design layout is very simple.


  • You can select a main layout first and then after that you have the option to drag a rendering from the Sitecore Rocks explorer or simply click the Add Rendering button.


So those are some more of the basic things you can do with templates and Sitecore Rocks. Please let me know if there is something else you would like to see.

Quick Template Creation Options Sitecore Rocks

/ sitecorerunner (@reilleyweb) / Leave a comment

I have always been a big fan of Sitecore Rocks. I am surprised that a lot of Sitecore developers don’t take more advantage of this awesome add on to Visual Studio. In the next couple of weeks I will introduce some features that might make you want to give it a try. Let’s start with the one of the most common things we do in Sitecore. Create templates.

Assuming you have already installed Sitecore Rocks and created a connection to your Sitecore site from Sitecore Explorer let’s get started. (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JakobChristensen.SitecoreRocks if you haven’t installed it yet.)

Template Creation

  • Right click on the folder you want to create a new template in and name your template. You can also search and add base templates here. (Side not the search feature is powerful.)
  • Ok to save and you will now see your newly created template.

Template options

  • If you right click on your new template you will notice a bunch of options. The main ones that are most commonly used are featured first.
  • In the next step we will look at the Template Design option.

Template Design

  • After selecting template design. You can design a template like how you would in the content editor.
  • As you can see below you have the same field options in content editor.

Template Field Order

  • It is simple to reorder any field once your template is created. Just drag and drop.

That concludes my first blog post about Sitecore Rocks. There are many other things you can do in the interface with templates. Is there something you would like me to show you please comment below. Stay tuned for more Sitecore Rock tips.