Show PDF Thumbnail as Icon in Content Editor

Sitecore shows PDF icon as a thumbnail, so it becomes very difficult to find out a PDF file from a big list of uploaded files. Just imagine, life would be so easy when Sitecore provides PDF thumbnails as the icons just like images!!

It is quite possible and easy to show PDF thumbnails in different dimensions just by overriding the MediaRequestHandler of Sitecore. See my earlier post, PDF Thumbnail Handler blog. You can also find PDF Thumbnail Handler on Sitecore MarketPlace.

Use of PDF Thumbnails Handler

Once the concept of PDF Thumbnail Handler is understood, we can achieve this easily. Do following:

1. Install PDF Thumbnail Handler to your Sitecore and make it up and running.
2. Update PDF item's Icon field. Replace ~/media to ~/mediathumb
3. Now, check Sitecore Content Editor will show PDF thumbnails as icons.

By default PDF icons are available as below image:


The Icon has value: ~/media/36C02213E38441D9BA1AA82DB86A80E0.ashx?h=16&thn=1&w=16, which will load icon of PDF which is defined in the sitecore itself.

As per PDF Thumbnail Creation Handler, by using ~/mediathumb handler by updating its value to: ~/mediathumb/36C02213E38441D9BA1AA82DB86A80E0.ashx?h=16&thn=1&w=16. See below image which shows how PDF thumbnail is shown as icon.

 Let's make PDF thumbnails working in Content Editor

Our requirement is to show thumbnails like below image:

Override MediaProvider of Sitecore, for that you need to do changes in web.config file.

   <!-- override Sitecore MediaProvider -->
   <mediaProvider type="SitecoreTactics.MediaProvider, SitecoreTactics"/>

Below is the code required in MediaProvider class. In the GetMediaUrl function, when the request of any PDF file is there, then replace existing ~/media/ handler with ~/mediathumb/.

namespace SitecoreTactics
{
    public class MediaProvider: Sitecore.Resources.Media.MediaProvider
    {
        public override string GetMediaUrl(MediaItem item, MediaUrlOptions options)
        {
            string mediaUrl;
            mediaUrl = base.GetMediaUrl(item, options);

            // When item is PDF and Thumbnail is requested
            if (item.Extension == "pdf" && options.Thumbnail)
                mediaUrl = mediaUrl.Replace(Config.MediaLinkPrefix, "~/mediathumb/");

            return mediaUrl;
        }
    }
}

Wow, let's enjoy easier life with PDF thumbnails in Content Editor!!

Related Posts:
- PDF Thumbnail Handler
- Sitecore HTTP Custom Handler

Site-wise languages in Sitecore Ribbon for multisite environment

Are you working in Sitecore multisite environment and different sites are built in different languages? Then one idea should come in your mind that can't we set site-wise languages to the Page Editor's Webedit Ribbon and Content Editor's Language Gallery Form.

By default, the ribbon shows all languages defined in /sitecore/system/Languages. In our Sitecore instance, there are 40+ languages and many different culture sites. So, this idea came in our mind and implemented.

See below snap, there are total 5 languages in System.

Default Languages in Content Editor

Default Languages in Page Editor

Expected Behavior

Now, suppose, your site A uses 2 languages and site B uses other 3 languages. Then selecting item of site A, it should show 2 languages and same for site B, it should show 3 languages.

In this example, the site is built in 3 languages: En, hi-IN, de-DE. So, the ribbon should not show other languages en-GB and fr-FR. See below snap what is expected.

Solution

Prepare template to choose site-wise languages

We can have a multilist field to the Home Item of each site, where we can choose site's languages from the whole list from /sitecore/system/languages. See below screen.

Change Languages in Content Editor Gallery

Open file: \Website\sitecore\shell\Applications\Content Manager\Galleries\Languages\Gallery Languages.xml Change the code beside to your custom code. SO, update the file as below:

     <!-- comment below line -->
     <!--<CodeBeside Type="Sitecore.Shell.Applications.ContentManager.Galleries.Languages.GalleryLanguagesForm,Sitecore.Client"/>-->

     <!-- add below line -->
     <CodeBeside Type="SitecoreTactics.GalleryLanguagesForm, SitecoreTactics"/>

Code in the CodeBeside file: Create a custom class, which will be a repilca of the Sitecore.Shell.Applications.ContentManager.Galleries.Languages.GalleryLanguagesForm class. We just need to override OnLoad event in this class. So, this will be look like..

namespace SitecoreTactics
{
 public class GalleryLanguagesForm : Sitecore.Shell.Applications.ContentManager.Galleries.GalleryForm
 {
  // Other methods

   protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
  {
   Assert.ArgumentNotNull(e, "e");
   base.OnLoad(e);
   if (!Context.ClientPage.IsEvent)
   {
    Item currentItem = GetCurrentItem();
    if (currentItem != null)
    {
     // Comment below line from the code
     //foreach (Language language in currentItem.Languages)

     // Instead of all languages, we will pass only selected languages
     LanguageCollection languages  = GetMySelectedLanguages();
     foreach (Language language in languages)
     {
      // Same code which is in foreach block
     }
    }
   }
  }
  
  // Other methods

 }
}

Download above sourcecode

Here is the expected output:

Change languages in Page Editor

For this, we need to update the command from Commands.config file as below:

     <!-- comment below line -->
     <!--<command name="webedit:changelanguage" type="Sitecore.Shell.Applications.WebEdit.Commands.ChangeLanguage,Sitecore.Client"/>-->


     <!-- add below line -->
     

Code in the class file: Create a custom class, which will be a repilca of the Sitecore.Shell.Applications.WebEdit.Commands.ChangeLanguage class. We just need to overrideExecute event in this class. So, this will be look like..

namespace SitecoreTactics
{
 public class ChangeLanguage : WebEditCommand
 {
  // Other methods
 
  public override void Execute(CommandContext context)
  {
   Assert.ArgumentNotNull(context, "context");
   if (context.Items.Length == 1)
   {
    Item item = context.Items[0];
    
    // Comment below line
    //LanguageCollection languages = LanguageManager.GetLanguages(item.Database);
    
    // Instead of all languages, we will pass only selected languages
    LanguageCollection languages  = GetMySelectedLanguages();
    
    SheerResponse.DisableOutput();
    Menu control = new Menu();
    foreach (Language language in languages)
    {
     string id = "L" + ShortID.NewId();
     string languageName = GetLanguageName(language.CultureInfo);
     string icon = LanguageService.GetIcon(language, item.Database);
     string click = "webedit:setlanguage(language=" + language.Name + ")";
     control.Add(id, languageName, icon, string.Empty, click, false, string.Empty, MenuItemType.Normal);
    }
    SheerResponse.EnableOutput();
    SheerResponse.ShowPopup("ChangeLanguageButton", "below", control);
   }
  }
  
  // Other methods
 }
}

Here is the expected output:


Cheers, finally we achieved site-wise selected languages for each site for our multisite Sitecore environment.

Other Language specific customizations - used for multisite environment:
-  Why my Sitecore Media Item created in multiple languages?
-  Upload Sitecore media items in selected languages

Sitecore Query Strings Parameters

Sitecore gives different querystring parameters like choosing item, language, device, etc. stuffs to manage them easily without any configurations, etc. Also, it uses many querystring parameters to manage Content Editor efficiently.

Content Editor

There are many parameters Sitecore uses to manage content editor.

sc_content

- It changes the Sitecore database for the context of Content Editor. If querystring has value as sc_content=web, then content editor will open items from web database.

sc_lang

- It changes the Sitecore's default language. It is not exactly Item's language, but you can say language of the Sitecore's ribbon. For example, if sc_lang=en-GB, then in Content Editor, it will render the whole ribbon as en-GB language. If we pass this parameter for Preview/Page Editor/Normal mode, then it will set Items' language.

fo

- It will request Content Editor to open the given item directly. the item passed will be autopopulated from the tree and its properties will be shown without traversing the tree.

As per below snap, Products item has Item ID: {07D9A696-A2FE-4A59-88FB-A57FE386B8AD}. Now, if we want to open Products item directly in Content Editor, then we can pass querystring like fo={07D9A696-A2FE-4A59-88FB-A57FE386B8AD}. We can also pass Item Path instead of Item ID

ro

- It will request Content Editor to open the given item directly, but will be shown as a root item, means its parent will not be shown in the tree. Producta item has Item ID: {07D9A696-A2FE-4A59-88FB-A57FE386B8AD}.

If we pass querystring like ro={07D9A696-A2FE-4A59-88FB-A57FE386B8AD}, will open it as below.

Page Editor/Preview/Normal mode

There are many parameters Sitecore uses to preview pages.

sc_content

- It changes the database context for current requested page. If we request as sc_content=web, then it will render the whole page using item values from web database.

sc_lang

- It changes the language context for current requested page. If we request as sc_lang=de-DE, then it will render the whole page using item values from German language version. LanguageResolver processor is responsible for determining Context Language, which determins it using sc_lang querystring parameter or by current language cookie set in browser.

sc_itemid

- This parameter is mostly used for previewing particular item from Content Editor. When we preview any item from Content Editor, it opens preview/page editor window to view selected item's rendering. ItemResolver processor is responsible for determining Context Item, which determins it using sc_itemid querystring parameter or URL/site requested.

sc_device

We can change device using this parameter. If we pass sc_device=mobile, then mobile device will be set to Context Device. DeviceResolver processor is responsible for determining Context Device, which determins it using sc_device querystring parameter or by Browser agent.

Media(Images) Requests

There are many parameters Sitecore uses to alter image on-the-fly. You can refer my earlier post to see different querystring parameters for requesting images in Sitecore: Sitecore image control and querystring parameters