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Generate Structure Group Navigation - Recursive TBB

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This TBB Generates an XML containing all Structure Groups and Pages whose title abides to a naming convention, in hierarchical structure. The naming convention is given by regular expression (e.g. title starts with 3 digits followed by underscore or space).

Description

Name
Generate Structure Group Navigation Reorder TBB
Type
·    Template in .NET Assembly
Description
Used to:
·    Generate navigation XML;
Notes:
This TBB reads the Publication's Root Structure Group and retrieves all child SGs and Pages using the .GetListItems() method in a recursive way.
The template retrieves the SG/Pages directly under the given SG and it then iterates each node, invoking a recursive step for each SG it encounters, thus ensuring the entire hierarchical structure is visited.
Each SG object is represented as a tcm:Item node that has potential sub-nodes (other SGs and Pages).
The Page objects are represented also as tcm:Item nodes and they are the leaf nodes in the XML document.
The produced XML document is added to the Package as item named "Output".
Parameters
N/A
Applicable to
Page Templates - no other TBB is required on the PT

The XML

Each node is the navigation XML has the following attributes:
  • ID - the SG or Page TCMURI;
  • Title - the name of the SG or Page (as defined in Tridion CM);
  • DisplayTitle - the name of the SG or Page after removing the three digit and underscore or space prefix;
  • Url - the PublicationLocationUrl of the SG or Page;
Sample navigation XML:

<tcm:ListItems ID="tcm:1-1-4" Title="Root">
  <tcm:Item ID="tcm:1-2-4" Title="010 About Us" DisplayTitle="About Us" Url="/about-us">
    <tcm:Item ID="tcm:1-3-64" Title="010 Who are we?" DisplayTitle="Who are we?" Url="/about-us/who-are-we.html"/>
  </tcm:Item>
  <tcm:Item ID="tcm:1-4-64" Title="020 Contact Us" DisplayTitle="Contact Us" Url="/contact-us.html"/>
</tcm:ListItems>

The Code

The TBB uses templating API method .GetListItems(filter) to retrieve all Structure Groups and Pages directly under the given SG and it then iterates each node, invoking a recursive step for each SG it encounters, thus ensuring the entire hierarchical structure is visited.

On exiting the recursion, the template applies hierarchy to the resulting XML document by adding the found nodes to the current parent.

private XmlElement BuildNavigation(StructureGroup structureGroup) {
    List<XmlNode> toRemove = new List<XmlNode>();
    XmlElement navigationXml = structureGroup.GetListItems(filter);

    foreach (XmlElement item in navigationXml.ChildNodes) {
        string itemTitle = item.Attributes["Title"].Value;
        if (IsNavigable(itemTitle)) {
            // enhance node
            TcmUri itemId = new TcmUri(item.Attributes[ATTRIBUTE_ID].Value);
            ItemType itemType = itemId.ItemType;
            if (itemType == ItemType.StructureGroup) {
                StructureGroup childSG = m_Engine.GetObject(itemId) as StructureGroup;
                EnhanceNode(item, childSG);

                // recursive step
                XmlElement childNavigation = BuildNavigation(childSG);
                foreach (XmlElement childItem in childNavigation.ChildNodes) {
                    XmlNode importedNode = item.OwnerDocument.ImportNode(childItem, true);
                    item.AppendChild(importedNode);
                }
            } else if (itemType == ItemType.Page) {
                Page childPage = m_Engine.GetObject(itemId) as Page;
                EnhanceNode(item, childPage);
            }
        } else {
            toRemove.Add(item);
        }
    }

    // remove non-navigation items
    foreach (XmlNode node in toRemove) {
        navigationXml.RemoveChild(node);
    }

    return navigationXml;

}

Enhance the XmlElement corresponding to a SG or Page with information such as DisplayTitle, URL, etc.

private void EnhanceNode(XmlElement item, Page page) {
    string displayTitle = navigationItemRegex.Replace(page.Title, "");
    item.SetAttribute(ATTRIBUTE_DISPLAY_TITLE, displayTitle);

    string url = page.PublishLocationUrl;
    item.SetAttribute(ATTRIBUTE_URL, url);
}

private void EnhanceNode(XmlElement item, StructureGroup structureGroup) {
    string displayTitle = navigationItemRegex.Replace(structureGroup.Title, "");
    item.SetAttribute(ATTRIBUTE_DISPLAY_TITLE, displayTitle);

    string url = structureGroup.PublishLocationUrl;
    item.SetAttribute(ATTRIBUTE_URL, url);
}

Only consider items that match a given Regular Expression. In this instance, the expression is ^\\d{3}[_ ] (starts with three digits followed by an underscore or space).

private bool IsNavigable(string title) {
    return navigationItemRegex.IsMatch(title);
}


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