How to flag new items as unpublished items?

Question

In sitecore, if I add a new item to the master database(Unpublished), it does not show any indication regarding the published state.

For an example, if a user has added 10 items, he might get confused to figureout the items added by him which are pending for publishing.

Is there a way to identify newly added items as unpublished or in new and display a validation in the "Quick action bar"?

Ruud van Falier Ruud van Falier · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-02T10:46:29

Never thought about this, but it's actually pretty easy to fix.

I created a GutterRenderer that indicates wether an item has been published to at least one, to all, or to none of the publishing targets.

EDIT: Added Click behaviour. When you click the gutter icon, the Publish dialog will be shown for that item.

First I will show you the code that I wrote for this and then I'll show you screenshots of the setup and the result.

Here is the code:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Sitecore;
using Sitecore.Data;
using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Globalization;
using Sitecore.Shell.Applications.ContentEditor.Gutters;

namespace ParTech.Library.Gutters
{
  public class PublicationStatus : GutterRenderer
  {
    private readonly ID publishingTargetsFolderId = new ID("{D9E44555-02A6-407A-B4FC-96B9026CAADD}");
    private readonly ID targetDatabaseFieldId = new ID("{39ECFD90-55D2-49D8-B513-99D15573DE41}");

    protected override GutterIconDescriptor GetIconDescriptor(Item item)
    {
      bool existsInAll = true;
      bool existsInOne = false;

      // Find the publishing targets item folder
      Item publishingTargetsFolder = Context.ContentDatabase.GetItem(publishingTargetsFolderId);

      if (publishingTargetsFolder == null)
      {
        return null;
      }

      // Retrieve the publishing targets database names
      List<string> publishingTargetsDatabases = publishingTargetsFolder.GetChildren()
        .Select(x => x[targetDatabaseFieldId])
        .ToList();

      // Check for item existance in publishing targets
      publishingTargetsDatabases.ForEach(delegate(string databaseName)
      {
        if (Database.GetDatabase(databaseName).GetItem(item.ID) != null)
        {
          existsInOne = true;
        }
        else
        {
          existsInAll = false;
        }
      });

      // Return descriptor with tooltip and icon
      string tooltip = Translate.Text("This item has not yet been published");
      string icon = "People/16x16/flag_red.png";

      if (existsInAll)
      {
        tooltip = Translate.Text("This item has been published to all targets");
        icon = "People/16x16/flag_green.png";
      }
      else if (existsInOne)
      {
        tooltip = Translate.Text("This item has been published to at least one target");
        icon = "People/16x16/flag_yellow.png";
      }

      return new GutterIconDescriptor()
      {
        Icon = icon,
        Tooltip = tooltip,
        Click = string.Format("item:publish(id={0})", item.ID)
      };
    }
  }
}

And this is how so set it up and how it will look once it's running:

Figure 1: Create a new Gutter item in the Core database: enter image description here

Figure 2: Switch back to your Master database and activate the Gutter by right-clicking in the gutter area. enter image description here

Figure 3: The Gutter now indicates the publication status of your items enter image description here

How to flag new items as unpublished items?

2 Answers