We’re currently evaluating development with Sitecore 6 for a project. The client already bought it, so using another CMS isn't an option. The proposed setup would have Sitecore as our site’s content data provider; which would be consumed by a site built in ASP.Net MVC 3. We’d use Sitecore’s libraries to retrieve data from the Sitecore database on the server side.
In some cases, we also may want to consume content data via client side AJAX calls. I’ve been working on prototypes for this to see what data I can get back from a custom proxy service. This service calls GetOuterXml on the item, converts the Xml to JSON, and sends back the JSON to the calling script. So far, I’m finding using this method limiting; as it appears GetOuterXml only returns fields and values for fields that were set on the specific item, ignoring the template’s standard value fields and their default values for example. I tried Item.Fields.ReadAll(), still wouldn’t return the standard values. Also, there are circular references in the Item graph (item.Fields[0].Item.Fields[0]...); which has made serialization quite difficult without having to write something totally custom.
Needless to say, I've been running into many roadblocks on my path down this particular road and am definitely leaning toward doing things the Sitecore way. However, my team really wants to use MVC for this project; so before I push back on this, I feel its my responsibility to do some due diligence and reach out to the community to see if anyone else has tried this.
So my question is, as a Sitecore developer, have you ever used Sitecore as purely a content data provider on the client-side and/or server-side? If you have, have you encountered similar issues and were you able to resolve them? I know by using Sitecore in this way; you lose a lot of features such as content routing/aliasing, OMS, the rendering and layout engine; among other features. I’m not saying we’re definitely going down this path, we’re just at the R&D phase of using Sitecore and determining how it would best be utilized by our team and our development practices. Any constructive input is greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Frank
