Force shared layout in experience editor

Question

I know there's a button in experience editor to decide whether to use the shared layout or the final layout when adding renderings (and the default is final layout). Is there a setting that forces this to one option or the other to start? I'm thinking mainly during development, a lot of the time I want my team to use the shared layout. If there's a setting I can change using a patch only on my local or development servers, that'd be optimal.

Answer 1

http://jockstothecore.com/defaulting-shared-layout-editing-sitecore-8-1/

A simple setting is not available, but in the blog post above you can find code for a custom processor for the loggedin pipeline that will do the trick. You can still choose on which environments you add the pipeline processor (live only dev).

The code itself will set the Registry value for the EditAllVersions key, to set it to shared for the current user. The value is indeed kept per user (you will also notice that by the fact that Sitecore will remember your choice in the xp editor).

public class DefaultToAllVersions : LoggedInProcessor
{
    public override void Process(LoggedInArgs args)
    {
        if (SkipProcessor(args)) return;
        Registry.SetString(Constants.RegistryKeys.EditAllVersions,
            Constants.Registry.CheckboxTickedRegistryValue);
    }

    public virtual bool SkipProcessor(LoggedInArgs args)
    {
        var user = User.FromName(args.Username, true);
        var existing = Registry.GetString(Constants.RegistryKeys.EditAllVersions);
        return user == null && string.IsNullOrEmpty(existing);
    }

}

and patch you loggedin pipeline:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <processors>
      <loggedin>
        <processor mode="on"
          patch:after="*[last()]"
          type="X.DefaultToAllVersions, X" />
      </loggedin>
    </processors>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Answer 2

For those using Sitecore 9.1, Gatogordo's answer doesn't work because the loggedin pipeline is not called. In 9.1, users log in through the identity server, and whether by accident or design, Sitecore does not call the loggedin pipeline after login. So, in order to implement Gatogordo's answer, I had to use the httpRequestProcessed pipeline and keep track of whether or not the code has executed through a session variable.

httpRequestProcessed Processor

using Sitecore.ExperienceEditor;
using Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest;
using Sitecore.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

namespace ObligatoryNamespace.Pipelines
{
    public class DefaultToAllVersions : HttpRequestProcessor
    {
        public override void Process(HttpRequestArgs args)
        {
            var session = args?.HttpContext?.Session;

            if (session == null ||
                !Sitecore.Context.IsLoggedIn ||
                session["DefaultToAllVersions"] as string == "done")
                return;

            // Gatogordo's code (slightly modified)
            if (!SkipProcessor(args))
                Registry.SetString(Constants.RegistryKeys.EditAllVersions,
                    Constants.Registry.CheckboxTickedRegistryValue);

            session["DefaultToAllVersions"] = "done";
        }

        // Gatogordo's code (slightly modified)
        public virtual bool SkipProcessor(LoggedInArgs args)
        {
            var user = User.FromName(User.Current.Name, true);
            var existing = Registry.GetString(Constants.RegistryKeys.EditAllVersions);
            return user == null && string.IsNullOrEmpty(existing);
        }
    }
}

Patch File

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <httpRequestProcessed>
        <processor patch:after="*[last()]"
          type="ObligatoryNamespace.Pipelines.DefaultToAllVersions, ObligatoryNamespace" />
      </httpRequestProcessed>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Regarding the use of the httpRequestProcessed pipeline, I know that is is not as efficient because this pipeline is called for every request. I wake up in cold sweats sometimes dwelling on this fact, but unlike the loggedin pipeline, it works for 9.1. There simply aren't any other effective alternatives that I could find. If you have any better ideas, please leave them in the comments, and if it works out, I'll update the answer.