Sitecore Custom Databases for user generated content

Question

I need to store a set of information (for example, poll results, article comments, etc,).

I would like to use the Sitecore pattern to manage information (templates, items and content tree) in order to not deploy custom logic for custom SQL database.

Of course, I don't want to use the master (CM) database since items are not available in the web (CD) database (unless I publish them). On the other site I cannot create items in web (CD) database since they are lost on publishing.

Is there a way to add a customer database to the content tree structure avoiding the publication.

Thanks in advance, Tex

Answer 1

Yes

You can add as many databases as you like.

I have an admittedly very old tutorial that takes you through the steps. Having just skimmed through it, I would say it's probably still perfectly valid - as Sitecore's Data Provider model hasn't changed significantly in a decade.

• Working with multiple content databases in Sitecore 6

But if you want to go on your own, the steps to add an additional database to your solution is roughly this:

• Clone one of your existing SQL databases. E.g. "master" or "web".
• Add a new <database> section to your configs. Patch it in. Give it a unique id, i.e. change "master" to "ugc" or something similar.
• Add a matching connection string for your cloned database in ConnectionStrings.config

And that's more or less it. As long as you can access this database, you can access the content in it - no publishing required or even wanted.

If you really wanted this information to come into your "master" content tree, you could set up a proxy for it. I'm not sure I would recommend you do however.