contentStartItem site setting in Sitecore 9.1

Question

This seems like a very simple config. Set the contentStartItem path that is below the rootPath. In this case it is the home item below the /sitecore/content/Sites/Client path.

When I log in as an editor, I land on the /Sitecore/Content/home item and not the /sitecore/content/Sites/Client/home item. I wonder if this functionality is broken in 9.1.

<site name="client" patch:after="site[@name='modules_website']"
      targetHostName="client.dev.local"
      hostName="client.dev.local"
      database="web"
      virtualFolder="/"
      physicalFolder="/"
      rootPath="/sitecore/content/Sites/Client"
      startItem="/home"
      contentStartItem="/home"
      domain="client"
      allowDebug="true"
      cacheHtml="true"
      htmlCacheSize="50MB"
      registryCacheSize="0"
      viewStateCacheSize="0"
      xslCacheSize="25MB"
      filteredItemsCacheSize="10MB"
      enablePreview="true"
      enableWebEdit="true"
      enableDebugger="true"
      disableClientData="false"
      cacheRenderingParameters="true"
      renderingParametersCacheSize="10MB"
      loginPage="/login"
      enableItemLanguageFallback="true" />
</sites>

Answer 1

contentStartItem site property is used when you open Content Editor this is the item which will be selected by default when you open it.

Sitecore reads site definitions in the order they appear in showconfig. In 99% cases, then first site will be shell site:

<site 
    name="shell"
    virtualFolder="/sitecore/shell" 
    physicalFolder="/sitecore/shell" 
    rootPath="/sitecore/content" 
    startItem="/home" 
    ...
/>

When you open Content Editor, the url is

/sitecore/shell/Applications/Content%20Editor.aspx?sc_bw=1

which matches the shell site.

If you have a config patch like:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/" xmlns:set="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/set/">
  <sitecore>
    <sites>
      <site 
        name="shell" 
        contentStartItem="/Sites/Client/home"
        />
      </sites>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

then every time you open Content Editor it will load /sitecore/content/Sites/Client/home initially.