Dictionary, getting key instead of phrase randomly

Question

We have a site that loads a fair deal of data via web api from inside our own project and have stumbled upon some odd behavior regarding dictionaries. It seems that it more or less randomly succeeds in getting the phrase from the dictionary.

One example is a product listing page that fetches "in stock" and "out of stock" dictionaries along with other product information. Loading the page for the first time one product would get the "in stock" key instead of the phrase while the rest gets the correct phrase for the same key, reloading the page and a completely random product gets the key and not the phrase while the rest works.

This is the method we are using: Sitecore.Globalization.Translate.Text("KEY");

We have tried getting the dictionaries from both static and non-static classes.

The SC version we are using is 8.1 (rev. 160302)

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. This occurs in multiple dev environment as well as on a test server.

Thanks

Answer 1

I have this issue on Sitecore 8.1 Initial Release.

To fix it you need to add on publish:end and publish:end:remote event a new handler. This is the class:

 public class DictionaryCacheClearer
 {
   /// <summary>
   /// Clears the whole dictionary domain cache.
  /// </summary>
  /// <param name="sender">The sender.</param>
  /// <param name="args">The <see cref="EventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>
   public void ClearCache(object sender, EventArgs args)
   {
     Translate.ResetCache();
     Log.Info("Dictionary cleared", this);
    }
   } 

On publish:end and publish:end:remote events you will have:

 <event name="publish:end:remote">
     <handler type="Sitecore.Publishing.HtmlCacheClearer, Sitecore.Kernel" method="ClearCache">
       <sites hint="list">
       <site s="1">YourSite</site>
       </sites>
    </handler>
<handler type="YourNameSpace.DictionaryCacheClearer, YourAssembly" method="ClearCache" />
</event>

<event name="publish:end">
   <handler type="Sitecore.Publishing.HtmlCacheClearer, Sitecore.Kernel" method="ClearCache">
     <sites hint="list">
        <site s="1">YourSite</site>
     </sites>
    </handler>
    <handler type="YourNameSpace.DictionaryCacheClearer, YourAssembly" method="ClearCache" />
</event>

Other fix you find it here: https://community.sitecore.net/developers/f/8/t/173

Answer 2

Even I had the same problem very recently. I removed the dictionary.dat in Website/temp/ and republished the dictionary value again. This solved my issue. Thanks to https://cmsxperience.com/2016/10/19/refresh-sitecore-dictionary-entries/

Answer 3

This is one of the flaws using OOTB Dictionary functionality in Sitecore. There are a lot other flaws like permissions for this node under /sitecore/system need to be set for content editors and so on.

I would recommend looking into Sitecore Habitat project and inspire by its Dictionary Foundation module:

https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/tree/master/src/Foundation/Dictionary

If you are using SXA in your solution or planning to use, I would recommend looking into Sitecore Habitat.Home project and inspire by its Dictionary Foundation module:

https://github.com/Sitecore/Sitecore.HabitatHome.Platform/tree/master/src/Foundation/Dictionary

Then you would have Dictionary entries under /sitecore/content node like this:

and code how you use it could look like this: