Sitecore Datalift returning null for actionItem

Question

I have the following dummy controller trying to use https://github.com/cassidydotdk/Sitecore.Datalift

public class MyController : DataLiftController
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var actionItem = GetActionItem("User Defined/MyProject/Pages/MyItem");

        if (actionItem == null)
        {
            return new EmptyResult;
        }

        var viewModel = new ViewModel()
        {
            Title = actionItem["Title"]
        };

        return View("~/Views/MyView.cshtml", viewModel);
    }
}

However, I always get null for actionItem. What am I doing wrong? I am expecting the actionItem to return context item unless I have datasource then return datasource. However in both instances I get null.

Answer 1

Sitecore.Datalift follows the normal pattern of trying to grab the Datasourced item, falling back to Context.Item if no datasource has been set.

While I can't tell from your code exactly what is failing, the normal caveats would be:

1. You've not defined your datasource. If so; your code above expects Context.Item to have a template that is or inherits User Defined/MyProject/Pages/MyItem
2. You have defined a datasource, but it points to an invalid or non-existing item. If so, GetActionItem will always return null.
3. The datasource you have defined is valid, but the item pointed to is or does not inherit User Defined/MyProject/Pages/MyItem