Cannot setup content for same control multiple times in a page created using a template in sitecore 7.5

Question

I'm trying to use the same control (MVC ControllerRendering) multiple times in a page type template, similar to www.launchsitecore.net/.../binding-content-and-presentation (please check Fixed Toolbar that has been used twice).

I've created a template and assigned multiple controls based on same ControllerRendering in the presentations details of template, these are using same placeholder. When I create a page based on this template I want to setup different values for the Controllers in the Content Tab of the page. At the moment it only only allows setting up content for a single control and just shows same content on all the instances of Controls that I've added.

The Controller code is as follows:

namespace Company.Website.Controllers
{
    public class SharedController : SitecoreController
    {
        // GET: Shared
        public ViewResult EmailForm()
        {            
            ISitecoreContext service = new SitecoreContext();

            Foreign_Language_Email_Block model = service.GetCurrentItem<Foreign_Language_Email_Block>();

            return View(model);
        }
    }
}

It uses GlassMapper to get the data from the page and the View displays the values using Razor.

Not sure what I'm missing?

Please could you all Sitecore Experts help!!

Thanks

Answer 1

I am presuming Foreign_Language_Email_Block is currently a base template of your page item.

If your pages will feature multiple controls of the same type, that pattern can't work. You need to use separate, dynamically bound data sources. Not only will this allow you to insert multiple distinct controls of the same type on the page, but it's also a best practice for leveraging Sitecore's advanced personalization and marketing experiment features.

What you will need to do:

1. Create two data items based directly on your Foreign_Language_Email_Block template (or a derivative of that template). These would normally reside either within a global "resources" folder for the site (outside of the Home node), or under your page within a "page data" folder. (Names used are just examples. See this answer for more details on data source locations.)

2. Make sure your controller inherits from GlassController, and change the logic to the following:

   public class SharedController : GlassController
   {
       public ViewResult EmailForm()
       {            
           Foreign_Language_Email_Block model = this.GetLayoutItem<Foreign_Language_Email_Block>();
           return View(model);
       }
   }
   

3. Using Content Editor, attach the data sources to your instantiated renderings (controls).

4. Remove Foreign_Language_Email_Block from your page template's base templates.

Note that by calling GetLayoutItem, you can still add data directly to your page as a fallback option. This could still be a useful shortcut if you will only have one rendering of that type per page.

Answer 2

You can take a look into Dynamic Placeholder concept in Sitecore.

If you need to add two or more components of the same type on a single page, you can add the component to the existing Placeholder and can also define the name for a new placeholder on it. The second time you want to add the component again just add it to the new placeholder defined just above.

You can think of any similar approach based on your problem complexity.

Hope it helps :)