Publishing restrictions for components in page

Question

I have a page that is completely component based. All images, html, etc are individual components with datasources in a grid system. The datasources are in a folder under the page called pagedata or in a site level folder called sitedata.

What I want to accomplish is to have the components follow the same publishing date restrictions as the parent page. Right now if I want an image to switch out on June 1, I have to version the image datasource item and add publishing restrictions to it. Or I can make a new image item (separate from the current image datasource item). Then the presentation details of the page item, in the June 1 version, will switch out the image datasource on June 1st.

If I had a page with 10 images and 3 html components, it would be difficult to create 13 new items and then update the datasources for all the components. Or go to all 13 datasource items and set publishing restrictions on them all.

Anyone have a simpler pipeline that allows adding publishing restrictions to a component based page? I have not researched how SXA does it yet.

Answer 1

Here's some code that will let you synchronize the Publishing Settings on DataSources that are used on an Items Renderings. You would definitely want to limit it to occur only on specific template types. Plus, some other considerations is Workflow. This would definitely be something that you would need to do if these items are controlled by workflow. Here is a Marketplace module that will do it for you and there is a blog post with a few details about it - https://marketplace.sitecore.net/Modules/D/Data_Source_Workflow_Module.aspx?sc_lang=en.

Here is the config to patch in the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <events>
      <event name="item:saved">
        <handler type="SharedSource.Foundation.DataSourcePublishingRestrictions.Events.ItemSaved.DataSourcePublishingRestrictions, SharedSource.Foundation.DataSourcePublishingRestrictions" method="OnItemSaved"/>
      </event>
    </events>
    <settings>
      <setting name="SharedSource.Foundation.DataSourcePublishingRestrictions.AllowedTemplates" value="{76036F5E-CBCE-46D1-AF0A-4143F9B557AA}|{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/>
    </settings>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Here is the code for patching into the SaveItem event that will synchronize the Publishing settings like you asked:

// Copyright (c) [2017] [David Walker] - MIT License - see License.txt
using System;
using System.Linq;
using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Events;
using Sitecore.SecurityModel;

namespace SharedSource.Foundation.DataSourcePublishingRestrictions.Events.ItemSaved
{
    // Sychronize PublishingRestrictions across DataSources
    public class DataSourcePublishingRestrictions 
    {
        public void OnItemSaved(object sender, EventArgs args)
        {
            if (args == null) return;

            var savedItem = Event.ExtractParameter(args, 0) as Item;
            if (savedItem?.Database == null || savedItem.Database.Name.ToLower() != "master") return;

            // Only do it for specific templates
            if (!Common.Templates.Any() || !Common.Templates.Contains(savedItem.TemplateID.ToString())) return;

            //if (savedItem.Publishing.NeverPublish || savedItem.Publishing.IsPublishable()) return;

            if (savedItem.Publishing.ValidFrom == DateTime.MinValue) return;

            var masterDatabase = savedItem.Database;

            foreach (var rendering in savedItem.Visualization.GetRenderings(Sitecore.Context.Device, true))
            {
                var renderingDatasource = rendering.Settings.DataSource;
                if (renderingDatasource == null) continue;

                var renderingItem = masterDatabase.GetItem(renderingDatasource);
                if (renderingItem == null) continue;

                if (renderingItem.Publishing.ValidFrom == savedItem.Publishing.ValidFrom &&
                    renderingItem.Publishing.ValidTo == savedItem.Publishing.ValidTo) continue;

                // Publishing needs synched
                Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Info("Would have updated ValidFrom of " + renderingItem.ID + " to " + savedItem.Publishing.ValidFrom, this);
                Sitecore.Diagnostics.Log.Info("Would have updated ValidTo of " + renderingItem.ID + " to " + savedItem.Publishing.ValidTo, this);

                // Sync the Publihsing Settings
                using (new SecurityDisabler())
                {
                    renderingItem.Editing.BeginEdit();

                    renderingItem.Publishing.ValidFrom = savedItem.Publishing.ValidFrom;
                    renderingItem.Publishing.ValidTo = savedItem.Publishing.ValidTo;
                    renderingItem.Publishing.NeverPublish = savedItem.Publishing.NeverPublish;

                    renderingItem.Editing.EndEdit();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}