Rule to set datasource based on search result

Question

Using sitecore 8 (8.2 update 3 to be specific)

I'm looking to be able to create a rule based on some condition which will set the datasource (and maybe rendering) to the most appropriate result from a search result given a users context.

Personalising a rendering only allows you to pick a datasource (and rendering) to a fixed item by id. But I'm looking for a dynamic result based on the results of a query.

When searching the nearest I can find is https://adeneys.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/decoupling-through-the-rules-engine/ Which allows for performing a sitecore query to select the datasource. But this is for an older version of sitecore, and now in v8 when Personalising a rendering you have a limited set of actions (hide, change rendering, change datasource)

I also found an article on building up a search query in sitecore via rule queries https://cardinalcore.co.uk/2014/07/23/rules-queries-pt-iii-what-can-we-use-rules-queries-for/ And at the end mentions future posts about extending rule queries for conditions and actions, but I can't find the follow up posts.

Any idea of if what I'm trying to achieve is possible, and what I need to extend to make this possible in sitecore 8.

Answer 1

One way to do this is to use a controller rendering. On the personalization tab, you can define your conditions and action. Instead of picking a content in the action, you can choose an item that will contain parameters for your query in the index.

Here the UK users contains parameters such as Country, Content Type, Total Count, Sort By.

Then in your controller, you will need to retrieve these values. The item UK users will be passed as a datasource to the controller.

    public class BlockAggregatorController : SitecoreController
{
    public ActionResult RenderBox()
    {
        var currentDatasource = Datasource;

        var totalCount= currentDatasource.Fields["Total Count"].Value;
        //get the other values you need to do the index query


    }


    private Item Datasource
    {
        get
        {
            var dataSourceId = RenderingContext.Current.Rendering.DataSource;
            return ID.IsID(dataSourceId) ? Context.Database.GetItem(dataSourceId) : null;
        }
    }

}

This is what your controller rendering will be like.