When should I use ScalableLinkProvider or ItemSearchLinkProvider?

Question

I have noticed that the Sitecore.Buckets.LinkProviders namespace has 2 classes that extend the default LinkProvider: ScalableLinkProvider and ItemSearchLinkProvider. I cannot find any direct references to them in either code or config and I cannot find any documentation or blogs that mention them.

Can anyone tell me what the intended purpose of these classes is? Are there certain scenarios where I should use or derive from one of these link providers rather than the default Sitecore.Links.LinkProvider?

Answer 1

ItemSearchLinkProvider

ItemSearchLinkProvider is a very simple provider with GetItemUrl method which:

1. Checks if item is inside a bucket
2. If no it returns base.GetUrl - where base class is Sitecore.Links.LinkProvider
3. If yes, it generates url in a format:

return string.Format("/{0}/{1}/{2}/{3}", 
    item.GetParentBucketItemOrSiteRoot().Name.ToLower(), 
    item.Statistics.Created.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"), 
    item.ID.Guid.ToString().Substring(0, 4), 
    item.Name.ToLowerInvariant());

So for example if your My Last Article item is insiade a bucket called News, was created on 17th of July 2018 and its id is {360CB29F-4BF7-405C-916A-C1C4C2378902}, the url will be:

"/news/2018-07-17/360c/my last article"

In my opinion, this format has no usage. I don't see any reference from the code or config to this class.

ScalableLinkProvider

ScalableLinkProvider uses its own internal class DatedLinkProvider to generate url with format:

`/ancestors/up/to/site/root/itemname-201807171457`

where the numbers at the end are parent folders from the date and time in bucket structure in yyyyMMddHHmm format.

There is also a ScalableLinkResolver class which you could use to resolve the urls generated by ScalableLinkProvider.