Is it possible to get page rendering result programmatically ?

Question

I need to get all HTML page content that sitecore generate for an page item. But I need to do it programmatically just for some special tests. I can of course just use URL but it is not good for me. Does LayoutDefinition should work for it ?

Answer 1

I think AlokBhatt's method is a good start, though I would make use of pipelines throughout. I think this is a better solution because it doesn't involve trying to parse presentation details, and should handle personalization and other Sitecore features. Here's an example that works for me:

public string RenderItem(string itemPath)
{

    var item = Sitecore.Context.Database.GetItem(itemPath);

    var pageContext = new PageContext
    {
        RequestContext = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext,
        Item = item
    };

    ContextService.Get().Push(pageContext);

    var pageDefinition = pageContext.PageDefinition;

    var getPageRenderingArgs = new GetPageRenderingArgs(pageDefinition);

    PipelineService.Get().RunPipeline("mvc.getPageRendering", getPageRenderingArgs);

    var rendering = getPageRenderingArgs.Result;

    var textWriter = new StringWriter();

    var renderRenderingArgs = new RenderRenderingArgs(rendering, textWriter);

    PipelineService.Get().RunPipeline("mvc.renderRendering", renderRenderingArgs);

    ContextService.Get().Pop<PageContext>();

    return textWriter.ToString();
}

Answer 2

I have worked once created whole page in sitecore and added renderings and settings rendering parameters all programatically. Getting and settings renderings on a page with code is possible. Have a look on something like this https://briancaos.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/get-sitecore-placeholders-and-rendering-hierarchy-from-a-sitecore-item/

You can make an ajax call and get html for a single rendering as a string.you can enhance below for your use case

        private static string GetHtmlFromPlaceholder(string placeholderKey, string returnHtml, PageContext pd, Item targetItem)
    {
        pd.Item = targetItem;
        var renderings = new List<Rendering>();
        var renderingCount = pd.Item.Visualization.GetRenderings(Context.Device, false).ToList();if (renderingCount.Count > 0)
        {
            renderings.AddRange(renderingCount.Select(r => new Rendering
            {
                RenderingItemPath = r.RenderingID.ToString(),
                Parameters = new RenderingParameters(r.Settings.Parameters),
                DataSource = r.Settings.DataSource,
                Placeholder = r.Placeholder,

            }));
            pd.PageDefinition.Renderings.AddRange(renderings);
            if (targetItem.TemplateID.ToString() == VirtualPDPPageTemplateGuid)
            {
                foreach (var r in renderings.Where(r => r.Placeholder.Contains("One-Column-Teaser") || r.Placeholder.Contains("Two-Column-Teaser")))
                {

                    using (var stringWriter = new StringWriter())
                    {
                        PipelineService.Get()
                            .RunPipeline("mvc.renderRendering", new RenderRenderingArgs(r, stringWriter));
                        returnHtml += stringWriter.ToString();
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                foreach (var r in renderings.Where(r => r.Placeholder == placeholderKey))
                {

                    using (var stringWriter = new StringWriter())
                    {
                        PipelineService.Get()
                            .RunPipeline("mvc.renderRendering", new RenderRenderingArgs(r, stringWriter));
                        returnHtml += stringWriter.ToString();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return returnHtml;
    }