Setting up dynamic content

Question

I have a list of "modules" that I want to load depending on what template the current item is based on. This selection needs to be overridable. So I created a module loader component that has a datasource pointing to a folder that contains these modules. I iterate through the children of the folder, pull the RenderingReference and generate a new rendering. Finally I call the mvc.renderRendering pipeline. This seems to work great, but it does limit me some. The Parameters = ... line doesn't pull the parameters from the RenderingContext as this is a generic reference to the rendering and not the item's rendering properties.

So my question is, is there a better way to accomplish my overall goal here of loading dynamic items? Or can I get the parameters from my items?

foreach (Item childItem in item.Children)
{
    var renderings = childItem.Visualization.GetRenderings(Context.Device, false);

    if (renderings.Length > 0)
    {
        var rendering = new Rendering
        {
            RenderingItem = renderings[0].RenderingItem,
            Item = childItem,
            Parameters = new RenderingParameters(renderings[0].RenderingItem.Parameters)
        };

        var writer = new StringWriter();
        var args = new RenderRenderingArgs(rendering, writer);
        PipelineService.Get().RunPipeline("mvc.renderRendering", args);

        output += writer.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 1

It seems that my code is solid practice, so I did some more digging and found a way to solve my problem of getting the parameters from any given item. I made this into an extension method and I call it when instantiating my rendering.

var layout = LayoutDefinition.Parse(LayoutField.GetFieldValue(item.Fields["__Renderings"]));

if (layout != null && layout.Devices != null && layout.Devices.Count > 0)
{
    var device = (DeviceDefinition)layout.Devices[0];

    if (device != null)
    {
        var renderings = device.Renderings;

        if (renderings != null)
        {
            var writer = new StringWriter();
            var renderingDefinition = renderings.Cast<RenderingDefinition>();
            var parameters = renderingDefinition.FirstOrDefault().Parameters;

            return parameters;
        }
    }
}

return null;

Thanks to this blog by aceanindita I found: https://techmusingz.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/programmatically-access-sitecore-item-presentation/

Answer 2

The Controller Renderer

For a while now, I've been using an approach not too dissimilar to what you describe here. In essence, it involves looping over children, picking up a controller name and an action (not too different from your GetRenderings call) and then executing the controller renderings.

Now for my uses, all I need is a specific Datasource for each rendering. But the Rendering I create can also be initialized with RenderingParameters.

The core of it all lies in this bit of code:

var r = new Rendering {DataSource = item.Paths.FullPath};

using (RenderingContext.EnterContext(r))
{
    var runner = new ControllerRunner(controller, action);
    var result = runner.Execute();
    return new HtmlString(result);
}

It's not as generic as your approach; but personally I would never consider anything but Controller Renderings on any solution I'm involved in. I found this to be superior in terms of flexibility.