Tridion 2011 Queries

Tridion R5.3 content delivery (CD) queries use a string-based query that represents basically the "select" part of an SQL query. For example, to filter a component that has select metadata you can use something like:

(key_value LIKE 'color') and (key_string_value LIKE 'red')
OR
(key_value LIKE 'size') and (key_string_value LIKE 'big')
OR
(key_value LIKE 'shape') and (key_string_value LIKE 'ball')
GROUP_BY 3 and publication_id = 5"

Secondary Memory: "Didn't I ask that Before?"

I've been seeing posts that we're collectively outsourcing parts of our brain to online search engines like Google.

As a slight departure from the "sharing is awesome" theme, I wanted to describe how the TridionWorld forum has served a similar function for all-things-Tridion for me, with the following catch.

The more I document and share stuff, the easier it is to find later.

It's not a case of ego surfing when I recently searched for "XML IDE Alvin Reyes" on the forum. I wanted to find these keywords when the idea, "working on XSLT templates is so... manual without an IDE" popped into my head. Like other seemingly perceptive points, this wasn't the first time I thought of it.

Tridion-friendly XML Editors

Luckily, awhile back I had asked the Tridion gurus on TridionWorld what they used and we came up with the following list of XML IDEs (yay, developer tools!):

The PowerTools Team's Power

I wanted to recognize the work the PowerTools group has done with the code and setting up shared, re-usable resources (wiki updates, JavasScript base class, code standards, examples).

Here are some excellent take-aways from the group's first month. The PowerTools Team's power comes from collaborating, balancing best practices with understandable examples, and through sharing.

Collaborate

(help but also get help)

• Team members don't hesitate to ask questions, share, and offer feedback. We may still need to be careful and pace ourselves to avoid burn out while enjoying the work. Volunteered time is appreciated, but not at the risk of someone's health, sanity, or career. I like seeing people take breaks, it makes the rest of us learn better. :-)
• The team has started logging known issues and continues to add useful comments to source control. I personally love the progress on the wiki pages!
• I'm not sure what in the group DNA that encourages the collaborative software, but I suspect this will make our next steps towards releasing version 1.0 (documenting, testing, and reviewing code) that much easier.

Inspect Publication Details with an XSLT Component Template

Ever need in-depth publication information from within your content management explorer (CME aka Tridion's GUI)? Curious about what XSLT can do for you?

I was hoping to make a every-example XSLT training component template (CT) with examples and everything you'd ever want to know about XSLT with Tridion, but I'll have to pace myself and settle for the following. See below on how to make an XSLT CT "inpsector" template. Preview it with any component to get publication details in a recursively-drawn HTML table.

Step 1 Create a new Component Template of type XSLT.

Details

• Call it something like: "Publication Info (use on any component)"
• Output format: XML Document or HTML Document (we're just previewing so either work)
• Priority: any, but I chose "Never Link"
• Component Presentations based on this Component Template will be:
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