Is it possible to read configuration values from within cd_link_conf.xml using the CD API?

Question

It is possible to configure dynamic linking so that resolved links give a full url including the domain and protocol, and we are using this on a project to do cross-publication linking. Now we want to also do cross publication searching, however my search results are coming back without the domain prefixed. I do have a publication id in my search results, so I was wondering if I could use this to read the domain from the cd_link_conf file using the CD API. is this possible (in .NET for Tridion 2011 SP1)? I guess the best alternative is to manually parse this file and store the publication id => domain mapping in the web app cache.

Answer 1

I am not sure though I was able to achieve following

1. Using Deployer Extension, I was able to read the cd_deployer_config.xml file but no other configuration file like cd_storage_config.xml I was able to read
2. Using Storage Extension, I was able to read the cd_storage_config.xml file but no other file like cd_deployer_config etc. I was able to read.

In a nutshell (best of my knowledge, not sure though), directly it is not possible to interact, however you can use below generic java code to read any xml file:

    /**
     * Get value of a node specified by the nodeID of an XML file specified by the xmlFilePath
     * @param nodeID - Node Name in the xml, value of which need to be extracted
     * @param xmlFilePath - File Path
     * @return Value of the XMLNode specified by the nodeID
     */
    public String GetNodeValueFromXML(String nodeID, String xmlFilePath)
    {
        log.info("Entering GetNodeValueFromXML with XML File Path: " + xmlFilePath + " And Node ID: "+ nodeID);

        String returnValue = null;
        DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        DocumentBuilder docBuilder = null;
        Document doc = null;
        try 
        {
            docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
            doc = docBuilder.parse(new File(xmlFilePath));
            NodeList nodeList = doc.getElementsByTagName(nodeID);
            if(nodeList != null && nodeList.getLength() > 0)
            {
                returnValue = nodeList.item(0).getTextContent();
            }
        }
        catch (<Exception Type> e) 
        {
            //Catch Exception Here
        }
        finally
        {
            doc= null;
            docBuilder = null;
            docBuilderFactory = null;
        }
        log.info("Exiting GetNodeValueFromXML Method"); 
        return returnValue;
    }

Answer 2

The .Net CD API does not list anything you could use for this and the cd_link_conf.xml is a java configuration file which does not comply with the .Net config file schema (so you have no hope of using .Net builtin configuration APIs).

As such I can only agree with your conclusion:

I guess the best alternative is to manually parse this file and store the publication id => domain mapping in the web app cache.

Answer 3

I am almost 100% sure its not possible now, so here is a .NET class to get what you need (as a static property which is loaded only once...

public class Config
{
    private static Dictionary<int, string> _domainMap = null;
    public static Dictionary<int, string> DomainMap
    {
        get
        {
            if (_domainMap == null)
            {
                _domainMap = GetPublicationDomainMapping(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/bin"));
            }
            return _domainMap;
        }
    }

    private static Dictionary<int, string> GetPublicationDomainMapping(string rootApplicationFolder)
    {
        Dictionary<int, string> data = new Dictionary<int, string>();
        XDocument config = XDocument.Load(rootApplicationFolder + "/config/cd_link_conf.xml");
        if (config != null)
        {
            foreach (var pub in config.Descendants("Publication"))
            {
                data.Add(Int32.Parse(pub.Attribute("Id").Value), GetHost(pub.Element("Host")));
            }
        }
        return data;
    }

    private static string GetHost(XElement xElement)
    {
        string protocol = xElement.Attribute("Protocol") == null ? "http" : xElement.Attribute("Protocol").Value;
        string domain = xElement.Attribute("Domain") == null ? "no-domain-in-cd_link_conf" : xElement.Attribute("Domain").Value;
        string port = xElement.Attribute("Port") == null ? "" : ":" + xElement.Attribute("Port").Value;
        string path = (xElement.Attribute("Path") == null || xElement.Attribute("Path").Value == "/") ? "" : xElement.Attribute("Path").Value;
        return String.Format("{0}://{1}{2}{3}", protocol, domain, port, path);
    }


}