Where and how do we read keyword component fields (name & description) in DXA?

Question

I see DXA code reading description field of a keyword component if it is available and not its name, I tried to look into the schema mapping to its model.. couldn't reach to the place where does this actually happen..

can anyone help me find it.. is it something which is DXA default feature ?

Answer 1

Here's what I see with reference to the Java project, you can find a similar class for .Net

See KeywordFieldConverter Class in dxa-tridion-provider, you will find that while getting Keyword's values in getStringValues they are picking the Keyword's Description by default, and if it's empty only then the title/name.

private List<String> getStringValues(List<Keyword> keywordValues) {
    final List<String> stringValues = new ArrayList<>();
    for (Keyword keyword : keywordValues) {
        stringValues.add(getKeywordDisplayText(keyword));
    }
    return stringValues;

}

private String getKeywordDisplayText(Keyword keyword) {
    return Strings.isNullOrEmpty(keyword.getDescription()) ? keyword.getTitle() : keyword.getDescription();
}

I can relate to this blog More you know Tridion & Keywords to understand why it's recommended to use description and not key/title, it will surely save you trouble.

Answer 2

This behaviour is 'hardcoded' in the Model Mapping logic. Check out this line in Sdl.Web.Tridion.Mapping.DefaultModelBuilder:

string displayText = String.IsNullOrEmpty(keyword.Description) ? keyword.Title : keyword.Description;

The reason for this is that it is considered good practice to use keyword descriptions for display text. Often in implementations, the keyword title has a numeric prefix, or other additional information to ensure the keyword title is unique. Additionally some implementations leave the keyword title untranslated and put the localized value in the description.

As you can see from the code, if there is no description, the title is used, so you always have this fallback. What are you using descriptions for if its not display text?