How can i fill an Experience Manager footprint dropdown from a Category / Keyword list in the Tridion CM?

Question

I hope someone can point me in the right direction; I'm creating a footprint that has a dropdown. The dropdown values are added by hand. And the footprint works as expected.

Now comes the question: in the SiteEditModel config I want to replace the static entry's by a more dynamic approach by getting the values from a category / keywords list from the Tridion Content Manager.

Has anyone done this? Can someone point me in the right direction?

I was thinking of copying the FootprintDropDown to change and extend it. But it's kinda hard to see what possibilities I have to access the Content Manager. And it seems to be different then creating a GUI extension.

Answer 1

Sounds like you want to create your own editor for the footprint. The possibility was taken into account when we designed footprints and the approach is documented on the following page:

Creating a custom Footprint field with a custom input control (login required)

Answer 2

You can fill in the configuration manually to give authors the ability to select footprints that match certain keywords. I have a custom footprint example with a date:

<footprint ID="date" claimUri="taf:claim:date" ><!-- not sure what claim is needed -->
    <title>
        <value lang="1033">Date</value>
    </title>
    <description>
        <value>Select date.</value>
    </description>
    <settings>
        <isMandatory>true</isMandatory>
    </settings>
    <values>
        <value text="2012-11-01T00:00:00" default="true">
        </value>
    </values>                                           
</footprint>

See SDL Live Content for 2013 Custom Footprint details (requires login).

For a more seamless approach, see this question for ideas on Categories integration.