EpiServer Commerce 10.x. Custom Routing. SEO-FRIENDLY URL WITH CUSTOM SEGMENT

Based on

http://jondjones.com/episerver-segments-explained-registering-custom-routes-in-episerver

http://jondjones.com/episerver-7-routing-for-dummies

http://world.episerver.com/documentation/class-library/?documentId=cms/7/905519a1-ceae-2bfd-faa2-13e8a0d94eaa

http://fellow.aagaardrasmussen.dk/2016/05/15/extend-routing-in-episerver-commerce-to-support-custom-segments/

So….

I will start with task description:

Need to implement SEO - friendly url for EpiServer Commerce 10.x site. For example, we need to have target url : www.domain/v-segment/variation-code only for variations and  we would like to keep hierarchical url (www.domain/catalog/segment/product/) structure for all other pages, content.

What instruments do we have out of the EpiServer box?

First, we have HierarchicalCatalogPartialRouter out of the box for e - Commerce that provides us hierarchical url structure for Commerce and EpiServer entities. It is almost what we want.

Second, we have paradigm IPartialRouter from EpiServer (http://world.episerver.com/documentation/class-library/?documentId=cms/7/905519a1-ceae-2bfd-faa2-13e8a0d94eaa). That is not really suitable for our case, we do not want to reimplement hierarchical structure from scratch.

So, let’s start.

Let’s extend HierarchicalCatalogPartialRouter. This way I took from http://fellow.aagaardrasmussen.dk/2016/05/15/extend-routing-in-episerver-commerce-to-support-custom-segments/. I would like to add some important details to solve our task and extend it in the way to be able to work with static segments (“v-segment” in our case).

public class CustomHierarchicalCatalogRouter: HierarchicalCatalogPartialRouter {

    public const string CustomRouteSegment = "v-segment";

}

Right after we created new class and inherited it from HierarchicalCatalogPartialRouter, we have to implement several c-tors, and we are able to override following methods:

• GetPartialVirtualPath

It is used to provide URL specific structure outside. Like provide external url.

• RoutePartial

It is used to match current url segment to the CatalogEntity. Kind of opposite thing for  GetPartialVirtualPath.

• FindNextContentInSegmentPair

It is used to resolve CatalogEntity due to hierarchical url structure. Basically  base.RoutePartial calls it recursively to navigate and resolve Entity. Right after  FindNextContentInSegmentPair call base.RoutePartial calls another method IsValid.

• IsValidRoutedContent(CatalogContentBase content)

This checks if resolved object is CatalogEntity.

Mostly that is all our instruments.

Let’s go.

public override PartialRouteData GetPartialVirtualPath(CatalogContentBase content, string language,RouteValueDictionary routeValues, RequestContext requestContext){

  var variation = content as Variation;

  if (variation == null) return base.GetPartialVirtualPath(content, language, routeValues, requestContext);   

  

  return new PartialRouteData {

               BasePathRoot = RouteStartingPoint,

               PartialVirtualPath = $"{VariationRouteSegment}/{HttpUtility.UrlPathEncode(variation.RouteSegment)}"

           };

}

Here we will provide our new URL structure outside only for Variation.

Next, we have to provide support for our new URL structure for Variation. In other words be able to resolve incoming URL that contains our new segment and match it to CatalogEntity. Have a look at the code below.

Important thing here is that we no need to override FindNextContentInSegmentPair, because Variation URL has no hierarchical structure (we manage that in segmentContext.RemainingPath = string.Empty;). And we do not touch this hierarchical resolving mechanism for all other Catalog Entities.

And the latest thing in this class is to forbid resolving Variation by old hierarchical rules. For now our resolver will perfectly resolve Variation if it comes in old way like this:

www.domain/catalog/segment/product/variation-code

protected override bool IsValidRoutedContent(CatalogContentBase content)  {

    //To forbid hierarchical variation url structure:

     if (content is Variation) return false;           

     return base.IsValidRoutedContent(content);

 }

So, now we are done with Router customization. Let’s register it in Initialization module. 

var hierarchicalCatalogRouter = new CustomHierarchicalCatalogRouter(commerceService, GetStartingPoint, GetCatalogRoot(contentRepository, referenceConverter), false);

  RouteTable.Routes.RegisterPartialRouter(hierarchicalCatalogRouter);

Next thing that we have to take care of is Register our route. 

var segmentRouter = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IUrlSegmentRouter>();

  segmentRouter.RootResolver = sd => sd.StartPage;

  var parameters = new MapContentRouteParameters {

    UrlSegmentRouter = segmentRouter,

    Direction = SupportedDirection.Incoming,

    SegmentMappings = new Dictionary<string, ISegment> {{“v-segment”, new  ParameterSegment(“”v-segment)  }}

  };

  RouteTable.Routes.MapContentRoute(

  "variation_node",

  "{language}/v-segment/{node}/{action}/",

   new   {

    controller = "Variation",

    action = "Index",

   language = UrlParameter.Optional,

   },

  parameters);

Important thing here is  - segment parameters. We have to tell to Router that we are looking only for URL structure that definitely contains this particular segment “v-segment”.

Note: in current implementation we also know which controller will handle this URL.

That’s it!