I was recently working on a Sitecore module and realized I needed to add some HTML elements to the <head> tag of pages using the module. This would normally be something that can be done directly in every layout, but because this is a Sitecore module, I wanted to do it dynamically via C# through a pipeline so that it would only require a configuration patch to inject my code. The challenge I had was not implementing it via a pipeline processor, but rather programmatically getting access to the <head> tag. Luckily, John West had a great solution, and it was something directly available via the Sitecore API.
First, to accomplish this, register a processor for the renderLayout pipeline:
[xml]
<renderLayout>
<processor type="MyLibrary.Pipelines.RenderLayout.InsertHeadControls, MyLibrary">
…
</renderLayout>
[/xml]
Next, let’s look at the code:
[csharp]
namespace MyLibrary.Pipelines.RenderLayout
{
public class InsertHeadControls
{
public void Process(RenderLayoutArgs args)
{
// no need to run our code in the shell
if(Sitecore.Context.Site.Name == "shell")
return;
Control head = WebUtil.FindControlOfType(Sitecore.Context.Page.Page, typeof(HtmlHead));
if(head != null)
{
head.Controls.Add(/* add whatever control you want */);
}
}
}
}
[/csharp]
The key here was to use WebUtil.FindControlOfType() to get the HtmlHead control via C#. From there you can ensure its not null and add controls dynamically to it as needed. Note: for the HtmlHead to not be null, I believe this requires a runat="server" on the <head> tag.
Thanks for the article!