Step by step guide to add Glass Mapper to Helix solution

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How to add Glass Mapper to Sitecore Helix solution

There are probably different ways to set this up in a Helix solution. I have done this setup in 4 of our projects, and it has become the "template" for our new Helix solutions.

We create one foundation project, which has all the glass nuget packages installed, we also choose to add a glass base in the foundation layer.
All new features will have access to this glass base interface through a project reference. 

I have had a lot of discussions with my co workers on where to add common fields that would be used in several feature projects. If it should be in the Glass Mapper foundation project or in a new foundation project. On "small" projects we choose to add it in the Glass Mapper foundation project, on larger projects we created a separate foundation project to add these fields and their interfaces with Glass Mapper mapping.

1. Create the Visual studio project

From the Package Manager Console run the command Add-Foundation GlassMapper

2. Install Glass Mapper

Go to the project and choose Manage Nuget packages Search for Glass.Mapper and install it

3. Create new Interface GlassBase

Add the required fields.

4. Update Module-Template-Feature

I uploaded my module template for Feature here.

Folder Interface with GlassBase
Created a new folder Interfaces under Code
Under this folder I created a new interface _Name_.cs
Added some example code to map some simple fields.
Added the IGlassBase created in the Foundation project public interface I_Name_ : IGlassBase

Changed Controller to use GlassController
In _Name_Controller.cs controller changed Controller to GlassController
Added reference to using Glass.Mapper.Sc.Web.Mvc;

Added changes to _NamespacePrefix_._ModuleType_._Name_.csproj
Added the interface _name_cs
Added project reference to the Foundation project created earlier.
Added references to the GlassMapper .dlls.


Additional notes

Using Interfaces instead of Models
In my first Glass Mapper project I started with Models.
After working with Glass Mapper a few days I found it more flexible when we started to use Interfaces instead.

I created common fields in Sitecore, and mapped those fields to Glass Mapper


When creating new templates the developers can choose the fields needed on the templates.

On the Model(interface) they can comma separate the fields they need:
IMyComponent : IGlassBase, ITitle, IAbstract, IImage, IGeneralLink, ILinkText
They do not need to add any new mapping since this is already done in the interfaces.
The view will "magically" have access to all of the fields.

This setup has reduced a lot of development time when creating new simple components and pages in our latest projects.
Introducing this to new team members has been quite easy. Showing them a few code examples with methods like GetDataSourceItem and context.GetCurrentItem has made them capable of creating a lot of components and pages without much help from a senior developer

Comments

Balaji said…
Hi . thanks for the nice article for the glass mapper implementation .

i have few clarification.
1) If i have TDS in my project, and the code will be auto generated by tds itself. during this situation , how the above approach will be benefical ?
December 3, 2018 at 3:53 AM
Ole said…
The setup in this blog post assumes that Unicorn is used to serialize Sitecore items instead of TDS. The approach is described further here https://sitecoreoverload.blogspot.com/2018/12/using-interfaces-with-glass-mapper.html If you wanted to auto generate by TDS you could change step 3. Create new Interface GlassBase with setup to auto generate by TDS instead. there would probably be a few more assebmlies to be added to the step "changes to _NamespacePrefix_._ModuleType_._Name_.csproj" so you dont need to add them manualy each time.If you have TDS maybe it would be better to look at this https://www.teamdevelopmentforsitecore.com/Sitecore-Helix-Sitecore-Habitat-TDS
December 4, 2018 at 1:56 PM
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