Language in the URL, Resetting Fields, Text Length

Here are a few quick answers to some commonly asked questions:

Question: “Why will the language designation (such as “en”) sometimes be included in the URL and sometimes not? How can this be controlled so that never displays?”

Answer from John West: “When <languageEmbedding> is set to “asNeeded” (in the LinkManager section of Web.config), Sitecore includes the language in the URL if it cannot determine the context site from the incoming HTTP request, if that HTTP request does not include a cookie that specifies a language, or if the language of the linked item differs from the context language. You should, set the <languageEmbedding> attribute to “always” or “never” to get the behavior you require.”




Chapter 5 of the Content API Cookbook describes dynamic link management:
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Reference/Sitecore% 206/Content%20API%20Cookbook.aspx

---

Question: “How can it be configured that an empty field is the same as NULL for resetting to Template Standard Values (TSV)?”


Answer from John West: “I think it could be the “reset blank” field in the data template field definition, or it may require custom logic such as an event handler.”


The “Reset Blank” field does the trick. If you delete the contents of a field in Content Editor, the blank field will be replaced with the default from Template Standard Values on the next Save.

---

Question: Is there a maximum length for a Single-Line Text field?

There doesn’t seem to be a set limit. I tested this by adding more than 15,000 characters to a single line text field and didn’t receive an error. (Formatting this would be a different problem, however.)