Back

Combine multiple structure sources into the same content pull

Description

We have multiple news outlets on campus that ended up being created in different structures. When we wanted to syndicate these news sources onto one page, we needed a way to present them in a co-mingled list listed newest first. But how could we do that with 3 different structures? The key to making this work is having the publication date field in each of the 3 structures named the same. I suppose there's a way around this but fortunately I didn't need to give that much thought. The other key is using the velocity org.apache.velocity.tools.generic.SortTool@1131c996 tool on your foreach statement. This is what does the actual sort once you've got all your data in one list. More info on org.apache.velocity.tools.generic.SortTool@1131c996: https://velocity.apache.org/tools/devel/javadoc/org/apache/velocity/tools/generic/SortTool.html

Code

## First, set your lists

#set($newsList = $dotcontent.pull("+structureName:CcNewsStories ..."))
#set($sparkList = $dotcontent.pull("+structureName:CcSparkContents ... "))
#set($vergeList = $dotcontent.pull("+structureName:CcVergeFeatureStory ..."))

## Now combine them into one list
#set($combined = [])
#foreach($n in $newsList)
  #set($test = $combined.add($n))
#end
#foreach($s in $sparkList)
  #set($test = $combined.add($s))
#end
#foreach($v in $vergeList)
  #set($test = $combined.add($v))
#end

#if($combined.size() > 0)

<ul>
    ## Here's the key: use the $sorter tool on your foreach statement
    #foreach($c in $sorter.sort($combined,"publishDate:desc"))
     <li>
         <!--Display your story -->
     </li>
    #end
    
</ul>
#end

Topics

Have you created code you'd like to share with the dotCMS community?

Share your code Become a Contributor