Sitecore 6.6: Enhanced Device Editor Dialog

Let’s say we have configured same Sublayouts and Renderings multiple times in a page. For a content author, it is important to identify which control is used for a section in the page. Currently content authors have to go through each control and check the data source and placeholder to identify the right control for a content in a page. 

Same control like Sample Sublayout is added twice and content authors have to edit each control and find the right control to modify a content. 

Enhanced Device Editor Form will help the content authors to identify the appropriate controls quickly with description. 

• It gives content authors a text field (Description) in rendering parameters for each control (sublayout, XSL rendering etc.).
• Content authors can type in the text and differentiate between the identical controls.
• Description text will be displayed in the device editor dialog along with Control name and Placeholder. So content authors can easily identify the control to be modified.

Installation:

• Package can be downloaded from Sitecore Marketplace. 
• Sitecore version should be 6.6. For other version, I will update it in my blog.
• Before installing the package, please take the backup of two XML controls from the web root folder.
• \Website\sitecore\shell\Applications\Layouts\DeviceEditor\DeviceEditor.xml
• \Website\sitecore\shell\Applications\Layouts\DeviceEditor\DeviceRendering.xml
• After taking the backup, install the package. Package has an assembly (EnhancedDialogs.dll) and 2 XML controls. That’s it.
• To revert back, you can replace the XML controls of the device editor folder and remove the assembly (EnhancedDialogs.dll) from the bin directory. 

Once installed, you can add the description in the rendering parameters and that will show in the device editor.