Extend a Sitecore Pipeline

Extending one of Sitecores pipelines with some custom code is straightforward. Just remember that to extend the pipeline at the right spot making sure that Sitecore has generated the data you need to use. If you extends the httpRequestBegind pipeline, you will not be able to get any data about the requested item before the Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.ItemResolver has finished etc.

Create your custom code and letting your class inheriting from Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.HttpRequestProcessor (In the case of extending the httpRequest pipeline):

The next step you need to do is to add your extension into the settings of the httpRequestBegin pipeline as a new processor. In this case, I want my extension to start after:


You could add your extension directly under the above processor in the web.config file. Though of course best practice is to add a new include file, making sure the new include file is rendered in the desired order:

 
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <pipelines>
      <httpRequestBegin>
        <processor patch:after="*[@type='Sitecore.Pipelines.HttpRequest.IgnoreList, Sitecore.Kernel']"
          type="MyExtensions.Pipelines.HttpRequest.Sleep, MyExtensions" />
      </httpRequestBegin>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

... finally, load yourDomain/Sitecore/admin/showconfig.aspx to verify your extension is rendered the right place:

Sitecore Pipeline Profiler

In Sitecore version 7, Sitecore introduced a new profiling tool, the Pipeline Profiler. From the Pipeline Profiler tool, you will be able to monitor performance and utilizations of all the Sitecore pipelines used by the Sitecore solution (the Sitecore client and the website). The Pipeline Profiler tool listing the profiling data for each of the pipeline processors. 

Getting this data, you will be able to pinpoint the processors spending most of the time and improve performance by optimizing those specific processors.

You access the Pipeline Profiler tool from yourDomain/sitecore/admin/pipelines.aspx (the same location as the stats.aspx, showconfig.aspx, dbbrowser.aspx etc). However, Sitecore disables the Pipeline Profiler tool by default:

To enable the tool, the only thing you need to do, is to enable the Sitecore.PipelineProfiling.config.disable (by removing the “.disable”) located at /App_Config/Include, and reload the Pipeline Profiler tool:

In Sitecore 8, the Sitecore.PipelineProfiling.config file contains only two settings, the “Pipelines.Profiling.Enable” and the “Pipelines.Profiling.MEasureCpuTime” respectively:

  
        <configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/" xmlns:set="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/set/">
            <sitecore>
                    <settings>
                    <!--  PIPELINE PROFILING ENABLED
                             Specifies whether or not pipeline profiling is enabled. When it is enabled, a profiling snapshot is available 
                             at /sitecore/admin/pipelines.aspx.
                             Default value: true
                    -->
                    <setting name="Pipelines.Profiling.Enabled" set:value="true" />

                    <!--  PIPELINE PROFILING MEASURE CPU TIME
                            Specifies whether or not the pipeline profiler measures CPU usage. Measuring CPU usage adds a performance overhead
                            to the pipeline but provides additional information about the behavior of the processors.
                            Default value: false
                    -->
                    <setting name="Pipelines.Profiling.MeasureCpuTime" set:value="false" />
                </settings>

Notice, the value of “Pipelines.Profiling.MeasureCpuTime” is false by default. Setting it to true, the Pipeline Profiling tool will measure the CPU usage as well:

If we add a new custom processor to the httpRequestPipeline etc. the new processor will be measured as well (In this case, the only thing the processor does, is sleep in 5 sec.)

Notice that Sitecore highlights the three processor of each pipeline taking most of the resource (indicated by the image number to the left of the processors).

The performance and utilization details declaration are at the bottom of the Pipeline Profiler tool: