Description

If using a query in the data source field of a rendering on a regular (non-SXA) site, the data source might fail to be resolved with an error in the search log files on the Content Delivery instance:

ERROR Solr Error : ["undefined field query"] - Query attempted: <Sitecore Query syntax>

The issue occurs because the Sitecore Query syntax cannot be used for rendering data sources on non-SXA sites.

Solution

To resolve the issue, consider one of the following options:

• Upgrade your solution to Sitecore XP 10.3.0 or later.
• For Sitecore XP 10.2, upgrade your solution to Sitecore XP 10.2.2 or download and install the pre-release as specified in KB1001439.

Note: The solution provided in this article does not imply adding support for the Sitecore Query syntax. It prevents attempts to resolve data sources using the search indexes if the Sitecore Query syntax has been applied.

Alternatively, consider the following options:

• Update the data source of a rendering so that it does not use the Sitecore Query syntax. You can check for items that use the "query:" syntax by running this query against the Web and the Master database: 

  SELECT [ItemId]
  ,[Language]
  ,[FieldId]
  ,[Value]
  FROM [dbo].[Fields]
  WHERE (FieldId = '{F1A1FE9E-A60C-4DDB-A3A0-BB5B29FE732E}' OR FieldId = '{04BF00DB-F5FB-41F7-8AB7-22408372A981}') AND ([Value] like '%ds="query%')

• You can customize the behavior by creating a processor that filters out the data sources that use the Sitecore Query syntax. Note that the following code sample is given only as a starting point.
  1. Create a custom processor:

     using Sitecore.Pipelines.ParseDataSource;
     using System;
     using System.Linq;
     
     namespace Sitecore.ContentSearch.Client.Pipelines.ParseDataSource
     {
         public class AbortIfDatasourceIsPrefixed
         {
             private readonly string[] _prefixes =
             {
                 DatasourcePrefixes.QueryPrefix,
                 DatasourcePrefixes.LocalPrefix,
                 DatasourcePrefixes.PageRelativePrefix,
                 DatasourcePrefixes.FieldPrefix,
                 DatasourcePrefixes.CodePrefix,
             };
     
             public void Process([NotNull] ParseDataSourceArgs args)
             {
                 if (IsDataSourcePrefixed(args.DataSource))
                 {
                     args.AbortPipeline();
                 }
     
             }
     
             protected virtual bool IsDataSourcePrefixed(string dataSource)
             {
                 return dataSource.Length > 1 &&
                     dataSource.Contains(":") &&
                     _prefixes.Any(s => dataSource.StartsWith(s, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
             }
     
             internal static class DatasourcePrefixes
             {
                 public const string PageRelativePrefix = "page:";
     
                 public const string LocalPrefix = "local:";
     
                 public const string FieldPrefix = "field:";
     
                 public const string CodePrefix = "code:";
     
                 public const string QueryPrefix = "query:";
             }
         }
     }

  2. Patch the new processor before the GetDataSourceItemByQuery processor by creating a configuration patch file in the \App_Config\Include\zzz folder:

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
     <configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/"
         xmlns:role="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/role/">
         <sitecore role:require="Standalone or ContentManagement or ContentDelivery">
             <pipelines>
                 <parseDataSource>
                     <processor type="Sitecore.ContentSearch.Client.Pipelines.ParseDataSource.CustomProcessor, Custom.Assembly" patch:before="processor[@type='Sitecore.ContentSearch.Client.Pipelines.ParseDataSource.GetDataSourceItemByQuery, Sitecore.ContentSearch.Client']" />
                 </parseDataSource>
             </pipelines>
         </sitecore>
     </configuration>