title: Master/Detail Dilema: Wildcard items vs Sitecore Pipeline for Virtual Items or any better idea?
body: <p>I used to implement listing/detail scenarios using wildcard items, meaning that, for the sake of URL, I create a regular item to display the list and then under that node, I create a wildcard item to represent all possible detail pages, like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/news/*  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(i generate a friendly name by code to replace wildcard and produce the full URL such as: mywebsite.com/news/the-meeting-press-release)</p>
  
  <p>Then I create a folder or a bucket of content items somewhere else as my repository. Then I assign same datasource to listing node and wildcard node to give them same repository of content items. </p>
  
  <p>Main reason I want to do this is to use datasources and make navigational nodes (which generate actual pages and URLs) to be separate from Content folder structure. In other words, separation of concerns: navigational items as presentation nodes and content items as my data repository.</p>
  
  <p>This is an easy way to work around master/detail requirements but I always feel guilty about this, it feels like this technique breaks integrity (sitecore links table on database) and design pattern in Sitecore back-end.</p>
  
  <p>For example when I look at Analytics, I get * as name of items, clearly the it feels like aliens to back-end system.</p>
  
  <p>I know this is not a new topic. I have seen threads like <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10413745/nested-wildcards-to-handle-virtual-items-in-sitecore">this</a> or ideas like <a href="https://adeneys.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/virtual-items-in-sitecore/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sitecore Pipeline Processor for Virtual Items</a> to implement such requirements. </p>
  
  <p>Is there any best practice about this? Have anyone good example of what is most sitecore-friendly way to implement such pipeline processor? How do you address this issue with wildcards on Analytics?</p>