Components That Most Often Cause Problems During Sitecore Integration: Observations and What to Do About Them

When integrating front-end components into Sitecore, developers often expect everything to “just work” — especially when using familiar libraries like Swiper, standard tab logic, or popular modal scripts. But in practice, Sitecore’s architecture, rendering model, and its unique way of working with data bring their own nuances.

After repeatedly dealing with the same issues, I’ve identified a few components that consistently cause problems during integration:

• Sliders
• Tabs
• Modals

Let’s break them down one by one: what typically goes wrong, why, and what can help avoid unnecessary debugging and coffee-fueled frustration.

1. Sliders (Swiper, Slick, etc.)

What happens:

• Only the first slide is visible, others are hidden.
• The slider looks fine, but arrows/dots don’t respond.
• Sometimes everything works in the Experience Editor, but not on the live site.

Why it happens:
Sitecore renders HTML using dynamic components that might not yet be present in the DOM when your slider script initializes. The typical mistake is initializing the slider globally — once on page load — assuming all components are already available.

Observation:
Sliders inside rendering containers (or reused in Experience Editor) behave inconsistently when you don’t control script execution context.

Recommendations:

• Use DOMContentLoaded only when you're sure the DOM is complete.
• Better: use Sitecore-specific events or re-init after renderings load (e.g., using Sitecore.PageModes.ChromeManager or a MutationObserver).
• Ensure your script waits for the right selector.

📌 Example fix using MutationObserver:

javascript

const observer = new MutationObserver(() => {
 const slider = document.querySelector('.swiper');
 if (slider && !slider.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) {
   new Swiper('.swiper', {
     loop: true,
     navigation: {
       nextEl: '.swiper-button-next',
       prevEl: '.swiper-button-prev',
     },
   });
 }
});

observer.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true });

2. Tabs

What happens:

• Clicking the tabs does nothing.
• Tab content doesn’t switch, or only the first one is visible.
• Occasionally works in preview, but not in Experience Editor or when nested.

Why it happens:
Tabs are often initialized on static markup. But in Sitecore, content may be injected later — via renderings or personalization. Also, tab containers might be duplicated, and document.querySelector() returns only the first one.

Observation:
Inconsistent initialization logic + missing null-checks = broken tabs.

Recommendations:

• Always loop through multiple instances of tabs.
• Use strict selectors relative to component root.
• Ensure event delegation if tabs might be loaded dynamically.

📌 Example pattern with dynamic support:

javascript

document.querySelectorAll('.tab-component').forEach(component => {
 const buttons = component.querySelectorAll('[data-tab]');
 const contents = component.querySelectorAll('[data-content]');

 buttons.forEach(btn => {
   btn.addEventListener('click', () => {
     const target = btn.dataset.tab;
     contents.forEach(c => c.hidden = c.dataset.content !== target);
     buttons.forEach(b => b.classList.remove('active'));
     btn.classList.add('active');
   });
 });
});

3. Modals

What happens:

• Modal won’t open at all.
• Opens but cannot be closed.
• Scroll lock remains after closing.
• Double rendering causes multiple modals in DOM.

Why it happens:
Sitecore components can be rendered multiple times: once on load, and again inside Experience Editor. If the modal logic doesn’t account for this, things stack up quickly.

Also, global event listeners often bind multiple times when renderings reinitialize.

Observation:
The problem isn't just “the modal doesn’t open,” but rather poor lifecycle handling in a dynamic CMS context.

Recommendations:

• Always use once: true in addEventListener where possible.
• Use document.querySelectorAll scoped to the rendering.
• Clean up previous modals if rendering multiple instances.

📌 Minimal modal handler:

javascript

document.querySelectorAll('.modal-trigger').forEach(button => {
 button.addEventListener('click', () => {
   const target = document.getElementById(button.dataset.target);
   if (target) target.classList.add('visible');
 }, { once: true });
});

document.querySelectorAll('.modal .close').forEach(button => {
 button.addEventListener('click', () => {
   button.closest('.modal').classList.remove('visible');
 });
});


Final Thoughts

Every developer who works with Sitecore long enough develops a kind of sixth sense. You stop assuming that markup will behave like static HTML. You begin to treat every front-end interaction as potentially asynchronous, duplicated, or context-dependent.

Here are three rules that have saved me more than once:

1. Don’t trust the DOM is ready — check again.
2. Initialize per rendering, not per page.
3. Use data attributes and scopes aggressively.

Most importantly: treat Sitecore as a dynamic system, not a static site. You’ll write cleaner, more reliable front-end code — and spend less time figuring out why “it works locally but not in Experience Editor.”

‍