The ContactFactory class

The ContactFactory class is used to get the id of the current runtime user. The default implementation is dependent on Sitecore Analytics for tracking; if this does not suit your needs you can change it by extending the ContactFactory class and overriding the GetContact method.

The following is an example of how the default instance works. When you have the id of your user from the ECS, you identify the Tracker.Current.Contact with that ID (using the Tracker.Current.Session.Identify()method),and from that point on this ID is returned by the ContactFactory class. If no ID is available from the external user then the id created by Sitecore Analytics is used instead.

public virtual string GetContact()
{
if (Tracker.Current == null)
{
if (HttpContext.Current != null &&
HttpContext.Current.User != null)
{
return HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name;
}

return System.Threading.Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name;
}
var user = Tracker.Current.Contact.Identifiers.Identifier;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(user))
{
  user = Sitecore.Data.ID.Parse(Tracker.Current.Contact.ContactId).ToString();
}
return user;
}