How to use Droplist types in Sitecore template fields

Answer 1

The Droplist is similar to the Droplink field type in that they are both dropdowns. The Droplist will only store the name of the item (so it will not have a link to that item), while the Droplink stores the ID of the item. That means if you rename an option, or move it elsewhere in your Content Tree, the Droplist will not update (resulting in possible broken links), the Droplink will update.

You can add values to the Droplist by setting the Datasource field in the templates to something (for instance /sitecore/content/Home/CSS/ if that's where you would like to store your CSS class names).

You can access the Droplist in code like so:

Item item = Sitecore.Context.Item;
string css = item["FieldName"]; // Also possible is item.Fields["Fieldname"].Value;

A Droplink could be accessed like this:

string dropDownItemId = item["Fieldname"]; // Or, again, item.Fields["Fieldname"].Value; if you prefer
var cssItem = Sitecore.Context.Database.GetItem(dropDownItemId); // And now you can
// access any fields in this item.

Edit A good article going into some more detail in the differences between Droplink and Droplist