Making Components Smarter with Dynamic Placeholders in Sitecore XM Cloud

Making Components Smarter with Dynamic Placeholders in Sitecore XM Cloud

With dynamic placeholders in Sitecore XM Cloud, you’re no longer boxed into rigid layouts. They let you create flexible, reusable components that adapt to your content and design needs. This post breaks down how they work, where to use them, and how to implement them in a real-world scenario using Next.js. You’ll also see a simple design layout to visualize the concept better. Let’s level up your components—make them cleaner, more flexible, and ready to scale with ease.

Ever built a component and wished you could drop it in multiple spots—without it breaking the layout or reusing the same content? That’s exactly the problem dynamic placeholders solve in Sitecore XM Cloud

What is a Dynamic Placeholder?

A dynamic placeholder is just like a normal placeholder—but with one superpower: you can generate its name dynamically at runtime.

Instead of setting something static like:

<Placeholder name="tab-content" />

You can do this:

<Placeholder name={`tab-content-${tabName}`} />

This means each tab, card, or block gets its own unique placeholder space—allowing for independent content editing and full personalization later.

Where Can You Use It?

Dynamic placeholders shine when:

• You have repeating components (like tabs, accordions, or carousels)
• You want nested rendering zones inside components
• You need multiple instances of the same component on a page

Let’s take a real-world case

Sample Use Case: Tabbed Content

Let’s say you have a product page with tabs like “Overview,” “Specs,” and “Reviews.” Each tab needs a separate rendering zone, right?

Here’s a basic React (Next.js) example:

import { Placeholder } from '@sitecore-jss/sitecore-jss-nextjs';

const TabSection = ({ rendering }) => {
  const tabs = ['Overview', 'Specs', 'Reviews'];

  return (
    <div className="tab-section">
      {tabs.map((tab, index) => (
        <div key={index} className="tab-panel-section">
          <h3>{tab}</h3>
          <Placeholder name={`tab-content-${tab}`} rendering={rendering} />
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
};

export default TabSection;

Each Placeholder here gets a name like:

• tab-content-Overview
• tab-content-Specs
• tab-content-Reviews

Which means content authors can drop different renderings in each one using Pages or Horizon editor

Why It’s Better Than Static Placeholders

Feature	Static Placeholder	Dynamic Placeholder
Flexibility	Fixed position only	Can be generated on the fly
Reusability	Limited	High
Nested Renderings	Hard to manage	Very easy
Content Authoring UX	Can be confusing	Super intuitive

Few Things to Keep in Mind

• Dynamic key logic should be consistent and predictable (e.g. no random IDs).
• Make sure to preview your placeholders in the Pages Editor to see if everything’s showing up as expected.
• Avoid going overboard—too many dynamic zones can overwhelm content authors.

Final Thought

Dynamic placeholders are like giving your components a flexible skeleton. Whether you’re building a multi-tab layout, accordion block, or reusable card set, they let you control rendering zones like a pro.

If you’re working with Sitecore XM Cloud and Next.js, this is a feature you absolutely want in your toolbox.