DV's notes

Sitecore won the ‘Best IT Company of Denmark’ award

2011-09-29T23:23:00.000-07:00

Sitecore won the ‘Best IT Company of Denmark’ award: http://www.computerworld.dk/art/197256?a=na&i=1

it's in Danish, you can use Google translate, but the main point is already in the title of this post :)

CaseStudy Azure CMS @ Sitecore

2011-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Today Microsoft Ukraine has published CaseStudy Azure CMS @ Sitecore (in Ukrainian)

http://www.microsoft.com/ukraine/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?id=82

Coninuous Integration for Sitecore projects

2011-05-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Continuous Integration in development is gaining its role as an essential part of project efficiency. We are in Sitecore got understanding of that quite some time ago and now even looking for a CI Specialist who will be serving our build framework full-time.

However the goal of this article is not to describe CI in Sitecore, but to find best CI practices for all Sitecore-based solutions.

What does distinguish Sitecore solutions from the rest of Solutions?

- Any solution is an “superstructure” on top of CMS
- A solution contain not only files, but content items which cannot be just copied as files
- Heavy dependency on underlying CMS version
- Similarity of steps related CMS-base part of a solution

Let’s see how to make building Sitecore solutions effective. I’ve grouped principles by a few categories depending on where they are applied. We follow these principles in Sitecore.

Hereafter I assume Cruise Control .NET, nAnt and SVN are meant, though the principles below should be valid for any set of tools. Bundle CC.NET+nAnt+SVN looks the optimal since free, easy configurable and being developed further.

Architecture of CI process

1. Separate build server and project scripts, consider build server a live project

Re-use common operations which are not specific to a particular project, i.e. checkout, cleanup, etc. The best way is to leave this on build machine. This way you not only avoid duplicating appropriate code, but is able to maintain this part separately and is sure it works for any project.

Build server is a machine which:

o contains up-to-date build framework

o responsible for common actions

o calls project build script

o evaluates result of project build script execution

If you consider build framework a usual project and store in version control system, you will not need take care of deploying changes on build server. Add a project on the build server which builds the build framework. If you make any changes to a source of it, you are it will be picked up by each server and “deployed” locally.

The same applies to configuration files: store config files in the repository and let CC.NET update own configuration. When you need make changes to server’s configuration, you can do that by committing a new configuration file to a repository.

Aside effect of this approach is a security: you don’t need access to a build server to manage it. Since build servers are dealing with source code, they should protected appropriately. You can store config files in not so secured repository (build server reads it, not vice versa), therefore grant access to more people and not to be a bottleneck or manage server from VPN connection. In details the approach is described at http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CCNET/Configure+CruiseControl.Net+to+Automatically+Update+its+Config+File

2. Use CC.NET config validation

When you make build server upgrade own configuration, be sure to validate new config file, otherwise the whole server falls. Ccnet.exe console application has an option –validate, which allows check that CC.NET can be started with such a configuration file.

http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CCNET/The+Server+Console+Application

3. Build server scalability

Updating a build framework by a build server can be assured by having an obligatory configuration for all servers. This can be achieved by separating config files and using include feature.

Imagine the setup:

svn://server/builds

|__ ccnet.common.config

|__ buildserver1.config

|__ buildserver2.config

|__ buildserver3.config

Each buildserver*.config files includes the common configuration config file.

Name of the *.config file corresponds to the names of the servers, a build server takes config with proper name.

Adding a new server is restoring it from disk image and committing a new configuration file into the repository.

4. Let project build itself, developers are responsible for own project

Depending on a project size, build process can be either delivered to separate integration team or done by developers. In general a person (team) who is responsible for delivery, should be responsible for building. Assuming size of the Sitecore solutions, passing build script to a separate team is not the most efficient way which leads to slow turnover. Build script is a part of source code and maintained by developers (who are in charge of delivery and know better what should be delivered).

Build infrastructure should be the same in a company and not build for each project separately. I.e. once a company builds the build infrastructure and then developers just use facilities without digging into build servers work, they interact with build infrastructure with according to common rules.

Build script is backed up as a part of source code and therefore never lost.

When you should get back to a project later or something happens to a build server, you should not assembly parts of a project to resume work on it – everything is one bundle.

5. Ensure script run on developers’ PCs

Good thing of having build script a part of source code, is that you can build a project on any PC with proper environment (e.g. nAnt). A developer can test build script on own machine before committing it to the source repository (like he compiles before commit), debug the script.

6. Ensure logic progressiveness

Each project can be covered by a few of build projects with raising number of steps:

- short one (cruise), which check that a new piece of code doesn’t break the compilability of a project trunk (or working branch). It runs on each commit and makes minimal compilation to ensure there is sense to run wider steps.

- full one (nightly) – the complete build run in the night for a project trunk (or working branch). It passes all the steps necessary for delivery (thanks to Cruise the code is assured to compile), might include running autotests; usually passed to QA for testing.

- full one (release) – this one is equal to nightly, but can be run for svn tags. Having separate release build decreases time for switching a sandbox to a new location, also you can force it using other special conditions (like creating a new tag in the repository).

7. Include automated tests into CI

That is undoubted disaster when QA returns build immediately because of silly errors. Try to include running as many automated tests as possible so developers could see results before QA picks up the build.

Taking into account nightly builds, you shift the tests execution to nights, that saves working time.

A separate server can be used for running tests. It includes special test environment and frees build server for other projects. Consider the setup: build script copies the project output to some shared folder over network, the Sitecore installation is installed and test are run (all is possible with usual CC.NET + nAnt).

8. Separate a project and underlying CMS

It’s often said that a project should be ready to be run right after checkout. However I cannot agree it’s true for all cases. E.g. upgrade on CMS can lead to extensive changes to source code, while no actually changes to a project done. In case you store your project files only, you can checkout it to any CMS website root folder. Even if you want to tight you code to a specific CMS version – keep it in source code as a ZIP file and make unzip part of a build process.

The same applies to configuration files – either use include files or patch files during build.

You can also restore items from serialization during building.

9. Share resources

Create a storage (e.g. SVN repository) which can host resources for using by projects. Great example here is CMS: if a few projects use one CMS version as a base, it’s not efficient to keep it along with each project source code. Also svn operations with binary files (checking for modifications) is slow.

10. Build in Sandbox, avoiding unnecessary copying.

I didn’t make special measurements, but disk operations remain the slowest, especially with huge number of small files. Build in the sandbox and clean it up afterwards – that will be much faster than making a complete copy of a sandbox.

Cleanup can be a part of a build server tasks, not repeated in each script. Build server revert changes in the sandbox before starting building a project itself.

11. Special read-only account to access sources

To avoid accidental breaking the source code and sharpen security, use special read-only accounts to access source code by build script from build server.

Build server can store cached authorization, so nothing about access credentials is present in the build script.

12. Launching Sitecore during build

It’s pretty easy to launch Sitecore during build for executing some operations in Sitecore context and using Sitecore API. Use free development web server from Microsoft WebDev.WebServer.exe

at some port reserved for build server.

To launch Sitecore and call API, not to use its backend, you don’t need the complete installation, therefore can save time for this step.

Sitecore Serialization Guide

2011-02-07T05:09:00.000-08:00

I'm glad to see that Sitecore Serialization Guide is published on the SDN:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Reference/Sitecore%206/Serialization%20Guide.aspx

Dreamcore - Sitecore Partner Conference will be this year as well!

2011-01-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

It's becoming an interesting tradition - annual Sitecore Conference for our partners. As for me it shows how highly Sitecore appreciates own Partners.

Perhaps you will find it interesting for you as well Dreamcore 2011

.NET CMS Sitecore team - who we are

2011-01-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

Now we have a section on our Sitecore web site about our team. It's just initial state, but be sure UA team will try to describe ourselves as much as possible. :)

Who We Are: http://www.sitecore.net/Company/Who-We-Are.aspx

Sitecore has become one of only 12 partners to have a dedicated presence on the Microsoft Campus

2011-01-04T23:00:00.001-08:00

I don't think I can add something, just share the link
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/sitecore-expands-microsoft-relationship-heads-to-campus-009700.php

Custom CC.NET plugin and validation

2010-11-12T02:54:00.000-08:00

I have developed a small custom publisher for CruiseControl.NET (it moves output files instead of copying them, cleans target folder before moving files and fixes a small issue in BuildPublisher).

Everything went well on the test server, but launching it on live build servers unexpectedly failed.
We are using "ccnet.exe --validate" to prevent crashing a server because of incorrect configuration, and new configuration file simply didn't pass validation. Though the configuration starts and works fine, just validation fails.

[Long unsuccessful searching story is omitted]

The solution: add a key "PluginLocation" into ccnet.exe.config file under AppSettings sections. Even if it points to the ccnet server folder, where, according to the documentation, ccnet server sees all assemblies by default.

Prestigious award for Sitecore Ukraine

2010-10-26T01:15:00.000-07:00

The most popular IT development community portal in Ukraine, http://developers.org.ua, has presented Sitecore Ukraine with the Best IT Company Award in the “Mid-sized” category.

For the first time in history, all IT people in all IT companies across the Ukraine have been asked to rate their employers, according to their job satisfaction and general view of their employer, and we’re so proud that we came out on top!

The selection for the inaugural award was based on anonymous questionnaires, which makes the win even more impressive.

There were 3 categories: - Small Companies (<50 engineers), Mid-sized Companies (50-200 engineers – including Sitecore) and Large Companies (>200 engineers). There were 8 companies nominated in “the Sitecore group”, and 3 of them were from Dnipropetrovsk

The winner IS Sitecore Ukraine!

http://www.developers.org.ua/archives/max/2010/10/26/rating-2010-summary/
(sorry, in Russian only so far)

Sitecore Ukraine is very proud of this recognition from our own employees. Following common Sitecore Corporation spirit and values we continuously try to build the best possible team. Each Sitecore employee should derive pleasure from working on an excellent team. Naturally, there’s always room for improvement, and we have _people_ who can do just that.

Big "thanks" goes to everyone in our team!

Everything is in our hands – everyone is important!

Sitecore Blogs moved to own website

2010-09-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to note, that a few Sitecore bloggers have moved own blogs to Sitecore website. It definitely introduces some convenience: blogs are structured, gathered in one place and, one of the most important, - search through all Sitecore blogs, which is awesome.

Just look at the http://www.sitecore.net/en/Community.aspx

I will continue with this host so far.

Some management

2010-03-25T01:50:00.000-07:00

Maybe an unexpected non-technical post. But my primary role is a manager, though I'm not dropping programming and do some tools or investigations from time to time.

Have no idea if it's my invention or usual practice. At least I haven't read any "clever" books (I'm sceptical about most of them, but that's another topic).

Let's see:
- One day a person saw our ads and came to us.
- Now (s)he has own opinion about the Sitecore.

It makes great sense to ask people say what attracted them in Sitecore ads and what they wouldn't like to see there. Indirect feedback except for just improving the ads, isn't it?

Proper feedback is a key for everything.

That's what I have just asked our senior developers to do.

You are welcome to express your opinion about the idea.

Web Content Management: get data easy!

2010-03-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Web Content Management: one of the difficulties I saw customers faced with were moving data from their existing sites, based on "old" engines or even static, to desired Web Content Management systems, like Sitecore CMS. Often they dropped an idea of upgrading just because didn't want or couldn't put efforts to just moving the existing content.

I've just seen the demo by Stephen Moore from Kapow - "Migrating Web content into Sitecore: 8 Minute Demo". Now moving data to Sitecore becomes easier. Interesting things that data can be taken even from front-end of the existing site. It worth seeing!

Russian backend (client) for Sitecore 6.2.0

2010-02-23T02:08:00.000-08:00

It took longer than expected, but it's ready now.

Take Russian backend (client) for Sitecore 6.2.0 at Sitecore SDN site

Please report any issues (with screenshots) you might find to me.

Sitecore content management system knowledge sharing

2010-01-31T08:28:00.000-08:00

US market is probably the market that grows most rapidly for Sitecore. Large number of partners, solutions and developers. Developers, Solution Architects, etc - i.e. people - are the biggest values always. And Sitecore understands that!

I'm happy to see that Sitecore US will conduct large event for all Sitecore-related people - Sitecore Partner and Developer Conference Dreamcore - in Boston.
I'm sure all people will have fun :), but I'm also sure in wide knowledge and experience (and ideas as well) sharing. I won't be able to come myself, but this is what I expect personally - get new ideas and hear more feedback on implementations.

That is a great idea from Sitecore!

Connection Pooling

2009-11-18T11:24:00.000-08:00

Some things after discovering look trivial and clear, but it takes time to find this simple reason. I found a lot of question in Internet, and almost no useful answers.

After SQL server restart you might get the error in your ASP.NET application: "A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server. (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No process is on the other end of the pipe.) "

The reason is hiding in SQL Server Connection Pooling http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8xx3tyca.aspx

You can do a simple test by adding ;Pooling=false to your connection string to Sitecore databases and now your application will not crash whenever SQL restarts.

Impact Connection Pooling on performance for a stand-alone Sitecore installation - is what I will try now to investigate.

Localization of RADControls in Sitecore

2009-10-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

One can see that there are a few places in Sitecore CMS backend that are not localized. And that's because they fall out usual translation way.

In particular we are talking about RAD controls: Rich-Text Editor and SpellChecker.

Telerik supports own way of localization their controls via XML files, but this approach doesn't work in Sitecore out-of-the-box.

My investigation was primary aimed on finding the easy enablish RAD controls localization without coding. In particular according to code and Reflector setting the setting CacheLocalization in sitecore\shell\RadControls\Editor\ConfigFile.xml to 'true' should help. Especially since direct requiesting the page sitecore/shell/RadControls/Editor/localization.aspx?type=editor&language=da worked perfectly. Unfortunately playing with settings didn't help.

Thus the last approach was to set Telerik.WebControls.RadEditor.Language property via code.

I used great article from Alexey Romaniuha as an example.

As a result the workaround to enable localization in RAD Controls in Sitecore looks like:

1. Compile the code and put appropriate DLL into bin:


using System;
using Sitecore.Web;

namespace Sitecore.LocalizationEnabling
{
   public class RADSpellWithLangSwitcher : Sitecore.Shell.Controls.RADEditor.RADEditor
{
   new protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
      string lang = Sitecore.Context.Language.ToString();

      if (lang == "en")
      {
         lang = "en-US";
      }
      this.Editor.Language = lang;

      base.Page_Load(sender, args);

      }
   }
}

2. Replace in the sitecore\shell\Controls\Rich Text Editor\Default.aspx file

@ Page Language="c#" Inherits="Sitecore.Shell.Controls.RADEditor.RADEditor"

with

@ Page Language="c#" Inherits="Sitecore.LocalizationEnabling.RADSpellWithLangSwitcher"

3. Create a folder with language code under \sitecore\shell\RadControls\Editor\Localization\ folder.

I guess the approach for the SpellCheker is completely the same, just not publishing it here.

License Expiration Notifier – scheduled task

2009-05-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve created a simple scheduled task – it check expiration date of the Sitecore license at the installation where it's run and sends warning (or writes to log file) in case expiration date comes in a certain number of days.Should prevent from unexpected license expiration and hence from site downtime.

In case nobody objects, it will appear at http://trac.sitecore.net soon.

Taking over Product Catalogue sample site

2009-02-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

As a part of some free-time developing I took over Product Catalogue sample site (which I saw was requested for updating by someone).
The first stage - direct upgrade to Sitecore V6 is done:
http://trac.sitecore.net/ProductCatalogue

If you have ideas or wishes for this solution, please mail them to me at dv sitecore.net and I will continue improving it with pleasure.

Sitecore shell in Russian

2008-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Finally! I have translated Sitecore shell into Russian.

On the way I looked at the Office translation, SVN translation and many other books and sites. Main problem was whether some names should be translated at all, e.g. we don't use translation of Layout - we juts pronounce Layout. And the same thing with many other names. I guess that's because Russian is different from European languages.

Anyway, the first version is ready. I'm going to send it to Sitecore Ukraine firstly to get feedback. After that I'll publish it on SDN into Localization section which is being prepared.

Google Chrome - web-browser from Google

2008-09-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Google announced own web browser. That's not unexpected news, but I've tried Sitecore and it seems we support it :) - the same amount of features like in Firefox. At least I was able to do content editing and publishing.

Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html
Google on Google Chrome - comic book: http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

See generated configuration in V6

2008-07-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Recently I've recollected that I could develop and decided renew my skills. There was a good occasion - during one of our technical meeting we discussed new feature of V6 - Auto Include Config files. It's great and very useful, but it seems to be hard to understand the final configuration file after all changes since they are made on a fly. But it's definitely necessary for debugging or discovering issues in the solution.

Here is a quick tool I did:

1. Install the package onto V6
http://rapidshare.com/files/132071977/DetailedConfigReport-1.0.0.zip.html

2. Run the tool:

3. See the result: