Vikash Raaj | Sitecore 9 Certified

Handling Disaster Recovery Plan We all are interested in knowing how to make the disaster or backup production environment which can help to reduce the downtime in real world. We need to setup the servers in different regions. mirror the database to each region from live environment load balancer should be configured to route the request to other environment if the server reachable or alive test page doesn't respond or its 404 bad response. Intimate the network and IT team about failures. Once the original environment is up, request can be sent to the original servers and the mirroring regions can be kept alive and as cold stand by. https://xchangesitecore.com/handling-disaster-recovery-plan/ Vikash Raaj

How to Handle Unicorn Sync API Exception On SSL Are you using Self Signed certificate in server and trying to hit the Unicorn Sync https URL to sync from difference machine via powershell? then we might end up with network exception on accessing on secure URL. How to Resolve it Its Very Simple, just add below line before making the API call. [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12   https://xchangesitecore.com/how-to-handle-unicorn-sync-api-exception-on-ssl/ Vikash Raaj

Lets Reserialize Sitecore with Unicorn API We all used to Sync into Sitecore from YML with the help of Unicorn. Now some projects there would be need to serialize the Sitecore to YML and they would do manually. Why not use the API itself to serialize the same? Its very Simple to Do Just Add -Verb reserialize  to the API calling script, Sync-Unicorn -Verb reserialize -ControlPanelUrl 'https://local.sitecore.com/unicorn.aspx' -SharedSecret 'sBPcpv22qaphDdn2XhzVv7uMBWZWd97SU4X9gyc4p2dHC' https://xchangesitecore.com/lets-reserialize-sitecore-with-unicorn-api/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore 9.1 Installation Guide. Sitecore 9.1 Installation Guide-OnPremesis Follow the below instruction for sitecore 9.1 OnPremesis installation Dowload the Sitecore 9.1 initial release   Sitecore 9.1 Scroll to Download options for On Premises deployment and Download the Packages for XP Single Create the New Folder D:\SC9.1 and place the installation file in the folder Download the Solr 7.2.1 from link and unzip the archive to “D:\SC9.1” Download NSSM from the link and place in the folder D:\SC9.1 To setup Solr as service open NSSM in Command Prompt as administrator Enter the following command in command prompt cd "D:\SC9.1\nssm-2.24\nssm-2.24\win64" nssm.exe install SOLR721 Refer the below screenshot and fill the appropriate path and Port number Once the installation is done close the Command Prompt and then Open services.msc Check the SOLR721 and click on start Verify your solr from browsing with the app

Sitecore, Sitecore Hackathon, Sitecore Hackathon 2019, Hackathon - Online Event Do Register as  team and participate on Sitecore Global hackathon and win goodies & free pass to Europe SUGCON. Sitecore Hackathon 2019 The 2019 Sitecore Hackathon is a free online community driven event organized by  Akshay Sura  and supported by Sitecore. (Shout out to  Pieter  and  Mark ). Teams that have signed up by  6 pm EST February 15, 2019  will have the opportunity to participate in the contest. Eligible teams will have 24 hours — starting  Friday March 1st 2019 at 8PM EST  and ending  Saturday March 2nd 2019 at 8PM EST  – to build and submit a Sitecore module best implementing the idea for the Hackathon, as determined by our panel of judges. The idea(s) will be announced an hour before the Hackathon starts on March 2nd. We had to choose a date so that we can make sure the announcements can be made at the SUGCON EU 2019 on April 4th 2019 in London. Entry Submis

Sitecore Scheduler Implementation Issue. After doing analysis on sitecore scheduler and its implement. I found the below  issues In sitecore scheduler  we can Implement the Method which accepts Items as array  , CommandItem and the ScheduleItem. But Items array is having only one Item always.So problem identified in the existing sitecore So the problem with the existing implement is: Issues are   Since the method accepts the array of items, but from the code only one item is returned as part of array. if we provide mulitple GUID with pipe seperated the current implementation will not work To Solve the above Open issue: Below fix needs to be done on the sitecore.kernel dll. https://xchangesitecore.com/sitecore-scheduler-implementation-issue/ Vikash Raaj

SUGNCR | SXA – Accelerate Your Experience Faster time to market is no more a preference, it’s a necessity. Undoubtedly Sitecore implementation is not an exception. Being said that if you are not using Sitecore Experience Accelerator, you are missing a lot of fun. Join Amitabh to explore how SXA can expedite the website development process in terms of user experience, visual design, front/back end, along with content entry.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMb6G2X4Yrc   https://xchangesitecore.com/sugncr-sxa-accelerate-your-experience/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 Api Getting Started Catalog Foundation Catalog Library The catalog Library in sitecore commerce allows developers to retrieve any information required to display in browse context of a webhop concering navigation, price information url's for products and related products. This article describes every method available and when to use them. Getting all catalogs If you have more than one catalog in your solution, you might want to display them in various ways instead of just resolving the current one.To achive this simply use the below method..  ISearchIndex searchindex = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex("commerce_products_master_index"); using (IProviderSearchContext searchcontext = searchindex.CreateSearchContext((Sitecore.ContentSearch.Security.SearchSecurityOptions)0)) { var query15 = searchcontext.GetQueryable<CommerceBaseCatalogSearchResultItem>() .Where<CommerceBaseCatalogSearchResultItem>((Expression<Func<

Enabling Custom WebApi in Sitecore 9 CD Server without api/sitecore Accessing custom webApi from CD server without using the api/sitecore url is not complex. Just a pipeline config and a routeConfig code will all enable the webapi for your CD server easily.   Create a CS File for custom Routing   namespace Vikash.Web.Feature.WebApi.Pipelines { public class RegisterCustomRoutes { public void Process(PipelineArgs args) { const string solutionName = "Vikash.Web.Feature.WebApi"; RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute( name: $"{solutionName}.Api", url: $"MyApi/Custom/UnSubscribe/{{action}}/{{id}}", defaults: new { controller = "UnSubscribe", id = UrlParameter.Optional }, namespaces: new[] { $"Vikash.Web.Feature.WebApi.Controllers" } ); } } } Now we need to create a custom pipeline config to register the Route. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration xmlns:pat

How Sitecore Analytics and Google Analytics combined to create a 360 customer view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlPpYQEV_Hs https://xchangesitecore.com/how-sitecore-analytics-and-google-analytics-combined-to-create-a-360-customer-view/ Vikash Raaj

Creating a custom plugin for Sitecore Commerce (XC) 9 Part 2 In this video Akshay Sura is going to walk you through the second part of creating a custom Loyalty plugin for Sitecore Experience Commerce (XC) 9 Update 2. We will work on the Sitecore Commerce Experience Accelerator (SXA) side of the project and extend commerce to show the points for the Order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKMGDjJPxf4 https://xchangesitecore.com/creating-a-custom-plugin-for-sitecore-commerce-xc-9-part-2/ Vikash Raaj

Creating a custom plugin for Sitecore Commerce (XC) 9 Part 1 In this video Akshay Sura is going to walk you through creating a custom Loyalty plugin for Sitecore Experience Commerce (XC) 9 Update 2. We will work on the engine side of the project and extend commerce to calculate and show the points for the Order entity and the order lines. We will also follow the Sitecore Helix principles to add a new project. We will be working with IAddCartLinePipeline, PersistCartBlock, IUpdateCartLinePipeline, IOrderPlacedPipeline, OrderPlacedAssignConfirmationIdBlock and IGetEntityViewPipeline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gg3ZkMkp58   https://xchangesitecore.com/creating-a-custom-plugin-for-sitecore-commerce-xc-9-part-1/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore Forms - Reporting on Performance A short introduction on Forms performance reporting by Senior Product Manager Hylke Hydstra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylpU1tabwE   https://xchangesitecore.com/sitecore-forms-reporting-on-performance-2/ Vikash Raaj

Creating a Minion for Sitecore Commerce (XC) 9 Akshay Sura explained on how a Minion is used to perform scheduled tasks on lists. MinionsAPI exposes artifacts and methods targeted toward any post-order capture processing and cleanup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omSlXnYnsGA   https://xchangesitecore.com/creating-a-minion-for-sitecore-commerce-xc-9/ Vikash Raaj

Creating a Contact Facet in xDB Sitecore 9 & xConnect Magic! In this video Akshay Sura is going to walk you through how to create a contact facet in xDB and use xConnect to add that facet value for an existing contact in Sitecore 9 Update 2.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcrKzDACgs https://xchangesitecore.com/creating-a-contact-facet-in-xdb-sitecore-9-xconnect-magic/ Vikash Raaj

Use xConnect to update Contact Facets and Identifier in xDB - Sitecore Commerce (XC) 9 Engine In this video Akshay Sura is going to walk you through how to use xConnect in a Sitecore Commerce Engine solution.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTaKOYEFkWU https://xchangesitecore.com/use-xconnect-to-update-contact-facets-and-identifier-in-xdb-sitecore-commerce-xc-9-engine/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 Installation Guide for Reference Storefront-Part 9 Final configuration To complete your Sitecore Commerce configuration, you perform 1.merge sitecore web.config,Rebuild sitecore and commerce index and to configure the sample storefront site Update the Sitecore web.config files To update the web.config files: Navigate to your site file path " .\wwwroot\storefront\Website " Open your web.config file Navigate to the \Website\MergeFiles folder Merge the contents of the Merge.CommerceServer.config file into the  web.config  Refer the screen shot below: Navigate to \Website\MergeFiles folder and merge the Merge.Commerce.Storefront.config into web.config file Save your changes to the web.config file. Navigate to .\wwwroot\storefront\Website and open your web.config file Navigate to the .\wwwroot\storefront\Website\Views folder. and open your Merge.web.config file Merge the contents of t

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 Installation Guide for Reference Storefront-Part 8 Bootstrap and initialize the Commerce Engine environment Once the Commerce Engine is compiled and deployed next is to configure the payment option for site.Follow the below steps to configure payment option Configure web payment functionality for the site Launch https://www.braintreepayments.com/sandbox Enter the necessary information in the Sign up for the sandbox pane , and click Try the sandbox . Follow the instructions to activate and log in to your Braintree sandbox account. Get the MerchantID, Public Key and Private Key information from the Braintree sandbox website. Use the information from step 4 to fill in the corresponding section inside the PlugIn.Habitat.CommerceAuthoring-1.0.0.json file under the .\CommerceAuthoring\wwwroot\data\Environments search for Plugin.Sample.Payments.Braintree.BraintreeClientPolicy inside the PlugIn.Habitat.CommerceAuthoring-1.0.0

Sitecore Forms - Reporting on Performance Sitecore Forms - Reporting on Performance A short introduction on Forms performance reporting by Senior Product Manager Hylke Hydstra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tylpU1tabwE https://xchangesitecore.com/sitecore-forms-reporting-on-performance/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore Forms - Creating a Form Sitecore Forms - Creating a Form In this Sitecore Forms episode, Jason St-Cyr walks through creating a new form using the new Sitecore #Forms module.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU_hgHzJVSE&t=4s https://xchangesitecore.com/sitecore-forms-creating-a-form/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore Rocks web Service 403 Forbidden error Getting a 'forbidden' message when trying to connect to my local site via Sitecore Rocks Whenever we started getting the error: (403) Forbidden error message when trying to connect from my local development instance to connect the Sitecore Rocks web service, we need to fix this issue only by allowing the access to the folder as anonomous. Error The HTTP request was forbidden with client authentication scheme 'Anonymous'. The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden. How to do that Every Google page I hit says that it's likely caused by the WebServices directory not having anonymous access enabled in IIS. Open web.config and add below section <location path="sitecore/shell/WebService"> <system.web> <authorization> <allow users="?,*" /> </authorization> </system.web> </location> https://xchangesitecore.com/sitecore-roc

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 Installation Guide for Reference Storefront-Part 7 Deploy the Commerce Engine Before you Deploy Commerce Engine Make sure that all the Prerequisites are installed. Compile the Commerce Engine To compile the Commerce Engine: Install the Sitecore Commerce SDK by unzipping the Sitecore.Commerce.SDK.1.x.xxxx.zip file, located at the root of the Sitecore Commerce release package. Run the Command Prompt as Administrator Navigate to Sitecore Commerce SDK unzipped file location and execute the below commands cd "D:\Commerce\Sitecore.Commerce.8.2.1_U2_1.2.62\Sitecore.Commerce.SDK.1.2.159" Execute the command:   dotnet restore Run the publish command to create a build of the Sitecore Commerce Engine in a local folder. For example: dotnet publish .\Sitecore.Commerce.Engine -o c:\Deploy\Sitecore.Commerce Create the Commerce Server databases To create the SitecoreCommerce_Global and SitecoreCommerce_SharedEnviro

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 Installation Guide for Reference Storefront-Part 6 Setup Commerce Server site and web services Steps to Intialize commerce Server site Open the Powershell in adminstrator mode Execute the below command for setting the execution policy Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted and select y Navigate to your Sitecore website directory. For example: cd "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\Website" Run the Initialize-CSSite command: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\Website> Initialize-CSSite Steps to Initialize web services Create the Commerce Server Web Services. Make sure the app pool identity for each Web Service is set to “.\CSFndRuntimeUser” a .Run the following command to create the Commerce Server Catalog Web Service: New-CSWebService -Name "CFSolutionStorefrontsite" -Resource Catalog -IISSite "CSServices" -AppPool "CSServices" -Identity 'CSF

WEBINAR on Sitecore Experience Forms Date: 27th August 2018 Time: 6PM - 7PM IST Speaker will be  @ mike_i_reynolds Event Details : Event Link   https://xchangesitecore.com/webinar-on-sitecore-experience-forms/ Vikash Raaj

Sitecore Meetup Discussion- From Forms to Riches Date: Tomorrow (15th August 2018) Speaker will be @ mike_i_reynolds Sign Up : https://www.meetup.com/sugsrilanka/events/253127633/   https://xchangesitecore.com/sitecore-meetup-discussion-from-forms-to-riches/ Vikash Raaj

Why Not Responsive YouTube Videos into Sitecore Lets learn how to embed a you-tube video into the Sitecore page which should work in responsive way. All-in-one Responsive Embed Option From YouTube, copy the Video URL you want to embed on your page. (Don’t use share; it’s not required for this) Visit  www.EmbedResponsively.com  and paste the URL into the input box and click the  Embed  button. At the bottom of the displayed video, copy the style-based embed code. Log into the Sitecore Content Editor and select the page on which you want the video embedded. Open the Rich Text field in HTML mode by clicking the Edit HTML option. Position the cursor where you want the video to appear on the page and paste in the embed code. Accept, Save and Publish your page and test on your mobile or emulator within your browser. That’s it! Quicker and easier than writing this blog post 😊 Advanced Option If you would like the ult