Topics that will be covered are:

• Navigating into the content tree
• Managing data templates
• Creating presentation components
• Job and log management
• Managing Lucene search indexes
• Searching in Sitecore
• Publishing
• Validation Wizard

You can sign up for the webinar here.

In the example you can see that a new window is opened by the code below:

public override void Execute(CommandContext context)
{
	Assert.ArgumentNotNull(context, "context");
	UrlString url = new UrlString("/sitecore/shell/~/xaml/GridExample.GridExamplePage");
	url["id"] = context.Items[0].ID.ToString();
	SheerResponse.ShowModalDialog(url.ToString(), "650", "500");
}

As you can see this is done by calling a url with a /~xaml/ handler. The xaml handler calls the Sitecore.Web.UI.XamlSharp.Xaml.XamlPageHandlerFactory class which basicly searches for the control. In the example from Adam the control which is being searched for is placed in the “/sitecore modules” folder. By default Sitecore searches these controls in the “/sitecore modules”  and “/sitecore/shell/Applications” folders.

But if you build custom applications within Sitecore the chance is that you do not want to place the custom code into the “/sitecore” or “/sitecore modules” folders. Of course you can place the code into your own location, but then the XAML handler cannot find the control.

The configuration which defines the folders for Sitecore to look for controls is inside the “/App_Config/XamlSharp.config” file. There are two watchers defined which tell Sitecore to look into the folder mentioned earlier. You can add a new watcher by adding it to the XamlSharp.config. Or better, use a Sitecore include config file.

That would be something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <xamlsharp>
      <sources>
        <source type="Sitecore.Web.UI.XamlSharp.Xaml.XamlFileControlSource,Sitecore.Kernel">
          <watchers hint="list:AddWatcher">
            <watcher type="Sitecore.Web.UI.XamlSharp.Xaml.XamlFileWatcher,Sitecore.Kernel">
              <folder>/CustomShell/GridExample</folder>
              <filter>*.xaml.xml</filter>
              <codefilter>*.xaml.xml.cs</codefilter>
              <includesubdirectories>true</includesubdirectories>
            </watcher>
          </watchers>
        </source>
      </sources>
    </xamlsharp>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

and the url to call in the command would be like this

public override void Execute(CommandContext context)
{
	Assert.ArgumentNotNull(context, "context");
	UrlString url = new UrlString("/~/xaml/GridExample.GridExamplePage");
	url["id"] = context.Items[0].ID.ToString();
	SheerResponse.ShowModalDialog(url.ToString(), "650", "500");
}

Update:

Mike Ursino (check out his blog here) added a comment that it is also possible to register a single control by adding the namespace and assembly to the XamlSharp.config file. In that case your config file would be like this:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
  <configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
    <sitecore>
      <xamlsharp>
        <sources>
          <source type="Sitecore.Web.UI.XamlSharp.AssemblyControlSource,Sitecore.Kernel">
            <namespaceuri>http://www.yourcompany.com/webcontrols</namespaceuri>
            <assemblyname>Company.Controls</assemblyname>
            <namespace>Company.Web.UI.WebControls</namespace>
          </source>
          <sources>    
      </xamlsharp>
    </sitecore>
  </configuration>

In my example underneath we have an environment with multiple content management servers (CM) and multiple content delivery (CD) servers. Whenever a content editor publishes one or more items from the CM to the CD servers this will all run on that CM server. This can cause a slower work environment for the content editors.

In Sitecore 6.3 we introduced an option to configure a CM server as a publishing server. The only operations the publishing instance does are related to the publishing mechanism. So for performance reasons you can enable a CM server to be a (dedicated) publishing instance, and keep the CM servers solely for content editing. This will optimize the performance for the content authoring servers, so the content editor won’t have performance issues related to publishing.

How can you enable a publishing instance?

The first thing to do is to configure the ScalabilitySettings.config file in the App_Config\Include folder. You need to rename the ScalabilitySettings.config.example to ScalabilitySettings.config. Otherwise the config file won’t override the settings in the web.config file.

When you renamed the file you can edit the settings. A publishing instance is identified by the InstanceName. By default the InstanceName setting in the web.config if empty. Be aware that that same setting is also available in the ScalabilitySettings.config. It’s recommended that you change the value of the setting in the separate config file. This will override the web.config setting value.

If the value is empty Sitecore will use the instance name by combining the (NetBIOS) machine name and the IIS Site name. So for the IIS Site ProjectA on the server CM1 the instance name would become CM1-ProjectA.

You can check for the instance name in the Sitecore log file. There will be a log entry like: “5224 12:00:00 INFO Instance Name: CM1-Project1”.

When you know the instance name of the publishing server you can look for the settings Publishing.PublishingInstance in the ScalabilitySettings.config file. In the value of the setting you enter the name of the configured publishing instance.

And now you have an environment like illustrated above. In this example we have two dedicated content management server and one separate publishing instance which handles all publishing operations.  At this moment the content management servers send their local events to the event queue in the remote instance which handles the events.

In the ScalabilitySettings.config there is a setting “EnableEventQueues” which by default is true. This setting is required to be true to enable a publishing instance.

Whenever you are going to configure an environment with techniques like this, make sure that you fully read the Sitecore Scaling Guide first. You can find it on the Sitecore Developers Network.

• Technical Presentations and demonstrations
• Providing Technical Trainings
• Defining Sitecore architecture/blueprint for customer and partners
• Developing CMS relevant (sales) propositions
• Develop demo’s and POC with sales, product specialist and product development
• Support local sales in responding to tenders/rfi/rfp
• Keep relevant technical/market knowledge up to date
• Advise customers & partners on how to best use Sitecore products

One of our means to keep the knowledge up to date will be blogging. So, you can exspect a lot more blogging in the near future.

What is ELMAH?

According to the official site: “ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers) is an application-wide error logging facility that is completely pluggable. It can be dynamically added to a running ASP.NET web application, or even all ASP.NET web applications on a machine, without any need for re-compilation or re-deployment.”

What does this mean?

ELMAH has the following features

• Log all (unhandled) exceptions
• A user interface which lets you view remotely all exceptions, including detailed information (even when customerrors mode is turned off!) and the original yellow error screen (YSOD)
• Email notification when errors occur
• RSS feeds which show the latest errors

ELMAH uses two key components. There is one HTTP module which logs exceptions, and one HTTP Handler that shows the exceptions. You can choose SQL Server, SQLite, MS Access, Oracle, Vista DB or MySQL as a storage medium to save the exceptions to.

How do you implement it?

First off all you need to download the right version from the official download page. Then copy the Elmah.dll file to your Bin folder. If you want to use the SQLite data storage then you also need to copy the System.Data.SQLite.dll into the Bin folder. For this example I will use the SQLite data storage.

When you copied the files into the Bin folder, you need to edit the web.config. Unfortunately the web.config changes are outside the <sitecore> node, so we can’t use the config include files.

1. First we need to add a new sectiongroup to the configuration/configSections node

<sectionGroup name=”elmah”>
<section name=”errorLog” requirePermission=”false” type=”Elmah.ErrorLogSectionHandler, Elmah”/>
</sectionGroup>

2. Then we need to add the ELMAH section to the configuration node. In this section is configured what type of storage we use

<elmah>
<errorLog type=”Elmah.SQLiteErrorLog, Elmah” connectionStringName=”ELMAH.SQLite”/>
</elmah>

3. As you might noticed we also need to add a connectionstring. This can be added to the /App_Config/ConnectionStrings.config

<add name=”ELMAH.SQLite” connectionString=”Data Source=|DataDirectory|errors.s3db”/>

4. ELMAH uses a HTTP Handler with the file extension .axd. To prevent IIS returning a 404 we need to add the location and filename of the handler to the IgnoreUrlPrefixes setting.

<setting name=”IgnoreUrlPrefixes” value=”/sitecore/admin/elmah.axd|/sitecore….

5. Then we need to add the Http module which logs the exceptions to the end of the system.webserver/modules section

<add name=”ErrorLog” type=”Elmah.ErrorLogModule, Elmah”/>

6. The last part is adding the Http handler to the end of to the system.webserver/handlers section

<add name=”Elmah” path=”/sitecore/admin/elmah.axd” verb=”POST,GET,HEAD” type=”Elmah.ErrorLogPageFactory, Elmah” preCondition=”integratedMode” />

If all it setup correctly you can now view ELMAH log at http://www.mysite.com/sitecore/admin/elmah.axd

Right now ELMAH only logs the unhandled exceptions. If you want ELMAH to log exceptions which you handle in a catch statement you need to add the following line in your catch statement:

Elmah.ErrorSignal.FromCurrentContext().Raise(ex);

I created a simple application which lets you view the ELMAH error log within Sitecore. I will put this on the Shared Source environment later this week.

So I am please to announce that I’m going to team up with Alistair Deneys (also an Sitecore MVP) and Nick Wesselman. The three of us are going to work together to build a brand new version of the module. At the moment we are testing the 1.6 release in which they both added enhancements and included new functionality. Hopefully we are able to release that version somewhere next week.

At the same time we are thinking of more enhancements and new functionality. So when you have any ideas about the future of this module please let us know. I have opened a thread on the Sitecore SDN forum where you can write down your ideas.

Personally I am very proud that we have three developers from Australia, the United States and the Netherlands all collaborating on one project. This is a nice example of how people from the community can build something for the community.

But then came the next challenge. I needed to use the noConflict function before all other javascript was called. Luckally I remembered that I have seen it before in other custom fields that are on the Shared Source environment. So I started browsing the source code of Alexey Rusakov’s project (Sitecore Fieldtypes) and I found the InjectScripts class which provides an option to add HTML to the section of the Content Editor. There I just added a reference to my JQuery library and off course calling the .noConflict funtion.

[sourcecode language="csharp"]

namespace Sitecore.SharedSource.Taxonomy
{
class AddScripts
{
public void Process(PipelineArgs args)
{
if (Sitecore.Context.ClientPage.IsEvent)
return;

HttpContext context = HttpContext.Current;
if (context == null)
return;

Page page = context.Handler as Page;
if (page == null)
return;

Assert.IsNotNull(page.Header, “Content Editor tag is missing runat=’value’”);

string[] scripts = new[]
{
“/sitecore modules/Shell/Taxonomy/jquery-1.4.1.min.js”
};

foreach (string script in scripts)
{
page.Header.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(““.FormatWith(script)));
page.Header.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(““));
}
}

}
}

[/sourcecode]

So now I can call my JQuery by using “jQuery” in stead of “$” and the field works.

In my opinion this is just an example of how the Shared Source environment can help you. So if you have created a module, field or any thing else please put it on the Shared Source environment so others can benefit from it.

Then you isolate the function Context.ClientPage.Start in for instance an if statement.

Example:
[sourcecode language="csharp"]
if (context.Items[0].TemplateID == new ID(Settings.Default.EntryTemplateID))
{
Context.ClientPage.Start(this, “StartFieldEditor”, args);
}
else
{
Context.ClientPage.ClientResponse.Alert(“Please select an entry first”);
}
[/sourcecode]

If anyone else has a better way to get the same results please let me know.

The module now includes the following features:

• Inline Editing support
• Windows Live Writer integration
• Pingback
• RSS (using the Sitecore 6.2 Integrated RSS)
• Tagging and tagcloud
• Categories
• Comments (you can disable per setting)
• FieldEditors for blog and entry settings
• Custom webcontrols for integrating your own theme

The Shared Source coordinator Jimmie Overby created two video’s (1, 2) which shows you the most common use of the module. Currently I am writing some documentation about how to use the webcontrols in your own theme. With these webcontrols it’s quite easy to integrate the module within an existing Sitecore installation.

Please do not hesitate to use the Shared Source forum when you have questions about the module.

List of features

• Windows Live Writer integration (MetaWeblog API)
• Full frontend (inline) editing
• Webedit ribbon (with fieldeditors)
• CSS based themes
• Custom themes possible (one demo included)
• Custom webcontrols (with inline editing)
• Comments
• Tagging and a tagcloud
• RSS Feeds

At this moment the module in still in betá, and I would like to hear your feedback. You can use the comments or just send me a email (mark at evident.nl). When you encounter problems, found a bug or have any other kind of feedback please let me know and I will try to reply as soon as possible.

You can find the installation package and sources on the Shared Source environment.