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Posts from 2008

Source Control for my content

Sitecore already has version control built in for content. This is great when you're using the CMS to deliver content, but during implementation the benefit isn't as great. What would be really good, is if I could somehow utilise my existing source control software which I use for my developer files for the content as well. Ah, Sitecore 6.0. With it's wealth of new features and usability...

Creating and running custom pipelines in Sitecore

A lot of what happens when you request a page in Sitecore is handled by pipelines. Actually, Sitecore makes extensive use of pipelines all the way from handling page requests, to uploading files and saving items through the UI. So what is a pipeline? A pipeline is a discrete set of steps, executed in order. It is an architectural design you can employ for certain cases in your applications. If I...

Windows Command Bindings for Revolver

So, you may have guessed that I lean towards the *nix way of doing things with the command bindings in Revolver. I prefer ls over dir. But if you're writing code for Sitecore you're definatly working in a Windows environment and probably not so comfortable with the *nix commands. I've written Revolver to be extensible and also to allow the rebinding of the core commands to different monikers. This...

Sitecore as a Content Delivery Platform

Sitecore does a really good job of separating content from presentation. And a side effect of this is that we can reuse either part in other ways. We can reuse the content section of Sitecore to author and deliver content to different applications and we can reuse the presentation to generate markup for data which lives outside of Sitecore. This post is going to focus on the content side of...

XML serialization of read only properties

I was writing a service the other day where I wanted to marshal a custom class across the service boundary. This scenario starts off as a web service (no WCF here...at least not yet anyway). Now it's quite easy to marshal your own custom class across the web service server to the client...or so you would think. You end up with a class which looks like your class; it has the same properties, but...

Moving fields with Revolver

The Sitecore packager is a brilliant little application for moving things from one Sitecore server to another. One limitation I've run into with it is that it only operates on the item level. If I only need or want to update certain fields of an item, then I have to do it manually. Or so I did before Revolver anyway. Let me give you a solid example of what I'm talking about. When performing...

Line numbers in developer centre

Recently I was in a Sitecore training session where a student was commenting on the line numbers given in XSLT errors from .NET. As with most XSLT parsers, when the .NET XSLT parser encounters a syntax error in the XSLT file it gives a friendly error message including the line number the error occurred on. This particular student mentioned it would be good if the XSLT editor in Sitecore contained...

ASP.NET driving force behind .NET

Hmm. So what's this new category here? Observation / Opinion? Well, to distinguish the regular tech posts from my not-so-tech thoughts and discussions, I've created a new category on this blog. If you're only interested in the purely tech stuff, then you can ignore anything tagged in this category. Anyway, I just finished listening to dot net rocks episode 347 with John Lam, the guy behind...

Quick launch toolbar for Sitecore

One feature I find I can't live without in a windowed environment is the quicklaunch toolbar. This is the row of icons which sits next to the menu button. I just find it so handy to launch any commonly used application from there rather than clicking through the menu to look for it. And yes, we can also make use of desktop shortcuts, but to do that you have to minimise all your windows before...

Emitting different file types from Sitecore

One of the really nice things about Sitecore is the fact the developer has total control over the markup a particular page produces. Sitecore itself imposes no limitations or restrictions on how your markup needs to look. In fact, the dev has so much control, you don't event have to emit markup from your pages. You could emit CSS or json as well. Previously I have emitted both CSS and ajax...

Crestone differences update rev 080514

As is the case with beta software, Crestone is changing from release to release. I wrote my first Crestone Differences post based on the original Beta rev 080314. I recently upgrade the Crestone install which I'm testing Revolver against to rev 080514 and found some differences between this build and the previous. These differences also invalidate the code samples in my post Assessing the Everyone...

Revolver is Released!

It's been a long road, but finally, Revolver has been released! And what's more, Sitecore Xpress users can run it for free! Thanks to Lars Nielsen for the suggestion. Head on over to the Revolver Download page to download the...

Archive and Recycle bin in Crestone

One of the big changes in Crestone is the reduced number of databases. We now only have 3 by default instead of 7. The extranet and security databases have been removed due to the use of ASP.NET security, and the recycle bin and archive databases are also AWOL. Sitecore considers both recycle bin and archive to be archives of the source database. This is evident in web.config. If you go and have a...

Introduction to Revolver

I've mentioned Revolver before on this blog. So what is it? For those that haven't ventured down the hyperlink... Revolver is a command prompt for Sitecore targeted at developers and site administrators. I originally wrote Revolver due to 2 reasons: I really liked the idea of "Sitecore Script" which was an idea I was working on to allow me to script out common actions. I was at the...

Assessing the "Everyone" role in Crestone

Update 20080629: This post was written with code against the original Crestone beta release 080314. The API for the latest beta release 080514 has changed and altered the code in this post. Check out my post Crestone differences update rev 080514 for updates to the code samples here. As you may be aware, the security model in Sitecore's Crestone release has completely changed. Sitecore as of...

Crestone Differences

I was privileged enough to be included in the Crestone beta program which Sitecore ran recently. Crestone is the code name of the new Sitecore release. This release is an evolutionary upgrade with a strong focus on usability. This is evident in the new page editor and page designer interfaces. Off the UI, the most immediately evident changes are the number of databases (only master, web and core...

My New Blog

Welcome to my new Blog! Now get off my back Phil! My name is Alistair Deneys and I'm a Solution Architect working with .net and Sitecore. I have a strong interest in programming languages and development process and I hope to share some of my experiences with you. Ever since Phil Heltewig started the Australian Sitecore office, he's been hassling me to start a blog. I've been resisting for a while...

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