Getting Started With Sitecore Data Exchange 1.3

I played with Sitecore Data Exchange version 1.3 this weekend and it is pretty awesome.  The best way to get started is to read Fenil Jacob's RSS Feed Provider for Sitecore Data Exchange article.

This article will walk you through installing Sitecore Data Exchange as well as provide you with a fully working and very useful Sitecore Data Exchange Provider.

1.4 Is On The Way

If you are looking at using Sitecore Data Exchange for production and are writing custom providers, you should watch this Sneak Preview on Sitecore Data Exchange 1.4 to ensure you are ready to take advantage of the new stuff in 1.4.

Checking Status and Debugging

When you run the pipeline batch note that there is a field on it called messages. This will show you any log messages associated with the run. This is a good way to see if it is running properly or throwing errors. For this RSS Feed Provider the messages would be on this item:

/sitecore/system/Data Exchange/RSS Feed Provider Tenant/Pipeline Batches/Synch RSS Feeds to Sitecore Items Pipeline Batch

You can debug using Visual Studio simply by attaching to the IIS Process much like you would with your Sitecore Website.

Adding Your Own Feeds

If you are going to be working with your own RSS Feeds in the example, you need to add your own feeds under /sitecore/system/Data Exchange/RSS Feed Provider Tenant/Endpoints/Providers/RSS Feed and delete or reuse their existing one.  

Make sure you add the steps for your feed(s) under here for any new feeds you added under the endpoints.

/sitecore/system/Data Exchange/RSS Feed Provider Tenant/Pipelines/Read RSS Feed Info from RSS Feed Pipeline

If you fail to add the feed you will get this error message:

ERROR Pipeline step processing will abort because mapping set failed.

RSS Feed Provider vs Official Implementing A Provider Documentation

From reviewing the code and attempting to create my own provider I noticed a few differences in the RSS Provider compared to the Official documentation on implementation. I have documented those here. I am not sure if this was intentional or not. I will check with the author of the provider and add notes here.

1. The endpoint for the RSS Feed Provider has a base of template whereas the documentation says to use /sitecore/templates/Data Exchange/Framework/Endpoints/Endpoint
2. In section 5.1 of the official documentation it says to create a template based on the template Templates > Data Exchange > Framework > Pipeline Steps > Pipeline Step however the actual template is Templates > Data Exchange > Framework > Pipeline Steps > Base Pipeline Step 
3. In section 5.1 of the official documentation it says to add Short Description. I didn't see that field.
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Have fun with the Sitecore Data Exchange. If you are doing cool things with Sitecore Data Exchange let me know and I will check it out. Also if you run into issues with Sitecore Data Exchange let me know too and I will help as much as I can.