Functionality Guide

The Sitecore Community is very active when it comes to creating or integrating tools, modules, articles and applications with Sitecore.  With so much activity in various places, it is often difficult and time consuming trying to find all the possible solutions for a given piece of functionality.

We have created this Functionality Guide to help you find the right information to help you add functionality to your Sitecore Instance.

There are a lot of modules out there so it will take time to go through them all.  If you have a module or application that should be added here email me at chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com with a brief description, link to module/app and suggest a category and we will add it here.

Accelerator

BrainJocks - This accelerator focuses on the needs of marketing, filling the gaps on the Experience Platform in page editor. They make it easy to share across sites, brands and campaigns.

Keystone - This accelerator focuses on the needs of developers, making it easier for developers to build complex solutions without performing all those repetitive development tasks.

Zen Garden - This accelerator focuses on the needs of Digitial Marketing Agencies that need to quickly generate wireframes, get CSS and HTML applied to them then get them back in Sitecore with minimal rework.

Roll Your Own - This is a much heavier lift but if you are rolling a smaller project and do not have budget for an accelerator this is an option. TechGuilds understands and has created a few modules to help you get started. MVPs and other companies understand too and have created a variety of free modules to get you started.

Ajax

• AJAX Control Toolkit QuickStart

Analytics

• xDB Ingestion Manager: This module allows you to manage analytics from external sources.
  Here is a good introduction to the xDB Ingestion Manager Module.

Blogs

• Weblog: This blog module was developed by Nick Wesselman.
  Known Issues with Sitecore 7.5+
• There is a newer version that will work with Sitecore 7.5+ and supports the Sitecore Search Provider rather than Lucene.  If you would like a copy email us.  It is in the process of being pushed to GitHub.

Administrator Content Tree Miracle Tools

• Bulk Template Change: This tool is invaluable.  You select a node in the content tree.  You click bulk template change and it helps you change all items below the node with that template to the new template.  It even lets you map fields.
• Undo Edit: This tool allows you to remove a version you created of an item.
• Sitecore Content Usage Tool: This tool allows you to find all the places your content is used even in data sources.

CSS and JavaScript Bundling

• Cassette:
  Known Issues with Sitecore: 
• Cassette Bundles not Loading in Sitecore -> Publish -> Preview

Content Migration

• Siteport: This tool will automate content migration.
• Kapow: does similar in realtime
• Sitecore Migration QuickStart: This quickstart provides a few tools to help you bulk upload media items and fix internal links and img src links.
• Manually import content

Crm Integrations

• Salesforce Connect: This connector provides integration between Salesforce and Sitecore.

Diagnostics

• Sitecore Log Analyzer: Used to review the log for warnings, errors and long running tasks.

E-Commerce

• ActiveCommerce: The key advantage of ActiveCommerce is that it is native to Sitecore so developers and users familiar with Sitecore can use it without additional learning curve.
  
  Known Compatibility Issue: When working with ActiveCommerce and Coveo in the same environment there are some additional considerations. When discussing with ActiveCommerce be sure to mention you are using Coveo and they can supply the additional Coveo Plug-In that will help with some common issues.
  
  Check out our ActiveCommerceGuild blog.
  
  If you require mentoring or assistance with an issue on ActiveCommerce, email us at chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com
• InSites: The key advantage is that it exists outside Sitecore so you can integrate it easily with other CMS or other systems outside Sitecore. This blessing can also be a curse as you would require additional learning on top of Sitecore.
• UCommerce: One of the key advantages of UCommerce is that it works with both Sitecore and Umbraco so if you have a client that is migrationg from Umbraco to Sitecore or vice versa, you can implement UCommerce while still on the one platform and then when you are completed migration, you already have the same plumbing set up.
• Commerce Server
• Other E-Commerce Providers eg. Magenta

File Import/Export

• CSVHelper: This module helps read and write CSV files.

Google Maps

• Google Maps:  The Sitecore Maps module is an integration of the Google Maps API with Sitecore. With this module installed it is easy to add a Sitecore Map to any content item within your site and add locations, lines or polygons for points of interest.
• Google Map Location Picker: Sitecore custom field to pick latitude and longitude point using Google Map API. 

jQuery Content Slider

• jQuery.Cycle

Mail/SMTP

NOTE: Developers, if you do not have access to an SMTP Server then you can configure SMTP E-Mail on IIS.  Sometimes this is referred to as Relay Mail.

MongoDB and Tools

As Sitecore Analytics now uses MongoDB for collection you will need to Install MongoDB and use some tools to view and manage the database.  Here are some useful links:

• MongoDB: The link to the install is very important.
• MongoVue: This is a good tool to query your Mongo Database.
• Robomongo: This is another option to query your Mongo Database. 

SEE ALSO: MongoDB Tools

Redirects

There are different types of Redirects that are used for different purposes.  During migration to a new site the URLs will change and for high ranking pages you will want to keep the ranking.  This is where 301 Redirects come into play.  You can either roll your own handler or there is a 301 Redirect module in the Sitecore Marketplace that may meet your needs.

Sometimes decisions are made and you need to redirect site urls to external resources.  It is best to Redirect URL using IIS to reduce latency on the redirect.

Alternatively, for 404 you can use the Not Found Item Module.

Search

• Lucene: Lucene comes free and is already installed with Sitecore out of the box. However to add it to your website requires custom development even for simple search.
• Coveo: Coveo is an fully functional enterprise search solution but also provides a free version that works with Sitecore. Faceted Search can be implemented with little or no code. Through a support contract you can gain additional functionality and support. You can also opt for enterprise version provides additional search connectors to enhance the search experience.
  
  Known Compatibility Issues: Weblog is currently tightly bound to Lucene rather than using the search provider. We have created a version that works with Sitecore 7.5+. Although more testing is required before promoting to GitHub if you require Weblog for Sitecore 7.5 let us know and we can provide our changes. We hope to promote to GitHub in the near future.
  
  Coveo has both an enterprise and free edition. Check out our CoveoGuild blog.
  
  If you require mentoring or assistance with an issue on Coveo, email us at chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com

Security

• Sitecore Bulk Role Permissions : Securing the content tree can be a lot of work especially if you have a lot of content.  This tool allows you to bulk apply security to items based on their template.  Although this will not apply all the security for you it will help with some of it..

Source Control/Deployment

Currently there are two options for source control for the Sitecore Content Tree:

• Hedgehog TDS :  This is a full integration with Visual Studio and TFS allowing you to check in and out items an deploy them to your local instance and generate packages to deploy to servers.
• Razl: This product allows you to do compares between environments, helping you keep dev, stage and prod environments in sync.  This is important if it is possible that clients are making changes in the same areas of the content tree where developers are working.  Prior to builds you can compare the database to make sure changes are migrated back to dev and stage prior to pushing a build.
• Jenkins: Although I have not used this myself I have heard good things regarding this process.
• Serialization: You can turn serialization on in the content tree then every change will be written to a folder.  You can then push these changes manually to TFS for version control. This is the economical way of doing it but is not very robust and could be error prone.