Windows Server 2008 and Web Client Service Issues

If you are working with Windows Server 2008 and trying to install Sitecore you may get an error related to the Web Client Service.  Either its not turned on or it may not be installed.  By Default Windows Server 2008 does not install the Desktop Package.  This article explains how to turn it on and how to install it if it is missing.

WebClient Service Issues

Before your install you may wish to check these other settings as well:

* Navigate to Administrative Tools -> Services
- Ensure World Wide Web Publishing Service is started

* Navigate to Administrative Tools -> Server Manager -> Roles
- Select Add Role Services
- Select IIS 6 Compatability, Select IIS 6 Management Console
- Install if not already installed

* Navigate to Administrative Tools -> Server Manager -> Features
- Add a feature
- Select Desktop experience
- Install if not already installed
- Install the .net framework 3.5.1 if that is not installed too.

* Navigate to Administrative Tools -> IIS Manager
- Ensure Web server is started

If you have any tips, tricks or resources you want to share with the Guild please email them to sitecoreguild@outlook.com and we will add them to the blog.

Sitecore and Language In the Url For SEO

Out of the Box Sitecore is set so the urls only show language if needed.  This means that English and French urls appear the same and its a cookie that determine the current language.  This article describes the Sitecore Link Manager settings necessary to have Sitecore place the language in the url.

Dynamically Insert Language ISO Code in Sitecore Url

Hope you find this article helpful.  If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the Guild please email them to sitecoreguild@outlook.com

Setting up the Rich Text Editor for easier content entry

There are a few small changes you can make that will make a huge difference to content editor.

1) If you are entering multilingual content then you may want to populate the symbols section with the accented chracters to help the user add those characters especially if they don't have a french keyboard.

Check out Pamela Fanstill's article for details

2) The other change to make is to supply the user with the more advanced menu for the rich text editor.  This will allow them to indent, change font etc.

Check out this article on Customizing the Sitecore Rich Text Field Editor

If you have any more tips you would like to share please email Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Sitecore Package Designer error: System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types

When trying to use Package Designer, sometimes you will get a cryptic message like the one below:

System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.

If this happens, don't fret, simply follow these steps:

1) backup the bin folder of your application.
2) Install the same version of sitecore on another machine, or in another directory.
3) Copy all the dlls from the bin folder (except for the instance dll eg sitecorewebsite.dll)
4) Paste them in your folder.
5) Voila this should solve your problem.

A co-worker of mine found this solution for me.  Here is the original link:

Sitecore error in package designer installation wizard/

Hope this saves you some time on this issue.

If you are just starting out with Packages be sure to check out this article by Alex Shyba on
Things To Consider When Using Sitecore Packages

Disable Sitecore User Account on Creation

When Creating a new User in code via the CreateUserWizard or simply by calling Sitecore.Security.Account.User.Create() the user is approved by default.
To alter this behavior you will need to get the user and update the IsApproved field.

If you are simply using Sitecore.Security.Account.User.Create() then you just need to do the following:

                    // Create a new user in the system
                    newUser = User.Create(userName, password);

                    // Since we just created the user they should not be approved yet.
                    MembershipUser user = GetMembershipUserByUserName(userName);
                    user.IsApproved = false;
                    Membership.UpdateUser(user);

If you are using the wizard here is the event code.

Protected Sub CreateUserWizard1_CreatedUser(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e AsSystem.EventArgs) Handles CreateUserWizard1.CreatedUser

        ' Set Account to IsApproved=False

        Dim Usr As MembershipUser = Membership.GetUser(Me.CreateUserWizard1.UserName, True)

        Usr.IsApproved = False

        Membership.UpdateUser(Usr)

    End Sub

I got this information from a forum post about
How to send confirmation email to newly registering user via CreateUserWizard

If you found this article useful be sure to pass it on. If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the Guild please email them to sitecoreguild@outlook.com

Configuring Custom User Profiles Properly

When it comes to custom user profiles, Sitecore is very flexible but sometimes that comes at a price. The description of setting up custom user profiles is straight forward in the documentation and as long as you only wish to access the properties in code it works great, however if you wish to access the properties from the database level you will need to add a few extra entries to the web.config.

STEP 1: Set up the Custom User Profile as documented in the Sitecore Security API Cookbook available on the Sitecore Developer Network

STEP 2: Make note of the custom properties you created and open the web.config. Search for "SC_UserData" Add items similar to this item below the existing SC_UserData item. Change the data type and field name to match the fields you added.

STEP 3: Read the following article to see how to get the aspnet profile properties from SQL Server

STEP 4: Create your user in the admin once created edit the user and click change to set your custom profile. Add data to the fields and check if its appearing for in SQL

STEP 5: When you create a user in code you will have to add the custom profile to them. as documented in the Sitecore Security API Cookbook available on the Sitecore Developer Network

If you found this article useful be sure to pass it on. If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the Guild please email them to sitecoreguild@outlook.com

Page Editor not working with Multiple Sites Configured

For those configuring multiple sites in one Sitecore instance. Here is a tip to save you hours of pain. Make sure your websites are listed below the out-of-box Sitecore site entries not above.

If you reverse the order then the page editor will throw an error complaining that Sitecore.UiUtil.GetHomeItem() cannot find the object when logging into sitecore from your domain. Eg. www.test.com/sitecore/login will not work properly but localhost/sitecore/login works.

Turns out the handler checks the entries starting at the top and stops at the first match.

This order works:

<site name="login" virtualfolder="/sitecore/login">

<site name="testing" virtualfolder="/sitecore/testing">

<site name="admin" virtualfolder="/sitecore/admin">

<site name="service" virtualfolder="/sitecore/service">

<site name="modules_shell" virtualfolder="/sitecore modules/shell">

<site name="modules_website" virtualfolder="/sitecore modules/web">

<site name="site1" hostname="sitecore.site1.com" virtualfolder="/">

<site name="site2" hostname="sitecore.site2.com" virtualfolder="/">

This order fails:

<site name="site1" hostname="sitecore.site1.com" virtualfolder="/" br=""><site name="mica" hostname="sitecore.site2.com" virtualfolder="/" br=""><site name="shell" virtualfolder="/sitecore/shell" br=""><site name="login" virtualfolder="/sitecore/login" br=""><site name="admin" virtualfolder="/sitecore/admin" br=""><site name="service" virtualfolder="/sitecore/service" br=""><site name="modules_shell" virtualfolder="/sitecore modules/shell" br=""><site name="modules_website" virtualfolder="/sitecore modules/web" br="">

Hope this saves you some time and/or frustrations. If you have any tips, tricks or resources you would like to share with the guild please email them to sitecoreguild@outlook.com