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.

Calling all Sitecore Experts. We Want Your Blog Url

December is Sitecore Month at Read Watch Create. We preparing to start the New Year by helping as many people as we can find the information they need to further their Sitecore Learning Journey.  

As a blog author you have written many articles on various Sitecore Topics.  By supplying us your url and the RSS or ATOM feed, you will ensure that people looking for help or information are finding the blog articles you are writing.

Please email your blog url and RSS/Atom Feed url to chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com and we will ensure it gets added to our list.

Why is my site redirecting to RedirectSession.ashx

Problem: I was working on a website using the standard azure url. Then to do proper testing for production we changed the host header to www.mysite.com but when we did that we noticed it was doing a 302 redirect to the azureurl/sitecore/service/analytics/session/RedirectSession.ashx

Solution:  There is a configuration key in the Sitecore.Analytics.Tracker.config. This tells sitecore the host name used for analytics. By changing this setting so the value matches your hostname it will not need to redirect anymore.

<setting name="Analytics.HostName" value="www.mysite.com" />

Thanks Akshay Sura for your assistance. I appreciate it.

If you have any tips, tricks or resources to share with the guild please email them to me at chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com

Why is my site redirecting to RedirectSession.ashx

Problem: I was working on a website using the standard azure url. Then to do proper testing for production we changed the host header to www.mysite.com but when we did that we noticed it was doing a 302 redirect to the azureurl/sitecore/service/analytics/session/RedirectSession.ashx

Solution:  There is a configuration key in the Sitecore.Analytics.Tracker.config. This tells sitecore the host name used for analytics. By changing this setting so the value matches your hostname it will not need to redirect anymore.

<setting name="Analytics.HostName" value="www.mysite.com" />

Thanks Askshay for your assistance. I appreciate it.

If you have any tips, tricks or resources to share with the guild please email them to me at chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com

Start The Ignition ... Sitecore Ignition

It is officially out there in beta and I have been dying to talk about it.  My goal for many years has been to reduce the number of rescue projects and strengthen the community through mentoring on best practices and the best tools to get started right.  I have been working on a whitepaper (coming soon) that will assist you in picking the best accelerator for your needs.

At SUGCON last year, I spoke to may regarding the whitepaper and the mysterious 4th accelerator. It haunted me like the 10th insight in the Celestine Prophesy did.  I had to find it.  Eventually I found it and I was so impressed, I became a part of it.

Ignition is the spark that empowers you to own the Sitecore experience. In the Beginning Sitecore was released and it was good.  Then ORMs like Glass Mapper were released and it was better.  Now we are at the dawn of a new era ... Sitecore Ignition.

I am very excited about the release of Ignition. With the growing number of rescue projects, this framework fills a much needed role of helping people new to Sitecore or people starting new projects to get started right.

Start the Ignition!!!

Exception loading Sitecore LaunchPad after running Removing Broken Links on Core Database

If you run the Removing Broken Links tool on the Core Database you will get this error:

The model item passed into the dictionary is of type 'Sitecore.Mvc.Presentation.RenderingModel', but this dictionary requires a model item of type 'Sitecore.ExperienceAnalytics.Client.Mvc.Presentation.ExperienceAnalyticsLineChartViewModel'

If you do @sitecorey wrote an awesome article on how to fix it.
Sitecore Launchpad exception after removing brokenlinks

Thanks Corey Smith

Perficient, Beachbody and Read Watch Create

You have probably noticed a lot of changes since January 1 so I thought I would explain them to you so you can share in my amazing first quarter of 2016.

Read Watch Create started back in June of 2015 as a vision of building a mentoring community.  Although the website front end is very basic and has grown little, the community has grown both on Social Media, email and offline.  As the New Year approached, the underlying algorithm has grown in complexity and I am currently using it myself separate from the website to help people find articles, videos and people to mentor or implement for them.

With a fresh new year, we expanded our mentoring community to include health and fitness as our CEO became a Beachbody Coach.  I started my fitness journey under her guidance and am now down 9 lbs.  On March 1, I became a Beachbody Coach myself.  We are staring an Accountability Group on May 2. If you are interested send us an email at chris.williams@readwatchcreate.com or rebecca.clinch@readwatchcreate.com to join.

Now that April is here, I have started a new full time position at Perficient on the Sitecore Team, mentoring internally while also building out Read Watch Create and its algorithm outside core hours.  I have been very blessed this year as everything is falling into place.

I am very excited about the opportunity at Perficient.  There are a lot of strong and talented individuals, all willing to help each other.  All with their specific strengths that they share.  One of my colleagues just wrote the Coveo Certification Exam and got the highest score to date.

If you are working with Sitecore you need to check out the Perficient Sitecore blog posts.  They are informative and will save you a lot of time.