Hi All,
For those who plan to upgrade your Sitecore version to 8.2 here is a wonderful video and good blog post about best practices on how to do that .
Category: Sitecore
First of all I would like to describe the main problem here which is creating Web API and MVC routes which will handle the corresponding requests correctly.
From technology point Web API is designed on much more on Lower level then MVC, to be clear it is not better or worse but they are used for different things, however MVC is build on top of the Web Api.
But as the MVC comes on top of the Web API routes that are different first go through the MVC Routes and if they cannot be found then go deeper in the Web Api routes.
Imagine if you have two routes with same names /GetMyList in MVC and /GetMyList in Web API, there is a big chance that the route handler will be confused.
In Sitecore regular instance you can just define the route with RouteTable.Routes.MapRoute() or RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute() and because there is no other api routes they will work, however in habitat you need to be more careful which function do you use in order create route.
This is because habitat already comes with the a lot of different pipeline processors which are pre-configured and this can be a problem when mapping new routes especially if you don’t know or don’t consider the already mapped routes from habitat.
Best practice in habitat would be to separate the web api routes from MVC routes and also always use the MapHttpRoute for Web API and MapRoute For MVC.
Keep in mind that one other good practice is to always separate Web API and MVC routes in separate folder and also the names of the routes should bed different. Please see the attached picture.
One thing I forgot to mention which is really important is that in habitat for every project have you maps the Web Api or MVC routes in the RegisterWebApiRoutes.CS in the pipeline folder of that project, and normally add the “pipeline”(RegisterWebApiRoutes.cs) to the pipeline processor in app_config/include/feature/nameOftheProject.Config in order to be properly executed and register the proper routes.
I hope that you will find this post useful and it will give you boost up if you stuck with Web Api and MVC Routes in Habitat project.
Hi as I mentioned in the introduction to Habitat post I would like to note some things on installing Habitat basically what do you need to take care and know before starting.
First of all and most easiest one is downloading the habitat solution from GitHub and you can do at least in two ways.
- If you know how to use Git then it is better just to download the repository from https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat and Put it in the C:\projects\Habitat\ ( you can change this paths but you will need to adjust the paths in the Gulp Configuration.
- Download the code from GitHub through the Clone or download button and extract it on the mentioned folder C:\projects\Habitat\ ( this seems straight forward but it is a little bit tricky)
The problem is that when you download the Habitat-master.zip you need to unblock it before extracting it to the directory, since this file is downloaded from internet if you skip this step you will have 10000 files that you need to go one by one and click properties and unblock them. However the solution for this is just to unblock the zip archive before extracting it as you can see on the picture. 
All you have to do now is to follow the steps from the https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/wiki/01-Getting-Started ( I have copied from here ) but please check my notes :
To install:
- Clone this repository to your local file system. { We have covered this already }
- (optional) Configure your settings if you are using settings other than the defaults:
- The default settings for Habitat are
- URL: http://habitat.dev.local/
- Location: C:\Websites\Habitat.dev.local\
{ It is easier if you don’t use the C:\ Driver especialy on versions later then windows 7. C drive has a lot of protection and you will need to change permissions to a lot of files }
I have used as Location : E:\wwwroot\alexU1\Website and I left the URL to be same
Here is Picture from IIS and Explorer on how it looks like
- To change the standard location of the source files, website files and website URL, modify the following files:
- Please be aware to include or omit trailing slashes – as per the default
- /Solution Items/src/Project/Habitat/code/App_Config/Include/Project/z.Habitat.DevSettings.config
- /Solution Items/gulp-config.js
- /Solution Items/publishsettings.targets
- The default settings for Habitat are
- Set up a clean Sitecore install with the settings from the previous step { It must be a clean install please check all the requirements before starting the process https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/wiki/02-Resources}
- We recommend using Sitecore Instance Manager for the install. { I have used the normal .exe install however SIM is much more better for installing and creating backups}
- Please note that the Sitecore executable installer does not support periods in the domain name and therefore if you are installing using this, please change the default domain (see step 2){ I changed the IIS bindings and site name manually }
- Habitat requires:
- Sitecore Experience Platform 8.2 Update 1 in Experience Platform or Experience Management mode
- Webforms for Marketers 8.2 Update 1 module. It should be installed prior to running Sync Unicorn gulp task. Also you may need to have running mongo instance when installing WFFM module, otherwise it may lead to never ending installation dialogue window.
- {Make sure that you have mongo runing while you are installing sitecore, it will not install without it – Webforms for Marketers 8.2 Update 1 this is a must, ig somehow the taks (05-Sync-Unicorn runs a complete synchronization of Unicorn for all projects in the right order ) is failing probably it is missing the webforms or it have problems with permsions or read – only files }
- Restore Node.js modules
- Make sure you have version 4+ of node.js Download here
- In an elevated command window run ‘npm install’ in the root of repository.
- Build and publish the solution
- Open an command window with elevated privileges and run ‘gulp’ in the root of repository.
- Alternatively:
- Open Visual Studio 2015 in Administrator Mode
- Open the Visual Studio 2015 Task Runner Explorer pane (View | Other Windows | Task Runner Explorer).
- Switch to “Solution ‘Habitat'”
- Run the “default” task
That should be it, everything else should be as it is described on the Getting Started
Please keep in mind the following things and settings :
1. Unblock, Make Sure permissions are set correctly
2. Get all dependencies and requirements
3. Make sure that everything you run is as Administrator
3. Make sure that you have set proper paths to the Gulp Configs
Source location: C:\projects\Habitat\
Website location: C:\websites\Habitat.dev.local\
Website URL: http://habitat.dev.local/
To change the standard location of the source files, website files and website URL, modify the following files:
- Please be aware to include or omit trailing slashes – as per the default
- /Solution Items/src/Project/Habitat/code/App_Config/Include/Project/z.Habitat.DevSettings.config
- /Solution Items/gulp-config.js
- /Solution Items/publishsettings.targetsHere are the 2 picture where everything is stored on my machine and may Gulp config files
gulp-config.js
Publishing targets
z.Habitat.DevSettings.config
I hope that this will help you
Categories
What is Sitecore
Sitecore is a customer experience management company that provides web content management and multi-channel marketing automation software.
Based on the .Net framework Sitecore platform is one of the most widely used enterprise content management solution.
I have found one very good article that explains the core values of the Sitecore platform, here are some links and quotes about Sitecore :
Sitecore is an ASP.Net-based WCM web application technology which houses everything your marketing team needs to store, manage, analyze, and update your website content in a single unified solution. After the initial development of your website using ASP.NET MVC the management ownership is placed in the hands of your marketing team instead of IT to create content, forms, and articles and measure the value of the content throughout its life cycle.
There are many notable WCM Features in Sitecore which we’ll dive into deeper on future articles:
- Dynamic Personalization and Experience Editing
- Mobile Device Experience Optimization
- Social Media Engagement and Integration
- Regionalization and Localization
- E-Commerce Services
- Easy browser-based content authoring and editing
A unified platform and strategy is needed by nearly every business to find, funnel, and convert prospects into life-long customers. Sitecore provides the tool set your marketing team needs to efficiently engage customers no matter the channel. We have only looked at a few features of Sitecore so far, but we will cover the many other capabilities like the Digital Marketing System (DMS), email campaign management, CRM integration, and more in future articles.
Full text Here
Additional links :
https://kb.sitecore.net/