Kentico Web Content Management Software version 7 Features

The Kentico CMS for ASP.NET empowers marketers and developers and gives them the opportunity to create websites without limits. It's the ultimate solution for any business owner with a website who also wants a website, store, community, oronline marketing initiatives.

The Kentico CMS includes the most important features that businesses need for an online presence: content management, ecommerce solutions, social networking integration, newsletter management, web analytics, improved SEO applications, and many more.  Recently, Kentico announced its plans to push the Final Kentico version 7 release date back from June to September, 2012.

“We really care about the quality of our product and feel that if we released version 7 at the end of June as planned, its quality wouldn't meet our standards. That is why we gave its release plan a second thought, went through all possible scenarios, considered all the long-term feedback from our clients, and decided to rearrange the release plan for version 7 to maximize product value in the short-term and in the future.” –Martin Hejtmanek, CTO of Kentico

Currently, developers can access the Kentico CMS 7 Release Candidate which was released at the end of June. The new Kentico version includes updated features such as marketing automation, better mobile support, advanced workflow and translation management.
New Kentico v7 features will include:

• Content management
  • Modules-There will be several new content management modules to help create wireframes, manage advanced workflow, create device profiles and layouts, and also to help manage Javascript. One of the most exciting services is the translation service which will allow integration with both automated (Google, Bing) and manual (Translations.com, e-mail) translation providers. There will also be an on-site editing feature added so content editors can edit documents directly on the live site.
  • SEO – There will be better support for implementing best practices for SEO.
  • Portal Engine- The new changes include a portal engine with the ability to choose whether a page template is used for all culture versions of a document or whether specific cultures use their own page templates.
  • Widgets – The design of the widgets can be changed by layout code.
  • Workflow - E-mail templates can be specified for each type of notification e-mail.
  • Smart search – There is now greater support for document categories (faceted search), and the filter web part has new text box type.
  • Reporting – Users now have the ability to receive reports periodically via e-mail.
• Online Marketing                
  • Newsletters – Kentico v7 now supports A/B testing in newsletter issues. The new version also includes a UI redesign, better layout, and better attachments management.
  • Web analytics – Now includes new statistics for mobile devices.
  • Salesforce.com Connector – Allows you to replicate contacts that match certain criteria to your Sales Cloud (or another cloud application from Salesforce.com) organization's leads.
• E-commerce
  • E-commerce –Includes new product management UI, support for multi-lingual products, support for products under workflow, 30+ E-commerce reports, new E-commerce sample site, invoice numbers generated based on macro expressions, and new product fields and new fields for uploading images to shipping options, payment methods, suppliers, and manufacturers. The version also includes support for displaying the total number of items and their total price in the shopping cart preview.
• Social networking
  • New module: The new Community chat allows on-line users to chat with each other.
  • Avatars – The new version offers Gravatars support.
  • Web parts – Set of new webparts for Social networks (Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter).
  • Form controls – Allows users to post to Facebook and automatically send notifications for a new document to the selected Facebook or Twitter account.
• Cloud
  • Windows Azure – Provides an alternative way to install and deploy Kentico EMS/CMS into Windows Azure cloud via KIM. The version also includes support for Kentico EMS Windows services (Scheduler, Health monitoring).
  • Amazon Web Services – Kentico is an Amazon S3 IO provider which allows you to store files in S3.
• Core & Development
  • MVC – Kenticonow includes MVC3 support with .NET 4.0 installation. The new version also includes CMS support for MVC page template types and improved routing.
  • AjaxControlToolkit - Updated to revision 51116.
  • jQuery - Updated to version 1.7.2.
• Many more added features and updates.

Kenticoofficials have said that CMS 7 is extending their idea of offering tools as true SaaS.

“Kentico CMS 7 continues to empower our worldwide customers…in the execution of their online marketing…Especially when combined with our recently-announced Kentico+ software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, Kentico CMS… [is] for any customer who requires an integrated Customer Experience Management solution,” says PetrPalas, CEO and founder of Kentico Software

To get more detailed information about Kentico v7 CMS features, or if you’d like to learn more about Kentico’s CMS technology, contact sales@ariesnet.com.

The Ektron CMS simplifies the creation, management, and delivery of digital experiences for global organizations looking to drive revenue and improve customer service. Ektron helps companies deliver customer experiences to their audiences through digital channels by utilizing content to engage consumers.

Ektron’s most recent software update addresses issues that developers face when designing a website. Ektron 8.5 houses new features such as Search, Localization, 3-Tier Architecture, and a new Framework API that makes developers more efficient and productive – resulting in faster time-to-market websites.

“We believe 8.5 is the most important update we've released - glad you've noticed that we really focused on improving the developer experience. If you haven't seen our developer interview series, you should take a look!” – NimbleUser Interview with Tom Wentworth, Ektron CMO

New Ektron features include:

• New Workarea: Ektron developers have re-designed their Workarea interface for a contemporary, intuitive user experience.
• Expanded developer API:  The Ektron Framework API has been improved in order to maintain developer productivity.  Through a highly consistent and discoverable set of functions and methods, and with the combined support from Microsoft LINQ, developers are now able to design websites in a fraction of the time, using less code than needed in previous versions
•  3-tier architecture: Ektron is the first .NET web content management vendor to deliver a 3-tier architecture for enterprises.  In a 3-tier configuration, the user interface, storage, and data access are developed and maintained in separate platforms. This means executives and IT architects looking for maximum scalability, reliability, and security can now deploy Ektron in a manner consistent with enterprise level software implementations.  
• .NET 4.0 support:  Ektron 8.5 supports .NET 4.0, including support for Microsoft® Visual Studio® Web Application projects. 
• Enhanced search capabilities: Now based on the Microsoft Search Server, also known as FAST Search, Ektron search brings new features including faceted navigation, federated search, automated query suggestions, search analytics reports, and more. Ektron Site Search for enterprises is capable of mounting tens of millions of items and beyond, including all types of web content, documents, and rich media content.
• eSync enhancements:  Ektron’s unique synchronization technology now includes a diagnostic utility to generate a real-time map of an eSync network, providing real time visibility into a server topology.

For more information about some of Ektron’s exciting new features see the following videos:

• Ektron’s Chief Evangelist, Bill Cava, discussing the new features of Ektron 8.5.
• A Video of Adam Morgan, ISV Business Development Manager for the Americas for Microsoft discussing Microsoft FAST Search.

If you’d like to learn more about Ektron’s CMS technology, contact sales@ariesnet.com for more information. You can alsorequest a live Ektron demo to see the power of the Ektron CMS.

The Sitecore CMS delivers unparalleled ease of use and total flexibility to enterprises and leading world organizations. With enterprise level capabilities, Sitecore version 6.6.0 (still in technical preview) allows users to quickly create engaging sites with a next-generation interface lauded by marketers, developers, and editors for its ease of use. 

Sitecore’s most recent software update resolves issues with the dashboard, analytics reports, and the dictionary and also adds new features like the page preview service and the device simulator.

You can visit the appropriateSitecore CMS 6 downloads pagefor instructions on how to download the new version.
Highlights of Sitecore 6.6.0

• Device Simulator- In Preview mode, it is now possible to preview a page as it will look when viewed with different devices (mobile phones, tablet, TV, etc.).  The simulator system can provide previews out-of-the-box for a number of devices: iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, Large Android Phone, Android Tablet, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Feature Phone, and HD TV. Each simulator uses configuration parameters and sub-items known as "traits” to mimic the capabilities of the device. The simulator uses these settings to render a preview of your site.
• Page Preview service - Page Preview uses a prepaid service that renders screenshots of how a given page will look in different browsers on different devices/operating systems. The resource identified by the URL must be accessible from the internet, and the page must be published before the service can render a screenshot. Customers can use the Sitecore App Center to purchase this service.
• Native MVC Support - Sitecore Native MVC support allows ASP.NET MVC to be used as a first-class rendering engine in Sitecore. The MVC support in Sitecore provides a powerful, flexible, and extendable API for controlling the rendering process. New rendering types and standard fields have been added to support MVC controllers, views and models from within the CMS system. For instructions on how to install, enable and use MVC with Sitecore 6.6.0, please refer to the Sitecore MVC Developer's Reference Guide.
• Page Editor Improvements- In the Page Editor, the default access to the "Edit the placeholder settings" button has been restricted to members of the Sitecore Client Developing role. A new "Can Select Placeholder Settings" policy item in the core database controls the ability to assign an existing placeholder setting item from a list. The following buttons have been added to the Page Editor ribbon:
  • An "Add a new component" button is now available in the quick actions bar next to the Save button for easily inserting components with any tab selected.
  • A "Delete Page" button is now available on the Home tab.
  • A "Move Page" button is now available on the Home tab.

• Lucene Search- Sitecore is now using Lucene.NET 2.9.4

• Support for SQL Server Database Mirroring - To support hot failover for database calls in a SQL Server Database mirroring setup, Sitecore now supports retrying database calls one or more times if they fail to connect to the database. This feature can also be useful in other setups. To setup Microsoft SQL Server Database Mirroring please refer to MSDN.
• Ability to Restore Individual Versions from the Archive and Recycle Bin - In addition to archiving entire items, it is now possible to specify an archive date for each version of an item.  When deleting a version from an item using the Content Editor, the version will now be moved to the Recycle Bin instead of being permanently deleted.  Deleting versions with the API continues to delete the version permanently, unless you explicitly recycle the versions.
• Dictionary Enhancements - Support for dictionary domains makes the dictionary functionality in Sitecore much more flexible and powerful. Dictionary domains allow customers and module developers to define as many separate dictionaries in a solution as they wish. Dictionary domain folders can be created anywhere in the content tree and in any database, making it possible to configure the location of the dictionary which is useful for modules and in multisite solutions.
• Telligent Community Integration-Sitecore based website owners can now build social platforms on their sites via the Telligent Community. This community integration allows Sitecore users to condense more marketing, social, and customer service features in one place. Telligent Connect adds new tools to Sitecore websites that allow for smoother interactions with customers.

If you’d like to learn more about Sitecore’s CMS technology and get detailed information about Sitecore 6.6.0 features, contact sales@ariesnet.com.

• Builds large sitemaps - no page limits, no data volume limits.
• Include Ektron Aliased URLs for proper, clean, search friendly indexing.
• Lightweight, with no installation required.
• Supports Ektron v8.0 and above.
• Ability to filter pages or content you don’t want to include.
• Automatically update your sitemap using Windows scheduled tasks.
• Fully supports Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.
• Compatible with Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Vista/7.
• Validates to strict Google XML standards.
• Easy to add URL licenses.
• Easy to update.

• Ektron v8.0 and above
• 1 MB HD Space
• 20 MB of RAM
• Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Vista/7
• Processor Pentium 4 or higher

Large organizations with multiple locations have the challenge of representing a corporate presence and field presence. Local markets require their own geographic targeting, for Google certainly, but also for the various local stakeholders who look to experience the local office, branch or store differently from the corporate site.

Healthcare organizations have a corporate-, local-, and physician-level web presence. Likewise, political parties have a national-, state-, precinct- and candidate-level web presence.

Web content management systems (CMS)must operate on all levels; ideally, tying all the parts together.

So we like to "think globally, act locally" with web CMS systems Ektron, Kentico, and Sitecore. Each approaches the problem differently. Organizations building and managing numbers of websites, intranets and extranets in their desire to reach their target market segments as cleanly and clearly as possible, need an integrated strategy.

Business Problem – Many Websites, Shared Data and Management

"My organization runs a business that needs more than one website and I want to manage the content and files on all of my websites centrally through one interface that can share content across all of the sites, intranets, blogs, and forums in an intuitive, fast and easy way."

Solution:

Ektron CMS400.NET offers a complete toolset to truly support a scalable multi-site environment. Businesses and organizations that use URL aliasing can take advantage of this advanced SEO tool to direct traffic to all of their sites, and eSync makes it possible for all of the websites to be up-to-date with each other and any new functionality or content.

Kentico CMS allows you to manage multiple web sites from a single installation. It's useful if you need to run several sites managed by the same group of users and if you need to share content over these websites. The multi-site support is also useful if you want to save money for hosting smaller websites - you can run several independent web sites, with different designs, on a single hosting plan with single website code and single database.

Sitecore CMS created the Foundry add-on module to manage its multi-site environment. It’s simple to use from all levels, from parent company down to local office. It’s wizard driven and makes the job easy, whether you are deploying to 100 sites or 100,000.

What Ektron got right

Ektron CMS400.NET’s multi-site support feature lets you set up and manage several websites under one CMS. For example: www.example.com; mobile.example.com; intranet.example.com. All sites share a single database and can share common content. But each site can also contain its own library of templates, images and files. These files can be stored once, yet authors can insert them into content from any site. Ektron CMS400.NET has an amazing new administration area so the multi-sites feature is easy to set up and manage.

What Kentico got right

You can specify which users are entitled to edit which web sites, so you do not need to manage user accounts separately for each website and the user can sign in with the same user name and password to edit any web site. All sites can also share content and library items without uploading information again. Kentico CMS gives us the ability to set up multi-sites in an easy way from the admin area. It also does it natively and was designed to operate in a multi-site environment out of the box. No special add-on modules are needed.

What Sitecore got right

The Foundry module makes it a breeze to deploy multi-sites. It is wizard-driven and defaults can be set at the top level, with options for overrides, at the lower-level sites. Things like colors, styles, etc. all can be set as options that the lower-level sites can choose to manage. You can give as much or as little control as your project requires. The best part is, it is all built into the familiar Sitecore Content Editor IDE.

Imagine, for example, you run a franchise for McDougal's (fans of the movie "Coming to America" will relate … ). You set your base colors, font styles, base site structure, base content at the corporate level. Then design a few variations so the local branches can define their own customized/localized identity within the Corporate guidelines. The content editors at the local branches can then tweak their content from within the established parameters and always be reassured they are in compliance with the Corporate Brand.

Sitecore also bundles some extra goodies into the Foundry product such as Forums, Calendars, Blogs, etc. to add even more value.

Overall, Foundry is a considerable improvement over the multi-site support from the past, requiring extensive technical support and expert set up.

Conclusion

With a new targeted approach to marketing comes the need to manage web content on multiple websites across an organization. Website owners are currently restricted by technology, administering each website and/or intranet on their own in isolation. There has been no affordable system that allows for multi-site management of content across all websites, intranets and extranets owned by a company even on most CMS systems, until only recently.

Ektron CMS400.NET, Kentico CMS or Sitecore CMS offer multiple-site integrated data management. When matched with customized database applications by Ariesnet, one of these powerful platforms is sure to be solution for your organization’s needs. Contact Ariesnet at 214-932-3900 x 1 or via our online form for more details.

The Ektron CMS400.NET v8 platform is easy to use from a content provider perspective and it offers flexibility and scalability from the developer’s perspective. The flexibility allows users to build and customize functionality that is essential.

Smart Forms

Ektron Smart Forms are a powerful tool that allows users to enter structured content into their CMS400 implementations. Smart Forms can minimize the number of templates to manage in order to layout structured content elements. The Smart Forms are content entry forms that allow information to be entered in a structured format and stored in the CMS as XML data.

The way the CMS stores the XML Data has benefits like a standardized format for capturing content, superior control over content display and improved search capabilities. The XML structure is very simple and easy to understand. This way developers can read it and create an XSLT file in order to display the returned XML data, or if they want, use any other way to display the data (see image below).
With Smart Forms you can manage Rich Internet Applications built by developers in Adobe Flex or Microsoft Silverlight.

Ektron v8 has a performance improvement over previous versions of Smart Forms. They are faster to load when you are trying to add or edit content that is assigned to a Smart Form. The web editor has also been improved - with more advanced features on validation, load default data, etc. We also noticed that Ektron v8 brings a new feature that allows us to select the XML format in which we want to store the data (see image below).

The dialog lets you generate XML micro formats made up of standard XHTML tags and attributes that contain a specific structure and values. The types are described below.

In previous versions there was a fixed limit of 200 items when pulling data through a List Summary. In order to solve the problem you had to use SQL Queries directly to the database to return what you wanted, for example: SELECT * FROM content_tbl WHERE (folder_tbl_id = 1) ORDER BY custom_field Now with Ektron v8, the List Summary control allows you to define the number of items you want returned. And the performance is now even faster than before.

Conclusion

From a developer’s perspective it’s time for you to do an upgrade. Ektron v8 will bring to you a new powerful way to work with Smart Forms; you can select XML format in which you want to store the data in the Database and then work with the returned XML data as you prefer. It will not only improve your coding time but it will also reduce custom code without having to do SQL Queries directly to the DB.

So here is the scenario. You have a central Sitecore repository and several developers that work on code separately. Periodically they want to synchronize their Master databases with the main repository where the content editors are working, in order to get the latest content and structures.

The Sitecore Developer manual teaches us that when setting up a local development environment we should create "throw away" copies of the Sitecore databases. The idea is that we use local databases to develop against, but periodically, the main site will evolve and we need to grab fresh copies of it, so the latest items, templates and layouts/sublayouts are available.

Doing so can be quite labor intensive and if you have an inexperienced team, quite onerous.

The process involves first creating a backup of the Sitecore Master database at the Staging server – where the content editors put their changes. Then zipping it up and sending a copy to the developers, or allowing them to fetch one from a file share/FTP/source control. Then each developer needs to Restore the database and reapply permissions to that database. Not complicated, for your average developer, but still quite tedious. For inexperienced team members, not used to the meanderings of SQL Server, the process can be quite daunting indeed. So in those cases, a better alternative should be sought.

SQL Server Replication

Enter SQL Server Replication. Replication solves the problem of periodic updates. It does all the work for you, so you don't have to. It works even if your developers are using SQL Server Express. You can set up a job to pull, and update as often or as little as you need.

So what kind of replication should you set up?

Let's review the available three basic types:

1. Snapshot Replication

In Snapshot Replication data changes are not tracked. Each time a snapshot is applied it completely overwrites the existing data. A snapshot is basically a copy of all the data and objects specified in the publication. Snapshots can operate in a Push or Pull mode. By their very nature, they flow from the Publisher to the Subscribers, unidirectional.

1. Transactional Replication

In Transactional Replication a snapshot is stored in the distribution folder and synchronization jobs are recorded in the Distributor. Incremental changes made at the Publisher flow to Subscribers according to a pre-defined schedule. These changes are identified by monitoring the transaction log of each database marked for replication. The Publisher will stream the changes to the Subscribers.

1. Merge Replication

In Merge Replication incremental data changes are tracked based off of an initial snapshot, much like the other two. A Merge Agent will monitor changes at both the Publisher and the Subscriber and merge the changes together on both ends. This is great for a distributed application in which field agents are entering data and later uploading it to the central system, such as sales people or onsite auditors.

In a developer environment, I would recommend that you use Snapshot Replication. You don't want developers making accidental changes to the Master database. You just want periodic updates. And regular frequency isn't so much an issue. In the beginning stages of development you may see two to three synchronizations daily, but once the application is pretty settled you might drop down to once or twice a week.

Setting up Replication

Setting up Snapshot Replication allows you to create regular images that the Developers can Pull when they want, therefore minimizing network traffic and chance of accidentally uploading unwanted changes to the main Master database. Transaction Replication would be an alternative option, if you want more regular and frequent changes – see your own specific situation – but for the most part, Snapshot Replication will work best in most scenarios, for our given purpose, which is to keep development environments updated.

Setting it up is rather trivial. Microsoft provides a nice wizard for you, to make the job easy.

Let's start with the basics. For this demonstration I've set up a default Sitecore 6.2 installation, on both my local workstation and my central server. I've tested connection to both and verified everything works on both ends.

I now need to make changes to my server version and ensure those changes are reflected on my local copy, without having to do backup/restores.

So, start at the server. (Note: I'm going to use SQL 2008 for this, but the process is similar with both SQL 2005 and 2000. In this case, I'm using my local SQL 2008 Management Studio to connect to both my SQL 2008 local installation and the server's SQL 2005 installation.)

Publication

In the SQL Management Studio locate the Sitecore databases. They are usually called Sitecore_Core, Sitecore_Master and Sitecore_Web, but in this case I'm using a 6.2 build and by default they are called Build_Core, Build_Master and Build_Web. Below those databases is where you will find a Replication node in the tree. Expand it and you will find the Local Publications and the Local Subscriptions.

What we will do is set up a Local Publication in the server and a Local Subscription in the local workstation.

Right-click on the Local Publications and select "New Publication". That launches the wizard.

Yes, the New Publication Wizard. Could Microsoft make it anymore friendly for you?

Now comes the time to select the databases for replication.

I would suggest sticking to the Master database. You probably already have all the security credentials and all the Core items you will need. If you ever do need to get updates on that it is easy to do a backup/restore for that. But if you find yourself doing lots of customization, you may want to include Core too. For now we'll stick with Master.

Next comes the type of replication. Stick with the suggested Snapshot publication or choose your own, of you know what you are doing.

The next step is to select the tables/views you want to keep updated. Now to be honest, I haven't given it much thought – are there Sitecore tables that don't need to be updated? There might be. I just play it safe and keep them all updated. So check the top-level Tables checkbox and move on.

Now, if you want to go crazy and figure out some funky filters to reduce the amount of data to synchronize then go ahead – this is the spot to do it. Since my purpose is simply to reduce workload and keep untrained developers from having to get complicated with backup/restore, I leave the filters empty. In a backup/restore scenario, it would all come across anyway.

Now you get a few options. How often do you want to update the snapshot? You can choose option 1 and do only manual updates, but if you depend on busy SQL Admin you may want to create regular snapshots to give you the most flexibility. Once a day, once an hour – it's up to you and how often you see yourself making updates. Your workflow may vary. I would suggest that once daily is probably enough.

But the scheduler sure gives you lots of choices in the matter.

Now some security settings. The Snapshot Agent will require some credentials to run the job with. Make sure those credentials have enough privileges.

You'll need a Windows account, at a minimum.

Finally you're ready to create the job. You can also choose to generate a script file so you can recreate the job later, if needed.

The very last step is to name the publication. Choose a friendly name that tells Subscribers what the publication is about. The database name will be listed, so you just need to specify whether it's the Daily Update/Hourly Update/Developer Refresh – whatever suits your fancy.

When the job is completed you get a nice report telling you whether it succeeded or failed. If it failed it is likely a permission issue, or you don't have SQL Server Agent running.

If all goes well your publication will be listed under the Local Publications node of your server.

Now we need to make some tweaks…

A Snapshot publication will by default be created in the SQL Replication path (typically C:\MSSQL\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\ReplData or something like that.)

But, the Subscribers need to be access it via the network. That path will not work. So some changes are needed. That can either be a file share (UNC path) or an FTP location. And appropriate read/write rights need to be given, both to the Publisher and Subscriber accounts.

Right-click and go to the Properties of the Publication. Click on the Snapshot node or the FTP Snapshot node. Point the image to a share or ftp site.

Now that we have the Publication complete, we can have the local workstations Subscribe to it.

But first let's make some changes to the main Sitecore installation, so we can validate that the changes took place.

We start with a default Sitecore installation, on both the local workstation and the server.

We'll add a couple of Content Items and a User-Defined Template, just for show. These changes are on my server, called Sitecore, not on my local workstation, where Sitecore is running there as "localhost."

Now that we have changes, let's set up the Subcription.

On my local workstation I will locate the Replication section, much as I did with the server. Only this time I will right-click on the Local Subscriptions node and select New Subscriptions.

Again, you are greeted by a friendly wizard.

Use the wizard to locate the Server and select he appropriate Publication.

If you choose to follow my recommendations, choose the Pull option.

Next we want to choose the database on the local workstation that will map to the Publication. In my case they both have the same name, but you could choose a different name, if your local was different than the server's.

The next step is important, though a bit confusing. You need to select some credentials that will allow you to connect to the Distributor and the Subscriber. Click on the ellipsis button and a new screen will show you options.

You'll need to work with your DBA and SysAdmins to get this right.

You need to pick a Window account that has enough privileges on your LOCAL machine. That means that you must see that account in the Logins area of your local SQL Server. That same account must also be allowed on the Server and must be a member of the Publication Access List. This account will read changes from the server and update your local machine, so it will require high level privileges. Check the MSDN documentation if you're not sure.

Now comes another choice. My recommendation is to run this job on demand only – in true Pull mode. But if your situation calls for it, by all means Run continuously and set up a schedule.

The next choice is whether to run the job immediately or at first synchronization. That means, when you MANUALLY run the job. I prefer the later, because I can complete the definition now and then run it manually later, which will give me better access to the logs should anything not work right. Usually due to a permission issue or SQL Server Agent not being started.

Finally the job is created.

Click Next then Finish. A success message will report at the end, if all went well. If it didn't, check permissions and that SQL Server Agent is running.

So what if you are running SQL Express and you have no SQL Server Agent?

Well, that's another reason not to run immediately and run at the first synchronization.

Access the properties of the Subscription. At the bottom there is a Synchronization option. "Use Windows Synchronization Manager" should be checked, as detailed in MSDN documentation.

So, now that we have it, how do we run it?

Find the Local Subscription and right-click. Select View Synchronization Status.

A pop-up window shows you status and a "Start" button. That initiates the synchronization. Run this manually whenever you want a new update.

If you get errors here, look for permissions issues. View Job History and select the nodes that fail. There will be some error messages. If nothing is clear, check the last successful node. It will likely, at the bottom of the log, display a login/permission error of some sort.

So now you check Sitecore Content Editor and see if there are any changes. And there are none.

What?!?!?

Why didn't it work?

It did. Remember, Sitecore CACHES content. In order to get the changes you have to clear the cache. How? Plenty of ways. Make a change in the web.config, start/stop the website, or if you are feeling elegant, use the Sitecore Cache Admin screen:

It is found at http://localhost/sitecore/admin/cache.aspx and you MUST be logged in with an administrator Sitecore account or you will get an access denied message.

Click the Clear All button to clear the cache and then start your Sitecore Content Editor again.

Voila'!

A common occurrence within Sitecore's Publishing feature... You have an item that you created with Sitecore. Say a News article. You've finished all your changes, you Published it... and it's not there. It simply refuses to appear. Why not?

There are many reasons why that could happen. But 98% of the time you will find the cause within one the following sections of your Standard Fields: Lifetime and Publishing.

First let's start with making sure that we can see the Standard Fields. From the Sitecore menu, click View. Make sure the Standard Fields checkbox is checked.

Now let click on the Item that is not being published. Below the custom created sections and fields, there will be a list of Sitecore Standard Fields. Among those are the Lifetime and Publishing sections.

Let's take them one at a time.

The Lifetime Section is used to hold the publication restrictions for individual versions of an item. It contains three fields. The "Valid From" and "Valid To" fields control when a given version of the Item is valid for publication. Set those to a date in the past or future and the Item may not be published now. The "Hide Version" checkbox controls whether to hide the current version you're seeing from publication. If checked, it won't publish at all.

The Publishing Section is used to hold the publishing restrictions for the Item as a whole. It contains four fields. The "Publish" field lets you select a date/time to start publishing the item and the "Unpublish" field when to stop publishing it. If these are set they could cause your Item not to be published, if set in the past/future.

The "Never Publish" field should be self-explanatory. It is sometimes used when an Item is still in raw stages of development and the editors don't want to risk it going out to the public. Forget to check it off and the Item is never published.

Finally there's the "Publishing Targets" field. You can define which targets your item is allowed on. Check the "Staging" target, for example and you'll never see it in "Production."

Of course, there are many other reasons. The item could have an error in one of its fields, be stuck in a workflow waiting for approval, forgot to publish to the right target, etc., etc. I've found those to be rare. I used to check for all the others and check for the Lifetime/Publishing sections last. Not anymore. Now it's the first place I look.

Recently I was working on a Sitecore website that was started by previous developers and I discovered a very annoying bug. When inserting links in a RichText field using the InsertSitecoreLink button, the links failed to translate to the user-friendly URL's when Published to the content delivery site.

Let me illustrate what I mean.

Edit the RichText field using the built-in Sitecore Editor:

Highlight a piece of text and click the InsertSitecoreLink button. Then select some content item from your site you wish to link to.

Normally that would have placed a piece of HTML on the field that would look like this:

<a href="~/link.aspx?_id=7E50AB0CACF343DC857ED53627BC1106&amp;_z=z">Test Link</a>

And when Published to the content delivery site, that would translate into a more friendly URL:

<a href="/test/test.aspx">Test Link</a>

But instead I would still get the unfriendly link at the content delivery site:

<a href="~/link.aspx?_id=7E50AB0CACF343DC857ED53627BC1106&amp;_z=z">Test Link</a>

About drove me bananas for a while. I'd done this several times before and never had the links failed to render correctly. I was starting to think that perhaps there was bug in the most current version of Sitecore.

That's when I hit upon a discovery that I thought I'd share.

The content was being rendered by a custom Rendering that a previous developer had created. It was a class that inherited from WebControl and looked like this:

public class InteriorContent : Sitecore.Web.UI.WebControl

{

   protectedoverridevoid DoRender(HtmlTextWriter output)

   {

     Item currentPage = Sitecore.Context.Item;

     output.Write("<h1>" + currentPage["header title"] + "</h1>");

     output.Write(currentPage["description"]);

   }

}

While this works, for the most part, the problem lies in the rendering of the Rich Text field "description."

The links come out all wrong.

The solution I opted for was quite simple. Replace the custom rendering with a simple Sublayout containing a couple of Sitecore FieldRenderers. The FieldRenderers do a great job of parsing the content of the RichText field and replacing the URL's properly. Simply fetching the contents of the field and writing it to the HTML writer will not work.

Here is what the final control looked like:

<% @ register TagPrefix ="sc" Namespace ="Sitecore.Web.UI.WebControls" Assembly ="Sitecore.Kernel" %>

<% @ Control Language ="c#" AutoEventWireup ="true" TargetSchema ="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5" %>

< h1 >< sc : fieldrenderer runat ="server" renderingid ="{E1AF4AA3-3B5D-4611-8C71-959AD261E5B7}" id ="FieldRenderer1" fieldname ="Header Title"></ sc : fieldrenderer ></ h1 >

< sc : fieldrenderer runat ="server" renderingid ="{E1AF4AA3-3B5D-4611-8C71-959AD261E5B7}" id ="FieldRenderer2" fieldname ="Description"></ sc : fieldrenderer >

So in the end, it turned out not to be a bug after all, but a coder error, after all. And served as a reminder, that sometimes, a little digging goes a long way.

If you ever run into this, now you have a workaround.

Ektron released CMS400.NET v8 a few months ago for testing by partners, and we started working with this significant upgrade from Ektron CMS400.NET v7.6. If you are an Ektron user or developer and have not seen version 8 yet, it’s worth a look. Here’s a starting look at what we found about Interface and Performance improvements, plus a dicey Indexing bug:

New Graphical User Interface for Workarea

The new GUI offers a higher level of performance and a better way to organize and access each section of the Workarea. The improvements are not simply limited to a facelift of new icons or graphic design. The key is that the new GUI communicates power and performance, while providing feedback about the Workarea load time. The improved Workarea leverages AJAX technology which helps to make screen load faster and more appealing to the eye.

The new right-click functionality under folders is one of the best features in the Workarea, this helps save time since you can now create your website folder structure more easily and faster directly from the tree view.

(Fully compatible with: IE 7, IE 8, Firefox) – Chrome has some little bugs but they don’t affect anything in the functionality.

The Ektron 8 GUI Workarea has a new way to create menus, taxonomies and collections, and are also right-click enabled so you can create taxonomy, menus or collections much faster than before with fewer steps. You will also notice that under the Content section you will find these new items using the Tabs from the left panel without redirecting it like in previous versions.

Performance

Performance is one of Ektron’s goals and they did an amazing job with the revamped Workarea. They are forgetting something important: the Indexing Service. We found a bug in our local tests, pulling load up to 100% of your CPU when the Indexing Service is running.

This bug ultimately cycles enough load to crash the server it’s on, which could affect live websites, which could be down or very slow. This Bug was found under Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. To avoid this problem temporarily, you can stop the service. We have not yet tested Windows Server 2008 R2.

Conclusion

Now Ektron v8 has been released for clients everywhere, it’s time for you to consider upgrading. Ektron CMS400.NET v8 is a major update over v7.6, this version offers new and improved features that you must see and try.

It’s true that there still are some sections that can be changed or improved; I think Ektron is heading the right direction and I am confident that we will see some patch/fixes/updates for this new version.

But wait, there’s more…

In an additional review, I will focus on a Developer perspective on Smart Forms in the new Ektron CMS400.NET v8.