Different Ways of Handling Redirects in Sitecore Headless JSS NextJS App

 There are several ways to handle custom redirects in NextJS app for Sitecore Headless.

1. Using redirects configurations defined on next.config.js file

We can use NextJS provided redirect functionality for this. We can either define these directly on the next.config.js file's "redirects" section OR can move that to a separate file and include it like below.

NOTE: Needs to include redirects.js file onto next.config.js to get the ...redirectsConfig
const redirectsConfig = require('./src/next-config/redirects');

2. Using Sitecore Redirect Template item

We wanted a way to provide a method to add redirects in case editors wanted to add that url into dynamically generated menus on the site.

So we decided to take the custom Redirect App Route template with RedirectURL field in it.

When this page is requested, we check the RedirectURL field value and do the redirect from getServerSideProps method on [[...path]].tsx page.

This called handling redirects from server side in NextJS app.

Code will look like something below:

3. Using redirects defined in a separate tree section in the Sitecore content tree

This will allow to add multiple redirects without actually having to have a Redirect Sitecore Item defined/created.

This will be same as existing SXA OR Url Rewrite module item structure with separate redirects defined.

But we will use GraphQL to retrieve those data using Sitecore Layout Service and then do the necessary redirects from NextJS server side.

Expect a separate blog post on this in future.

4. Using Vercel app redirects

Vercel also supports defining redirects in Vercel itself. 

Saying Goodbye to Sitecore Community

After working 12 years with Sitecore community, I'm moving away from my community contributions.

Some of you might know me well as Sitecore Footsteps (Twitter: scFootsteps).

For those who don't know me earlier, I'm a 6 times Sitecore Technology MVP (2016 - 2021) from in Sri Lanka. I'm working with Sitecore product from year 2010. Currently I'm working as a Freelance Sitecore Consultant.

In the past 12 years, I have contributed to the community by:

- Blogs

- Presentations at Events

- Organising user group events

- YouTube videos

- Sitecore Slack/StackExchange/Sitecore Community site 

- Providing feedback to Sitecore related to their product/releases & trainings 

I was initially awarded Sitecore MVP title in 2016 (https://sitecorefootsteps.blogspot.com/2016/02/sitecorefootsteps-chaturanga-ranatunga.html) and was awarded the title continuously for 6 years now.

Main reasons for this decision is, I'm starting to lose interest on Sitecore development. Losing the interest in Sitecore development is mainly due to my personal interest and nothing mentioned here relates to Sitecore product.

I'm thanking all the teams that I have worked with (as a full-time employee & as a contractor), all the community contributors including MVPs and Sitecore technical marketing team.

It was great fun meeting all my Sitecore friends that I initially only knew through forums & twitter. 

What's for me in future,

Currently I don't have a clear idea on which path I will take after this. 

I will continue to work as Freelance/Contract Sitecore Consultant, which still help pay my bills :-)

Also I have started to learn new technologies and will try to implement/code few test solutions using those technologies.

Wish you all best for all the Sitecore community... :-)

Blog:            https://sitecorefootsteps.blogspot.com

YouTube:     Sitecore for Dummies

Twitter:        https://twitter.com/scfootsteps

LinkedIn:     https://lk.linkedin.com/in/chaturanga

          Old Forum Username: chaturangar

Announcement: For the 6th Consecutive Year, scFootsteps' Chaturanga Ranatunga, was Awarded Sitecore Most Valuable Professional Award 2021

Recently Sitecore announced list of Sitecore Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award winner for year 2021.

For the 6th continuous year, I was also awarded the Sitecore Technology MVP award. (http://mvp.sitecore.com)

If I talk little bit history with my Sitecore development involvement:

When I started Sitecore development work, it was year 2010 with Sitecore 6.4. 

11 years went past, with Sitecore is now in Sitecore 10.0 version.

And in year 2016, I was first awarded my first MVP title.

I'm the first and only Sitecore MVP in my country, Sri Lanka.

Last year (Year 2020) was a tough year for everyone due to pandemic. Due to that same reason, most of the on-site meet-ups & conferences was cancelled.

But I was lucky enough to be selected and to be able to presented at the Global Virtual SUGCON 2020.

Hopefully we will be able to meet again in person with all the Sitecore Community.

Until then, happy Sitecore!!

Edit and Update Sitecore Cloud WebDeployment Package using Sitecore Azure Toolkit

Sometimes you will need to adjust the default web deploy packages provided to add new functionality or adjust existing functionality. 

You cannot edit these WebDeploy packages by just extracting.

You have to use "Sitecore Azure Toolkit" PowerShell module to update these packages.

Below I have inserted a script that I used to update existing WebDeploy package with adjusted settings and files.

Most of the content in the internet describing this process is not complete and hard for a beginner to understand.

Following was the only blog post that explained the process that I got the basic idea on what needs to be done.

http://www.chrissulham.com/modify-sitecore-install-framework-packages-for-azure-sql/

Unfortunately that blog page seems not available at the moment. Archive of that blog post can be found from below url.

https://web.archive.org/web/20191102122827/http://www.chrissulham.com/modify-sitecore-install-framework-packages-for-azure-sql/

Preparing Files to Update WebDeploy Package

Following is the structure of my "Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp" folder where I have following files to replace in original WebDeploy package. You can add the changed or new files into "C:\Work\ARMTemplates\Sitecore 10.0 XP Packages\XP\Generated\Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp" folder.

Since I'm only adding a new connection string to ConnectionStrings.config file by capturing the parameters values returned from azure deployment, I only have following two files.

/CopyToRoot/parameters.xml

/CopyToWebsite/App_Config/ConnectionStrings.config

More info on how to organise folder structure inside the new package files can be read from https://doc.sitecore.com/developers/sat/20/sitecore-azure-toolkit/en/the-structure-of-an-sccpl-transformation.html

Import and Running Script

Step 1: Download Sitecore Azure Toolkit

Download and unzip latest "Sitecore Azure Toolkit" from Sitecore to "C:\Work\ARMTemplates\Sitecore Azure Toolkit 2.5.0-r02519.1061" folder.

Step 2: Run following script 

In this script I'm trying to update the default Sitecore 10 XP Cloud WebDeploy package with the changes I did to include some extra connection string to ConnectionString.config file.

Clear-Host

##Import Az Module

Import-Module -Name Az

# This is the location of the local repoitory and will need to be updated to refect the location of where this script # is being run from.

$basePath = "C:\Work\ARMTemplates"

## Configuration

$SCSdkPSM1 = "$basePath\Sitecore Azure Toolkit 2.5.0-r02519.1061\tools\Sitecore.Cloud.Cmdlets.psm1"

$SCSdkDLL = "$basePath\Sitecore Azure Toolkit 2.5.0-r02519.1061\tools\Sitecore.Cloud.Cmdlets.dll"

## Initialize/import the modules

Import-Module $SCSdkPSM1 -Verbose

Import-Module $SCSdkDLL -Verbose

## Payload package generation

New-SCCargoPayload -Path 'C:\Work\ARMTemplates\Sitecore 10.0 XP Packages\XP\Generated\Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp' -Destination 'C:\Work\ARMTemplates\Sitecore 10.0 XP Packages\XP\Generated' -Verbose -Force

## Update WDP package generation

Update-SCWebDeployPackage -CargoPayloadPath 'C:\Work\ARMTemplates\Sitecore 10.0 XP Packages\XP\Generated\Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp.sccpl' -Path 'C:\Work\ARMTemplates\Sitecore 10.0 XP Packages\GeneratingNewWDPPackages\Generated\Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp.zip'

New-SCCargoPayload command will create .sccpl payload package

Update-SCWebDeployPackage command will update the scwdp.zip WebDeploy package

Following is the final results after running the above script

Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp folder             - New/Edited files

Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp.sccpl folder   - Payload package created from New-SCCargoPayload command

Sitecore 10.0.0 rev. 004346 (Cloud)_cd.scwdp.zip folder       - Final WebDeploy package created from Update-SCWebDeployPackage command

Extra Information:

https://www.credera.com/blog/technology-solutions/how-to-deploy-sitecore-to-azure-part-1-environment-setup/
https://doc.sitecore.com/developers/sat/20/sitecore-azure-toolkit/en/web-deploy-packages-for-a-module.html
https://blog.baslijten.com/sitecore-on-azure-create-custom-web-deploy-packages-using-the-sitecore-azure-toolkit/

Sitecore 10 Azure Deployment ARM Templates Hidden Option to Have Separat CM and Reporting WebApp Hosting Plans

Recently I was working on preparing ARM templates for Sitecore 10 Azure PaaS environment deployment.

One of the requirements client had was to have a separate Hosting Plans for CM web app and Reporting web app, which will allow the client to scale up/down the performance of CM & Reporting web apps separately.

So I took the Sitecore 10 ARM templates from GitHub repository (https://github.com/Sitecore/Sitecore-Azure-Quickstart-Templates)  and tried to deploy a "Small" size azure environment with Sitecore XP Scale ARM templates. 

Once the deployment went successful, I tried to verify the deployed environments with the requested environment topology. Everything was deployed correctly except for the CM & Reporting Web Apps shared a common single Hosting plan (i.e. CM Hosting Plan).

So I thought I will have to adjust the default Sitecore 10 ARM templates by adding new Hosting Plan configuration and then changed the Reporting Web App to use this newly added hosting plan. 

While I was trying to investigate on how to add this new hosting plan, I saw following configuration on Reporting Web app.

As you can see, there was actually an optional configuration by default in Sitecore 10 ARM templates, where we can tell the deployment to either use CM hosting plan OR a separate hosting plan for Reporting web app.

\Sitecore 10.0 XP ARM Template\nested\infrastructure.json 

....

"serverFarmId": "[if(parameters('useDedicatedHostingPlanForReporting'), 

          resourceId('Microsoft.Web/serverfarms', variables('repHostingPlanNameTidy')), 

          resourceId('Microsoft.Web/serverfarms', variables('cmHostingPlanNameTidy')))]",

.... 

 Also there was this "useDedicatedHostingPlanForReporting" parameter defined on "azuredeploy.json" file as boolean type.

"useDedicatedHostingPlanForReporting": {

"type": "bool",

"defaultValue": false

},

So what just had to do was, to provide value to that variable from my azuredeploy.parameters.json file.

"useDedicatedHostingPlanForReporting" : {

  "value": true

},

That was it. Just ran the deployment and now I have CM & Reporting web apps running on their own two separate hosting plans.

Happy Sitecore !!!

For the 5th Consecutive Year, scFootsteps' Chaturanga Ranatunga Wins Sitecore Most Valuable Professional Award 2020

scFootsteps' Chaturanga Ranatunga Wins Sitecore Most Valuable Professional Award

Elite distinction awarded for commitment and dedication to the Sitecore community

Colombo, Sri Lanka — February, 04, 2020 — scFootsteps' Chaturanga Ranatunga, today announced that Chaturanga, Independent Sitecore Consultant has been named a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in the Technology category for the 5th consecutive year by Sitecore®, the global leader in digital experience management software. Chaturanga Ranatunga was one of only 154 Technology MVPs worldwide to be named a Sitecore MVP this year—not to mention the only person from Sri Lanka to be named a Sitecore MVP 2020.

Recognizing professionals within the Sitecore community who actively apply their talent and expertise to help others best utilize Sitecore products to deliver premier customer experiences, the MVP program is now in its 14^th year. Of more than 13,000 certified developers and over 24,000 active community participants, the 316 MVPs are truly an elite group. This year’s MVPs were selected for the quality, quantity and impact of the contributions they made in 2019, including the sharing of product expertise and mastery of the Sitecore platform to support both partners and customers. 

As a Sitecore Freelance Consultant with more than 10 years of Sitecore development experience and overall 12 years in the software industry, I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing my expertise of Sitecore products, including on this blog and through the other community channels. (scFootsteps - Chaturanga Ranatunga)

 “One of our greatest assets is the highly collaborative Sitecore community, where members share technical knowledge and insights across numerous channels and at events to help each other build greater digital experiences for their organizations and customers,” said Pieter Brinkman, Senior Director of Technical Marketing at Sitecore. “Sitecore MVPs stand out as leaders within the community for their passion and willingness to invest their own time with contributions ranging from educational blogs, videos, podcasts and speaking engagements to community engagement and support on social media and forums. They are an invaluable resource and important part of the Sitecore user experience, for which we are truly grateful.”

“Sitecore MVPs are always at the top of the list to get access to the latest developments and offerings from Sitecore, and we will rely on them heavily when we introduce the new Software as a Service offering later this year. I am looking forward to working on this together with this incredible group.” added Brinkman.

Sitecore’s SaaS offering will make it much easier and faster to build digital experiences, while maintaining the flexibility for Sitecore partners and customers to create differentiated experiences. Once a user is on Sitecore’s SaaS platform, they will always have the most current version of the product with the ease of automatic upgrades.

More information can be found about the MVP Program on the Sitecore MVP site: http://mvp.sitecore.com.

Sitecore Publishing Service 4.1.0 Setup Error With DotNet Core Library

Recently I was trying to set Sitecore Publishing Service 4.1.0 with Sitecore 9.1

While trying to setup the Publishing Service manually, and did the all the steps described in the documentation.
After those I was trying to start the IIS site and then tried to visit the site using following url to verify the solution.

http://sc910.publishing/api/publishing/operations/status

An error occurred while starting the application. .NET Framework 4.8 ...

So then I tried to start the publishing service as a service from Powershell using following command and it also returned following error message.

.\Sitecore.Framework.Publishing.Host --urls 'http://sc910.publishing:5000' -environment Development

Application startup exception: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'Serilog.AspNetCore, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=24c2f752a8e58a10' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515) ---> System.NotSupportedException: An attempt was made to load an assembly from a network location which would have caused the assembly to be sandboxed in previous versions of the .NET Framework. This release of the .NET Framework does not enable CAS policy by default, so this load may be dangerous. If this load is not intended to sandbox the assembly, please enable the loadFromRemoteSources switch. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=155569 for more information.
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)

Error was complaining about "Serilog.AspNetCore.dll" which comes with the Publishing service installation.

What I did was, I open the properties of that dll and click "Unlock" button in the popup window.

Then, Sitecore Publishing Service start to work as expected.

Happy Sitecore!