tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6440210188107114462024-02-19T09:28:17.864+05:30My Sitecore FootstepsI am Chaturanga Ranatunga, 6x Sitecore MVP | Sitecore Certified Developer from Sri Lanka. With this blog, I want to distribute the knowledge that I acquired during 11 years of sitecore development experience.scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-14218648110494248422022-05-31T23:34:00.001+05:302022-05-31T23:34:04.861+05:30Different 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 fileWe 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 scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-29163859691232658562021-05-19T23:09:00.006+05:302022-02-07T23:18:43.311+05:30Saying Goodbye to Sitecore CommunityAfter 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 scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-84921617230469678092021-02-20T01:09:00.002+05:302021-05-19T07:40:28.503+05:30Announcement: For the 6th Consecutive Year, scFootsteps' Chaturanga Ranatunga, was Awarded Sitecore Most Valuable Professional Award 2021Recently 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 SitecorescFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-47330940028121507552020-11-27T21:01:00.006+05:302021-05-19T07:41:57.253+05:30Edit and Update Sitecore Cloud WebDeployment Package using Sitecore Azure ToolkitSometimes 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 scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-29026943412205080672020-10-08T17:46:00.003+05:302021-05-19T07:46:35.963+05:30Sitecore 10 Azure Deployment ARM Templates Hidden Option to Have Separat CM and Reporting WebApp Hosting PlansRecently 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/scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-11446434716850677572020-02-13T01:03:00.001+05:302021-05-19T07:47:46.632+05:30For 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 scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-66522251821686858002019-12-05T13:37:00.002+05:302021-05-19T07:48:21.743+05:30Sitecore Publishing Service 4.1.0 Setup Error With DotNet Core LibraryRecently 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 scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-10311689973521085622019-11-08T22:21:00.002+05:302021-05-19T07:48:46.646+05:30Sitecore 9 GEO IP Service Fails When xConnect is DownJust wanted to share small but valuable point I learned recently.
We faced a same issue on two of my client's site implementations where their home pages takes 10-15 seconds load. But the other pages inside the site loads without any delays.
We were in contact with Sitecore for this issue and then we got an answer from Sitecore consultancy team.
The issue was related to GEO IP lookup service &scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-84615572927991813022019-11-07T01:45:00.003+05:302021-05-19T07:49:17.146+05:30Path Analyzer Map Errors Populating Sitecore Logs After Sitecore 9.1 UpgradeRecently we upgraded a Sitecore 8.1 solution to Sitecore 9.1 Update-1
After the upgrade we rebuild the reporting database. After the reporting database rebuild we started to notice that our Sitecore logs (setup to log level "ERROR") is getting populated with lot of Path Analyzer errors.
7404 18:45:08 ERROR [Path Analyzer] Cannot apply rule on the interaction.Exception: scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-2592580349056658882019-10-13T07:20:00.001+05:302021-05-19T07:50:49.576+05:30Sitecore 9 Initial Page Load Deadlock SenarioRecently we have upgraded a solution to Sitecore 9.1.1 and started facing an strange issue.
When we set the Sitecore instance to "ContentDelivery" role from web.config app settings property, front-end site's initial page load request takes ages to respond. After the initial respond site starts to work property.
I tried to look into the issue few days and still couldn't find a reason for the scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-24962293549276267582019-09-05T05:31:00.001+05:302021-05-19T07:51:34.255+05:30Sitecore 9 Identity Server Error With CA SSL CertificatesOne of the implementations I did recently is a Sitecore 9.1 installation/upgrade.
Initially we had the Sitecore Identity server IIS site running using a Self-Signed certificate and I adjusted it to be using CA signed SSL certificate.
That was done by importing that certs .pfx file into Trusted Root Certificate section of the Local Computer cert store, using MMC.
Then adjusted the Sitecore scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-64427699450732719512019-07-29T23:13:00.004+05:302021-05-19T07:51:57.962+05:30Glass Mapper StackOverflow Memory exception with InferType property set to Disable Lazy LoadingRecently we upgraded one of our solutions to Sitecore 9.1 and Glass Mapper 5.
After the upgrade, with some custom code also added, we started to get an issue with the Glass Mapper implemented solution, where the front-end website just throw an error and just dies. We were able to login to Backend Sitecore without any issues.
Following popup message is the only thing we get and site just throw scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-73156669217733250652019-07-06T05:14:00.003+05:302021-05-19T07:52:22.795+05:30Sitecore User Group Conference - India - 2019SUGCON India was held for the second consecutive year in this year (2019) at Bengaluru, India. This years event was held at ITC Gardenia hotel, Bengaluru and was a success with more than 200 participated.
I had the opportunity to conduct the Sitecore JSS workshop at the Sitecore User Group Conference India 2019. 30 people participated for this JSS workshop organized by Sitecore as pre-eventscFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-28129845285684752462019-05-22T20:25:00.002+05:302021-05-19T07:52:47.994+05:30Make Sitecore SXA Sitemap Generation Respect SiteLanguages SettingRecently we faced an issue where Sitecore SXA Sitemap is not respecting the Languages selected from the "Site Languages" field in site settings item.
For example, say you have a SXA site with "en-GB" selected as the Site Language in the settings. (see image below).
But if an item have "en" language item also, generated sitemap will contain "hreflang" entries for both "en-GB" and "en"scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-89202728212257596732019-02-06T12:33:00.002+05:302019-02-06T13:58:17.204+05:30I’m Happy to Announce That I’ve Been Named a Sitecore Most Valuable Professional for 2019!
Sitecore®, the global leader in digital experience management software, recently announced the 2019 group of Sitecore Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and, for the 4th consecutive year, I’ve been recognized as an MVP in the Technology category. The Sitecore MVP award is an elite distinction given for exceptional contributions to the Sitecore community and I’m honored to be one of onlyscFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-37488367751842735002018-12-19T20:05:00.001+05:302021-05-19T07:55:10.411+05:30Passing Context Item Information as hidden field values with Sitecore 9 FormsRecently I was working with Sitecore Forms in Sitecore 9 installation and needed to pass context item information (Item Name, Item ID) where a given form is implemented.
After investigating, there were no default way/field to achieve this and had to implement custom field type for that.
Following is the code implementation to get the hidden field and to populate the hidden field.
public scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-41936020260288462712018-08-03T23:36:00.003+05:302021-05-19T07:55:40.825+05:30Sitecore Glass Mapper Experience Editor Error with Incorrect Glass Base Class ID Property TypeI was trying to get the Glass Mapper working with Sitecore 9 in Experience Editor mode and it returned following error.
Failed item resolve - You cannot save a class that does not contain a property that represents the item ID. Ensure that at least one property has been marked to contain the Sitecore ID. Type: Castle.Proxies.IPageBaseProxy at scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-68660652000991523542018-06-25T00:44:00.003+05:302021-05-19T07:56:48.940+05:30Securing Access to Your MongodDB DatabasesRecently I needed to setup authentication to my mongodb databases which used by Sitecore xDB.
I found following article written by @ankitjoshi2409 which was very helpful and informative.
https://ankitjoshi2409.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/mongodb-authentication-in-sitecore/
Below i'm trying to mention the extra steps and some improvements that I did to fully secure our mongoDB instance.
scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-66036403194609592952018-05-28T22:18:00.002+05:302018-05-28T22:18:31.965+05:30Sitecore User Group Conference - India - 2018It was the first User Group Conference in Asia, "SUGCON India - 2018" - http://www.sugcon.in/
Organized by Sitecore and sponsored by Microsoft & Horizontal Integration, around 200 participated for the event. As the first time organized in Asia region, it was a huge success.
I was given the task of doing the first technical presentation of the conference to start the technical track. (scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-24346169784188704652018-01-31T19:58:00.001+05:302018-01-31T20:00:20.885+05:30SitecoreFootsteps Chaturanga Ranatunga Wins Sitecore “Most Valuable Professional” Award 2018
Elite distinction awarded for exceptional contributions to the Sitecore ecosystem
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — 31, January, 2018 — Chaturanga Ranatunga also know as SitecoreFootsteps, today announced that Chaturanga Ranatunga, Independent Sitecore Consultant has been named a “Most Valuable Professional (MVP)” in the Technology by Sitecore®, the global leader in experience management software. scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-13546623702132844222017-11-10T10:30:00.000+05:302017-11-10T23:00:39.884+05:30Sitecore Symposium & MVP Summit 2017 - Las VegasThis years (2017) Sitecore Symposium was at The Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas which was attended by around 3000 Sitecore customers/partners/employees. (https://www.sitecore.net/events/symposium-2017/introduction.aspx). Sitecore Symposium is the main event of the year organized by Sitecore.
Sitecore was generous to provide all the Sitecore MVPs who attended the Sitecore Symposium scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-11458214153388178772017-11-04T20:01:00.000+05:302017-11-05T17:47:11.156+05:30Sitecore 9 Admin Tool to View Config Layers & Config RolesWith the latest release of Sitecore 9, Sitecore has introduced lots of good changes to config file patching. These includes categorizing configurations to Configuration Layers & Configuration Roles.
+Kamruz Jaman has written a great blog post on what are these new changes here
With these new additional configuration patching options, it might be bit difficult to track which configs scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-10812117221974071992017-11-02T08:22:00.000+05:302017-11-02T10:40:41.811+05:30Validate Sitecore Web Forms for Marketers Telephone field for LengthI know Sitecore Web Forms for Marketers module will be deprecated with Sitecore 9 release, with the introduction of Sitecore Forms module.
Nevertheless I thought to write a quick post on a recent simple issue that I had to try and find a solution for.
In one of my current projects, I had to add a length validation to Telephone field in WFFM form.
So, I just added another validation to scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-43441696677259039472017-08-20T22:27:00.000+05:302017-08-20T22:27:02.935+05:30Useful Extra Settings to be used with Multi-Site ClonesRecently we worked on a Sitecore solution where Clones are in multi-site scenario with each site have its own home node. So, for example, blogs that are created in global Home node is migrated to country home nodes.
Force Update on Clones
One major option that was useful in this scenario was Auto Accepting changes done to the source item in clones. Otherwise editors have to go into clone items scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644021018810711446.post-50076299206311906692017-03-21T18:39:00.000+05:302017-03-21T18:39:20.244+05:30Preview Site Not Pickup Correctly In Multi-Site Setup For Preview OR Experience Editor On Sitecore 8 VersionsRecently I was working on a project where we converted the existing single site setup into multi-site setup.
After the conversion to multi-site setup, there were few issues reported related to local site settings were not pick-up correctly. Following are the few issues reported
Issue 1 :
When try to open Experience Editor from Sitecore Launch Pad, it didn't open the correct local site, but scFootstepshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02409335839912812314noreply@blogger.com0