Himmat Singh Dulawat (3x Sitecore MVP)

In this blog post, I will discuss how to install the cumulative hotfix on Sitecore OnPrem and PaaS instances. For example, Sitecore provided the Cumulative hotfix for Sitecore XP 10.2  and it's available for both XM and XP 10.2 instances. Usually, to install the hotfix we use the Sitecore installation wizard, but such cumulative hotfixes are not intended to be installed using the Installation wizard. Instead, we need to refer to the following articles describing how to install the hotfixes for OnPrem and PaaS instances: Install a Sitecore XP pre-release using SIF Deploy a Sitecore XP pre-release to a PaaS solution My application has been deployed with Sitecore Managed Cloud Service (Azure PaaS) . I have found that there is less instruction about how to install the cumulative hotfix, so I decided to install it via project solution. Solution: Create one separate project in your solution named SitecoreHotfix...

Over the weekend suddenly Log Search Alert Rule appeared on our UAT and PROD MCS Azure account dashboard and it’s not easy to find the actual app services. It has never existed before on Portal. These resources always existed but were hidden on the portal, to see it in the portal we had to check the "show hidden types" checkbox. But now these resources are visible by default, it looks like a recent change on the portal. Azure support has confirmed that this is the recent change on the portal. The Azure team has made rules and action groups a first-class asset, official documentation will follow. We are still in contact with them on the matter of question if it's still possible to hide them as before. The solution is adding specific tags to resources and then filtering by the tags in the Azure portal, below are the steps describing how to do it: Assign Tags for the resource (Alert rules/Action Group), filter the Type with a t...

On the CM server, it's easy to monitor the Sitecore cache in CMS and we can tune it accordingly. It's under the Administration tool provided by Sitecore. You can access it directly from the URL i.e. {your-sitecore-instance}/sitecore/admin/cache.aspx OR browse it from the Administrative page. But on a Content Delivery server, access to the administrative pages usually is not available hence there is no direct option available to monitor Sitecore Cache for the CD server. In this blog, I will explain how to monitor cache tunning on a CD server. Go to the CD server and check the App_Data\diagnostics\health_monitor folder. You will get their file named CacheStatus.20230412Z.141522Z.html where 20230412Z.141522Z is a time stamp. (Sitecore saves a copy of the cache.aspx page every ten minutes) Note: Most of the cases you will get the file under the folder but in case you cannot find the file then you need to enable ...

While working on the Sitecore multisite, I faced the following issue while accessing the API with website-B. This happens when you want to use your web API with another website in Sitecore multisite setup. Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is a W3C standard that allows a server to relax the same-origin policy. When you use CORS, a server can explicitly allow some cross-origin requests while rejecting others. Sitecore provides CORS support for Web API services. You can configure CORS in three ways: Globally for all Web API services (configured in the Sitecore.Services.Client.config file). Using an API key. Using the EnableCors attribute. I have used the first option to solve my issue. You need to modify "Sitecore.Services.Client.config" at path {instance}/ \App_Config\Sitecore\Services.Client with registered origins. Create a patch file in the project and add the following section of code and allow origin...

We had encounter the following error frequently in our application. Problem Id: System.NullReferenceException at Sitecore.SessionProvider.Redis.StackExchangeClientConnectionAsync+<EvalAsync>d__22.MoveNext Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Exception type: System.NullReferenceException Failed method: Sitecore.SessionProvider.Redis.StackExchangeClientConnectionAsync+<EvalAsync>d__22.MoveNext Call Stack: StackExchange.Redis DLL version: 2.1.58 The application is deployed on Sitecore Managed Cloud Service Azure PaaS and uses Redis app service . I have applied the below fixes as well as the following articles but the issue is not resolved: Increased the min worker thread pool to 100 Increased polling Interval to 60 Tuned Redis Configuration as described here: Tuning Redis Configuration Settings Added sslprotocols=tls12 to Redis connection string Sitecore PAAS Redis Exce...

We understand that Sitecore provides an option to store media library assets either in DB (defaults to DB) or in the filesystem or we can store it in the Azure Blob Storage. But the question is what is the best option from all three options and why? Here in this blog, I will discuss the pros and cons of all three options and help you to find the best possible option. 1. Sitecore Database: By default, Sitecore provides this option while uploading the media items to the Sitecore Media Library. If you will delete the Media item from the library, it will be deleted from the Sitecore database and Sitecore also provides a database clean-up tool Cleanup database. 2. File Storage: To upload the media library assets (Image, Video, Pdf, etc) to the file storage you need to update the value of the following variable in the Sitecore. config file: <setting name="Media.UploadAsFiles" value="false" /> Set it to true. <setting name...

Getting the badge of Sitecore MVP the second time in a row particularly in Technology for me is one of them. My journey for Sitecore MVP begins in the Year 2019. I commenced with Sitecore Technology blogs , and actively participate in the Sitecore Stack Exchange Platform , Sitecore Slack Channel , and SUGCON public speaking. I am honored to be named Sitecore Technology MVP 2023 . I feel fortunate to be participating with a Sitecore Community, Technology, and Product. I am happy that my all efforts and contributions are recognized by Sitecore and Community. My next focus for this year would be: Exploring more in Sitecore Project including Personalize and CDP, Content Hub, and XM Cloud. Continuing with sharing and helping others in Sitecore Community. Participating in Sitecore MVP mentorship program. A big thanks to my family, colleagues, and Sitecore Team, and congratulations to all the Sitecore 2023 MVP award winners. Happy Sitecor...

Wish you all a very Happy New Year 2023😊 In today’s blog I will discuss the basic authentication implementation is Sitecore 10. Basic Authentication may be required for you to protect and restrict the page, and website access from the external source or you can apply it on the UAT, staging, or prod before going live. You can implement it multiway either by Sitecore Pipeline or Global.asax page. Here I will describe the Sitecore pipeline approach, issues, and solutions. I would like to give the credit to the original blog post mentioned here , but in Sitecore 10 you will need to perform some extra steps that I will describe in this blog. Pipeline: Config file: After execution of it, you will get the below infinite loop issue: Solution: Add the below key in your web.config : <add key="owin:AutomaticAppStartup" value="false" /> Next, you will get the credential windows and after entering it, it will show...

This year, I got the opportunity to work on upgrading Sitecore projects from Sitecore versions 8.2, and 9.X to Sitecore version 10.2. To find the complete details with the steps Sitecore provides Sitecore SC-XP-10.2.0-Upgrade-Guide for Sitecore experience platform 10.2 from Sitecore Experience Platform 8.1.0 or later. You can refer to this PDF file and start working on the upgrade. While upgrading the projects I have written my all findings, issues, research, and solutions in individual blogs. That you may or may not face while upgrading your project. In this blog post, I am summarizing all these within a single blog. Upgrade the framework and Database: Dot NET Framework Migrator: To upgrade Sitecore from a lower version to Sitecore 10.2, you need to change the .net framework to 4.8. See the blog post- Dot NET Framework Migrator Upgrade Sitecore XP Database to the XM: The database upgrade is one of the most...

The database upgrade is one of the most important steps while upgrading the Sitecore version to the latest 10.2. Sitecore provides its upgrade guide for Sitecore experience platform 10.2 from Sitecore Experience Platform 8.1.0 or later. Here in this blog, I have taken reference to the pdf document provided by Sitecore SC-XP-10.2.0-Upgrade-Guide and I am going to discuss only the database upgrade steps for the XM topology. Prerequisites for upgrading: Back up the database. Download the Sitecore 10.2.0 rev. 006766 (upgrade files).zip  It contains: Database Upgrade Script.zip - contains the SQL scripts that upgrade the database schemas and data. MarketingDefinitionsUpgrade.zip – contains the .aspx pages that help you prepare your marketing definitions for the upgrade from Sitecore XP 8.x. Download the tools Sitecore.UpdateApp 1.2.0 for Sitecore X.X.X rev XXXXXX.zip ...

After deploying the application on Sitecore Managed Cloud Service(MCS) CM and CD instances, both environments were unresponsive and taking too much time to respond. To observe the issue and find the reason behind the issue you can perform the following operations. I am explaining the reason and the solution in this blog post. Here for better understanding, I am taking an example of one instance that is CM. Collect a performance Profile from the CM server: To investigate the issue in detail you can collect a performance profile. This will affect the performance of the CM server during profile capture. To collect the performance profile you can refer to the Sitecore KB article: Collecting a Performance Profile Razor Generator Tool: Sitecore stores compiled code in the Azure file system which is known to be slow due to relying on Blob storage internally. You can pre-compile all custom views via the Razor Generator tool ...

While upgrading the project from Sitecore version 8.2 to 10.2 I faced one scenario to convert the Lucene Search configuration to the SOLR. It’s easier to convert the Lucence configuration to the SOLR if all configurations are defined in the configuration files. You just need to change the type to the Solr Provider and configuration to the defaultSolrIndexConfiguration or if it does not default then define the custom Solr Index configuration . The problem occurs when the index file is generated at runtime and custom fields are added dynamically either on the pipeline or Search Crawler. In my case in Sitecore 8.2 lucence configuration fields were added in the document at runtime on SitecoreItemCrawler . Custom Crawler: Code was written on the custom crawler: Solution: To resolve the above issue and find the solution, I have explored Sitecore.ContentSearch DLL and found out it provides the below method in the IProviderUpdateContext interface. ...

After restoring the upgraded database to the SQL, I tried to login into the Sitecore CMS. The identity server comes with an error " Sorry, there was an error " after successful login. I have checked the Identity server logs files and found the error:  CORS policy execution failed . Solution: Go to the {root-directory}\project-identityserver.local\Config\production and open Sitecore.IdentityServer.Host.xml file and verify the database name. If it is corrects, then check the <AllowedCorsOrigins> section. In my case it was related to the database name, I forget to update the database name and connection string in the identity server. Note: Do not forget to recycle the Identity Server App pool. Happy Sitecoreing  😊

Sitecore website performance will impact if you have a large number of media items on pages and it comes from the media library. To increase performance, use a Microsoft Azure® Content Delivery Network (CDN) with Sitecore Media in your solution.  Here in this blog post, I am discussing how to configure the Azure CDN with your Sitecore solution so that your media library items are retrieved from the CDN and increase performance. If you are using Sitecore Managed Cloud Service then either you will already have CDN setup on your prod environment or you can create a service request to Sitecore to create an app service for CDN else you can refer to the Sitecore document about CDN setup considerations . Configuration In Sitecore: Before you can setup the Sitecore Media Library to use CDN in your solution you must have Sitecore XP or XM 9.1 or later CDN endpoint Step 1: Go to the path {your Sitecore root instance}\App_Config\Include\Exam...

While upgrading Sitecore to the latest version, updating the project framework is one of the major tasks. For example, If you are planning to upgrade Sitecore from a lower version to Sitecore 10.2 then in your visual studio you need to change the .net framework to 4.8. It is an easier task just to right-click on the project, go to the properties and select the Application option and change the Target framework. But this job becomes tedious if your Visual Studio Solution file has a large number of projects especially if it's a Helix-based solution. You can use an open-source Visual Studio extension tool named Target Framework Migrator . It Migrates all your .Net projects to another .Net Framework Version at once. With this extension, you can update all projects with one click. Once you install this tool it will be available in the Tools menu. Once you click on the Target Framework Migrator options, then in popup windows select the target .ne...

To increase the performance of the Website, or the current cache size are not enough for load then we need to follow the cache tunning procedure. A Sitecore cache consumes memory based on the amount of data stored in the cache. Cache size defines the maximum application memory the cache can consume. The following instructions apply to all Sitecore caches. The very first steps are to ensure that we have set the initial cache values before tunning. Use the following table as a starting point for database and HTML output cache values. Set initial cache values before performing cache tuning procedures. Before configuring the initial values, go to the cache admin page using sitecore/admin/cache.aspx page you can verify that the values are the same or different. In this blog, I will describe How to add set initial cache values using patch files. How to patch: Add the below patch file to your project. The below patch file has a patch for Prefetc...

This blog post is related to the upgrade approach of the Sitecore Database. There are plenty of documents available on Sitecore and other blog posts and articles about How to upgrade the Sitecore database, but this is different. I have an application in Sitecore 8.2 XP and it needs to be migrated to Sitecore 10.2 XM, please focus on instance XM instead of XP. Sitecore 8.2 XP instance launchpad as below:  Sitecore 10.2 XM instance launchpad as below: I have upgraded the Database using the SQL scripts provided by Sitecore here and now my Sitecore 10.2 XM instance launchpad is as below: Note: I have not published code yet on the Sitecore 10.2 XM instance, I have attached only the upgraded Database. So there are no config and other changes. I have also run the Sitecore UpdateApp Tool , after upgrading the database. Solution: To get rid of the Marketing Applications buttons on the Sitecore Launchpad, we can switch to the...

After upgradation the Sitecore project from version 8.2 to 10.2, I deployed the application on the Azure PASS environment. Everything was working perfectly fine and when I browsed the Unicorn.aspx page to sync the Sitecore items. It was asking me for the login. After clicking on the Sign in to Sitecore as an administrator and I entered the credential and it redirected me to the unicorn.aspx page with the same message. Solution: After some research, I have found that Sitecore 9.1 has introduced Sitecore Identity. Sitecore Identity (SI) is a mechanism to log in to Sitecore. It was introduced in Sitecore 9.1. It builds on the Federated Authentication functionality introduced in Sitecore 9.0 and the Sitecore Identity server, which is based on IdentityServer4. It provides a separate identity provider and allows you to set up SSO (Single Sign-On) across Sitecore services and applications. Then I explored the configs under the unicorn folder in my proj...

When you will install the Sitecore 10.2 XM, you might get a console error in Experience Analytics JS in the Sitecore XM launchpad vanilla environment. It sounds weird that in Sitecore XM experience analytics play any role. As per the Sitecore documents Experience Analytics features are incompatible with Experience Manager if it has been installed using XM packages.  Sitecore XP feature compatibility in XM Scaled packages So I came with a few doubts and questions: If there is no role for Experience Analytics then what is the use of ExperienceAnalytics.js? If we do not have any uses of Experience Analytics in Sitecore XM then can we remove this JS and solve the console error issue? Then I raised a support ticket to Sitecore, to get the answer. Sitecore Response: Thank you for contacting Sitecore Support. I was able to reproduce the issue locally. So this behavior was registered as a bug in our bug tracking system. Thank you ...

After a successful deployment of the application on an MCS environment. I started facing an issue on CMS regarding the client IP address '20.205.248.223' is not allowed to access the server. I have uploaded the upgraded Sitecore Master, Core, and Web database and changed it into the connection string. I was not using the default Sitecore 10.2 MCS database. Solution: The issue looks related to configuration of your Azure SQL Server "mc-********-***-****-****-****-sql". If you navigate: mc-********-***-****-****-****-sql -> "Security" section -> "Networking" tab we can see that the "Allow Azure services and resources to access this server" checkbox is unchecked. Thus, web apps cannot connect to databases without explicitly allowing their IP (which may change). For resolving the issue, please consider checking/enabling the mentioned checkbox. Happy Sitecoreing  😊