Certificate of Completion Sitecore Experience Commerce™ Essentials 9.0

Certificate of Completion Sitecore Experience Commerce™ Essentials 9.0.

A lot of learning and understanding of basic foundation. I'm impressed with the latest training model by the Sitecore team.

Certificate of Completion Sitecore Experience Commerce

I got an understanding of below modules.

• Gaining an Insight into the Sitecore Experience Commerce™ Architecture
• Developing Storefronts Using Sitecore Commerce APIs
• Developing Sitecore Experience Commerce™ Storefront Pages Using SXA
• Working with Sellable Items
• Testing the Checkout Process
• Extending the Sitecore Commerce Engine
• Sitecore Experience Commerce™ Documentation and Support

Sitecore XC - Certification for adding a new plugin.

Today, I have completed a certificate to add a new plugin in Sitecore XC, I have been working on a few projected and wanted to make sure that we are following the best practices.

I got full marks :)

Here are the details and take away points -

Basically, I would suggest to see this document - link this has all the required details for developing a new plugin,

Sitecore XC - Skip installation modules

During the deployment, if we want to skip a particular module, We can simply do this by following below steps -

In the folder where you deployed the SIF.Sitecore.Commerce package, open the
Configuration/Commerce/Master_SingleServer.json

Remove the reference - As an example below

to remove a complete task - Access the folder where we deployed the SIF.Sitecore.Commerce package, open the
Configuration\Commerce/, and locate the "Tasks" section.
The following shows an example of the "tasks" section in the Configuration/Commerce/
CommerceEngine/CommerceEngine.Initialize.json file. Remove completed tasks, and save your changes. Now run the Deploy-Sitecore-Commerce.ps1 script again. The script performs the remaining deployment tasks.

We can simply skip the task by passing parameter like

Install-SitecoreConfiguration @params -Skip ModulePowershellExtensions_CheckPaths,Module-PowershellExtensions_InstallModul

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 - Add a new field to Unique Catalog.

Here are a few simple steps to add a new field in Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1.

Navigate to - /sitecore/templates/Commerce/Catalog Generated

navigate to the builder tab in content editor and add a new field and add the appropriate definition.

Map a Sitecore Field Type to a Commerce Server Property Type.

Create a new .config file in the Website\App_Config\Include directory of your Sitecore site.

Create a configuration section that overrides the sitecorename attribute for the Commerce Catalog type you want to change.

For example, the following configuration changes all Commerce Catalog DateTime properties to be edited using the Sitecore Date control:

       

After saving the file, We need to restart the IIS.

Key consideration while working with the Sitecore Support team and changes after 8.2 or later versions.

Sitecore support team perform well in most critical situations and it depends on the support package and licensing model,

They have recently automated the process to share the files and configuration, Here in this section, I will try to cover below points.

1. Support Programs offered by Sitecore and how this model work.
2. Key consideration and best practices to avoid delay.
3. Tips and key points from my past learning.
4. Changes after 8.2 or later versions.

Support Programs offered by Sitecore 

Sitecore has a support model and it depends on your license like which model you fit in, they also provide 24/7 premium support for critical items.

Here are some categories. Severity level - Critical, High, Medium and Low.

More details can be found here- https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/583182

Key consideration -

1. First, try to replicate this issue on Vanilla setup, You may create a video clip or capture the proper screenshots.
2. Always provide the complete details and steps if required.
3. Choose the right category, Sitecore version, and OS details.
4.  Share the basic information - You can find more details here  - https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/406145

Requierd files are -
 - "Web.config" file;
 - "/App_Config" folder contents;
 - "Data/logs" folder contents (Sitecore log files).

If you are using Sitecore version 8.2 or later then follow this link-  https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/406145 to learn about an automatic way of collecting this information
Please consider consulting the following article to learn about an automatic way of collecting this information: https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/406145.

5. Please upload files larger than 10 MB to the Sitecore Support FTP server: https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/862874

Tips and key points from my past learning.

1. For random behavior try to capture some video clip and that will help to provide the exact scenario and details.

2. For most critical items/ or failure try to provide some offline time to support team to come up with there finding/observation or resolution. We may ask for the call but sometimes working in offline model work very well.

3. If there are more then 4-5 conversation and still not able to clear about the problem statement, Try to request a direct call or setup for gotomeeting.

Changes after 8.2 or later versions.

Sitecore has recently added a new option to send all required files automatically to the support team to diagnose the issue.

Generally, Before this option, In case of any major issue, Sitecore support team first ask was to provide all the configuration in below format.

The basic information about your instance as described in the article (https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/406145) :
 - "Web.config" file;
 - "/App_Config" folder contents;
 - "Data/logs" folder contents (Sitecore log files).

Click on the support package link.

Select the duration of the configuration and log files here.

Click next button.

You will get an option to choose the required files and configurations.

You can choose basic and advanced information, In case of random or major issues, it would be helpful to send all the basic and advanced files.

A package will be generated based on your selection.

You can download your package to verify that correction information or to keep a copy with you or can upload to the FTP

Sitecore - Quick steps to setup Sitecore client in different languages.

Although I have covered localization of site and role in a separate article, but here wanted to provide details for the Sitecore client Multilanguage feature.

Complete details for Role and multilingual setup

Sample Sitecore client for Japanese language.

I have been using this feature and here are the simple steps.

Login into Sitecore -

Create a User and go to language settings.

There are two option - First is to setup the Sitecore Client language and second is to setup the content level default langauge.

Setup this language to Japenese and login again by new user.

Menu items.

For the user specific access, this can be setup through the right access manager.

Practical Video.

Rendering Parameters - Experience editor - Step by step for the implementation.

Although, I am sure all reader know this very will but here wanted to add some key points.

Rendering parameters can be used to pass parameters to sitecore presentation components. Basically tey are used to control the presentation of the component by these parameters.

Key benefits:-

1.      No need to maintain content separately.

2.      Easy to use.

3.      Real feature of WYSWIG editor.

4.      Editorial team love it.

5.      Design at the design time and multiple variant/combination can be easily verified.

Steps-

Create a rendering.
Create a template and add appropriate fields like size ( Single line text) and Heading (Siingle Line text)
Change the base tempalate to standard rendering parameters.

         Now go to rendering section and provide the reference of this template.

         
      Now if we go to experience editor, this parameter will be there, Add the rendereing parameter values.

      These values can be consumed on the rendering by simply below code.

@using Sitecore.Web.UI.WebControls;

@using Sitecore.Web;

@{

    string heading = string.Empty, test = string.Empty;

    var renderingParam = Sitecore.Mvc.Presentation.RenderingContext.CurrentOrNull;

    if (renderingParam != null)

    {

        var parms = renderingParam.Rendering.Parameters;

        heading = parms["Heading"];

        test = parms["Test"];

    }