Sitecore Development / Kim Hornung

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-6 (rev. 120113)

2012-01-25T13:35:00.001+01:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.4.1 Update-6 (rev. 120113). Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-6 is a regular maintenance update with addresses a number of issues and also contains several improvements. The main highlights in this update are:

Some non-critical security vulnerability fixes
Access result cache fixes
Upload did not work in non-IE browsers (and in some cases also in IE9)
Various browser-specific issues
Various bugfixes
Linkprovider and media URL fixes and improvements
A couple of fixes and improvements related to Sitecore Analytics

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases 6.5.0 Update-3 (rev. 111230)

2012-01-04T11:27:00.000+01:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.5.0 Update-3 (rev. 111230).

The main highlight in this update is that it introduces support for running DMS on Oracle.

Also, this update resolves a performance issue that was introduced in 6.5 Update-1. The The issue mainly affected the Page Editor and Live Mode, but could also affect Content Editor performance and overall page response time.

Finally, the update resolves a couple of issues with serialization and with Engagement Analytics.
Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases 6.5.0 Update-2 (rev. 111123)

2011-11-30T12:23:00.000+01:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.5.0 Update-2 (rev. 111123).

Sitecore 6.5 Update-2 is a regular maintenance update with addresses a number of issues and also contains several improvements.

The main highlight in this update is that it introduces support for running the Sitecore user interfaces in Internet Explorer 9.

There are still a couple of known issues when running IE9 (see the IE9 known issue on SDN for details).
The main issue is that to use the Page Editor, Preview or Sitecore Debugger in IE9, you must enabled Compatibility View mode in IE.

In addition to IE9 support, this update addresses several important DMS and Engagement Automation issues, as well as a number of Page Editor fixes and improvements.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-5 (rev. 111003)

2011-10-18T12:35:00.001+02:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.4.1 Update-5 (rev. 111003).

Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-5 is a regular maintenance update with addresses a number of issues and also contains several improvements.

The main highlight in this update is that it introduces support for running the Sitecore user interfaces in Internet Explorer 9.

There are still a couple of known issues when running IE9 (see the IE9 known issue on SDN for details).
The main issue is that to use the Page Editor, Preview or Sitecore Debugger in IE9, you must enabled Compatibility View mode in IE.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-4 (rev. 110928)

2011-10-04T09:15:00.001+02:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore yesterday released 6.4.1 Update-4 (rev. 110928).

Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-4 is a regular maintenance update with addresses a number of issues and also contains several improvements.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

An update to the CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool

2011-09-05T18:15:00.000+02:00

I am to announce that we last week published an update to the CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool.

The Database Conversion Tool now upgrades Sitecore 5.3.2 solutions to Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-3.
Also, this release resolves a number of issues.

Release notes:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Resources/Tools/V53_to_V6/Release%20Notes.aspx

Download:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Resources/Tools/V53_to_V6/Download.aspx

Be sure to read the documentation before using this tool:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Resources/Tools/V53_to_V6/Documentation.aspx

Happy upgrading :-)

Sitecore releases 6.5.0 Update-1 (rev. 110818)

2011-08-25T18:18:00.000+02:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.5.0 Update-1 (rev. 110818).

Sitecore 6.5 Update-1 is a relatively small maintenance update which addresses a number of important issues.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

The CMS 6.4 to CMS 6.5 update instructions have been updated

2011-08-23T17:02:00.000+02:00

Since the release of CMS 6.5, we've made a couple of enhancements to the CMS 6.4 to CMS 6.5 update instructions on SDN.

On August 19th, we published a new version of the update package that is used to upgrade from CMS 6.4 to CMS 6.5:

The new package solves an issue with incorrect/missing workflow assignments on the standard values for the Page Event template.
It is recommended to use the new version of the package instead of the old one for upgrading, while solutions already upgraded with the old version of the update package should not be upgraded once again.

Also, we made a number of clarifications to the upgrade instructions a couple of weeks ago:

The instructions now present clear instructions for disabling Sitecore Analytics and modules that make use of Sitecore Analytics, as well as when to upgrade and re-enable the relevant modules.

Happy upgrading :-)

CMS 6.4.1 Update-3 is now the recommended version

2011-08-05T15:42:00.000+02:00

To all the people who subscribe to our "Issues and Patches" mailing list, I must apologize up-front for being lazy and simply copy/pasting the information from our newsletter...

The only extra thing that I can add is that we've (as part of this release) have published a new version of the Japanese distribution to fix a wrong phrase in the Sitecore start menu. The revision number of the Japanese distribution is therefore 110803, not 110720.

Sitecore CMS 6.4.1 Update-3 - New Recommended Version
Sitecore is proud to announce the availability of a new Recommended Version of CMS 6 (full version number: CMS 6.4.1 Update-3 rev. 110720). This release contains improvements that should be of interest to every Sitecore partner and customer.

Sitecore recommends this version for future installations in most cases, however, later version may be more appropriate in some cases, such as when your website requires or resolves some known issues that might affect your website, in which case it will be appropriate to install that version.

The new release is available for download at the Sitecore Developer Network:
Download 6.4.1 rev. 110720 (6.4.1 Update-3)

You can download the recommended version as either a full installation program or as a Sitecore update package that you can use to upgrade Sitecore installations that are based on previous releases.

Sitecore strongly recommends that customers and partners upgrade existing installations to this new release. The upgrade process involves using an automated installation wizard and applying a minimal number of manual configuration file changes.

For a full set of upgrade instructions, visit the 6.4.1 Update-3 download page.

Please note that customers running earlier releases of Sitecore that have had hotfixes applied should check with Sitecore Customer Service before performing the upgrade to ensure that the update package includes the changes applied by their hotfixes.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-3 (rev. 110720)

2011-07-27T18:11:00.000+02:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.4.1 Update-3 (rev. 110720), our 5th update since the 6.4 Technical Preview.

Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-3 is a small maintenance update with addresses a small number of important issues.
Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-2 (rev. 110621)

2011-06-30T16:58:00.000+02:00

I am happy to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.4.1 Update-2 (rev. 110621), our 4th update since the 6.4 Technical Preview.

Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-2 is a regular maintenance update with a lot of good stuff.

The update backports a large number of issues from 6.5 to 6.4.1, as well as resolving two additional issues (one related to the link database, and one related to the size of the rendering properties dialog box in the Developer Center).

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to the update.

Happy coding!

Sitecore releases CMS 6.5 and DMS 2.0

2011-06-08T16:50:00.000+02:00

As most of you have probably already realized, Sitecore has now officially released CMS 6.5 and DMS 2.0 (Digital Marketing System, formerly known as OMS). Together, these products make up the new Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform.

The release is a major milestone for Sitecore and our customers, bringing tons of new and exiting functionality to the market in some key areas, such as:

Inline personalization and multivariate testing right on the page using the Page Editor
Engagement automation that allow business users to build and manage integrated campaigns that flow across channels
Executive Insight Dashboard that allows business users to measure the qualitative value of their campaigns
Completely re-written analytics reports, optimized for better usability and also incorporating value metrics
Optimized and redesigned Analytics API and database schema
And much more

I can wholeheartedly recommend that you brew a nice cup of coffee, lean back and read through the extensive release notes - not only for the official release, but also for the Technical Preview from April, since all the good stuff from that release are also present in the official release.

And when you're ready, download, install, explore!

And as for modules? We have released new versions of Web Forms for Marketers, Seach Engine Optimization and Calendar, and the AD and CRM Integration modules have been tested and verified with CMS 6.5. A new version of Email Campaign Manager will follow in the next weeks.

Happy coding!

PS: Does this mean that we're no longer going to focus on 6.4 maintenance updates? Not at all. We have some good stuff coming up...

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-1 (rev. 110324)

2011-03-29T08:54:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, Sitecore released 6.4.1 Update-1 (rev. 110324), our 3rd update since the 6.4 Technical Preview.

Sitecore 6.4.1 Update-1 is a regular maintenance update with a lot of good stuff.

Highlights in this update:

The most imporant set of fixes and improvements in this update are related to the Media Library and the media API.
The setup.exe would fail on non-English operating systems (except from Danish and Japanese Windows installations).
Also, this update contains a number of fixes and improvements that were first released in 6.3.1.

As always, there's a number of additional fixes and improvements in this update, so be sure to check out the full release notes.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to this update

Updated Scaling Guide
As previously mentioned, we published a new version of the Scaling Guide for CMS 6.3 and 6.4 earlier this month.

If you're planning to implement multi-server setups with Sitecore CMS 6.3 or 6.4, you should make sure to grab a copy of the revised documentation:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Reference/Sitecore%206/Scaling%20Guide.aspx

SQL Server Replication
And to repeat myself some more: If you are setting up SQL Server Replication, make sure that to check out the updated version of the SQL Server Replication Guide which was published when 6.4.1 was released:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Reference/Sitecore%206/SQL%20Server%20Replication%20Guide.aspx

The updated documentation contains instructions for configuring SQL Server replication to replicate data in the EventQueue table after data from other tables (it's a simple step, but quite important).

CMS 6.3.1 is now the recommended version

2011-02-10T20:19:00.017+01:00

To all the people who subscribe to our "Issues and Patches" mailing list, I must apologize up-front for being lazy and simply copy/pasting the information from our newsletter...

The only extra thing that I can add is that we've (as part of this release) have fixed an issue in the setup.exe for 6.3.1 which could cause it to fail on non-English operating systems. So if you want to install 6.3.1 on a non-English version of Windows, make sure you to download the new setup.exe from SDN.

Sitecore CMS 6.3.1 - New Recommended Version
Sitecore is proud to announce the availability of a new Recommended Version of CMS 6 (full version number: CMS 6.3.1 rev. 110112). This release contains improvements that should be of interest to every Sitecore partner and customer.

Sitecore recommends this version for future installations in most cases, however, later version may be more appropriate in some cases, such as when your website requires or resolves some known issues that might affect your website, in which case it will be appropriate to install that version.

Important: If you are using Staging module for Sitecore CMS, it should be uninstalled when upgrading to Sitecore CMS 6.3. Refer to these instructions to uninstall the Staging module. Refer to this article for information about new features in Sitecore CMS that make the Staging module obsolete.

The new release is available for download at the Sitecore Developer Network:
Download 6.3.1 rev. 110112 (Initial release)

You can download the recommended version as either a full installation program or as a Sitecore update package that you can use to upgrade Sitecore installations that are based on previous releases.

Sitecore strongly recommends that customers and partners upgrade existing installations to this new release. The upgrade process involves using an automated installation wizard and applying a minimal number of manual configuration file changes.

For a full set of upgrade instructions, visit the 6.3.1 download page.

Please note that customers running earlier releases of Sitecore that have had hotfixes applied should check with Sitecore Customer Service before performing the upgrade to ensure that the update package includes the changes applied by their hotfixes.

I'm out of the office for the next 1½ weeks, so I'm afraid I won't be able to respond to any comments to this blog post. But I wish everyone joy with the new recommended version!

Sitecore releases 6.3.1 (rev. 110112)

2011-01-20T19:00:00.001+01:00

Today, Sitecore has released 6.3.1 (rev. 110112), our 4th update for CMS 6.3.

Sitecore 6.3.1 is a regular maintenance update. The version number has been changed from 6.3.0 to 6.3.1 because of some database schema changes in the EventQueue table.

Highlights in this update:

The most imporant set of fixes and improvements in this update are related to scaling and multi-instance setups (backported from 6.4.1)
Also, this update contains a number of fixes and improvements that were released in 6.2 Update-5 (and which were already merged to 6.4 as part of 6.4.0 Update-1). In other words, all CMS 6.2 updates have now fully been merged to 6.3, including the fixes and improvements to Lucene search.

As always, there's a number of additional fixes and improvements in this update, so be sure to check out the full release notes.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains download links for the full distribution, as well as instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to 6.3.1

Updated Scaling Guide for 6.3 and 6.4 available on SDN

2011-01-13T12:02:00.000+01:00

Today, we have published a new version of the Scaling Guide for Sitecore CMS 6.3 and 6.4:
http://sdn.sitecore.net/Reference/Sitecore%206/Scaling%20Guide.aspx

The Scaling Guide contains a lot of new information, and we've given the guide a complete overhaul to make it easier to get an overview of the typical scenario for scaling Content Management and Content Delivery environments, as well as describing various alternative scenarios and options to consider.

So if you're planning to implement multi-server setups with Sitecore CMS 6.3 or 6.4, you should make sure to grab a copy of the new guide.

Using non-recommended releases in production environment

2011-01-12T11:13:00.004+01:00

When I posted my note about the release of 6.4.1 yesterday, an interesting question was posted as a comment:

When to expect a 6.4.x recommended version (now 6.2) to use for production environments?

And the answer is easy: You don't have to wait for 6.4 to become recommended before using it in a production environment.

As we write on the Versioning Policy page on SDN:

Sitecore fully supports every new release including those that aren’t recommended versions.
Before you decide which version of Sitecore you should use on a new production environment, you should investigate the later, non-recommended versions. If there is a later version that contains some new features that your website requires or resolves some known issues that might affect your website, it makes very good sense to install that version.

Summmary
1) Sitecore fully supports new releases, including CMS 6.4
2) It's appropriate to go live on a non-recommended version/update if it contains features that your website requires or if if resolves some known issues hat might affect your website.

But if you are in doubt, then we recommend that you discuss this with your Sitecore partner before making a decision.

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 (rev. 101221)

2011-01-11T17:40:00.001+01:00

Today, Sitecore has released 6.4.1 (rev. 101221), our second update for CMS 6.4.

Sitecore 6.4.1 is a regular maintenance update. The version number has been changed from 6.4.0 to 6.4.1 because of some database schema changes in the EventQueue table.

The update contains a bunch of nice fixes and improvements in several areas of the product, including

Scaling and multi-instance setups
Multi-browser support
The Page Editor
The Rich Text Editor

But check out the full release notes - there's a ton of good stuff in this update.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to 6.4.1

Scaling Guide
To make SQL Server Replication work correctly, it's important that SQL Server replication is configured to replicate data in the EventQueue table after data from other tables. We are going to release an updated SQL Server Replication Guide with instructions for doing so (it's a simple step, but quite important).

Technical Preview
Oh, and as I'm sure you all know by now, Sitecore CMS 6.4 graduated from Technical Preview to General Availability on December 17th when a number of 6.4 compatible modules and additional documentation was published.

Sitecore releases 6.4 Update-1 (rev. 101124)

2010-11-29T10:16:00.004+01:00

Friday, Sitecore released 6.4 Update-1 (rev. 101124), our first update for CMS 6.4.

The update contains a bunch of nice fixes and improvements in several areas of the product, including the Page Editor and the Rich Text Editor.

Also, as mentioned in my previous blog post, 6.4 Update-1 brings all the fixes from previous CMS 6.2 and 6.3 updates into CMS 6.4, so that 6.4 now is fully up to par with 6.2 and 6.3.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains instructions for updating existing Sitecore solutions to 6.4 Update-1

Technical Preview
Please notice that CMS 6.4 is still in a Technical Preview state.

More CMS Updates Available

2010-11-16T14:08:00.005+01:00

During the last 1½ weeks, Sitecore has released yet another two CMS 6 updates.

November 4th, we released 6.3 Update-3 (rev. 101029) which contains a number of fixes related to scaling and multi-instance setups (in addition to some other fixes).

And November 11th, we released 6.2 Update-5 (rev. 101105) which fixes a number of issues (some of them already fixed in 6.3 Update-2 or 6.3 Update-3). In addition to this, the update contains a number of fixes and improvements related to Lucene search and the quick search function.

So why two updates so close to each other?
For these updates, we have once again decided to work in parallel instead of waiting for 6.2 Update-5 to be released, then wait x amount of time before we would have merged the changes into 6.3 Update-3.

Instead of incurring such a delay on the release of 6.3 Update-3, we felt that it was important to address the issues related to scaling and multi-instance setups.

And at the same time, we had a number of fixes that we would like to release for 6.2.

The next step will be to release a 6.4 Update-1 which rolls all of the fixes contained in the 6.2 and 6.3 updates into 6.4 (in addition to a number of other fixes and improvements). And at some point in the future, we expect to release a 6.3 Update-4 which will merge the Lucene/quick search fixes from 6.2 Update-5 to 6.3, as well as merging the new "ProfileItemDatabaseSetting".

What are the consequences of this?
If you are on 6.2 and plan to move to 6.3 soon, you should probably not install 6.2 Update-5 (since you'll "lose" the fixes that were resolved in this update in relation to Lucene and quick search, as well as the new "ProfileItemDatabaseSetting).

And as always, we recommend that you only update to a newer version if you need a fix or feature which is contained in one of the newer versions.

Questions or feedback? Drop a comment or mail me at kh at sitecore dot net.

A new CMS update was released this week

2010-10-14T13:29:00.002+02:00

This week, Sitecore released 6.3 Update-2.

Sitecore 6.3 Update-2 is a regular maintenance update which fixes various issues.

Also, the update merges the fixes that were resolved in 6.2 Update-4 to the 6.3 version so that the versions are once again in sync.

You can see the full details about what issues the update resolve on the CMS 6 Release History page on SDN.

Two CMS 6 Updates Released

2010-09-08T08:35:00.000+02:00

This week, Sitecore has released two CMS 6 updates. So let me use this opportunity to explain a bit about how they relate to each other.

Monday, we released 6.3 Update-1 which contains a number of fixes related to the Japanese localization of the CMS and the setup.exe.

And Tuesday, we released 6.2 Update-4 which is a regular "maintenance" update which fixes various issues.

You can see the full details about what issues these two updates resolve on the CMS 6 Release History page on SDN.

So why two updates so close to each other?
For these updates, we've decided to work in parallel instead of waiting for 6.2 Update-4 to be released, then wait x amount of time before we would have merged the changes into 6.3 Update-1.

Instead of incurring such a delay on the release of 6.3 Update-1, we're going to release a 6.3 Update-2 which will merge the fixes included into 6.2 Update-4 to 6.3. The 6.3 Update-2 will be released as soon as it is ready (no ETA yet, sorry guys).

What are the consequences of this?
This means that if you install 6.2 Update-4 and later move to 6.3, then you'll "lose" the fixes that were resolved in 6.2 Update-4.

But for all practical purposes, this should not affect many customers or partners. I for one would be surprised if a large number of customers decided to first move to 6.2 Update-4, then more or less immediately to 6.3 Update-1. But only time can tell how wise our decisions are.

Questions or feedback? Drop a comment or mail me at kh at sitecore dot net.

Sitecore releases 6.2 Update-3 (rev. 100701)

2010-07-07T17:21:00.003+02:00

Recently, Sitecore released 6.2 Update-2 (rev. 100507) which contains a large number of improvements and fixes. But since we didn't send out a newsletter and nobody really blogged about it, we were teased about doing the most silent release ever...

So let me be the first to announce that Sitecore today has released 6.2 Update-3 (rev. 100701) which is a maintenance release fixing a small number of issues.

Everything is already available on SDN, including:

The release notes which describes the improvements and fixes in this update
The update page which contains instructions and files to update existing Sitecore solutions to 6.2 Update-3

So where is my newsletter!?
I expect that this will be a relatively silent release as well - I don't expect that we'll send out a newsletter about this release. So don't worry about spam filters or flawed e-mail servers if you don't receive a newsletter about this update.

So are the newsletters about updates completely gone forever? Nope, we're definitely planning to start sending out newsletters again for all updates and releases, but expect to see less newsletters than normal for a while...

How to Move the Page Editor Ribbon

2008-12-16T12:24:00.005+01:00

Sitecore CMS 6 introduced the awesome Page Editor (along with the Page Designer and improved preview and debugging). When using the Page Editor etc., a ribbon is inserted on the page with relevant commands:

By default, the ribbon is inserted as the first element inside the server-side FORM-tag on the page, which means that in most situations the ribbon will fill the entire page width and be positioned at the very top of the page.

Moving the Page Editor Ribbon
But suppose you want to place the Page Editor Ribbon somewhere else on the page? How would you do that? The solution is luckily simple (although not necessarily very obvious).

You simply insert a placeholder with key="webedit" somewhere on a layout, sublayout or in a rendering. This will typically look like this:

Using this placeholder, you can for example place the Page Editor Ribbon in the top of the content area:

And that's it. The placeholder is used for both the Page Editor, the Page Designer, the Preview and the Debugger, so everything will show up in a consistent location on the website.

Happy coding :o)

CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool Released

2008-10-08T23:22:00.001+02:00

I am proud to announce that the CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool was officially released this week.

The tool can be found on SDN as usual:
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Resources/Tools/V53_to_V6.aspx

Be sure to read the documentation before using this tool. Most of the issues that was reported for the beta version have been fixed, but we still have a small number of known issues left.

Sitecore Intranet Portal 2.2 Released

2008-09-29T11:07:00.002+02:00

Sitecore Intranet Portal 2.2 was officially released on SDN last week:
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Products/Sitecore%20Intranet.aspx

This release is a great achievement for the SIP Team, and I wish to thank everyone who helped make this new release a reality both inside and outside Sitecore.

So far I've received some very positive feedback from the techical sales guys that I offered a pre-release version to try out. So I'm glad that our partners and customers now also can take advantage of all the new features and improvements in the product.

So have fun, no matter if you're installing the demo site or the clean distribution - or if you're simply curious and read through the release notes or the updated documentation.

Beta version of CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool

2008-08-29T18:19:00.005+02:00

It's a great pleasure for me to announce that a beta version of the CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool has just been published on SDN:
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Resources/Tools/V53_to_V6.aspx

New Features
The main improvements compared to the alpha version is that all the conversion steps now can be executed automatically instead of having to manually start each conversion step.

Also, we've implemented a small wizard that makes the user interaction more intuitive.

Fixed Issues
Please refer to the release notes on SDN for a list of improvements and fixed issues.

Known Issues
The list of known issues in the documentation has been updated based on the issues reported for the alpha version.

Updated Documentation
The documentation has been updated to reflect the user interface improvements.

CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool alpha2

2008-08-04T09:59:00.002+02:00

A new alpha of the CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool is available on SDN:
http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Resources/Tools/V53_to_V6.aspx

A single issue has been fixed: after a migration all presentation controls had the same "uid" in the Renderings field. This could lead to problems in the Page Editor if a rendering is placed multiple times inside the same placeholder.

Preview of CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool

2008-07-22T11:41:00.004+02:00

During the last months, I've been busy with several exiting projects. One of them is a tool to help Sitecore partners and customers to upgrade to Sitecore CMS 6.

So say hello to the "Sitecore CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool". As the name indicates, it will upgrade V5.3 databases (currently V5.3.1 rev. 071114 or newer) to V6.

Originally it was our aim to release this tool at the same date as V6, but we felt that quality and usability were more important so we decided to spend extra time and resources for the implementation.

We still have some work to do before the tool is as easy to use as we would like. But we also realize that many of our partners and customers are eager to learn more about the possible upgrade strategies to CMS 6.

Alpha release coming soon
Therefore, we have decided to make an alpha release available. The UI for the alpha is a bit more "rough" than the final version will be, and it takes more user interaction and manual procedures than the final version. Also, it has not gone through extensive testing yet.

So can you use the alpha for anything yet? Sure you can!

What the tool does
The tool can upgrade your V5.3.1 (or newer) databases to V6, so that you can start investigating at the complexity of upgrading to V6. Typically it takes ½-1 hour to convert databases if you have a bit of experience with the tool, so expect to use a couple of hours for the first attempts. Also, some of the operations (for example converting masters to branches and transferring archived and deleted items) can take considerable time if there is a lot of data to convert.

For sites that primarily use XSLT renderings, such as the Sitecore Starter Kit, they might run "out of the box" after the conversion. But for most solutions, you'll have to update your .NET code to make it compile (for example due to the changes in the security model between V5.3 and V6, but also to make the code output tags for use with the Page Editor which is often done by taking advantage of the new FieldRenderer class).

When to expect it?
We expect the alpha to be released on SDN by the end of this week.

Feedback
I look very much forward to the reactions from the community after the alpha is released. I expect it to be useful for a lot of people. But it is an alpha, so I also expect people to run into all sorts of problems.

For help with the alpha, I suggest that you use the SDN Forums.

You can submit bug reports to Sitecore Support who will forward them to the Project Team (don't expect an answer regarding the alpha - Sitecore Support will simply register the issue).

Performance of Sitecore Query

2007-08-30T18:30:00.000+02:00

As many Sitecore developers know, using Sitecore Query to retrieve items is a really powerful concept (if you don't know, have a look at http://sdn5.sitecore.net/Reference/Using%20Sitecore%20Query.aspx).

Sitecore Query allows you to write XPath-like expressions, so in a single line, you can for example retrieve all items based on a specific template, filtered by various field values:

Item[] activityItems = activityFolderItem.Axes.SelectItems("descendant::*[@@templatekey='intranet.activity' and (@title != '' or @corporatetitle != '' or @headline != '')]");

This is really cool!

But what about performance?
It turns out that the previous code snippet is not as efficient as it could be. The flexibility of Sitecore Query does come with a price.

I did some testing on a relatively small data set, and it turned out that:

The first time the code is executed, it took anywhere from 300ms to 1 second! [updated Aug. 31, 2007: the original test was performed with a debugger attached, without this the timings are more like 70-200 ms]
For subsequent executions, it took 3-7ms

So how to optimize the code?
The trick to optimize the code is to avoid the predicates. It is (at least with the current implementation of Sitecore Query) cheaper to simply return all descendants, then filter them with regular ASP.NET code:

Item[] activityItems = activityFolderItem.Axes.GetDescendants();
if (activityItems != null)
{
for (int i = 0; i < activityItems.Length; i++)
{
if (item.Template.Key == "intranet.activity" && (item["title"] != "" item["corporatetitle"] != "" item["headline"] != ""))
{

With this simple change, the code runs much better:

The first time the code is executed, it now takes 1-3ms [updated Aug. 31, 2007: this is not true, my test case was buggy. In fact, it takes almost as long as the original code - most of the time is spent fetching items from the database]
For subsequent executions, it now takes ½-1½ms

Your measurements might vary, but the difference should be significant - especially for the first execution.

Happy coding :o)

Understanding Sitecore's path cache

2007-08-01T15:05:00.000+02:00

Just a quick note about Sitecore's so-called "path cache". Knowing how it works enables you to write more efficient code.

Let's look at some code
I recently saw the following lines of code in a Sitecore solution that I was reviewing:

public Item GetReference(string referenceName)
{
Item root = Sitecore.Context.ContentDatabase.Items["/sitecore/content/home/references/"];
Sitecore.Diagnostics.Error.AssertObject(root, "References folder");
Item reference = root.Children[referenceName];
return reference;
}

So what's wrong with this code?
Actually, there's nothing wrong with the code seen from a coding point-of-view. I really like this approach where you assert that the references item actually exists.

But the above code isn't as efficient as it could be. And this becomes more and more apparent as the users add more and more subitems below the /references folder.

The problem with the code is the use of the Children[] collection. This is a potentially expensive operation, even if the collection of childs is cached (which it normally would be).

How can the code be improved?
A simple restructuring of the code can make it a bit more efficient - and the more subitems below /references, the larger a difference:

public Item GetReference(string referenceName)
{
Item reference = Sitecore.Context.ContentDatabase.Items["/sitecore/content/home/references/" + referenceName];
if (reference == null)
{
Item root = Sitecore.Context.ContentDatabase.Items["/sitecore/content/home/references"];
Sitecore.Diagnostics.Error.AssertObject(root, "References folder");
}
return reference;
}

Notice how we have gotten rid of accessing the Children collection, while stile checking whether the references folder exists (and yes, you might as well make an event handler to prevent the user from moving or deleting or renaming this, but that's a completely different discussion).

And why is this more efficient?
The first time you look up a referenceName, Sitecore will traverse the path and therefore also load the children. But when finding the item, the path and the corresponding item ID will be stored in the the "path cache", making any additional lookups for this referenceName lightening fast - no matter how many subitems there is below /references.

Conclusion: Taking advantage of Sitecore's path cache gives you better performance. You should of course NOT substitue this for structuring your subitems in a sensible way. But even with a reasonable amount of subitems, looking up items by their full path will be more efficient than accessing the Children[] collection of the parent item.

A Milestone for Sitecore Intranet Portal

2007-06-19T22:08:00.000+02:00

As some of you might know (at least the ones who are subscribing to the "Sitecore Issues and Patches" newsletter), we released the first patch for Sitecore Intranet Portal today.

This patch contains a number of small bug fixes, but more importantly it includes several significant performance improvements. The initial release wasn't really that slow except for a few specific scenarios, but it just didn't fly like the new one does (although there is always room for more optimizations, so expect even better performance in the future).

I've been quite involved in this release, so I look forward to hearing the reactions. Not that it is a huge patch, and we're already preparing yet another patch (and another and another) with improvements, bug fixes and new features.

My thanks go out to everyone in the team who has helped develop, test, coordinate, document and release this patch. And not least to our trusty partners and customers, who have notified us about several issues that we hadn't discovered ourselves yet.

By the way, we have an ambition of making the installation of SIP patches a smoother process in the future. But I'll save that for another blog entry (or maybe simply for the release of the next patch) so that I don't risk promising more than I can hold :o)

Detach multiple databases

2007-06-14T09:40:00.000+02:00

As part of my job, I often install new versions of Sitecore for testing, doing demonstrations, making proof-of-concepts, etc., etc. So over time, my SQL Server 2005 Express gets more and more databases attached.

This is not a problem in itself, but sometimes I like to clean things up, so the list of databases doesn't get too overwhelming. But I haven't found any way of detaching multiple databases in one operation. Quite annoying!

But now I found a tool that can do exactly what I need (and much more): Microsoft's SSEUtil.

With this command-line tool, I can simply execute a command like this to detach all databases in a specific folder:
sseutil -m -detach "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\scprinters151\Databases\*"

Or you can use the tool in console mode:
sseutil -m -c
1> !list
1. master
2. tempdb
3. model
4. msdb
5. c:\inetpub\wwwroot\scprinters3012\databases\sc53master.mdf
6. c:\inetpub\wwwroot\scprinters3012\databases\sc53core.mdf
(etc. etc.)

2> !detach "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\scprinters3012\*"
Detached 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\scprinters3012\databases\sc53master.mdf'
Detached 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\scprinters3012\databases\sc53core.mdf'
(etc. etc.)

Quick, easy, flexible. Makes me happy :o)

To read more about the tool, have a look at:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/12/15/433284.aspx

Notice: This article applies to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. Might also work with SQL Server 2005.

A note on multiple save events per save operation

2007-03-23T08:55:00.000+01:00

Recently I was fiddling around with the "item:save" event in Sitecore. And I noticed that in some situations, multiple save events are raised for a single save operation.

At that time, I simply figured that Sitecore’s UI might update different parts of the item in different operations (that does not make too much sense, but I was satisfied and yet again able to sleep at night).

But this week, I learned that this is implemented "by design".

What really happens is that Sitecore raises a save event for each version in all languages if you make any changes to a "shared" field (a field that only has one value for all versions in all languages). And if you make changes to a "versioned" field (a field that has one value per language), a save event will be raised for each version in the current language.

Fun with Standard Values and versioning

2007-03-05T15:17:00.000+01:00

Sitecore v5.3 introduced the concept of "Standard Values" which gives you dynamic, default values for the different data fields for each template in Sitecore. A really excellent feature that can be used for things like assigning masters to template, specifying default categories for news items, etc. etc.

At a recent SCD1 training, a developer asked me whether it is possible to create several versions for the standard values. In other words: Can you make the "fall-back" value change over time? Or just keep track of your previous standard values?

I was a bit sceptic, but Sitecore stores the standard values as any other item in Sitecore, so it might work.

So what happened?
I created a simple test case:

First I added some random text to version 1 of the Standard Values for the "Page" template of my trusty demo site

I tested that this worked as expected when showing a Preview (it did, which is hardly surprising since this is the normal way of using Standard Values)

Then I added a second version to the Standard Values and filled in some text

I opened a Preview and was happy to see that the version 2 values was displayed

Now the fun part: I entered a start date for version 2 in the "Publish Restrictions" dialog box so that version 2 was set to be published in a week from now. That gave a quite unexpected result!

After specifying the publishing date, the menu on my website suddenly looked like this:

Notice how "KH TEST" and "Company History" are still displaying their normal menu title, while all other menu items are displaying the data from the Standard Values.

But why does the Standard Values override the values for all these items???

It took me a few seconds to figure out what is happening:

When Sitecore resolves the fields for an item, it look for a Standard Value for all data fields that are NULL
Most of the items on the demo site has a NULL value for all the "Lifetime" fields (i.e. the fields that specify the publishing dates for each individual version)
Therefore, Sitecore will use the Standard Value for the "Liftetime" for all these items - and since the Standard Value has a publishing date in the future, Sitecore will not display the regular data in the fields (but will instead display any Standard Values for the data fields, disregarding the fact that publishing dates have been specified for the Standard Values item)

So what happens is very logical (maybe except for the fact that the standard values apparently doesn't respect publishing restrictions). But it was definitely not the result I expected :o)

Conclusion:

It is possible to create multiple versions for Standard Values in Sitecore (for example to keep a backup of the previous values), as long as you don't specify any publishing restrictions (such as specifying publishing dates for the most recent version of the Standard Values item).
Specifying publishing dates for Standard values will sooner or later lead to confusion!
All items with a "NULL" value in the publishing dates will use this date, and their regular content will only be available within the publishing dates that are specified for the Standard Values (outside this interval, older versions of the item will be displayed if they have explicit publishing dates specified - if no explicit publishing dates are specified for any versions, the Standard Values will be displayed instead).

The flexibility of Sitecore is simply a winner!

2006-12-15T08:56:00.000+01:00

In my mind, there is no doubt that the redesigned Content Editor in Sitecore v5.3 is many times more elegant, powerful and speedy compared to v5.1/5.2. I just love it!

But being an old, grumpy man, there a still a couple of things that I miss from the previous versions. One of them is the ability to allow administrators to easily switch to the "System" context root (also known as "/sitecore/system").

In Sitecore v5.1/5.2, switching to the "System" section was done by selecting it in the top part of the Content Editor (the so-called treecrumb):

In Sitecore v5.3, the "/sitecore/system" node is available directly in the Content Editor:

But in v5.3, you must go to the "View" tab in the ribbon and select that you want to see "Entire Tree" and "Hidden Items" in order for the /sitecore/system node to be available. This can seem a bit cumbersome for the average administrator (in terms of "number of mouse clicks") - especially since the average administrator probably want to switch off "Entire Tree" and "Hidden Items" after the task is done, so that they can keep their Content Editor sleek and uncluttered.

So what does the smart Sitecore Developer do?

Well, there is actually a nice, elegant way of solving this in v5.3. The solution is simply to add "System" as an application in the bottom part of the Content Editor.

When implemented (see steps below), selecting the new "System" application will look something like this:

Advantages:
1) "System" will be available with a single mouse-click for selected users
2) The users doesn't have to mess with the settings on the "View" tab
3) You can hide the extra application for regular users by setting security on the item
4) It only takes 2 minutes!

How to do this
You can create the new "System" application by following these steps:

Switch to the "core" database
Navigate to "/sitecore/system/settings/content editor/applications"
Duplicate the "ContentEditorForm" node and rename it to "SystemForm"
Enter "System" in the "Header" field
Enter "/sitecore/shell/Applications/Content Manager/Default.aspx?ro=/sitecore/system&he=System&ic=People/16x16/workstation1.png" in the "Source" field
Save
Optionally set security for the new item to hide it from regular users

Happy Sitecore Development to you all :o)

What to expect from this blog?

2006-10-22T01:12:00.000+02:00

I'm quite busy at the moment (probably not very suprising - who in the IT business aren't busy these days!?), but as a teaser, here is a list of some of the articles that I would like to write as soon as I find the time:

How to implement your own ribbon commands in Sitecore v5.3 (but this might as well end up as a scrapbook article)
A simple way to override Sitecore login box
Use case 1: You want to retrieve back-end users from a custom data storage such as a CRM system
Use case 2: Back-end users are stored in multiple different locations (AD, Notes, Sitecore)
Strategies for performance optimizations and troubleshooting
This would most likely be links to existing SDN5 articles about IIS content expiration, Microsoft LogParser, caching, the rendering statistics API in Sitecore v5.3, etc.

Introduction

2006-10-22T00:49:00.000+02:00

Welcome to yet another Sitecore blog.

My name is Kim Hornung, and I have been working as a solution architect in Sitecore Denmark since January, 2006.

I'm curently working with pre-sales (giving demonstrations to potential partners and customers, training developers, giving support to Danish partners, and etc.) I am also involved in more technically challing tasks such as performance troubleshooting, and lately I've been spending quite a bit of time testing the soon-to-be-released v5.3 (which is really exciting!). From time to time, I also get to do a bit of website implementation and various proof-of-concepts.

Sitecore Development / Kim Hornung

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-6 (rev. 120113)

Sitecore releases 6.5.0 Update-3 (rev. 111230)

Sitecore releases 6.5.0 Update-2 (rev. 111123)

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-5 (rev. 111003)

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-4 (rev. 110928)

An update to the CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool

Sitecore releases 6.5.0 Update-1 (rev. 110818)

The CMS 6.4 to CMS 6.5 update instructions have been updated

CMS 6.4.1 Update-3 is now the recommended version

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-3 (rev. 110720)

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-2 (rev. 110621)

Sitecore releases CMS 6.5 and DMS 2.0

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 Update-1 (rev. 110324)

CMS 6.3.1 is now the recommended version

Sitecore releases 6.3.1 (rev. 110112)

Updated Scaling Guide for 6.3 and 6.4 available on SDN

Using non-recommended releases in production environment

Sitecore releases 6.4.1 (rev. 101221)

Sitecore releases 6.4 Update-1 (rev. 101124)

More CMS Updates Available

A new CMS update was released this week

Two CMS 6 Updates Released

Sitecore releases 6.2 Update-3 (rev. 100701)

How to Move the Page Editor Ribbon

More SIP Documentation Available

CMS 5.3 to CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool Released

Sitecore Intranet Portal 2.2 Released

Beta version of CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool

CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool alpha2

Preview of CMS 6 Database Conversion Tool

Performance of Sitecore Query

Understanding Sitecore's path cache

A Milestone for Sitecore Intranet Portal

Detach multiple databases

A note on multiple save events per save operation

Fun with Standard Values and versioning

The flexibility of Sitecore is simply a winner!

What to expect from this blog?

Introduction