[{"sys":"1","total":2,"skip":0,"limit":12,"items":"2","includes":"3"},{"type":"4"},["5","6"],{"Entry":"7","Asset":"8"},"Array",{"metadata":"9","sys":"10","fields":"11"},{"metadata":"12","sys":"13","fields":"14"},["15","16","17","18","19","20","21","22","23"],["24","25"],{"tags":"26"},{"space":"27","id":"28","type":"29","createdAt":"30","updatedAt":"31","environment":"32","revision":48,"contentType":"33","locale":"34"},{"title":"35","teaserImage":"25","teaserSummary":"36","body":"37","author":"18","date":"38","tagsCloud":"39","category":"19"},{"tags":"40"},{"space":"41","id":"42","type":"29","createdAt":"43","updatedAt":"44","environment":"45","revision":6,"contentType":"46","locale":"34"},{"title":"47","body":"48","author":"18","date":"49","relatedArticles":"50","tagsCloud":"51","category":"19"},{"metadata":"52","sys":"53","fields":"54"},{"metadata":"55","sys":"56","fields":"57"},{"metadata":"58","sys":"59","fields":"60"},{"metadata":"61","sys":"62","fields":"63"},{"metadata":"64","sys":"65","fields":"66"},{"metadata":"67","sys":"68","fields":"69"},{"metadata":"70","sys":"71","fields":"72"},{"metadata":"73","sys":"74","fields":"75"},{"metadata":"76","sys":"77","fields":"78"},{"metadata":"79","sys":"80","fields":"81"},{"metadata":"82","sys":"83","fields":"84"},[],{"sys":"85"},"6gwy5tVDDr7PCOlaiN93eW","Entry","2019-09-12T13:44:54.873Z","2021-10-28T15:26:03.706Z",{"sys":"86"},{"sys":"87"},"nl","Application Initialization for Sitecore on PaaS. Hot swapping made easy!","In this blog post, I will explain how the Application Initialization module works and why it is essential for Sitecore environments during scaling operations and slot swapping without downtime.","__In this blog post, I will explain how the Application Initialization module works and why it is essential for Sitecore production environments during scaling operations and slot swapping without downtime (known as hot swapping). Furthermore, I will show you how to enable the application initialization module in your solution step by step keeping your web.config neat.__\n\nThis blog is for all Sitecore Solutions running on Azure PaaS and especially very beneficial for apps that:\n\n- Scale horizontally(in/out) multiple times per day\n- Swap slots during high load\n\nGenerally, you want zero downtime deployment for new versions of your application. There have been times that you want to deploy a new release to your production environment during peak hours or that the current amount of servers is not enough to handle the load and your webApps need to scale out in order to handle the incoming requests. In times like these, you want your scaling and swap operations to leave the user experience intact, and in order to achieve this, you need to prepare (warmup) your environment before it starts receiving requests.\n\n## What is it and how it works\nWhat is it? The AppInit(Application Initialization) module is an IIS feature to help you warm up a website before it starts receiving actual requests from users.\n\nHow the application Initialization module actually works? The only thing you need to do is specify a list of endpoints in your web.config that you want to “hit” in order to warmup your website. When a website is starting up, the module starts pinging all the endpoints (one by one) in the configuration in the specified order and waits for a response from the server. The module does not require a successful response to proceed in the next endpoint, so any response (even a 500!) is sufficient to go on. It might be a good idea to create some custom endpoints in your application for a better warmup\nOne thing to note is that the AppInit(Application Initialization) module cooperates with the internal load balancer and along with the [LOCAL_CACHE](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-local-cache) setting. When local cache is enabled, the swap operation waits for the local cache to be filled and the AppInit module to finish. For common issues with slot swapping check out [this blog](https://ruslany.net/2017/11/most-common-deployment-slot-swap-failures-and-how-to-fix-them/).\n\n## Application Initialization during swap operations\nHow the AppInit modules works during a swap operation between a staging and a production slot:\n\n![Swap1](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/3b6E5AxvSeRojuK4c1TeaD/45d1b2637df57fe73f86f9409929d458/Swap1.png)\n\nFigure 1a: A swap operation is initiated(STAGING -> PRD) after successfully deploying and testing the new release to the staging slot.\n\n![Swap2](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/Lp5beSzTwJJYZerELY5VW/270607156e0da1e92e44e30264b0051a/Swap2.png)\n\nFigure 1b: The production settings are applied in the staging slot, which causes the restart of the staging slot instances.\n\n![Swap3](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/7eiwW4y4C7awDoDpoSbhhS/b2920b3b9e50063c899d4663aed7390b/Swap3.png)\n\nFigure 1c: The AppInit module kicks in and starts warming up the instances, by doing a request to each one of the endpoints defined in the configuration file.\n\n![Swap4](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/5wJAAoGqKaLhgJ9L2i2ypD/10ad183089710f4ac0db563a8be80707/Swap4.png)\n\nFigure 1d: The AppInit module finishes and the instances are warmed up. The load balancer gets notified.\n\n![Swap5](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/3eD5DZgLQH0w4Kuc9nj8H6/341cf5a43101a0efa7cfcbc099cf2edc/Swap5.png)\n\nFigure 1e: The swap operation finishes and the users are redirected to the “new” production environment. The previously production slot(left) now gets the settings of the staging slot. This causes a restart and the instances are in a cold state. The AppInit module will start on the staging slot instances as well until all the endpoints are hit and the staging slot is also warmed up.\n\n## Application Initialization during scaling operations\nHow the AppInit module works during a scale-out operation:\n\n![Scale1](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/3mq87Nl5jk9KfT8pGq0kZi/b9ea3dfb743c3cab07263335bf077861/Scale1.png)\n\nFigure 2a: A scale-out operation is initiated because of extra load on the time being (scale-out by two instances).\n\n![Scale2](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/2xcaQ7joMbho9jhgOKyCaj/25c0845026e8959ad476f557f09ae161/Scale2.png)\n\nFigure 2b: The two new instances come in the instance pool. The load balancer knows that the AppInit module is not finished on those instances yet and thus, the two new instances do not receive any requests yet.\n\n![Scale3](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/4cLjPnrF3x3kaRdiA3IoJ0/bbe04ac83658377668392f7b1ccb14a6/Scale3.png)\n\nFigure 2c: The AppInit module start hitting the endpoints defined in the configuration file in order to warmup the new instances.\n\n![Scale4](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/7I4jKQfGoYC9gmBIJxTEVa/8a2a7eff10d9cbe9ffe58ad26974a2be/Scale4.png)\n\nFigure 2d: The AppInit module hit all the endpoints in one of the instances and now this instance is considered warmed up and ready to receive requests. The load balancer gets notified and starts sending requests to this instance as well.\n\n![Scale5](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/7antTdLJ8OXvHGbIas9WP6/69854375bff8ebc50e173d6b1fd9abc5/Scale5.png)\n\nFigure 2e: Same as figure 2d, for the second new instance.\n\n![Scale6](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/1k2kJPgtYcvmCxc2RM87Y6/0c5bb294e5af913a26d3fc8c04e5d8bf/Scale6.png)\n\nFigure 2f: All the new instances are warmed up and are receiving requests from the load balancer.\n\n__Note:__ There is no actual “New Instances” instance pool. The new instances are joining the same instance pool and the load balancer decides if they are receiving any requests or not. The two boxes(left: PRD, right: New instances) is only for illustration purposes.\n\n## Setting up the configuration files\nTo keep the web.config clean, we will create a file that contains all the endpoints that we want to be hit by the AppInit(Application Initialization) module and then, inside the web.config we will add a reference to this file. To achieve this you can follow the steps below.\n\n1) First create the applicationInitialization configuration and place it in its own file inside App_Config folder.\n\nThe name of the file is: “Mirabeau.ApplicationInitialization.config”\n\n```xml\n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\n```\n\n- The `` is an optional Boolean attribute: Specifies that the initialization process is initiated automatically whenever an application restart occurs. The default value is false.\n- The `` is an optional Boolean attribute. Specifies whether the managed modules are loaded (false) or not loaded (true) during initialization. The default value is false.\n- The `` is an optional String attribute. Specifies a page to remap a request to during application initialization.\n\nFor more information on this topic, you can visit the following [Microsoft docucment.](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/iis/configuration/system.webserver/applicationinitialization/)\n\nTo achieve the best warmup of your application, you should add as many endpoints as possible in this file. The more the merrier, but be aware that as your “Mirabeau.ApplicationInitialization.config” grows in endpoints, the slower your scale/swap process will be. This is not a bad at all, it means that your application will be in a good state to receive requests from the users, so do not worry about it.😀\n\nThe last endpoint (“warmup.aspx” in the example above) can be used to write a file in the logs, indicating that the current instance is warmed up (example: warmup.Timestamp.txt). This comes handy when you want to make sure that the new instance is ready or you want to find out how long does the warmup takes.\n\n2) In the web.config, add a custom `` inside the ``:\n\n```xml\n\n \n

\n \n\n```\n\n3) Add the applicationInitialization node in the web.config under `` \n\n```xml\n\n```\n\n*If your website requires SSL, then the AppInit module will not work out of the box. Check out this [post](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2843964/application-initialization-module-fails-when-web-site-requires-ssl) from MS on how to setup a URL rewrite rule to workaround this limitation of the module.\n\n![table](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/7tXsGrUMfH5JxGbqQJDGDe/b127aa7fde3ca9001ef5a3233402a575/table.png)\n\nRead all our Sitecore blogs [here.](https://blog.mirabeau.nl/nl/tagged/Sitecore/)","2019-09-08T00:00+02:00",["17","23","15"],[],{"sys":"88"},"71RCKyisnBT6UnjnCOeMxL","2019-04-15T08:07:46.429Z","2021-10-28T10:17:17.321Z",{"sys":"89"},{"sys":"90"},"Sitecore performance tweaks","__To achieve a good customer experience, the performance of your Sitecore based digital platform is an elementary subject. This Blog is intended for Sitecore developers or architects and I will address some of the basics around the Sitecore caching and some of the best practices that you can follow to boost the performance of your Sitecore solution. My goal is to expose all the tools and knowledge that is necessary to start improving your Sitecore website performance!__\n\nWhile working for a client, we decided to migrate from Sitecore 8.1 to 9.0.2 and combine this migration with a change in hosting architecture. Our website was running on IaaS resources and we decided to move to PaaS. This was a big step forward, however with many challenges on the way!\n\nBefore swapping the IaaS production environment with the PaaS, we did a couple of load tests to get a feeling on the performance of our new PaaS environments. The outcome was not as good as we were expecting, so we started investigating on all the possible performance tweaks we could possibly apply.\n\nTo simplify things, when I am referring to cache I mean in-memory cache which refers to a memory space in RAM.\n\n## Sitecore caching structure\nIt is important to undestand the structure of the Sitecore caches, what the purpose of each cache layer is and why you should use them.\n\n## Why use cache?\nThe point of using caches is related to the fact that the communication between the client(browser) and the databases is relatively slow. The closer you get to the database, the growth in memory access time can be exponential, which makes it far worse than a linear growth! Imagine every call from the user in the browser doing a search in the database to fetch the required items! A heavy process would be initiated in the background to fetch all these items, while the user was waiting for a response.\nTo make this process a bit faster, we can leverage the caches, that actually bring all these items a bit “closer”(compared to the databases) to the client and make the whole process a lot faster. You may be wondering: \n\n## Why don’t we place all the items in the cache?\nAnswer: Well there are many reasons that prevent us from doing so. The main reason is that we want the cache size to be relatively small (I will explain below in details). Another reason might be that we cannot actually fit all our data inside the caches. The software caches are actually located in the RAM of the machine that hosts our website and the maximum size of all the caches combined is limited to the amount of available RAM – keep in mind that a part of the RAM is reserved/occupied by the OS and other services running in the machine.\n\n## Why there are many different layers of cache?\nThere are multiple layers of cache that grow in volume as you go further away from the client. In order to explain the reason behind this, it’s important to mention that as the cache size grows, the latency to find the data in the cache gets higher as well. Searching for data inside a cache is done with a Linear Search and therefore the time complexity is O(N), where N is the amount of items in the cache. As N grows inside the cache, the searching time grows as well! It is clear now that the less items are stored in the cache; the faster it is to retrieve a single item from within the cache. Finally we can answer the question: *”Why there are many different layers of cache”*. When a request comes in, we want to search in the cache to check if the items that will be used to create the response exist. We want to respond to the user as fast as possible so we want a really fast cache in the first layer. If we cannot find what we are looking for on this layer, we have another layer of cache to look into, which is bigger than the first (and thus a bit slower). The searching for the required items in the cache goes on in the rest cache layers until we reach the DB.\n\nOne important thing to note down here is that the purpose of the HTML cache is to store HTML parts that have already been created. It doesn’t store the required data to produce the HTML but the actual result. This removes the CPU overhead to recreate a piece of HTML. Thus, when you use the HTML cache, you save time and resources as well – kill two birds with one stone!\n\n![Sitecore performance - caching](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/vcFGyR3uF05WnlbYkf0OL/9158c311650ae9466f967f4b72ff6a4e/Screenshot_2019-04-12_13.05.14.png)\n\nThe design of HTML cache –which is the closest to the client– is to maximize the hit rate (the probability of the desired data being in the cache) while keeping the cache latency as low as possible. The Item cache –which comes next in the hierarchy– is much larger, and is designed to minimize the miss penalty (the delay incurred when a HTML cache miss happens). The same principle applies to the rest of the cache layers.\n\n## Is it a good practice to follow the pyramid design of the cache layers?\nYES! We explained in the previous paragraph what determines how fast a cache can be and how tightly coupled is the size with the performance of the cache. In the first layer of cache which is the closest to the client we want a small/fast cache, in the second layer a bigger cache but still fast… This results to a pyramid shaped design for the cache layers which turns out to be the most efficient.\n\n## How to setup the perfect patch for Sitecore caches\nYou will need two things in order to setup the patch file: \n1.\tPrepare a simple load test that requests the most important pages of your website, \n2.\tOpen the Cache Administration Page of your Sitecore instance (\"hostname\"/Sitecore/admin/cache.aspx) and keep it open on the side.\n\nYou need to identify some of the most important caches that need to be configured properly and configure their initial size to at least 100MB. Let’s use web DB as an example and set the size of Data and Item caches to 100MB each.\n\n![Picture1](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/6VLHZvFJx25o6V3U8CngsH/616f87e1e230cbc76ed332686ba660a4/Picture1.png)\n\nWhile running the load test, monitor the cache utilization and especially the __Delta__ column. The Delta is the approximate change in the size of the cache since the last refresh of the cache administration page.\n\n__- If the Delta for a cache fluctuates constantly, or if the size of the cache is consistently above 80% of the size limit, then increase the size of the cache by at least 50%.__\n\nExample: Cache size limit: 300MB and current utilization is 290MB. (290MB / 300MB) \\* 100% ~= 97% which is bigger than 80%. The size of the cache should be increased to 450MB. (300MB + 300MB \\* 50%) \n\n__- If a cache size seems to be a lot bigger than necessary, then reduce the size of this cache so that the maximum value found during load is around 65%-75% of the total cache size.__\n\nExample: cache size limit = 300MB and maximum value during load test is 70MB. The size limit of this cache should be 100MB\n\nYour patch file should like this one:\n\n```xml\n \n \n \n \t\n \n \n 100MB\n 50MB\n 1MB\n 20MB\n 1MB\n \n \n \n \n \n 1GB\n 500MB\n 10MB\n 50MB\n 10MB\n \n \n \n \n \n 2GB\n 1GB\n 10MB\n 50MB\n 10MB\n \n \n \n \n \n``` \n\n## Cache size vs Performance\nAfter setting up the patch file for the caches size, you might wonder if the size of you cache is too big or too small, if the size is actually affecting the performance of you website or not... Unfortunately, there is no golden ratio for this! The reason is that every Sitecore solution differs and the same applies for the items stored in the database of each solution.\n\nFor example, let’s that assume that we have 2 Sitecore solutions A and B. The Item that we use the most in solution A is Item A with a size of 0.5GB (I am exaggerating a bit for the sake of the example) and the item we use the most in solution B is Item B with size of 1MB. If we have set the size of Item Cache to 1.5GB that means that for solution A we can store 3 Item A items, and for solution B we can store 1500 item B items. In the scenario where both caches are fully occupied with items, finding an item in the Item Cache of solution A is faster compared to solution B (remember that the cache size is the same in both solutions). So retrieving an item from cache is faster but the price you pay is in the amount of items you are able to store in the cache. \n\nAnother important thing to notice is that we are using software implemented caches! The performance of software is tightly coupled with the hardware (+OS and everything that might interfere with execution time) that our software is running on. Since it is recommended to host your website in dedicated environments, you should not worry about this too much, but it is good to keep it in mind. \n\n## To conclude\nThe optimum cache size (on each layer) is dependent on the structure of each solution, the type/size of the most commonly used items and the hosting environment. After spending some time on executing load tests with different parameters, you can find what suits best for your custom solution.\n\nIn my next blog post I will analyze performance tweaks/best practices with focus on Sitecore instances running on Azure PaaS. \n","2019-04-15T00:00+02:00",["21","16","20"],["22","23","17"],{"tags":"91"},{"space":"92","id":"93","type":"29","createdAt":"94","updatedAt":"94","environment":"95","revision":1,"contentType":"96","locale":"34"},{"title":"97"},{"tags":"98"},{"space":"99","id":"100","type":"29","createdAt":"101","updatedAt":"102","environment":"103","revision":7,"contentType":"104","locale":"34"},{"title":"105","body":"106","author":"107","date":"108","relatedArticles":"109","tagsCloud":"110","category":"19"},{"tags":"111"},{"space":"112","id":"113","type":"29","createdAt":"114","updatedAt":"114","environment":"115","revision":1,"contentType":"116","locale":"34"},{"title":"117"},{"tags":"118"},{"space":"119","id":"120","type":"29","createdAt":"121","updatedAt":"121","environment":"122","revision":1,"contentType":"123","locale":"34"},{"name":"124","avatar":"24"},{"tags":"125"},{"space":"126","id":"127","type":"29","createdAt":"128","updatedAt":"129","environment":"130","revision":3,"contentType":"131","locale":"34"},{"title":"132","categoryId":"133"},{"tags":"134"},{"space":"135","id":"136","type":"29","createdAt":"137","updatedAt":"138","environment":"139","revision":7,"contentType":"140","locale":"34"},{"title":"141","body":"142","author":"143","date":"144","relatedArticles":"145","tagsCloud":"146","category":"19"},{"tags":"147"},{"space":"148","id":"149","type":"29","createdAt":"150","updatedAt":"151","environment":"152","revision":8,"contentType":"153","locale":"34"},{"title":"154","body":"155","author":"156","date":"157","relatedArticles":"158","tagsCloud":"159","category":"19"},{"tags":"160"},{"space":"161","id":"162","type":"29","createdAt":"163","updatedAt":"163","environment":"164","revision":1,"contentType":"165","locale":"34"},{"title":"166"},{"tags":"167"},{"space":"168","id":"169","type":"29","createdAt":"170","updatedAt":"170","environment":"171","revision":1,"contentType":"172","locale":"34"},{"title":"173"},{"tags":"174"},{"space":"175","id":"176","type":"177","createdAt":"178","updatedAt":"178","environment":"179","revision":1,"locale":"34"},{"title":"124","description":"180","file":"181"},{"tags":"182"},{"space":"183","id":"184","type":"177","createdAt":"185","updatedAt":"185","environment":"186","revision":1,"locale":"34"},{"title":"187","file":"188"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"195"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"195"},[],{"sys":"196"},"1STVrBfdYAMquK226UCOOc","2015-11-19T07:24:08.508Z",{"sys":"197"},{"sys":"198"},"Cloud",[],{"sys":"199"},"1joSeUEqlOuC2iqa2wUsAE","2018-06-19T15:15:53.251Z","2021-10-28T12:36:02.859Z",{"sys":"200"},{"sys":"201"},"How to create clear features by using the Sitecore Helix structure","__Because there are some challenges when implementing Sitecore Helix I would like to propose a way of working to help dividing a Sitecore application into features properly.__\n\nFor two main reasons Sitecore introduced Sitecore Helix as an architectural way of working to support building Sitecore web applications in a proper way.\n\n-\tBuild your application using a ‘clean’ architecture\n-\tLet the community build Sitecore based applications in the same way so developers can be interchanged\n\n![Sitecore logo](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/2Akivqgf2IausSiu2y44wi/648a402090b473446c1c2a5c77878eeb/sitecore_logo)\n\nSitecore’s documentation is excellent and rather complete - except maybe the Habitat example might create some confusion - and by reading one should understand that a feature is a deviation based on business goals.\n\nHowever, in my daily work I see many developers struggle in deciding how to divide their work in features. I have seen many features that where actually technical or functional representations. In some cases, I saw that developers had difficulties in seeing the difference between a feature and a component.\n\nWhat does the Sitecore documentation exactly say about features?\n\n1. The feature layer contains concrete features of the solution as understood by the business owners and editors of the solution, for example news, articles, promotions, website search, etc.\n2. The features are expressed as seen in the business domain of the solution and not by technology.\n\n## How to help Developers and their team?\nMore often, it will happen that a development team receives a visual and a functional design of an application. Most likely, there will be some explanation done by the business. Planning and scheduling of the work is done by the business, project managers and so on.\n\nHowever, the development team does the technical division of the work. When working in the Helix way this is not effective enough. The division should be business based so the development team should talk intensively with the business people. Put effort in understanding the business. It is not that easy.\n\n## Asking Questions\nIn order to help the development team to design features based on business goals I have created a method based on Questions. The first goal of these questions is to help designing the features. The second goal of the questions is to test whether the designed Features are truly business based.\n\nPlease keep in mind that I do not pretend to create the perfect method. It is an attempt to support the community and I hope this way of working will improve in the future. Feedback is very appreciated. \n \n\n## The feature creation method \n\n### Task 1: Define the prime business goal of the application to create\n\n*What is the business goal of the application you are going to build? Discuss this question with the business and get a clear answer. While discussing, it’s important not to think about technical questions at all. It will distract you to understand what the business has to say.*\n\nIt is good to have an exploring discussion. Ask more questions to find an answer. However, take care that eventually the answer to the question has to be a short and clear definition.\n\n### Task 2: Divide your application into separate Feature parts that represent business value on its own\n*Divide the business goals of the application in logical separate parts that still present business value. Every business part will become a feature.*\n\nThe next questions will guide you through this proces and will help to decide whether your approach is done correctly.\n\n__-\tHow does the feature help to achieve the business goal defined in the previous task?__\n\nWhen you are not able to answer this question, it is very likely that the name of the feature and/or the planned content of the feature is not correct. Reconsider.\n\n__-\tWhat value has the separated designed feature to the business goal as defined in the previous task?__\n\nWhen you are not able to answer this question, it is very likely that the name of the feature and/or the planned content of the feature is not correct. Reconsider.\n\n__-\tIs it potentially possible to release the feature separately? __\n\nYou do not have to actually ship the feature separately. However, thinking about a feature as a shippable part will help you to create a logical deviation.\n\n__-\tA feature will most likely consist of multiple components. Is it logical to group the presumably to create components in this feature?__\nYou might conclude that the later question is not applicable. In that case, you might have to group features into one feature or create extra features. In all cases, the first three questions have to apply to every feature separately.\n\n### An example\nI wrote this blog based on real life experiences, during a project where I concluded that the separation was not as well implemented as it could have been, So.. I tested my proposed method.\n\n__Task 1: Define the prime business goal of the application to create __\n\nI interviewed a representative of the business and asked the question:\n\n__What is the business goal of the application we are going to build?\n__\n\nWe talked about several goals we try to achieve by building the application. However, we were capable of defining the prime goal of the application: *“The website we are going to create is a web shop that sells vacations”*\n\n__Task 2: Divide your application into separate feature parts that represent business value on its own__\n\nTogether with the business representative I came to the following separation: Exploration, Accommodation Search, Accommodation Detail, Commercial presentation.\n\n### The questions:\nBecause this is an example, I will wright down the answers to these questions only regarding the first two features. Because I used these questions while dividing the business goal in separate parts, the answers on all questions regarding the features are confirmative. \n\nFeature “Exploration”\n__-\tHow does the feature help to achieve the business goal defined in the previous task?__\nBefore people book a vacation, they want to explore options. What type of vacation do we want? Where do we want to go? Which options is in our price range? When people know, what they are looking for it is more likely they are going to find a vacation they want to book. \n\n__-\tWhat value does the separated designed Feature add to the business goal as defined in the previous task?__\nWhen people can explore vacation options with success, it is likely that they book a vacation. That is the goal of our website. \n\n__-\tIs it potentially possible to release the Feature separately? __\nYes. The components we want to create for exploring vacations are different from other components. Exploring is an important part of the customer journey a visitor of our website will make. Therefore, it is important to be able to give this a specific touch. It could be possible to release this separately.\n\n__-\tA feature will most likely consist of multiple components. Is it logical to group the presumably to create components in this feature?__\nYes. The components are different from other components. They belong together. It could be helpful in measuring the success of these components as a group. So grouping the components together seems logical \n\nFeature “Accommodation Search”\n__-\tHow does the Feature help to achieve the business goal defined in the previous task?__\nPeople buy vacations as a package. Flights and other items can be a part of the vacation. However, the main item people book on our website are accommodations. When people easily find the accommodation they are looking for, it’s more realistic they will actually book the vacation.\n\n__-\tWhat value does the separated designed feature add to the business goal as defined in the previous task?__\nWhen visitors easy find what they are looking for and they do not have to spend much time on searching they will have more focus on the information about their desired accommodation. The chance that they actually book the vacation will increase.\n\n__-\tIs it potentially possible to release the feature separately? __\nYes. The components we want to create for searching are specific. It is possible to release them separately.\n\n__-\tA feature will most likely consist of multiple components. Is it logical to group the presumably to create components in this feature?__\nYes. They belong together. It could be helpful in measuring the success of these components as a group. So grouping the components together seems logical.\n\n## Conclusion \nI have created this method for designing Sitecore features in a consistent way and tested with a customer which helped me a lot. Not only are the designed features based on clients business, in addition, the number of features to create decreased substantial. As a result, this creates a more clear and consistent application design. For sure the method I propose can be improved and therefor looking forward to your comments.\n",{"sys":"202"},"2018-06-19T00:00+02:00",["21","203","204"],["22","23","17"],[],{"sys":"205"},"2ToLnN8ck0GuuSesUC8CcG","2018-04-05T08:13:48.350Z",{"sys":"206"},{"sys":"207"},"Sitecore",[],{"sys":"208"},"34jbvh1Pi3w5Fu6vdpeHL3","2019-04-15T08:05:08.149Z",{"sys":"209"},{"sys":"210"},"George Garyfallou",[],{"sys":"211"},"3JX8zdMHzyGeciQqa22WMQ","2015-08-19T13:16:54.301Z","2021-10-13T11:57:16.878Z",{"sys":"212"},{"sys":"213"},"Technology","technology",[],{"sys":"214"},"4zfRMM9C2cEuAA0Gcy6c4O","2018-05-24T07:23:53.173Z","2021-10-28T13:07:12.642Z",{"sys":"215"},{"sys":"216"},"Using NuGet in Sitecore Solutions","Recently I spoke in Berlin at SUGCON 2018, the 5th anniversary of this amazing conference —made by and for the Community. During my talk I highlighted one of our customer’s solutions regarding DevOps, using VSTS and following the HELIX guidelines. One of the key elements there, I’d like to expand on today: the usage of NuGet in Sitecore solutions.\n\n## Why NuGet?\nI believe that everyone will agree that when seeing the following 2 diagrams, a welcome similarity enters the mind that sparks ideas about how one could cross over to the other and vice-versa:\n\n![Picture1](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/4EYZxNsAkosoQ6a8Wo4sQa/452c704c79a3aee7726bbdc3d5acd107/Picture1.png)\n\n![Picture2](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/3FQ8nHlYqA88eA6AIkMMs2/1f9f39de398254a02396451109d0977d/Picture2.png)\n\nThe first is the dependency structure desired from the HELIX documentation and presentations. The second is the NuGet dependency structure from the NuGet documentation over on the Microsoft Documentation website.\n\nIt felt like NuGet was the logical fit for packing the HELIX modules in our solutions, which had matured into reusable components.\n\n## HELIX and the maturing of Modules\nI need to issue a fair warning here, just as I did in Berlin: HELIX is not for reusability. Do not fall into the trap of trying to build only generic reusable components. It is not possible to do so and for small to medium customers it’ll never even be required. SXA are Sitecore’s reusable components and if you find that something is missing that’s so generic that you use it with every customer, I highly encourage you to submit the idea to Sitecore. Chances are it’s already on their backlog and you can vouch for it by bringing it forward, or cooperate on its creation.\n\nWith large customers we get the opportunity however, to look at reusability as a positive side effect of using the HELIX architecture when creating our solutions. The approach I advise Architects to follow, is:\n\n1. Only use established modules already in your NuGet at project start\n2. Do not plan the creation of any module in your project, it’s not the project’s goal to deliver modules\n3. Do a regular cross-solution architect meeting and keep an overview of all Foundation and Feature level modules designed and implemented in all solutions\n4. When a Foundation or Feature level module has been left unchanged for at least a duration of 3-4 months and is functioning properly validate if this functionality is viable for NuGet availability\n5. Port any qualifying module to NuGet\n\nIf all is well then any reason for change should be a cross-solution requirement (otherwise your module is too project specific or has a bloated functionality scope). Keep in mind the package cohesion principles, as they form the basis of HELIX and are very much applicable when using NuGet packages.\n\n## The meat on the bone: How to create a package?\nCreating NuGet packages is straight forward and relatively easy, besides being very well documented and subjected to an ample supply of tutorials. I won’t go into full details here, especially when it comes to modules that do not include any Sitecore Items. Here’s a simplified view of what a solution might look like for a NuGet packaged module:\n\n![Picture3](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/10o0Eq2GpcAwGUeAqIyA0O/919a245f075a4fd290ba5ba023cacf23/Picture3.png)\n\nSo where the Web project packaging follows standard NuGet documentation, the packaging of the TDS project does not. For TDS however, there is very good NuGet support, allowing you to package your items into NuGet and retrieve them using very much the same way that one would use for regular NuGet projects. In the properties of a TDS project, one can find the following tab:\n\n![Picture4](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/4YerFggVHyocQOyyaikYg6/8d0843062519421178e7dc2397f692b0/Picture4.png)\n\nThere’s 2 important parts:\n1. There needs to be a path to Nuget.exe. Which is easiest to establish when including a dependency on the NuGet.CommandLine package in NuGet. This will ensure it is available during build, regardless of the install on the build machine itself.\n2. As for metadata —like the .nuspec file for the normal NuGet packaging of a project— the TDS properties tab, includes all the same fields (and must be filled accordingly). You may even include dependencies, in case you have item packages of a Feature that relies on a Foundation level package to be present.\n\n## TDS, ok. But what about Unicorn?\nFirst a disclaimer: I haven’t used this approach on a project that uses Unicorn yet, but theoretically there should be nothing stopping you from following this approach.\n\nSo Unicorn is different, because generally people don’t create a project that enables viewing the serialized files in the solution (since there’s no real need). As long as the files are in a source-controlled space, they will be picked up and distributed. The configuration files are situated in their respective Web Application Projects and are edited, viewed and deployed from there. While you can of course pull NuGet packages anywhere, I propose the creation of a Web Application Project specifically for pulling in Unicorn NuGet packages. Besides giving an easy NuGet UI accessibility point, this also enables us to easily include the pulled configurations into our deployment, using your familiar preferred way.\n\nTo create a Unicorn NuGet package, one simply needs a good .nuspec file that includes the desired YML hierarchy and the corresponding Unicorn configuration.\n\nTo install a Unicorn NuGet package, open the Manage packages UI for the project or use the NuGet Package Manager Console, to pull the package into the project.\n\nIf anyone has used this approach or any other approach, please leave your take on it in the comments. I’d love to hear about your experience with this.\n\n## TL;DR\nNuGet is an awesome way of packaging your Foundation and Feature level modules for reuse, in case they adhere to proper scrutiny and healthy common sense (think KISS). Packaging modules is easy (read the documentation) and both TDS and Unicorn can be packaged to include Sitecore Items in your NuGet packages.\n\n## Want to learn more?\n- [HELIX](https://helix.sitecore.net \"Helix\")\n- [NuGet](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/ \"Nuget\")\n- [TDS](https://www.teamdevelopmentforsitecore.com/Blog/nuget-packages-tds \"TDS\")\n- [Unicorn](https://github.com/SitecoreUnicorn/Unicorn \"Unicorn\")\n",{"sys":"217"},"2018-05-24T10:00+02:00",["21","218","219","220"],["17"],[],{"sys":"221"},"6MET1YYaJ2EU0SCWw6iA60","2018-03-13T14:25:02.362Z","2021-10-13T13:21:45.292Z",{"sys":"222"},{"sys":"223"},"How Sitecore Helix supports your scrum process to add significant business value","Since 15 years I have been working on IT projects in many different roles. I see a lot of positive evolution regarding successful projects. Nowadays we deliver more software in less time and learned to listen better to our customers. \n\nNowadays Scrum is our methodology of choice that helps to be more effective and successful. Basically, it will result in doing more in less time. Completing small, but completed parts of software will give an overview of results in an early stage. This helps Product Owners in specifying the business needs.\n\nHowever, implementing scrum as a way of working in a company has its challenges. People are often very motivated to use Scrum, but while working they tend to forget the key elements of the methodology. It requires discipline to stay focused on small shippable parts of a product. It requires practice and focus to implement the methodology. \n\nAs a Solution Architect with years of Sitecore experience, I believe that the Sitecore Helix architecture can help teams to implement the Scrum way of working more efficiently. \n\n![Mirabeau Scrum](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/muTevrwnYcIU6eosisQS4/6673786bbb41c58a08a2633f7a8e34a9/iStock_000087367193_Double__Large_.jpg)\n \n### Which problem can we solve?\nOne of the key aspects of scrum is that deliverables are always small but also are a 'shippable products' that delivers value to the business. \n\nWhy? There is more than one reason:\n\n-\tIt's more likely that the team will build what the business wants because the 'subject of discussion' is small and everybody is talking about the same small part. \n-\tA small and precise defined product is easy to test.\n-\tThe product is small and complete, therefore it's easy to evaluate. The product can easily be adjusted to add more value\n\nIt is difficult to implement Scrum. Right now, I want to focus on where Sitecore Helix can help to implement the method. \n\n\n### What is Sitecore Helix.\nSitecore Helix is an __architectural guideline__ in how to build a web application using Sitecore in a proper way. \n\nThe guidelines describe how to add effective layering into an application in which *loosely coupling* and *single responsibility* are virtually guaranteed. By loosely coupling parts of code are separate building blocks that do not depend on each other. The separation of the building blocks is based on functionality. \n\nIn a Helix architecture the building blocks of code are layered. The lowest level of code blocks exists in the __Foundation layer__. When a change occurs in the layer, it can affect many other __features__ in the solution. This means that the foundation layer must be the most stable one of your solution. \n\nThe __feature layer__ contains concrete functional parts of the solution as understood by the business owners and editors, for example, news, articles, promotions, website search, etc. So, based on functionality this will be completely separated chunks where no dependency exists.\n\nThe __Project layer__ provides the context of the solution. This means the actual cohesive website or channel output from the implementation, such as the page types, layout, and graphical design. It is on this layer that all the features of the solution are stitched together into a cohesive solution that fits the requirements.\n\n![Sitecore Helix](//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/2UMLQT73J6CksAuwCMCsQy/0168c24c085f111abf2819fdb9423569/Sitecore_Helix.png)\n\n### How can Sitecore Helix support Scrum \n__Sitecore Helix can help a Product Owner and the development team in the thinking about and understanding what a shippable product is.\n__\n\nAlthough not recognized by many, in the end a Sitecore Helix Feature is the same as a shippable product. So why not approach it like this? First, the Product Owner will ask for a Shippable product. Next, the team will create a repository in where it will save its source code. The repository will only contain code that is a part of the shippable product. Name it a feature.\n\nA feature is a shippable product. A Sitecore development team creates features. A shippable product is based on a user story or a group of user stories. A feature needs to be functional but also technical as a separated part. There are strict rules regarding the code of a feature. It has to be separated from other features. \n\n> \"By creating boundaries to a shippable product Sitecore Helix Features supports Scrum to do its work efficiently, adding real value to your business\" \n\n### The power is excluding vagueness\nTherefore, when the refinement of a shippable product takes place you need to be very specific. This sounds hard to accomplish because it is difficult to decide what a functional shippable product is. Often, there is an overlap with other product parts. This is where the process can start to be vague and can result in communication errors. Even worse. It can reduce the benefits of scrum earlier mentioned in this blog.\n\nBecause of the preciseness required in the definition of a feature, the Product Owner is forced to be very precise in defining and separating user stories. If the communication isn't good enough, the team will notice it and can create an overlap of code, which isn't possible. Therefore, a fix for the communication error needs to take place. This might seem time consumable but in the end, the opposite is true.\n\nMerging the idea of a feature with the concept of a shippable product will help to implement the Scrum methodology strictly.\n\n\n### Do you have to create new features all the time?\nHow does this work in real life? Do you have to create new features each sprint? The answer is no. A feature is a concrete functional part of the solution as understood by the business. Examples are *news, articles, promotions, website search*, etc. A shippable product is not the definition of a user story. When a Product Owner wants to replace, change or extend functionality it can be an already shipped product/feature. A user story has the goal to increment value. This can be done to an already created Feature. The existing feature plus the increment will be the shippable product.\n\n### Accurate separation in real life\nThe definition of the shippable product will still be precise. For Example, a user story is about incrementing value on a Feature called \"Website search\". \"Website Search\" might be visible on an article page. The work that needs to be done will be on \"Website search\". Changes that need to be done to the article page itself belong to another user story, another shippable product and another Sitecore Feature. The separation on what the team works on and where the team talks about is sharp.\n\n### Are we winning or losing time?\nThe question will arise whether there will be too many discussions on what a shippable product or, in other words, a feature is. The answer is \"on the contrary\". It will force the Product Owner to be clear. The team has to understand exactly what the Product Owner wants. In the beginning, the team and the Product Owner may have to spend more time together to make decisions about what exactly has to be created by the team. Once decisions have been made, the separation made in the code will enforce to stick to the previously agreed separation. So it will help to stay within the boundaries subscribed in the scrum process. Most likely time will be won.\n\n### The conclusion\nSo, in the end, Sitecore Helix will help to enforce and support the scrum methodology because it helps to define what a shippable product is and ensures that the product owner can be as specific as possible to achieve the optimal result for the business. By creating boundaries to the shippable product Sitecore Helix helps scrum to do its work and that is adding value to the business.\n\nDo you want to know more about our Sitecore Center of Excellence? Drop us a line or check our [Sitecore Developer job description](https://www.werkenbijmirabeau.nl/en/job/sitecore-solution-developer/). I would love to hear from you.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n",{"sys":"224"},"2018-03-13T00:00+01:00",["225","226","227"],["228","22","23","229","17"],[],{"sys":"230"},"6h5t7MXCE0kYoEa6Wm2oe4","2015-08-19T13:22:47.804Z",{"sys":"231"},{"sys":"232"},"CMS",[],{"sys":"233"},"7a4IkOWSOIKQwiYqwOAeiU","2017-03-29T08:29:33.654Z",{"sys":"234"},{"sys":"235"},"Development",[],{"sys":"236"},"1S0WZ88Pw84ZB39AzePiNt","Asset","2019-04-15T08:04:53.714Z",{"sys":"237"},"George Garyfallou - Mirabeau",{"url":"238","details":"239","fileName":"240","contentType":"241"},[],{"sys":"242"},"4k9yqeqZ4XtXK7vjON8MAD","2020-02-11T18:42:26.865Z",{"sys":"243"},"George_Garyfallou",{"url":"244","details":"245","fileName":"246","contentType":"241"},"Link","Space","w4dg3cjf42ew","master","Environment","ContentType","6pHF2p1ah2Aag4KAkCK6iG",{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"247"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"195"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"248"},{"sys":"249"},{"sys":"250"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"247"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"251"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"252"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"195"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"253"},{"sys":"254"},{"sys":"255"},{"sys":"256"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"195"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"248"},{"sys":"257"},{"sys":"258"},{"sys":"259"},{"sys":"260"},{"sys":"261"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"247"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},{"type":"189","linkType":"194","id":"247"},{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},"//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/1S0WZ88Pw84ZB39AzePiNt/c2261fb0a5857232ff91408af56a8d2a/George_Garyfallou.png",{"size":1362107,"image":"262"},"George_Garyfallou.png","image/png",{"type":"189","linkType":"190","id":"191"},{"id":"192","type":"189","linkType":"193"},"//images.ctfassets.net/w4dg3cjf42ew/4k9yqeqZ4XtXK7vjON8MAD/636a1dfd55734d50bd4b372e28d23e1d/Screenshot_2020-02-11_at_19.40.51.png",{"size":1956947,"image":"263"},"Screenshot 2020-02-11 at 19.40.51.png","2b6pqr15bygSYem2Og8yGu","6Nw4gTEoYEOq6YayoeAyAo",{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"264"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"265"},"46eE1wQL5CQmYmOaIK26cs","3r3IyiJOlquwikkgMoYuiM","20As8hXZCEgGmeyaoaOIIE",{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"265"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"266"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"267"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"266"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"268"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"269"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"270"},{"type":"189","linkType":"29","id":"271"},{"width":818,"height":856},{"width":1466,"height":746},"6tLNbwqRwciMOCC6gEqaUy","22HjYFlSDuwuacwIquKIK8","5DQhlQ9S24usM2GyM4qIy4","6lKr5Xj8YMgEEYyEyuai2G","2aYRCz8ZNOC4wCiAMSyAGS","1oZQAKJEe0SymyMQ2wUiYC","3i1OtrtXu0Q6uykQSqCAku","4Uw0WT5OPS6QSQwkyMmk2u"]

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