Sitecore Shared source is growing

Seeing that it is a long time since my last post, I thought that I should write a post telling about all the modules that got added since my last post to the Shared source library and that I also started making short video review of the modules, so I will also touch on that subject and let you know where you can find them if you are interested.

Quick Launch Toolbar

This module gives you quick access to your most used Sitecore applications from your toolbar like you have in Windows.

You can visit the project room here to see how to install and add your most used applications to the toolbar.

Image Gallery

The image gallery module can be found here with instructions on how to add it to your site. It uses some Silverlight that was created by Vertigo and then adapted by Lars Nielsen to work with the media library in Sitecore, so that each folder is an album and then from the Page Editor you can upload more images so you won’t have to go into the client to do so.

Xsl code behind

This module created by Thomas Eldblom from Pentia allows you to add code behind files to your XSLT files in the same way that you would an ASP.NET page. You can visit the project room here and to get a more thorough insight into why you need this module, you can start with the first of three blog post on the subject here.

Index Viewer

The index viewer uses the Lucene search engine to open an index defined in the web.config file, without changes databases. It was created by Jens Mikkelsen that is blogging here along side Thomas Eldblom. You can also visit the module project room here to learn more about it and the place to download it.

RSS Reader

The reader allows you to aggregate RSS feeds and display them on your web site. It was develop by Alenka Caserman and you can visit the project room here and she is blogging here.

Presentation Usage Reporter

The presentation Usage Reporter or PUR for short allows developers to run a report that will find all the content items and data template’s standard values which the use the selected presentation component.

If you want to learn more about this module or just want to download it, you can visit the project room here.

PCheX

This is a very cool module that when installed gives you a package checker when you are creating them in the package designer. Like for instance you add in item, it checks to see if you remembered the template and also reminding you to check if you remembered your assembly and layouts.

If you want to learn more about the PCheX or just want to get your hands on the package the project room can be found here.

 

We have also started a new section in our index page called Link Management, that contains C# files that you can include in your solution to give you some functionality in the regards of link management, like the Link Provider that can convert links to lowercase and include the trailing slash character (”/”) when possible and the Media URL Transformer can convert media URLs in the rich text editor to lowercase and it has other features as well and you can download the two modules here and here. The modules was created by John West who is blogging here.

The product catalogue module got upgraded by Dmitry Vasilinenko to Sitecore 6 and if you have any request to new features or fixes you can mail them to Dmitry or post them on the shared source forum. You can visit the product catalogue project room here and Dmitry is also blogging here.

Lucene search

The search box and result page from the starter kit got extracted so that by installing a simple module you can add a search box and result page to your own site. On the project room you can see what it is currently indexing and how to extend your search to include other fields.

and go to index to see the full list of modules that is growing by the month

Shared source video reviews

I started this post by mentioning that I started creating video reviews of the shared source modules and so for the videos for the Image Gallery, Lucene search, Advanced System Reporter and the Quick Launch Toolbar. If you are interested to view these they are available on YouTube here.

So as you can see a lot of cool shared source modules for Sitecore have been created within a short while and I am sure that there are more on the way and if you have a module that you would like to share with the rest of the Sitecore community, drop me a mail and I will set you up with a project room.

Free, Shared and the all the new modules

This month a number of things has happened, before going into the new modules I want to talk about the change for the free modules. For those of you who didn’t read the post on the shared source forum about the free modules to shared source, here is a short recap.

The free modules GoTo Item, Media conversion tool, Sitecore Plus and the External Link checker has been moved to the shared source library. They have all gotten their own project room and seeing that it is now shared, the source code is now available for download if you want to modify it to suit your solution. If you want to read the full post on SDN you can find the link here.

Some of the features from those modules is obsolete for Sitecore 6, meaning that they are included in the product. One of those features that is not, is the Auto doc and I have been hearing that people want that for Sitecore 6 as well. So we have split the Auto doc from the Plus module, giving it a project room of its own and upgraded it to Sitecore 6. You can find the project room here.

A new module coming from Sitecore is the Unused Media Manager, a module that can scan your installation and remove the unused media. To learn more about the module visit the project room here and it is of course for Sitecore 6.

From outside Sitecore we have a module from Alistair Deneys, the Editor line numbers module a module that he first told the world about on his blog and I then asked him if he didn’t want to have it as a shared source module, hoping that if it was placed on SDN people who don’t necessarily read his blog will still get to know about it. The module is already available on the shared source library under Sitecore customizations. You can read more about his doings on his blog by using this link. He is also the guy behind Revolver a command line tool for Sitecore, which you can read more about on his blog.

Sitecore, Shared Source and beyond

During the last four months, a lot have been going on. We started the Shared Source initiative and launched Sitecore version 6. Also the forums on SDN have really been seeing the activity, in July the forum posts where up to a staggering 10171 posts in total and that is almost 500 post in July alone, with the forum members climbing to almost 3000.

Also the Shared source forum that got started in April have been well visited with questions about the modules, be it problems or a request to upgrade one of the more popular modules. Seeing the Blog module, RSS and the Multiple Sites Manager upgraded as well as the AdRotator and the Meta-tags module and the list should expand as we get request to upgrade them. Developers are of course more than welcome to contribute to the modules by upgrading them or adding new features.

In the last four months we have added ten new shared source modules to the list not including the Wizard and Extranet from the Free modules section. Some of the latest additions to the list is the extensive Domain objects by Mark Cassidy, a tool for Sitecore developers that is designed to make tasks related to data and data storage easier.

This approach should make it possible to use the same code across different Sitecore versions.

Another newly added module is the Advanced System Reporter, that allows you to generate reports of all sorts. An example is having all the locked items for all users.

Also a module that keeps getting bigger is the Sitecore Field types module, that gives you a Carousel, a Slider and a Visual list to use as a graphical representation of a list in Sitecore instead of the usual plain list that comes as default.

 

The list of shared source keeps expanding and there seems to be much excitement around the latest release of Sitecore with the new security model and all the new in-line editing. Who knows where this might lead.

Modules for Sitecore 6

In my last post I mentioned some of the larger modules that we have upgraded to Sitecore 6 along with  new ones like the extensive Domain Objects module by Mark Cassidy.

Since then other modules have been upgraded as well, some needed more work than others but seeing that the framework hasn’t changed all that much since the previous version, most will work without any or minor changes to them. The AdRotator just needed some code removed too and compiled against the latest Sitecore.Kernel.dll and it was working. The same goes for the Meta-tags module.

The Multiple Sites Manager needed a minor change to one of the files and a repackaging to work with version 6 but modules like the Wiki worked without any changes made to it. Some of the smaller modules will probably also work without any modifications and that is why I am concentrating on the larger modules.

So seeing that the modules are shared source there is no stopping you to download it and make the changes that it need in order to work with the Sitecore 6 and then you are off course welcome to commit those changes to its project room.

Shared Source modules ready for Sitecore 6

Now that Crestone has successfully shipped here June 30. there are now already some Shared Source modules that work on Crestone.

We have updated some of the popular modules for Sitecore 5.3 to 6. One of these modules are the RSS Module, not only does it work for Sitecore 6 there is also added support for iTunes with the ability to add iTunes-specific channel and item level attributes, such as iTunes:author. Another feature that was added is the ability to use podcasting.

The Blog module is hot in its heels and should be released to its Trac project room in the near future, I just want to polish it and looking into adding a tag cloud. So hopefully it won’t be to long.

We also welcome a list of new modules that will find a place on SDN very soon. The FieldTypes module provides additional field types for the Sitecore client, like the Carousel, Slider and the Visual List. To view examples of all of these features visit its project room at http://trac.sitecore.net/FieldTypes which have a description and images on how these work.

The Domain Objects by Mark Cassidy is an efficiency tool that let´s Sitecore developers work more productively by giving a cleaner interface between the business and Sitecore domain. It should also help with maintenance and transitions between versions. You can read more about this extensive module on the Trac project room http://trac.sitecore.net/DomainObjects where the author has created documentation on getting started and working smarter with Sitecore, packages for versions 5.3 and 6.0 and the source code available if you want to contribute to his work.

Building a Sitecore package

In addition to having guidelines on what information and what files a package should contain, we would like to encourage developers to start building packages as described under the “How to build the source code for Sitecore” located under the How to contribute section.

Contributors may need source and items

The strategy for Sitecore Shared Source contributors is to move physical files, that remains under source control into the SVN server, giving the benefits that comes with a traditional source control (such as version control, source comparison etc.). Items, however, cannot be checked into traditional source control and must be maintained through other means. Sitecore best practices prescribes that content items (content, templates, masters), and items referring to physical files (layouts, XSLT files) should be maintained in a Sitecore package.

This allows developers to check out their project files using SVN agents (e.g. Tortoise SVN, command line, or directly from Visual Studio). As they check out the files, they will also check out a Sitecore package containing the items for the project. All they need to do, if they want to contribute, is to install the package, and maintain it afterwards.

The name of the package belonging to the project should be named [Projectname]Items, e.g. MyProjectItems.zip.

End user developers may just need the module, not the source

As some developers may not want to get the actual source files, but rather use the packaged version of the module with the compiled result, Sitecore best practices for Shared Source contribution prescribes those contributors should compile a Sitecore package with such files only.

The contents of this package should, – just as the above package, contain content items and items referring to physical files. However, as developers will not be using SVN, executables and related files should also be held within the package (e.g. aspx pages, web user controls and the binaries that supplies code for these front end pages).

The name of the package for pure module usage should be named [Projectname]WithoutSource, e.g. MyProjectWithoutSource.zip.

To visit the example project to read more click here to go to the project room.

We also have an addition to the list of modules, Alex de Groot has contributed with a module called Sitecore Translation which can be found under modules on SDN or simple visit the project room here.

Alex is also blogging about Sitecore, you can read his blog here.

If you think that there is a part of contributing to the shared source initiative that isn’t covered well enough, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

Adding even more modules to the list

This week three modules is being added to the roster for the shared source section on SDN.

They have all been developed by Ivan Sharamok, a technical Analyst at Sitecore. The first module is called Cross Database TreeList Field, a module that allows you to access data in a field from another database. You find the module in the Sitecore Customization section, here you can also get a more detailed description of the module.

The second module called Versionable Media can be found in the Sitecore modules section under Shared Source. It is a tool that will gives you the option of versioning the media files in Sitecore. This let’s you have different data for the same media item.

Sitemapper is the third module, it allows you to have the same site name with different host names for the same or several sites. It gives you the ability to create sites that can share one site resource from the Web.config file. The Sitemapper will be placed under modules in the Shared Source section, here you can learn more about the module.

When you visit the project rooms for the modules, you can from the Wiki page download the package if you want to use it straight away and under the browse source tab, you can download the source code if you want to develop on them.  

Ivan Sharamok also have a blog here, in which he states “…is dedicated to Sitecore tools and customization”. So if you want to learn more about his discoveries go check it out.

The Wizard module is following suit.

Like the Extranet the week before the Wizard module is now also being moved to the Shared Source section from the Free Modules. The Wizard have also moved to the module section in Shared Source and SVN and a project room(Trac) has been created for it.

The Wizard module gives you a head start when creating a wizard to implement your project into Sitecore. The Wizard provides examples of several features like the look and feel of the wizards that Sitecore uses.

To see more about the features for the Wizard module, go visit the Shared Source section on SDN. Look under the module section and here you can find the documentation, the project room and where to download the package.

Also on the list for this week is the Sitecore Workbox gadget created by Philipp Heltewig. You can read more about him and the module on his blog. It is a gadget that lets you see all your workflows in Sitecore in the Vista sidebar.

If you wish to contribute to these modules or some of the others that are available just drop me a line at (jo at sitecore dot net).

Jimmie Overby

Shared Source Coordinator

The Extranet module is moving to Shared Source

We have decided that the Shared Source section would be a better place for the Extranet module. So we moved it to the Shared Source section instead of the Free Modules, so now the module have its own project room and a place to download the source code for further development if anyone see fit to add contributions.

The Sitecore Extranet module gives you a predefined login form for separating the content on your site in public access and private access, so only people you want to have access to some secure places on your site can without the general public can.

It is placed under modules in the Shared Source section and I encourage developers who want to contribute to the Extranet module to send me a mail at (jo at sitecore dot net) and I will set up an account for them. This of course is also the way for other modules that you wish to extend with some functionality.

happy coding

Jimmie Overby

Shared Source Coordinator

Shared Source is now up and running…

The Shared Source at Sitecore is now one step closer into making it easier for other Sitecore developers to start contributing with code that they have made and want to share with other developers. All the Sitecore Shared Source modules available at SDN now have their own project room, we are using the open source tool called Trac to manage the modules.

On SDN there is also now a list of all available modules to give a greater overview. This way developers can quickly navigate between the different modules if point and click between the long list in SDN becomes tedious.

The post created on SDN forums about the shared source have already gathered some attention, Sitecore developer Christopher Wojciech have contributed a project that should be available shortly. I am sure he will tell you more on his own blog http://blog.wojciech.org/ when he is ready to open it up to others. Then developers can join his modules like all the other Sitecore modules and build on top on an already good idea.

I of course also want to invite other Sitecore developers to share a module that they think can be of interest to others.