The Sitecore PowerShell Console module is a very cool application for the Sitecore administrator. It embeds a PowerShell Console into Sitecore and allows you to update a list of items, renaming a bunch of media library items and much more.

The module was contributed by Adam Najmanowicz who you can find blogging here.

With the Analytics Database Manager you get an application that makes it easier to perform tasks as cleaning up unnecessary data from the Analytics database and remove bots among the features.

The Glass Sitecore Mapper is an object mapping framework which allows you to map Sitecore items onto an object model. This will allow you to unit test your code with simple .Net classes.

The module was contributed by Mike Edwards who you can find blogging on the module here.

The Traffic Generator can simulate network traffic for your Sitecore site so that you can emulate different scenarios for people visiting your site and following the patterns that you wish to test and goals and campaigns you wish to have triggered. This will be presented in the Executive Dashboard.

The Google Maps module was updated by IE to API version 3.0 and new features has been added.

You can read more about the new features in the latest version of the Google Maps module on the IE blog here.

Happy coding and sharing!

WeBlog Event

During the week starting Monday 17th October, the three developers who are working on the WeBlog module visited the Sitecore HQ in Copenhagen. They were here to release WeBlog 2.0, to meet Sitecore employees and to get more information on what to expect from Sitecore in the future.

The module project was started by Mark van Aalst. He was later joined by Nick Wesselman and Alistair Deneys and they have together built a very cool blog module for Sitecore with a lot of features. For example, inline editing, Live Writer integration, WordPress import and the list goes on.

I think it was a great week. I had the opportunity to meet the guys in person as I usually only talk to them through email. I hope they also had a good time and found the information sharing valuable.

To download the popular Shared Source module you can visit the WeBlog project room here.

The OpenCalais Integration module allows you to to automatically discover semantic relations between your content, Create relevant tags in the Sitecore Taxonomy and tag your content with those by integrating the Sitecore Taxonomy Module, WeBlog Module or any Sitecore item based taxonomy seamlessly with OpenCalais service without additional development.

So after adding the content to your item, you simply select the auto tag item and you get this.

It works really well and the tags created make sense and you still have the option of fine tuning the weights and tags for the item at any time.

Adam Najmanowicz contributed the module and you can find his blog here.

The Alias Pattern Module supports regular expression matching for item aliasing. It stores the rules as items within Sitecore.

After installing the module you get a folder where you store all your patterns that you are going to be using for your site.

The 301 Redirect Module supports both exact match URLs and regular expression matching for 301 redirects. It stores these rules as items within Sitecore.

It follows the same approach as the Alias Pattern module but links to a page instead of using an alias to point to another page.

Chris Castle, a solution architect from Sitecore US , contributed the Alias Pattern and 301 Redirect module.

Until next time, happy coding and sharing.

The Page Editor Help module allows you to attach YouTube videos on each item in the Page Editor that could help explain a topic on the site.

So after installing the module you get a field on your item in the help section where you can select the videos that you want to show on the item to help explain subjects on the page.

The module was contributed by Tim Ward from Sitecore Australia which you can find blogging here.

The Wildcard module makes it easier to work with Sitecore wildcard items and the dynamic URLs that resolve to them. You can use the Sitecore rule engine to manage what to do with the wildcards like seen here

The module was contributed by Adam Conn who made a video about the module which you can find here and he is blogging about Sitecore here.

The Advanced Publish Dialog module gives you a dialog to monitor the publishing jobs that are running with the ability to cancel them if some takes too long and seems to simply hang. Another feature of the module is extending the publish dialog so that if you are about to publish an item with sub items a dialog box will ask you if you would also like to publish the item’s sub items. A good reminder if you only think that you are publishing one item instead of many.

The module was contributed by Ivan Sharamok who you can find blogging here with a post about this module explaining all the things it can do. He has also recorded a video showing what the module does.

The Client Event Tracker module allows tracking client side events with Sitecore Analytics. Future plans include DMS support and extending the API.

The module was contributed by Alexander Doroshenko who is blogging here and also about what the module can do.

With the L33t to S1t3c0re module you can translate the text on your web site to l337 without doing any coding and configuration.

You can in the settings set the level of L337ness you want to display on your site.

The module was contributed by Sitecore solution architect Rasmus Rasmussen who you can find blogging here.

The Shared Source module Sitemap XML version 2 now supports multiple sites, thanks to a nice contribution from Michael Nguyen from Next Digital. I have seen some posts on the Shared Source forum on SDN on how to use the Sitemap XML module when you have multiple sites and now it can be set up easily in the include file and you are set to go.

Until next time, happy coding and sharing.

A taxonomy module which allows you to categorize the content on your site and some sample controls to display the tags on your site and locating the content items attached to that tag.

A search module for SIP from eSearch that includes a demo setup and how to get started.

The Productivity Tools module combines small helpers that could be used to improve editor productivity when working with Sitecore.

After installing the module you will get three icons next to the language and version selector in the top right corner.

The first icon allows you to create a personal note on an item that you have access to and the text will appear on top of the item. The second icon is a global notification meaning that if you have administrator rights you can post a note on an item that everyone can see. The last icon adds a discussion board on an item where your editors can discuss issues on an item.

You can also see a short video review of the module here or visit the ShareSitecore YouTube channel.

The Taxonomy module allows you to classify the content on your site and after installing the package you get a some sample tags to see how it works. You can of course remove them and create the categorization that suits your site.

The package also contains controls which allows you to see content items from the selecting a tag. You can also use them as an inspiration to create your own control and display the tags as you see fit.

The eSearch module is the Sitecore package for which you can try a demo of the eSearch search for the Sitecore Intranet Portal. eSearch provides a connector to Sitecore which enables it to index all of the items on the site.

From the project room you can download the Sitecore package, an installer of eSearch to try out eSearch and a PDF on how to set everything up.

This was the latest batch of modules added to the Shared Source Library and as always if you have a module that know will benefit other Sitecore developers and want to contribute it to the Shared Source Library feel free to contact me.

Happy coding!

With the QR Code module you can insert a QR code on your site by inserting a rendering and then linking it to a campaign that you have started.

The module was contributed by Adam Conn, technical architect at Sitecore who has post about the module here.

The Kapow module allows Kapow Katalyst to push content into Sitecore. If you want to learn more about the integration with Kapow there is a demonstration video available here.

The Data Importer module you can run through a row of items and map them to your site. You can import data from the Sitecore content tree or and SQL database. You can read more about the module by visiting the project room and reading the three page PDF documentation.

The module was contributed by Mark Stiles. He has written a post about the module on his blog here.

The Scheduled Task Utils is a module that allows you to manually execute tasks in the Sitecore Scheduler.

The module was contributed by Benjamin Vangansewinkel who you can find blogging here.

That was the modules we added to the Shared Source Library in July.

Happy coding.

The Globe Dashboard module uses the WebGL by the Google Data Arts Team to visualize the analytics data gathered in Sitecore. It is supports Sitecore 6.5 with the new DMS.

The module was contributed by Alexander Doroshenko who you can find blogging here.

The Publish Viewer module shows the current running Publishing Jobs as well as additional background jobs and agents to the user with useful information.

It was contributed by Mrunal Brahmbhatt, you can find him blogging here.

The Razor for Sitecore module uses the open-source Razor Engine http://razorengine.codeplex.com to allow you to create renderings using the Razor syntax.

You can read more about the module on its project room and download the package. The module was contributed by Robert Jongkind.

With the EviTwitter module you can add a user control to your site and specify a Twitter username or keyword/hashtag to see the timeline. The module was contributed by Vincent van Middendorp, you can find him blogging here.

The Jungle Torch module is a tool for SEO reporting, social network analysis and inbound marketing. The module allows you to open the Jungle Torch dashboard from the Sitecore desktop and setup your search from there.

You can visit the project room for more information on how it works.

There have also been some updates on existing Shared Source modules. The Quick Item Search module now works on all Sitecore 6.x thanks to Kiran Patil. The AdRotator module had some issues with passing parameter values which was fixed by Sitecore MVP Alistair Deneys, he is blogging here.

If you have a module that you want to share with the rest of the Sitecore developer community don’t hesitate to send me a mail.

Happy coding!

The Published Item Comparer module compares the selected item in the content tree against the same item in the web database. You can see a brief output by selecting compare item in the publishing tab or view the item by opening up a new instance of the content editor on the same item so no need to traverse the tree to find it.

The module was contributed by Tim Braga who is also blogging about the module here.

The Cache Tuner module is for you who wants to fine tune the cache and this tool gives you a nice overview by showing you how much cache is being used and gives suggestions on what sections might have a too large a size by dividing it up into color codes. Red means Alert, Orange is a warning and Green is normal.

The module was contributed by Kiran Patil who has also blogged about the module here and other tips on how to optimize the cache on your site.

The Move Validator makes sure that when you create an item under another item, the item gets validated so that you are only allowed to insert items from a template that is specified in the assign options.

So after you have set up the move validator under sitecore/system/modules move validator settings and now try and insert an item or create an item from a template which isn’t on the assign options list you will get this

The module was contributed by Daniel DeLay and Tim Braga from Velir Studios.

The Design Support module allows you to create multiple designs for you site and easily test them out in either the Page Editor or Preview. So if you have some sites that have a similar structure and that you want to test out different designs you can after installing the module create an item from a template that is being used in your site and create another layout or put the controls into another placeholder.

As an example we have here the Starter Kit sample site and if we open it in the Page Editor and the design starts by being the default

and our site looks like this

and by clicking the design 1 button we now have a different color on our site and the news section next to the three announcements are now gone.

This is of course a very simple demonstration and you can probably find better use for it on your site than what I just did to test this out.

I have also created a video review on my YouTube channel so that you can see the module in action. You can use this link here.

Of the modules that have been updated the Google Maps module was updated to work with the latest version of Sitecore by a JavaScript fix by Mario Bonilla, you can read more about the JavaScript issue by reading the forum post.

The Multi Media Field had an issue with a conflicting class name also being used by the Sitecore API, so a simple renaming of the class and the name in the include file fixed all that up.

This was the roundup for this time, happy coding.

The Version Manager which was contributed by Kirill Tjutjunnyk, allows users to keep the required number of versions for a content item and archive obsolete ones. You can configure the module to either remove obsolete automatic or remove them manually by opening the Version Manager application under Sitecore/all applications and selecting the item you want to make obsolete.

On the modules project room you can read more on how you can restore an archived version of an item by renaming the serialized item and placing it in the correct folder.

You can also see the video review of the module here.

The Mobile Device Detector combines the power of WURFL database for detecting mobile devices and the flexibility of the Sitecore rules engine for determining the appropriate Sitecore device. The module was contributed by Alexander Doroshenko and you can read more about how the module came about by reading his blog post here.

The project room also contains documentation on how to install the module and add sections in the web.config and the Global.asax files.

Alistair Deneys, one of the Sitecore MVPs updated the Page Rate and Review analytics modules to work with the latest version of Sitecore. So that you can add the controls to your site running on a OMS version 1.1.1 and get some analytics data on how people rate whatever you want to rate on your site.

The EviBlog module is now at version 1.7.2 and some of the new features that it now includes count updated CAPTCHA with options to use Sitecore.CAPTCHA or Google’s ReCAPTCHA, a new feed control in the sidebar to link to blog RSS feeds. It includes the “sc:VisitorIdentification” tag in the main blog layout for OMS robot detection and have a new default theme (techphoria) as seen here.

Alistair had the idea that it would be a good indication to others that the projects that have some activity on them and that it would help if you are using one of those modules to see if it has been updated recently. I thought that sounded like a good idea so we have introduced a new versions list on the shared source library to inform you of the modules that have been added to work with a newer version of Sitecore, have added functionality or had some bugs fixed. So the next time you visit the Sitecore shared source library you can also check out the list of new releases.

Also in January we added more modules to the shared source library. The Bits on the run module, a provider that connects to the Bits on the run video service which you can read more about here.

You can read more about BitsOnTheRun on the modules project room where you can download the package which contains a sample layout to get you started.

The Compiled Domain Model module helps you create domain model classes based on your Sitecore templates and is capable of validating the model with Sitecore data at any given moment.

Visit the project room to learn more about the advantages you get by developing your site using this module, where the contributor has written a very thorough piece of documentation on its use.

You can also view this YouTube video by the contributor were he explains how the module works by going through the steps of creating a hangman game in Sitecore.

The Color Picker module gives you a custom field that helps storing color codes in Sitecore.

So by adding the color picker field to your template you can set a color by clicking set color and you will get this window.

The contributor has also created a YouTube video where he explains the use of the module and have a post here.

Recently Sitecore released Sitecore E-Commerce and now we have the first shared source module for it. The Sefe Extensions extends the pricing model used by Sitecore E-commerce and you can read more about on the blog post written by the contributor here.

The Foundry Site Center allows Sitecore users to create sites without being a Sitecore Administrator.

With the Foundry Site Center module you can create your sites in the form of clusters and sub sites so by setting a security on an item or a folder you can make sure that when a user logs into Foundry to edit sites, the user can only see the sites that he can edit, hiding the other sites.

You could also choose to setup your sites to fit your organization, so create a folder for each of your departments and then set the security on that folder so that people in sales only sees the sites that is relevant to sales.

This is the first module for Foundry that have been added to the Sitecore shared source library and therefore we have added a new section to the index page. Visit the project room to read more about the module and download the package and have a look at the source if you want to know how it works.

This was the modules for January, more to come in the future so stay tuned.

A Sitecore solution architect have been assigned one of the selected modules and the solution architect should then become a champion of that module, meaning that when a question about that module is posted on the shared source forum that person should be able to answer the question within a reasonable amount of time. For the modules that get a high number of posts a specialized forum for just that module will be created. As of now there are specialized forums for the EviBlog, Image Gallery, Dynamic flash for marketers etc.

The list of modules selected is available here at the index list of the shared source modules. The project rooms for each of the selected modules should also contain this

with a link to the list of the checks that the module has gone through in order get such a label.

If the module has been validated by Customer Service the project room will also feature a supported by Sitecore label.

It was our intention that people would be more comfortable using the shared source modules on their site if they knew that a solution architect from Sitecore had made sure that the quality of the modules meets the checks on the list before implementing them.

So how does a shared source module become a part of the Better shared source initiative? Well first of the module should meet the checks that I mentioned before and then every once in a while we will ask our Sitecore offices what shared source modules are popular and most used by the Sitecore partners and developers and what the solution architect’s and Pre-sales use themselves. Then we take the top of the list and test them to make sure that they do meet the checks on the list and when ready we will add it to the list of modules that gets labeled with a “Tested by Sitecore” label on the project room so that visitors would know which modules have been tested by Sitecore.

Sitecore’s Customer Service have also had a look at the list of modules that have been labeled “Tested by Sitecore” and have decided that they would also offer support for these modules for a fixed price per module.

This means that developers who might have looked at implementing a shared source module but decided not to because of the lack of support can now reconsider using shared source modules for their solutions.