Setting up SOLR with Sitecore 7

This is a brief walk through for people who have heard the buzz (can you say "scales to billions of documents"?) about SOLR and Sitecore 7 and want to get it working on their desktop.  This is based on the instructions in Sitecore's Search Scaling Guide, with a few details about the initial SOLR install filled in.

A Peek at Sitecore 7

The part that got me most excited about becoming an MVP this year was the chance to see “technical previews of Sitecore software,” and I started feeling like a kid on December 24th when John West’s blog posts on Sitecore 7 started appearing.

Thoughts on ASP.NET MVC

I've been digging in to ASP.NET MVC recently, and have come away quite impressed.  So I thought it would be worthwhile to capture some impressions, and answer the question: "Why should I be looking at this?"

ReSharper Shortcuts Every Sitecore Developer Must Know

If you support a Sitecore installation, you need to be on very comfortable terms with a decompiler. There are several reasons why:

Why All Those Lambdas in NUnit Tests?

I'm sure this is obvious, but I just figured it out. Suppose you are testing to verify that an expected System.Exception is thrown. Why does the first of these tests fail, but the second one passes?

[Test]
public void Test_Expected_Exception()
{
  Assert.That(someMethodThatThrowsAnException(), Throws.InstanceOf<System.Exception>());
}

[Test]
public void Test_Expected_Exception()
{
  Assert.That(() => someMethodThatThrowsAnException(), Throws.InstanceOf<System.Exception>());
}

The reason is that the first method call executes before NUnit can do anything with the assertion predicate (the fancy name for the second parameter), whereas the second creates a delegate that can be called by the testing framwork inside of a try/catch block. The catch block can then verify that the exception thrown matches the type specified. Basically, the "()=> someMethod()" creates something that can be called later, when the test framework is good and ready.

Sitecore NUnit Testing Simplified

There's been a lot of interest paid in the last couple of years on how to run NUnit tests against Sitecore.

Sitecore Unit Testing and Auto Include Config Files

I'm working on a open source project that involves running NUnit tests against Sitecore. I had originally set these up using the CodeFlood Test Runner, which creates a simple ASPX page for running NUnit tests so they have access to HttpContext. My partner on the project, Mike Edwards, pointed out this was unnecessary for unit testing Sitecore.

Extending DMS: Symposium Learnings, Part 2

In my last post, I discussed Sitecore's conception of DMS as a nexus for measuring, managing, and optimizing engagement value.  Today I'd like to share some concrete takeaways on how this can be done.  I attended three developer-track talks on DMS, and each reinforced my understanding of how this module can be extended by the developer to tie the customer experience to business value.

Sitecore Symposium DMS Learnings, Part 1

With ten sessions and seven concurrent tracks, you have to have a strategy to tackle the Sitecore Symposium.  Mine was to take in as much DMS wisdom as I could, and although Profiles, Personas and Patterns are still gurgling through my head, I came away with a clearer idea of how DMS works, how it can be leveraged, and how it fits in within Sitecore's roadmap.

A Look at Sitecore Social Connected

Social Connected is a free module from Sitecore that allows websites to:

• Enable visitors to log in with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+
• Personalize content based on a visitor's social network profile
• Post messages to Facebook and Twitter timelines
• Capture DMS campaign and goal data on social network actions

The module was introduced in October 2011, and has gone through two upgrades, each of which significantly extended its functionality and usability.  The initial release allowed  log in and content related messages, version 1.1 added the ability to send messages directly to users based on DMS goals, and version 1.2, released in July 2012, presents impressive feedback on what happens to those messages, showing share, comment, and retweet activity, and evaluating the engagement value of users who come to site based on Like This and Tweet This links. The rate of introduction of new features shows Sitecore's commitment to the Customer Engagement vision announced at Dreamcore 2011, since it brings this notion of personalization and triggered action into the social networking space.  This post takes a look at how to set up the module, what it can do, and how it can be customized.