Custom conditions with the Sitecore xConnect purging tool

I wrote previously (https://devsencore.com/2023/08/24/sitecore-xconnect-purging-tool-keeps-xdb-data-in-check/) about using the Sitecore xConnect purge tool to keep xDB instances in check by removing superfluous data. This can optimise performance, costs and improve overall data quality. Out of the box, the purge tool allows maintainers to trim contact or interaction data based on age (Last Modified date), but in some cases finer grained control is needed. Enter, custom purge conditions.

SUGCON ANZ – Tips for success

The Sitecore User Group Conference (SUGCON) ANZ is fast approaching for 2023. This will be it’s third edition bringing together professionals from the Australian and New Zealand (and beyond!) Sitecore community to share insights, knowledge, war stories and probably a karaoke tune or two.

This year’s SUGCON is scheduled to take place on November 23rd and 24th, in sunny Brisbane and boasts a diverse range of speakers and topics across Developer and Marketer/Strategy tracks touching on all aspects of the Sitecore ecosystem. Tickets are on sale now from https://anz.sugcon.events/.

As a 1.5 day conference, it can be a whirlwind, especially if it’s your first time. So, here are some tips that I wish I knew before my first SUGCON:

Sitecore xConnect purging tool keeps xDB data in check

One of the crucial components of Sitecore XP’s functionality is xDB (Experience Database), which stores and manages contact and interaction data for use in analytics and personalisation. By default, data is collected and stored for all human interactions and consequently data accumulates over time. It becomes imperative to efficiently manage and clean up stale contact and interaction data to maintain performance and in some cases comply with data privacy regulations.

Migrating Sitecore solutions to docker-compose v2 – bonus gotchas

Docker made docker-compose v1 obsolete a while back and the deadline for deprecation and removal from the Docker Desktop application is closing in. Versions released after June 2023 will no longer support docker-compose v1, which has been used in Sitecore and community repositories as local development setup examples for a while. It’s time to get “older” solutions upgraded!

Luckily it’s pretty straight forward. Rob Earlam wrote an excellent post about upgrading the XM-Cloud-Introduction repo on his blog (https://robearlam.com/blog/docker-compose-v2), which will get the job done in most solutions.

However, I’ve hit a few additional gotchas with some solutions that hopefully will avoid some googling or politely asking ChatGPT. Not all are specifically docker-compose v2 related, but snags we hit across teams when carrying out the upgrades.

Sitecore Identity Server with HTTPS in containers

Sitecore provide a number of examples (https://github.com/Sitecore/container-deployment) of implementations using containers via Kubernetes and docker compose. All examples utilise a reverse proxy for ingress (be it via traefik or nginx in the k8s examples) to access the cd, cm and id services. All of the examples terminate TLS at the reverse proxy. By default each service is running on port 80, with no TLS encryption between the reverse proxy and the service container . This is a common approach for container based deployments that remain in a secure LAN (ie. in cloud native deployments). However, does raise eyebrows with security teams that may not have extensive in these sorts of environments or with rusted on control requirements.

Sitecore Virtual Developer Day 2022

Recently I presented “The incremental path to Jamstack” at Sitecore Virtual Developer Day (VDD). This was a topic I had first presented a while back, but as always it evolved as I dug into it more and ended up building a full demo as a walkthrough. The session synopsis was:

This session aims to give developers a better understanding of why and how to start moving down the path from legacy MVC applications to the new world of Jamstack sites, without rebuilding from scratch. I’ll take a look at the advantages of Static Site Generation and composable applications and how this fits in with the direction of Sitecore’s latest product suite. Of course I’ll demo some of the new features and tools provided in Sitecore 10.2 that help developers incrementally migrate from Sitecore MVC to a modern Next.js application.

This presentation will be full of demos, code and practical tips to help developers better plan their journey into the modern composable DXP world, in a sustainable and incremental manner.

This session (and all others at VDD) has now been published on Youtube, so feel free to check it out and get in contact if you have any questions.

GraphQL CORs preflight endpoint configuration

During testing for an upgrade to 10.2 of a JSS implementation recently we identified that some of our connected GQL calls were failing when running locally in the client due to CORs issues.

Access to fetch at 'https://mysitecoreinstance.com/api/my-web-gql-endpoint' from origin 'http://localhost:3000' has been blocked by CORS policy: Response to preflight request doesn't pass access control check: The value of the 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header in the response must not be the wildcard '*' when the request's credentials mode is 'include'.

Missing SXA Site Manager in Sitecore 10.2

Note to future self. RTFM and use the packages you are told to install. Recently in my haste to upgrade some SIF scripts and an older implementation to 10.2 (JSS & SXA), I downloaded all the relevant resource packages from the Sitecore download pages & SPE from Github and got to installing. All looked to be well, but noticed that some of the SXA features appeared to be missing, such as the SXA Site manager.

Identity server error after fresh install of 10.2

Sitecore 10.2 ships by default with Sitecore Identity Server 6 which has a dependency on NET Core 3.1 and related assemblies. As with previous versions it can easily be supported (in parallel with previous versions) by installing the NET Core 3.1 Hosting bundle.

RAZL connections using Environment variables

RAZL is a really handy addition to a Sitecore developers toolbox. It allows for content comparison and sync between environments. Great for pre-production environments where you need to “refresh” some content or get a brand new environment up to date with the latest stuff your content producers have been working on. Razl v5+ also offers powershell scripting, so you can easily sync the same items across many environments ….it’s handy. But it can be challenging to deploy in a repeatable way when not using containers, due to it’s installation method and security model.