Blogs posted in 2011
Integrating EPiOptimiser into Visual Studio
In my previous post I wrote about how EPiServer start up times can be optimised at build time using EPiOptimiser. The tool generates warnings and errors in Visual Studio depending on whether assemblies are included or excluded from being scanned on start up by EPiServer.
Optimising EPiServer start up times during build with EPiOptimiser
People have already posted about how to optimise the start up times of EPiServer here and here. One of the common techniques is to exclude assemblies from being scanned at application start up by setting them as exclusions in the EPiServer framework config.
Forcing Google Search Appliance to re-crawl EPiServer published pages
Google Mini and Google Search Appliance both offer a powerful search for your EPiServer site. In the most simple implementation you simply point to the box to your URL and get some Google quality results back.
However the Google boxes will crawl the site at their own pace (its possible to configure). But this isn’t always ideal as site editors like to see their content indexed on the site pretty quickly rather than wait for Google to get around to re-crawling.
Integrating ImageVault into EPiServer OnlineCenter
Recently a client had a requirement where their users could access Meridium ImageVault from an EPiServer CMS 6 R2 site. I wasn't overly happy about the way its integrated into edit mode as it always felt a bit "hidden". This was particularly relevant as the client will have users that use the CMS little and ImageVault a lot.
EPiRobots v1.0.1 released
I have previously released EPiRobots which is a generic robots.txt handler for your EPiServer CMS 6 R2 site. However I was working on an EPiServer Commerce project when I noticed a bug in EPiRobots so have released v1.0.1 onto the EPiServer Nuget Feed. You can see all the details below.
EPiRobots - A generic robots.txt handler for your EPiServer CMS 6 R2 site
EPiRobots is an EPiServer plug in that handles delivery and modification of the robots.txt file for your EPiServer CMS 6 R2 site(s). It has no dependency on any page types, requires no .config modifications and should work in any EPiServer CMS 6 R2 deployment scenario.
Ensure EPiServer Geo-IP personalisation works when using Akamai
As we know by now EPiServer comes with a Geo-IP database built in which gives editors the ability to target content based on a location that is looked up from their IP address. However the geo-IP look up wont work properly if you are using a web acceleration service such as Akamai. This is because the originating IP will be that of the edge server, rather than the user's real IP.
Using the IIS rewrite module to test EPiServer geo-IP look up personalisation
If your site uses geo-IP look ups to personalise the site extensively then you might find it tedious having to browse every page in edit mode then select the country/location visitor group you want to test with. I wanted to find a way to make it look like I was browsing from an IP address other than my development machine with a mimum of fuss.
Enter the IIS rewrite module. It is a useful and versatile add on for IIS7.x. Through configuration rules it allows you to modify incoming requests and outgoing responses for your site. One feature that is particularly powerful is the ability to modify incoming header values.
Updating the EPiServer Geo-IP database (updated)
There has been a Geo-IP database lookup function available since EPiServer CMS 6 R2 was released. Recently I wanted to update to the very latest version of the Geo-IP database to ensure a client's site targeted countries as accurately as possible.
EPiServer CMS 6 R2, Page Type Builder and EPiServer Composer - a cautionary tale
This post describes a particular issue that occurs when copy/pasting pages in EPiServer CMS 6 R2 when using EPiServer Composer and Page Type Builder.
The problem
The problem occurs if all of the following are true:
- Your site uses EPiServer CMS 6 R2
- You are using Composer
- Page Type Builder is being used
- You are using Page Type Builder to restrict available page types
- Users try to copy a page or pages that container Composer pages
The result is that the background paste operation fails.
NuGet package to convert an EPiServer site to ASP.net 4.0
In my previous posted some default web.config files for running under ASP.net 4.0.In the comments @frederikvig talked about the potential of a NuGet package to make the changes.
Default web.config files for EPiServer CMS 6 R2 running .net 4.0 (updated)
I am guessing that most new EPiServer installations are targeted against .net 4.0. Well the ones running at my company certainly are! Allan Thræn has already documented how to set up EPiServer CMS 6 to run on .net 4.0. This involves some web.config changes and an optional modification to the .csproj file.
However I don’t want to manually make these changes each time in order to run EPiServer under .net 4.0 as I frequently have to set up new demo sites. I’ve had default web.config’s for the Alloy Tech demo site and core install on my machine for a while so wanted to share them here in the hope it saves some other people time.
Using IIS7's URL Rewrite feature to enable good SEO practice in EPiServer
URL structures are an important part of SEO. Its very important that our sites do not appear to serve duplicate content. However there is one feature of EPiServer that can do exactly that, namely when using language branches in the URL and viewing content in the master langauge.
New Visitor Group Statistics gadget in EPiServer R2
As we all know by now EPiServer R2 Wave provides the new Visitor Group functionality across all EPiServer products. This allows editors to personalise content for individual visitor groups. But how do editors know how many people are matching each group that they’ve set up?
Preventing EPiServer serving cached mark up in development environments
I wanted to write this post to describe how to fix a problem that I don't think I'm alone in experiencing. When working in a development environment EPiServer can appear to serve cached mark up even though the file has been changed or even the solution has been rebuilt. Only an iisreset appears to force a refresh.
Using point scoring in EPiServer CMS 6 R2 visitor groups
As we all know EPiServer visitor groups are going to be an exciting new feature of EPiServer CMS 6 R2. There are plenty of blogs around on how to build custom visitor groups.
EPiServer CMS 6 R2 Geo IP functionality
EPiServer CMS 6 R2 comes with the great new personalisation feature of Visitor Groups. One of the criterion's available to personalise on is the “geographic location” criteria. Put simply this allows editors to specify a location and/or country to personalise content.