Episerver staging setup

I demonstrated this in my post " Architecting Multi-site Episerver Solutions " by providing multiple approaches in which this could be accomplished. While using the MVC Areas approach allows you to easily separate each site, it can pose a problem if each site needs to implement a specific service. This post is the second in a series of posts related to architecting and developing multi-site Episerver solutions using MVC Areas.

In this post, I'll cover how we handle multiple sites implementing the same service. This post builds off the previous post in this series. If you haven't read that post yet, you should do so before continuing with this one. Before we dive in, let's first set the stage. It's fairly common in Episerver to create and register a service implementation for dependency injection. In a single-site solution, this is a fairly trivial task. We retrieve the service implementation in different ways, but for example using ServiceLocator :.

Episerver uses something called the event management system to distribute events. You will need to use this to push content updates from staging to the live servers. The event management system is configured through your web. For those of you who can't remember your network studies class during university days, UDP is a fire and forget protocol. Episerver will fire the cache invalidate command, however, when set to UDP mode it is not guaranteed that the request will make it to a child infrastructure node.

UDP is a 'cheaper' option for sending events. In the older versions of Episerver 7 and below a missed UDP call resulted in a full-cache invalidation, however, this is no longer the case. I have encountered a locked port issue when setting up a continuous deployment pipeline using TCP. When the app pool recycled in the production box the port locked. UDP might be the better route to try first. If you're not happy with it, you can always change it later as the update process is fairly painless.

Enter additional text that appears above the Facebook Login button. The default is Sign in using your Facebook account. Enter text that appears above the Facebook Login button. Enter the path to the template that appears after a user completes the Connect with Facebook screen. You can customize the markup for the form using the LoginTemplate and LogoutTemplate server controls.

Facebook Login lets you retrieve the following Facebook profile information, using Facebook Connect Extension. For more information on that, see Setting the default language. Ektron strongly urges you to change the default password assigned to the builtin user. Opportunities to do this are presented during installation and in the above field.

NOTE: Ektron does not recommend enabling this feature. The following fields change the default Web page after log-in and the default Workarea page.

The default values are automatically applied to all new users, and to all existing users when you upgrade. Normally, you can modify these values for any user via the Edit User screen. But, you can force these values on all users, removing the ability to personalize them. OnTrek has its own landing page after login, regardless of this setting. Otherwise, new users will receive an error message when they sign-up using this control. See also: Checkout.

Use this button to clear Ektron's cache, which recycles the application pool. For example, you updated the web. Administrators would use this button if they cannot access the hosting servers yet need to reset their website.

The button is an alternative to submitting a request to their IT department or hosting company. After you click Restart , the first request takes longer than usual since the application needs to recompile. Subsequent requests should be processed normally. To minimize the impact on site visitors, visit your home page immediately after the restart, so that your request is the first "hit.

Use the Application Setup screen's Password Regex tab to customize Ektron's password security policy, and the error text that appears if a user's entry does not conform to the policy. Ektron provides a default policy and error text. The default policy enforces these criteria:. The password policy is enforced if either the Workarea or the API is used to add a CMS or membership user, or an existing user's password is changed.

If this option is enabled, each time you create a new content or library folder in Ektron, a corresponding physical folder is created on the file system to organize library files on your file server. The following image shows a library folder tree and its corresponding system folder structure. NOTE: If you are upgrading, the installation does not create sample website folders on the file server. You must add these folders manually. However, all folders that you create are also created on the file server when enabled.

Also, the EWS propagates updates that are made to the database connection string or the site path in the web. The service copies the new value to the data. Any Ektron components that reference these values can retrieve the current information from these files.

The data. You can change this time. Do not edit the data. They are dynamically generated by Ektron. If these files have incorrect values, edit the web. The EWS starts automatically when Ektron is installed, and again whenever the server is restarted. Windows 7: The Computer Management screen appears.

Windows The Server Manager screen appears. Look for Ektron Windows Services. You can see its status in the Status column. Within that folder, the Ektron. Upgrading the Ektron Windows Service. To view detail for any event, double click it. A common source of errors is that the service cannot find Ektron sites, because they have not been created yet, as shown in the sample below. The resulting configuration stores assets in BLOB storage rather than the local file system.

At this point, the db sync should work, and assets will be uploaded. The next steps change sync to push directly to the BLOB. Replace the tokens in the below statement, and run it on the database in which you just created the relationship the sending side. This updates the most recent relationship created.

See notes if you need to update an older relationship. The resulting configuration stores assets in a BLOB store rather than the local file system. Setting up development and staging environments Setting up development and staging environments You can set up your Ektron website in the following ways. Ektron settings, content, and library files are identical between sites. Changes to templates must be copied between servers. Copying the site and database to other servers Copying the site and database to other servers When your project is ready to be tested in house, move the site to a staging server.

In IIS, create a new domain for each server. If all environments are on the same server, you do not need to copy other folders. For the database, access the SQL manager and make a backup of the development database. Then, create new databases for staging and production. Finally, restore the backup of the development database to the staging and production databases. In the staging and production environments, open web. Then, update the database connection information so that it points to the new databases.

Test the staging and production environments. Updating web. Find these settings. Managing web. The following sections show the settings in the web. DbConnection providerName. SqlClient connectionString. If installed locally, the value is localhost. This value is set during installation, at the Host screen.

Integrated Security. If required, specify the username used to connect to the DSN. This user account must have at least read and write permissions to the database. If required, specify the password for the username given. It should match your database name.

Enables or disables advanced workflow ; when set to false the original basic approval functionality is available. The name of the application, CMS You typically would not change this value.

This file stores external applications such as eWebDiff , templates, and the images folder. The folder that stores Ektron images, such as toolbar icons. Only change this value if you need to move the images folder to another location. Only change this value if you need to move the XSLT folder to another location. Value set by the installation program. You typically would not change it. Determines whether the Summary tab displays the 9. Setting it to true uses the functionality from 9.

Blog subjects will display but will not allow changes to be saved without setting the value to true. Provides a mechanism to return from the login page to the previous page, specify the query string key-name. By default the value is RedirectUrl.

Currently, the redirect works in 2 instances. When a user tries to use a forum but is not logged in, it sends them to a login page and returns them. A user sends a private message to another user or group administrator from the SocialBar server control.

Turns the redirector on or off. Turning the redirector on alloes you to alias your website's URL. The default is False. Aliasing turned on. Aliasing turned off. Set a comma-delimited list of Web page extensions for which you will create aliased pages. For example,. By default, the list contains. The URL of a login page to which to redirect a site visitor who is not logged. The location of Ektron relative to the Web root.

This value is set during installation at the Site Path Directory screen. If you move Ektron to another folder, you must update this value.

Choose whether or not to use Ajax for the folder tree in the Workarea. Choose how to display dates in some areas of the Workarea. The location of the xmlfiles directory. Only change this value if you want to move the location of the xml files relative to the Web root. Enter connection information for using Google Maps with the Mapping feature in Ektron. See also: Map. Images Images These images appear before a user logs in, so cannot be stored in the database.

The username set up to send and receive email. The format of the email created in Ektron. SSL port used by Web server. Determines if server uses SSL for security. Enable Active Directory advanced configuration. Whether Ektron uses Active Directory support. Password for the Active Directory server. User name for the Active Directory server.

The directory access protocol used with the Active Directory feature. The default value is LDAP. Determines the appearance of the content menu that appears within every content block after the user logs in. Horizontal—menu icons are arranged horizontally 1.

New dynamic menu—only appears when user moves cursor over content block 1. Old classic menu—always appears 2. Menu without borders—a silver pin head appears above content that has a menu available. Hovering over this pin produces a menu. Sets the 4 digit, decimal representation of the default content language. For example, American English is See also: Setting the default language. Enable or disable multilingual content support. For example, in a Web farm environment, the content server can reside in a remote location.

The folder that stores asset An external file, such as a Microsoft Word document or image, stored in one of these Ektron siteroot folders: assets, privateassets, uploadedfiles and uploadedimages. Only change this value if you need to move the Assets folder to another location. The number of files that can be uploaded at one time. The default is 4 , but it can be any non-negative number.

See also: Caching with Server Controls. Disable 1. Defines the editor used by a Macintosh operating system user. See also: Changing the default editor. Defines the editor used by a Microsoft Windows operating system user.

This setting does not affect content messages. See also: Sending notifications to a community. The path to the help files. Invitations are emails that are sent to non-system users asking them to join your site. See also: Invite server control. This setting determines if Ektron uses linkit. By default, it is set to false. If set to true , when a user inserts a quicklink, Ektron inserts a special link instead of a quicklink.

A special link determines the correct quicklink to use when a site visitor clicks it. For example, a user adds a content block to folder A.

A quicklink to that content is a. To avoid this problem, enable link management. Ektron has a login security feature that, by default, locks out a user after 5 unsuccessful attempts to log in. See also: Restricting login attempts. The width of the login screen in pixels. You may need to widen the screen if you are using Active Directory and database names are long.

Path to the message queue. Choose whether to enable referrer debug information on the RetError. This setting only applies after a user logs in to your site. Change this setting if the colored border that surrounds content looks wrong. If the border looks wrong or inappropriate, change setting to div. This change typically solves the problem. Sets the Workarea Library search-results mode. Enter a numeric value that determines the level of message logging.

By default, diagnostic messages are logged in the Event Log. Choices are: 1—Error: log errors. When set to true, your site is Security Compliant. Select the default currency and enter its Numeric ISO code. This should be done before creating your product catalog. See also: The default currency. When set to true, payments are sent to a test gateway instead of the actual one. Select whether to use English or Metric measurements for your packages.

See also: Configuring packages. Define the relationship between the Shockwave Flash mime type and the Flash player. Define the relationship between the realaudio mime type and the Real player. The class ID for the Flash player. Location of the code base plug-in for Flash player. The class ID for the Quicktime player. Location of the code base plug-in for Quicktime player. The class ID for the Real player. Location of the code base plug-in for Real player.

Define the relationship between the Quicktime mime type and the Quicktime player. Define the relationship between the AVI default mime type and the Quicktime player. Define the relationship between the msvideo mime type and the Windows Media, Quicktime players.

Define the relationship between the msvideo default mime type and the Windows Media Player. Define the relationship between the realvideo mime type and the Real player. Location of the code base plug-in for Windows Media Player.

Miscellaneous Miscellaneous HttpHandlers. If you have any extension you do not want aliased, add it below the following line using the same syntax. StaticFileHandler, Ektron. This setting determines the maximum size of files that can be uploaded to your server. The default setting is , kilobytes, or MB. Enter the desired value in kilobytes.

To convert megabytes to kilobytes, go to OnlineConversion. Mode—determines the storage option for session data. Ektron supports all session-state modes listed in this article: Session-State Modes. Migrating your site to Ektron Migrating your site to Ektron This section explains how to migrate your website to Ektron, as follows. What to copy to your website Setting up and deploying templates Before you migrate Before you migrate Ektron requires a physical installation of the product.

If you do not have physical access to the machine, someone with access to the machine must run the install. For more information, see Installing Ektron. After you install Ektron, verify that it is properly installed by using the starter site. By default, the sample website is located at the following address on the machine to which Ektron is installed. Best Practice Keep a working version of the starter site to help you debug problems.

Copy application core files. These files operate the Workarea, library, and content functions. Set up the database. Content is stored in a database. To learn how to set one up, see Setting up a database. Modify application parameters. Modify the web. Create a Login Page. You can either copy the one from the starter site or create your own. See also: Log-in server control.

Log In Browse to the login page you created and click Login. A login dialog box opens asking for a username and password. Enter the admin username and password and click Login. You selected these while installing Ektron.

You are logged into Ektron. Modify configuration settings. Click Workarea to modify these settings. Set up Active Directory. If plan to use Active Directory, configure this now. Refer to Using Active Directory with Ektron. Modify the Setup screen. The setup section lets you configure items such as your license key, style sheet support, and default language.

See Modifying setup information. Set up Metadata. Ektron includes extensive metadata support. You can have as many metadata definitions as needed. See also: Working with Metadata.

Set up Smart Forms. You can also set up your Smart Forms. See also: Working with Smart Forms. Create Ektron users. If you are not using Active Directory support, add users manually. The maximum number of users is determined by your license key. For instance, if you purchase a user license, you can enter 10 users. If you exceed the licensed number of users, you may get locked out of Ektron. Every user must belong to a group.

When you first add a user, the user is automatically added to the Everyone group. You can create more user groups and add users to them as desired. Configure content and forms folders. Create folders to organize content blocks and forms. Create as many folders as you want. Each folder level can go as deep as you want. See also: Planning your CMS folder structure. As you create folders, you can assign a default template and style sheet. The default template is used when a new content block is created and Ektron creates a Quicklink that points to the new content block.

If you do not provide a default template, it is inherited from the parent folder. Create templates. Templates determine the look and feel of the site.

Masthead, navigation, and footer graphics are all part of the template. For a list of server controls, see Server Controls. Best Practice Because dynamic templates include URL parameters, make each main landing page and other important pages static tags. Migrate or create content. You can create or migrate your content. If you are migrating content from an existing site, add a new content block, and cut and paste the content into the Ektron editor.

Deploy the content. Deployment from development to production is as simple as moving the files over. To properly deploy your new Ektron website: Copy all assets templates, images, files, and so on from your development box to your production machine. Move the database. You have 2 choices point your data source on the production machine to the database you were using.

Optionally, for email notification to work in Ektron, make sure the SMTP service is setup and running in IIS, and that it points to a valid mail server. Setting up an additional site Setting up an additional site After installing Ektron, it is easy to create another site.

Set up New Site. Create a new folder in the Web root folder to contain the site files. Follow the steps for creating a new site, as described in Installing a site. When prompted to select a folder to which you want to install the files, choose the folder you created in Step 1.

Set up New Database. After installing an Ektron site, it is easy to create a new database. You can create either a sample or minimal database. When creating a database for your content, you typically install a minimal database. Prerequisites Prerequisite s All sites reside on the same server. Each site has a multi-site license key.