Generate Sitecore Support Package via Admin Tools

Neil Killen1 Comment

So I’ve been happily running the standalone SSPG (Sitecore Support Package Generator) for some time now, that is until my good friend Bill Cacy pointed out – it can now be generated via the Sitecore Admin Tools in Sitecore 8.2 onwards!! Wow, how did I miss this?

SSPG is an awesome tool for grabbing a snapshot of useful juicy information about your Sitecore instance to help you diagnose issues when thing go wrong or if just want to simply grab all the log files for a specified period of time. If you’ve never used it then chances are you’ve never had to raise a Sitecore support ticket, as this is one of the first things they will almost always ask for if you don’t provide it to them beforehand.

By making it available in Admin Tools Sitecore have made the process of generating this package and uploading it to the Sitecore FTP support location much much simpler.

1. Select Support Package from the Sitecore Admin Tools Index page (sitecore/admin/default.aspx)

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GDPR! Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in Sitecore xConnect.

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With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) about to go into effect on May 25th, you should be aware of what Personally Identifiable Information (PII) could be stored in Sitecore 9 xConnect.

These fields are easily identifiable if you have installed Sitecore Data Exchange Framework 2.0+ and the xConnect Provider (provides the ability to read and write data to the collection and reference data services of Sitecore xConnect).

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Transforming Data with Sitecore DEF

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When transferring data between systems while some data will map directly you inevitably will come across data objects that need be transformed from the source format into a format that is compatible with the target object. Sitecore Data Exchange framework provides a mechanism and flexibility to reuse to Transform source data objects into the required format for the target data object.

A Value Reader allows you to read a value from a Source object. While it can read the value as is, they can also be used to transform the value. With each version of DEF Sitecore has provided a number Value Readers OOTB.

With DEF version 1.4.1 you have access to the following values readers:

DEF141_DataReaders

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Troubleshooting Coveo for Sitecore

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I ran into an indexing issue a while back with Coveo for Sitecore which involved a bit of troubleshooting. When you are working with a platform like Coveo its not always obvious where to start troubleshooting. In this post, I’ll provide some practical steps to help you troubleshoot issues you might run into and get you unstuck and back doing fun stuff with Coveo and Sitecore. Continue reading →

Quick & Easy Sitecore 9 update 1 install!!

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With Sitecore 9.0.1 having just been released I was pretty excited to have a look at some of the improvements covered in the release notes. Not too mention a newer version of Sitecore Data Exchange Framework 2.0.1 and the OOTB providers.

Having a Sitecore 9 instance already installed and all its prerequisites means installing Sitecore 9.0.1 quick and easy to get up and running.

  1. Downloaded Resource Packages for XP Single (XP0) Instance configuration and extracted it to a resource folder c:\Sitecore\901\resourcefiles
  2. Scanned the 9.0.1 Installation Guide for changes or additional prerequisites and the only thing that jumped out was the updated version of Sitecore Installation Framework 1.1. It contains new features and some bug fixes covered in the release notes. I updated it by running the following cmdlet in Powershell: 
    Update-Module SitecoreInstallFramework
  3. Copied the Powershell Installation script from chapter 4 and compared it to the script provided for the initial release. They are almost identical except for the updated package parameters used to configure xConnect and Sitecore: 
    Package = "$PSScriptRoot\Sitecore 9.0.1 rev. 171219 (OnPrem)_xp0xconnect.scwdp.zip"
Package = "$PSScriptRoot\Sitecore 9.0.1 rev. 171219 (OnPrem)_single.scwdp.zip"
  4. When defining the parameters at the top of the script I used the same values as Sitecore 9.0 script except for $prefix & $FilesRoot.
  5. Kicked off the script and watched it run along without any errors and it installed in 6 mins 46 secs.

runscriptcomplete

Don’t forget to run the applicable Post Installation Steps covered in Chapter 6.

Now, where did I put that DEF 2.0.1 package download!!

Up and Running Quickly with Coveo for Sitecore Cloud

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In this post, I’ll run through how you can get up and running quickly and easily with Coveo For Sitecore v4.1 Cloud Edition using Sitecore 8.2 update 5 as it is fully supported by Coveo. Coveo is planning to support Sitecore 9 in their next release, expected for release at the end of January – so keep an eye out for that. I’ll also take a quick peek at the Hive framework and provide some pointers on useful information and where you can go for additional help. CoveoHiveSearchPage Continue reading →