Working with EXM in Sitecore 9XP

Hi Champs,

Today I am going to explain how to use the OOTB EXM feature from Sitecore 9XP.

EXM comes as preinstalled module in Sitecore 9, once you get the EXM running after Sitecore installation follows the below steps to set up the messaging.

Changes for CustomSMTP:

  1. After getting Sitecore EXM installed go to App_Config/Sitecore/EmailExperience folder.
  2. Find the config file called. “Sitecore.EDS.Providers.CustomSMTP.config”
  3. In this file please change the Server node value with the IP address for your SMTP server.
  4. Also, change the Port number for the same.

Changes for CustomSMTP Sync:

  1. After getting Sitecore EXM installed go to App_Config/Sitecore/EmailExperience folder.
  2. Find the config file called “Sitecore.EDS.Providers.CustomSMTP.Sync.config”
  3. In this file please change the Server node value with the IP address for your SMTP server.
  4. Also, change the Port number for the same.

Using EXM:

  1. Check below link for how to start with EXM in Sitecore 9. https://doc.sitecore.com/users/exm/90/email-experience-manager/en/introducing-the-email-experience-manager.html
  2. You can use below link to get all related topic for customizing the EXM. https://sitecorehacker.com/2018/11/26/25-days-of-sitecore-exm

Thank you for reading.

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Sitecore 9XP installation in details with Issues(xDB, Solr, Multiple instance)

Hi Champs,

Today I am going to share not just Sitecore 9XP installation but the issues which you might get while installing Sitecore 9 on your machine or on Servers.

I will not waste time on explaining how to install Sitecore 9 installation as you can find generic steps on below articles

https://buoctrenmay.com/2019/04/06/sitecore-xp-9-1-update-1-step-by-step-install-guide-on-your-machine/

Issues which you will face while installing Sitecore 9 are below.

Issue 1 : Solr Core are not getting created while installing

  1. You need to go to Service.msc
  2. Need to find the Solr service which got created while running mentioned PowerShell script.
  3. Now you need to stop the service again restart service check your Solr is running.
  4. You also need to check the Solr port number you mentioned in the script.
  5. Now run again the Script.

Issue 2 : SSL certificate issue

  1. While installing/running the above script you will find an error for Marketing automation service.
  2. Error is while executing the above script it tries to start Marketing automation service for xDB with unsigned/non-self signed SSL.
  3. But it is unable to find it from machine root.
  4. for which you need to run below PowerShell code one by one to get unsigned/non-self signed SSL in proper machine root.
  5. And now again restart the installation by PowerShell script. also please check below link for any other issues related to this. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/8561/xconnect-the-http-response-was-not-successful-unauthorized
Get-Childitem cert:\LocalMachine\root -Recurse | 
    Where-Object {$_.Issuer -ne $_.Subject}

If you get any certificates, Move these non-self-signed certificates into the Intermediate Certification Authorities (i.e. CA) store

Get-Childitem cert:\LocalMachine\root -Recurse | 
    Where-Object {$_.Issuer -ne $_.Subject} | 
    Move-Item -Destination Cert:\LocalMachine\CA

Issue 3 : Installing multiple Sitecore 9 instance on same machine.

While installing multiple Sitecore 9 instance you need to take care of below.

  1. First, you need to change all parameter name’s according to other instance from the mentioned script.
  2. Please make sure that you will create Solr service with a different name and a different port.
  3. Before starting installation make sure that you will need to stop all Sitecore services for the other instances which you already created.
  4. Check that you have given proper SQL parameters.
  5. Now start the execution of PowerShell script.
  6. Don’t forget to restart all the services which you stopped for other instances.

Issue 4 : After installation issues with xDB service.

  1. If you found that there are issues for xDB you need to go to services.msc.
  2. Go to the Marketing Automation service for respective Sitecore instance you may find that it is started but actually not working.
  3. In this case, you need to go to PowerShell and need to run above commands for non-self signed certificates.
  4. Then go to IIS.
  5. Go to the connect website and rearrange the SSL for xConnect website bindings.
  6. Once this is done then again start the service.

Thanks you for reading !

Please write comments and post your questions.

Sitecore Module – Social Media Side Menu

Hi Champs,

Happy to announce that, my first Sitecore Module got released at Sitecore Marketplace.

Today I am going to share the details about the module which I have created please have a glance on below information which can help you for installing and using my Sitecore Module.

Pre-requisites to install this module:

  1. Download the Module from the below link.

https://marketplace.sitecore.net/en/Modules/S/Social_Media_Side_Menu_Module.aspx

  1. You Should be using Sitecore 8.0XP and higher.
  2. This Module is tested on Sitecore versions- 8.2,9.0,9.1,9.1.1.
  3. You should have a .NET framework 5.2.3.0.
  4. You should have Glass-mapper “Glass.Mapper.Sc.Web.MVC” library(DLL) installed in the bin folder.
  5. Should have an idea of your Sitecore content tree, pages in the content tree and placeholders used for the same.

How to install this module:

  1. Download this module from Sitecore marketplace.
  2. Go to Sitecore.
  3. Open Package installation wizard.
  4. Upload and install this package.

How to configure this module:

  1. Once install this module go to Sitecore content tree.
  2. Select the page item where you want to add Social Media Menus for navigation.
  3. Go to Presentation tab from ribbon.
  4. Select the Details button and go to Final Layout of the opened wizard.1
  5.   Add new control. Once the wizard is opened Select “Social Side Menu Rendering” and add placeholder name to this which you used for page display in my case it is “content”, note in your case it would different.2
  6. Once this added you can go to controls option and select Social Media menu option by default you will get 5 Social Menus added.3
  7. Once saved this, you can see the preview.
  8. You can add as many menu items as you want.(Use—/Sitecore/content/Social Side Menu/Social Side Menus)
  9. We have the facility to restrict how many we want to display on the page.(Use—/Sitecore/content/Social Side Menu/Navigation Counter)
  10. And now you’re ready to publish the same.