Category: Sitecore Modules

Sitecore Fake SMTP Server Module

~ Nikhil Kulkarni ~ Leave a comment

Hi Champs,

Today I am going to introduce a Sitecore Module especially to developers who can use this to capture Emails from their Sitecore implementation in Sitecore Tab itself for their Local machine.

So not losing more time I like to give a small pathway to use this module, which is as below.

Installation:

  1. You need to download the module from the below link.
    https://marketplace.sitecore.net/en/Modules/S/SitecoreFakeSMTPModule10.aspx
  2. Install this module to your dev local machine environment.
  3. After installation, you will find one new folder created in your website folder as below.                                                                                        wwwroot\<your website folder>\FakeSmtp\website\
  4. You need to create a simple website for this by following below simple steps.
    • Create a new website in IIS with the name “fakesmtp”.
    • Point this website to the new folder created above.        fake(wwwroot\<your website folder>\FakeSmtp\website\)
    • Create a new binding for this website with “sitecore.fake.smtp” as below.bin
    • And the last step is to add new host entry for this like below. 127.0.0.1         sitecore.fake.smtp

How to use this module from Sitecore:

  1. After installing this module you need to login to Sitecore.
  2. Then you need to go to Developer Menu.
  3. In the developer’s menu, you will find the new tab called “Fake SMTP”
  4. This tab has a button called “Start Fake SMTP” click the button.

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  1. Now, this will open new tab which will have different menu but initial page has some instruction implementing the code in your Sitecore .NET project to get these email capture in this module.

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  1. I believe everyone most of the time uses the library (System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient) which is mentioned in instruction page.
  2. If yes then you can directly get to Messages tab where you can see next email captured when it gets triggered.
  3. If no then you just need to add/update few lines of code to get this working

Note:  Right now model doesn’t have close button which will come in next release.

Please leave comments/query/suggestions.

Happy innovating Sitecore.

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Sitecore Module for Stepping in IoT

~ Nikhil Kulkarni ~ Leave a comment

Hi Champs,

Today I am going to share my innovative primary module to connect to robotic kits like “Arduino, Raspberry pi, Atmega”. But I have tested this with Arduino as it has wider community. There are different ways to get IoT resolved most recommended in Microsoft era is Azure IoT Hub. But there is one more leader which is AWS IoT Core. And using AWS IoT Core there is great offering from Arduino which is Arduino’s AWS hosted IoT IDE where you can find predefined projects and modules. You can create your own project for your circuit. 

You can find the module on below link—-

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

This module will be showing you how to create a Sitecore web application capable of communicating with Arduino. Excited yet? No? Well, you should be.

All you need for this Module, an Arduino board (my particular model is the Uno Rev3, but I’m sure most models will work just fine), and some basic wire and LED components. I picked up an ARDX Starter Kit, which contained all the LEDs and wires I needed. 

This once you install this module you will get two pages for controlling Arduino as below.

1.     http://your-domain/Iot/IoT%20Controlling

2.     http:// your-domain /IoT/IoT%20monitoring

If you on the first page you will get below the control panel, where you will get the basic functionality of triggering LED.

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You can change the functionality for triggering different commands.

Now the second part of this module is the Monitoring panel, where you can monitor different inputs given by Arduino to Sitecore application. You can also configure this page with personalization and capturing data into xDB and get different reports.

Below are some photos for my circuit connections which are useful for you to connect.

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Using my breadboard, I configured the hardware portion of my project like so (excuse the terrible art):

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Below are the connections for the monitoring circuit.

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Purpose of this Module:

The purpose of creating this module is to make the Sitecore community aware that IoT is next which we need to spread. This module gives us to communicate with IoT devices. Another emerging thing about stepping into this is IoT devices are widely used in different things Like Agriculture, Intelligence, Security, Armed Forces. I want to get Sitecore involved in the above field.

In future:

My plan in future is to work with my own case study of Wireless Agriculture Monitoring and Solution system which we already implemented to KIAAR which is research institute in India. This case study was limited to only institute now I want to make sure that the model is working on wider scale and Sitecore is platform, where I can collect every data, manipulate it and get monitoring reports as well as create the real-time solution for that situation and send it back to Farmers in the form of SMS, Email or other media in their own languages.

Please check blog Sitecore IoT Part-2 for getting insights of how to run Arduino code.

Happy for sharing this, stay tuned for great and innovative stuff. Please do comment and share

Sitecore NFR Module

~ Nikhil Kulkarni ~ Leave a comment

Hi Champs, 

Today I am going to introduce to you to my new Module for Non-Functional Requirement, this module will help Stakeholders/Marketers to check below different things and get high-level reports for the same.

1.     Page Speed Test— This test will help for testing Page speed.

2.     Load Test— This test will help for testing Load on site.

3.     SSL Test— This test will help for testing all SSL and Cipher used and compatible.

4.     Browser Test— This test will help for testing browser compatibility.

5.     SEO Test— This test will help for testing SEO parameters on the site.

6.     Digital Test— This test will help for testing Digital parameters.

One thing I want to mention hear all the freeware tools are used, so you might get some discrepancies in results. But this will be helpful for business Stakeholders/Marketers.

Now we will jump in the module. Below are the steps to use this module.

1.     Download module from the below link.

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

I have updated right file to above one till the time you may find right module on below link.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9gzfz6he5oam5c/Sitecore%20NFR%20Module-1.0.zip?dl=0

2.     Once you download and install this module you will get below the page to render in respective Sitecore implementation. (note you can change name of the page)

http://your-domain/nfr/nfr

3.     Note this page has to be available in the CD role of your Sitecore implementation.

4.     So I will suggest applying for a security role on this page so it will be available to an only targeted audience.

5.     Coming back to the concept once you get above URL running you will get below

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6.     From here stakeholders/Marketers can check and get reports on a high level.

Note: This Module is targeted to Marketers and Stakeholders because I found these people wants high level reports to check all above parameters.

Thank you Sitecore Marketplace Team again for accepting this. There more to come so stay tuned and check for my new Modules coming in future.

Happy sharing!!!!!

Sitecore Module – Social Media Side Menu

~ Nikhil Kulkarni ~ Leave a comment

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.