Tag: XM Cloud

Setup XM Cloud Site to host on Vercel

In this blog post we will Link the XM Cloud to Vercel. The XM Cloud site will be hosted in Vercel by Seting up the host

In this blog post we saw how to setup the Vercel Project manually but this whole process can be automated by Creating and linking the host.

Configure Hosting Connection

Login to XM Cloud and navigate to Connections –> Hosting tab

Click on Create connection –> Vercel

Login to Vercel and add Integration

Select the account to connect. In my case its personal account

Select the all projects to integrate, dont selecy any specific project or you will get error. See errors section-

Confirm and Add Integration-

A new Hosting connection is created with the name-

Setup Hosting

Navigate to Projects ==> Environments ==> Sites Tab

Link Vercel Site (Connection been already created)

You can create Hosting connection from here too.

Click “Create and link”

Now you can see the Site is linked to host i.e. Vercel.

Once the Site is linked you should be able to see the project in Vercel

Login to vercel and see the newly created project and deployment in-progress.

In few minutes the deployment should be completed

Click on the domains and should see the Site-

Errors-

Vercel installation will require ‘All Projects’ access. Please change the access on the Vercel installation

Resolution

Delete any exisitng Hosting Connection and re-create the hosting with Integration to be allowed to all projects.

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Use Experience Edge GraphQL to access XM Cloud hosted site

GraphQL delivery API is used to access the published site content. Experience Edge for Experience Manager (XM) is an API-based service from Sitecore that gives you globally replicated, scalable access to your XM Cloud items, layout, and media. You can use the standard publish tools in XM Cloud , but instead of rendering content from a self-hosted Content Delivery environment, Experience Edge provides you a Sitecore-hosted GraphQL API. 

To access the XM Cloud hosted published site content using Expereince Edge follow these steps-

Login to XM Cloud. Navigate to Projects ==> Environments ==>Details tab.

Launch IDE for Live GraphQL

The URL for GraphQL IDE –

https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/ide

GraphQL edge endpoint is –

https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/v1

Let stry a simple query to get siteinfo-

If you see this error- JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

This means a header with GraphQL token is not provided or incorrect.

Generate Delivery API token-

Add X_GQL-TOKEN in header with newly generated token vlaue

You should now be able to access only the published Site content using Experience Edge.

If you are not able to see the items, you might have not published the ietms

Publish items to edge

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Create Vercel project to host XM Cloud Site

Sitecore XM Cloud Vercel connector helps to host Website to Vercel

Before using this connector you have to create Project and Environment.

Prerequisite

Before we ould start configuring Project in Vercel we need following info-

JSS APP Name- can be found and should be same as configured in package.json in sxastarter folder

In this case it is sxastarter

GRAPHQL ENDPOINT

GraphQL endpoint for published Sitecore items i.e. Delivery/Live endpoint is –

https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/v1

Sitecore API Key

This should be the GraphQL Delivery token i.e. GQL token-

There are different ways to generate GQL Token. One of the way is generate from portal. Login to XM Cloud and navigate to Projects ==> Environments ==> Details tab

Click on Generate Delivery API Key (Note this key as this won’t be avilable again and needs to be re-generated again if lost)

Note this API key as this is required later whilst configuring the Vercel hosting.

Publish Site

Publish the site to Edge before starting to configure Project in Vercel, since we are configuring GraphQL Delivery API token items in Sitecore needs to be published

Create a Project in Vercel

Login to Vercel and Create Project-

Since I have logged in using GitHub account it displays the repositories in Github the project will be based on-

Import the repository-

Configure Project

Once the project is created configure the project by selecting the Framework and repo folder FE code exists-

Choose the Nextjs Framework

Choose the sxastarter folder from the repo i.e. /src/sxastarter

Add following environment variables extracted earlier-

JSS_APP_NAME – sxastarter

GRAPH_QL_ENDPOINT – https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/api/graphql/v1

SITECORE_API_KEY – Delivery API Key generated from portal.

Should have this confiogured in the Vercel Project-

Deploy the Project

Deployment complete-

Visit the Site and should get the same view as configued in local environment and Experience Editor-

Thats all for how to create a Vercel Project and deploy site.

Errors-

If you see error-

The field 'item' does not exist on the type 'query'

Resolution-

Publish the site

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Sitecore Headless SXA – Create, apply and restrict a custom style to renderings

In this blog post I will show how to apply a custom style to a rendering.

Requirement-

I have a requirement to add extra spacing between the components.

There is already a indent-top style which provides this space (20px) but neesd 100px space.

And the same can see in Experience Editor-

Same can also see in css file in sxastarter project-

Create a custom style (indent-large-top)

Create custom style in Sitecore-

Create a new style (Indent Large Top) in Sitecore under Presentations => Styles ==> Spacing

/sitecore/content/scxmcloud/sxastarter/Presentation/Styles/Spacing

Provide the value of the Style-

Create a style in FE project with the same value-

There are various ways you should be able to do this. I am adding 5 times more space to the existing indent-top style.

_indent.scss

// $middle-margin is defined in _margins.scss
.indent-large-top {
  margin-top: calc($middle-margin * 5);
}

Apply a custom style to rendering

Select the component or container you want to apply style and choose option “Indent Large Top” in Spacing section

Now the space between the 2 component is increased and is 100px as per the requirement.

New style applied to container-

Apply style to specific renderings

As above when the style was created it was applied to all renderings.

If you want to restrict the style to be applied to only certain renderings you can do so by setting Allowed renderings field in new created Style item.

For “Indent Large Top” only SectionContainer will be able to see the new Spacing Style.

In Experience Editor you wont see the “Indent Large Top” for other renderings e.g.- for container rendering-

While for Section Container rendering the new style is available-

References-

https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/sxa/103/sitecore-experience-accelerator/add-a-style-for-a-rendering.html

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How to set background image using Next js in Sitecore XM Cloud

This is a very common scenario where a background image needs to be set to certain components. Banner’s on any page on your website is a very common place to have a background image.

This blog assumes you have setup the Foundation Head setup or have your own Nextjs project setup implemented using the Sitecore NextJS SDK.

Note: This is not specific to XM Cloud but for any Headless implementation

Foundation Head already has an example on setting the background image using params. In this blog post will explore how this works and where in Sitecore the image can be applied. Will see how this can applied using using OOTB _Background Image item.

To apply image background using rendering parameters to the container see this blog here

Applying background image using rendering field to the components

Background image can be applied to components inheriting the existing __Background Image item to the custom component template.

Create a template for your component. Here I am creating a Banner component-

Inherit _Background Image from /sitecore/templates/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Presentation/_Background Image

_Background Image has “Background Image” and “Stretch mode” field.

Note that there is a space between the field names, although not recommended but this comes OOTB.

Create a “Banner” JSON Rendering and provide the “Parameters Template”, “Datasource Location” and “Datasource Template” as per your requirement and add this rendering to the “Available Renderings”

Create a Nextjs component in sxastarter project

Note below how the “Background Image” field is set. This is due to the same in field name. Not recommended but this is OOTB.

View this gist on GitHub

Experience Editor-

Add a container component in Main placeholder-

Add a newly created component (Banner) in Container placeholder-

Create or select associated content

Once the component is added you should see the button to Add Background Image ( ths is added when the template inherits from _Background Image template.

Select the Background Image and Save-

You should now able to see the background image to component-

Rendering Host-

Reference-

https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/users/xm-cloud/add-a-background-image.html

XM CLoud Dev – How to set background image using rendering parameters

This is a very common scenario where a background image needs to be set to certain components. Banner’s on any page on your website is a very common place to have a background image.

Note: This is not specific to XM Cloud but for any Headless implementation

Foundation Head already has an example on setting the background image using params. In this blog post will explore how this works and where in Sitecore the image can be applied. Will see how this can applied using Rendering Parameters and using OOTB _Background Image item.

Applying background image using rendering parameters

Background image can be applied to container. If you are using Foundation Head repo you can find this component OOTB.

Thre Container rendering is at following lcoation in Sitecore –

/sitecore/layout/Renderings/Feature/JSS Experience Accelerator/Page Structure/Container

Note Other properties- IsRenderingsWithDynamicPlaceholders and IsRenderingsWithDynamicPlaceholders is set to true

Rendering parameter is located – /sitecore/templates/Feature/JSS Experience Accelerator/Page Structure/Rendering Parameters/Container

Rendering paramter template has the BackgroundImage field. The background image will be set based on the image selected in this field.

How the image is set in Head

Lets see background image set in nextjs (sxastarter) Container.tsx

// image string from the rendering parameters
 let backgroundImage = props.params.BackgroundImage as string;
  let backgroundStyle: { [key: string]: string } = {};
  console.log('backgroundImage1');
  console.log(backgroundImage);
  if (backgroundImage) {
    const prefix = `${sitecoreContext.pageState !== 'normal' ? '/sitecore/shell' : ''}/-/media/`;
    backgroundImage = `${backgroundImage?.match(BACKGROUND_REG_EXP)?.pop()?.replace(/-/gi, '')}`;
    backgroundStyle = {
      backgroundImage: `url('${prefix}${backgroundImage}')`,
    };
  }

  return (
    <div className={`component container-default ${styles}`} id={id ? id : undefined}>

// style applied to <div> having background image
      <div className="component-content" style={backgroundStyle}>
        <div className="row">
          <Placeholder name={phKey} rendering={props.rendering} />
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

Lets see this in working in experience editor and rendering host

In the experience editor main section add a container component.

Once the rendering is added, goto “Edit component properties” and add an background image

Now you are able to see the background image applied ot container and I have added RichText in containerto show the image in background-

Rendering Host displays the image in background-

Nested containers to apply differnt background image or component

If you add only one container the image will be applied to the main section.

To resolve this you can add a container within main container. add mutiple containers as per your requirements. To set the background image to specific container in this example contianer-2 select the parent(i.e. container) and set the image by Editing the Component properties

This should apply the different images for various other sections in the sampe page and since the Container rendering has IsRenderingsWithDynamicPlaceholders property set this should create a unique Id for each container.

Here for example container-2 and container-3 is a child of container-1

Rendering Host displays banckgroung images with there respective components-

Isusue- Here you can see there is a white patch when applied to child container and the image is applied to inner div.

To resolev this apply the image to the outer div instead in container.tsx

return (
    <div className={`component container-default ${styles}`} style={backgroundStyle} id={id ? id : undefined}> // backgroundStyle added
      <div className="component-content"> // backgroundStyle removed
        <div className="row">
          <Placeholder name={phKey} rendering={props.rendering} />
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );

Here you can seee a full width background image

Hope these tips helps.

XM Cloud local environment – Access Sitecore database hosted in Docker

This blog provides details on accessing local Sitecore instance Database hosted on Docker.

If you wish to backup or share Sitecore Database you can connect to Sitecore DB.

Install Sitecore local instance, see th blog post here and run the docker containers for Sitecore.

In .env file see the SQL connection details-

Check the docker container for the DB port.

You may also see the Connection String in CM container-

  • Sitecore_ConnectionStrings_Security
  • Sitecore_ConnectionStrings_Core
  • Sitecore_ConnectionStrings_Master
  • Sitecore_ConnectionStrings_Web

From your local installed SQL server connect to docker hosted DB-

You should not able to see the DB’s configured to support Sitecore XM Cloud local instance-

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XM Cloud Dev Error: Hydration failed – while using XMC with Nextjs

Recently, I started receiving error-

Unhandled Runtime Error

Error: Hydration failed because the initial UI does not match what was rendered on the server.

This error was specifically while using RichText field.

Resolution-

Hyderation is when React converts the pre-rendered HTML from the server into fullly interactive application by attaching event handlers.

The common casue of this issue is incorrect nesting of HTML tags.

RichText is wrapped in div tag and received this error when the RichText was wrapped in <p> tag

Example where React throws error-

Incorrect way of wrapping RichText-
<p className="page-desc text-white mb-0"> 
   <RichText field={props.fields.Description} />
</p>

Remove the <p> tag or wrap RichText in <div> tag

Correct way-
<RichText className="page-desc text-white mb-0" field={props.fields.Description} />

Remvoing <p> might removing spacing between fields/components, this needs to be adjusted using CSS.

Reference-

https://nextjs.org/docs/messages/react-hydration-error

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XM Cloud local environment – Setup local development instance

This blog post will guide you through the local environment setup for XM Cloud. You may refer this documentation to do this your own way. Althoug the documentation covers most of the setup, this blog post provides visual on the steps and errors with the resolution.

https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/developers/xm-cloud/walkthrough–setting-up-your-full-stack-xm-cloud-local-development-environment.html

Once the Foundation Head from Sitecore Labs is forked s(se more details here) clone the copy to the local machine for creating a local instance required for XM Cloud development.

Pre-requisite

You can find the pre-requisite in this documentation. Ensure your machine has this before setting the local development environment. Just noting down here-

https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/developers/xm-cloud/walkthrough–setting-up-your-full-stack-xm-cloud-local-development-environment.html

Also make sure you are using Docker v.2, as explained here.

Access to XM Cloud – This blog post assumes you have admin access to XM Cloud where you should be able to craete/update/delete projects environments and deployment in your organisation.

I have this ready on my machine.

1. Clone the forked Foundation head repo.

I named the folder same as the repo on my local machine i.e. xmcloud-foundation-head. the same will be refered thoruhg this post.

Will see the following folder structure after cloned.

I use Visual Studio Code to make any environment related changes. You may use either Visual Studio 2022 or your choice of editor.

2. Open the .env at the root folder and you will see REPORTING_API_KEY, TELERIK_ENCRYPTION_KEY etc. empty.

3. Start the containers.

Prepare the environment

Before doing so make sure you stop the IIS and check if the port 443 (IIS Website) and 8984 (Solr service)is not used and the docker is running in Windows Containers mode. If not switch to Windows cotainers.

iisreset /stop
Get-Process -Id (Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 443).OwningProcess
Get-Process -Id (Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 8984).OwningProcess

Stop-Service -Name "<the name of your service>"

Copy the license file to c:\license folder. If you wish to have this in other folder you also have to change the HOST_LICENSE_FOLDER in .env(root folder) with the path where the license resides.

To prepare the Sitecore container environment, run the script init.ps1 from the root directory of the project along with the license path and desired passowrd for your instance. this form the root folder from the downloaded the repo.

.\init.ps1 -InitEnv -LicenseXmlPath "C:\license\license.xml" -AdminPassword "b"

Required certificates added.

You may also noticed .env in root folder have added values in REPORTING_API_KEY, TELERIK_ENCRYPTION_KEY and MEDIA_REQUEST_PROTECTION_SHARED_SECRET, which was earlier empty.

Download the Sitecore Docker images, install and configure the containers and client application

Run the up.ps1 to download and install containers and client application

.\up.ps1

This is should download the images and start the containers

Once the containers are started, it should ask to confirm to login to Sitecore with the Device confirmation code. Confirm if this matches. It should also ask to login to XM Cloud isntance and confirm.

One this is done indexes will be rebuilt and the Sitecore instance should be up and running.

Also notice that any items in this case none is pushed to Sitecore instance and an api key is genereated with the name xmcloudpreview-

You may also notice a jss editing secret and SITECORE_API_KEY_xmcloudpreview are updated in .env fiel in root folder along with the Sitecore Admin password which was set whilst initialising the environment.

Your local instance should now be up and running-

https://xmcloudcm.localhost/sitecore/

The highlighted key shoulld match the key while spinning up the containers.

Taking down the containers

To take down the containers run the down.ps1 from the root folder.

.\down.ps1

Errors

Invoke-RestMethod : Unable to connect to the remote server

This should be ideally staright forward but if you see any issues whilst getting CM instance up and runing. take down the container with down.ps1 command and delete any docker network.

docker network prune

Hope this helps to setup local Sitecore instance for XM Cloud development.

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Automation with Sitecore XM Cloud Webhooks and Zapier

With Zapier you can inspect and create customised workflow in munites without wirting any code. Its a good way to automate any actions required once the webhooks in Sitecore are triggered.

In this blog post will quickly create a workflow in Zapier to send mail when a webhook event is trigerred.

Will take a scenario when a Home page is updated, so that the concern team knows about this change.

This is not a fully customised solution but you can extend this as per your requirements.

Create a Zapier account

Create a Zapier account if you don’t have already. There is free subscription available to try out.

Login to Zapier and create a new Zap

Configure a trigger- Select Webhook by Zappier

When a new zap is created select a Catch Hook event in App & Event section

In the test section it should provide the URL its listening to execute any autmation if applicable.

Test the trigger by copying the s URL and setup the same in your Webhokk Handler in Sitecore XM CLoud or local instance. See this blog post on how to create a webhook handler.

Update content in Home page and Save. This should triggere the webhook and call the Zapier endpoint configured in handler.

Test trigger and should see the request available to this endpoint-

Continue with Selected Record if you are happy with the request-

Apply Filter

We want to send mail only when Home page is changed, so lets apply filter

Configure the filter

Add the condition

Further action will be taken only if Item name is Home. This just an example you can select the list of action available.

Continue and select next action and in this case I selected to send a mail to Gmail

Select the event “Send Mail”

Setup your account.

Setup the action to whom the mail should be sent and other information required for the mail

Continue and Test the Step

Now you should have the Zap configured-

Publish the Zap

Change the name of the Zap and should be available in Dashboard-

Change a home page content in Sitecore XM Cloud-

In the Zap runs you should be able to see a mail is triggered-

Thats it. This took me few minutes to configure and test the mail for a simple sceanrio.

Zapier gives you full flexibility to configure the triggers without writing any code based on the conditions to tak action when a Webhook event is triggered in Sitecore XM Cloud.

Hope this helps.

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