EPiServer CMS Checklist: Starting Development Checklist

Episerver.config

Set uiMaxVersions = 20

Set uiMaxVersions to 20 in the episerver.config file (in sitesettings). It is important to set this property before the site goes into production as changing it later is difficult. (You would have to republish EVERY page on the site)

Reason: The default setting is to keep unlimited number of versions of each page. This is a problem for two reasons: 1. Performance 2. The version list gets very long for editors

ASP.Net has a major “bug” that causes it to render different HTML based on User Agent. This creates cache problems as well as hinders HTML validation. To ensure that ASP.Net treats all visitors as having modern browsers add the following in web.config:

<system.web>
<xhtmlConformance mode="Strict" />
<browserCaps>
        frames=true
        tables=true
        cookies=true
        javascript=true
        javaapplets=true
        ecmascriptversion=1.5
        w3cdomversion=1.0
        css1=true
        css2=true
        xml=true
        tagwriter=System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter
</browserCaps>
</system.web>

Upgrade your site to .Net 4.0

Step 1: Set target framework for your project to .Net 4.0

Step 2: Install the nuget package EPiServerCMS6ToNetFour from nuget.episerver.com.

(New to Nuget? Get the Nuget Visual Studio add on first, then add the feed http://nuget.episerver.com/feed/packages.svc)

Step 3: Build

Note: Remember to run EPiServer Deployment Center as a .Net 4.0 application when you want to use it on your 4.0 site.

Add SquishIt

SquishIt will bundle and compress your *.js and *.css files and is very easy to use.

The easiest way to get SquishIt is to install the SquishIt nuget package from the “NuGet offical package source”. Alternatively you can download it directly.

See this great article to learn how to use SquishIt. You will be up and running in minutes.

SEO

Create an unique TITLE tag for every page automatically

An unique title tag MUST be generated for each public page on the site. Use the heading property as default and fall back to the PageName. It should also be possible to override by the editor (use a page property). Reason: The title tag is very important for SEO and is also visible to the end user

Create an unique META DESCRIPTION tag for every page automatically

An unique meta description tag MUST be generated for each public page on the site. Use the introduction property as default and fall back to the MainBody text. It should also be possible to override by the editor (use a page property).

Reason: Although the meta description tag does not affect ranking, it is sometimes shown in the search results and affects click through rate.

No page should have more than one H1 tag. Make sure to use CustomTagName="h1" on the EPiServer:Property control to render the correct HTML.

<EPiServer:Property CustomTagName="h1" PropertyName="Heading" ID="Property1" runat="server" />

Reason: H1-H6 should only be used for headings and in the correct order. H1 should be used for the main heading only!

Languages

Set the right Master Language from the start

Go into admin mode and activate just the languages you need. Also ensure that the correct language is set as the Master Language.

Reason: Changing master language later might force you to do some nasty direct changes in the database.

Too many times EPiServer sites crashes because the customer deletes a page or a page expires due to stop publish being set. An expired page should not result in a 500 server error!

Develop faster

Make EPiServer start up faster after each build

EPiServer often takes a long time starting after each build, something that can steal a lot of your development time. You can make it faster by following these 3 steps:

1. Delete all the .xml files in the lang folder for languages you don’t need (make a backup first)

2. Preventing initializing of known assemblies. It is easy!

3. Do an automatic warm up after build