EPiServer Search and Replace plug-in v1.2

I have released a new version of the Search and Replace plugin I released a few months ago.  Some UI enhancements have been made and there was an issue where the plugin fell over when running edit mode under a different relative file path location.

What is the EPiServer Search and Replace plug-in?

It’s a free plug-in aimed at content editors which allows content editors to search and replace content within an EPiServer site. 

The plugin has the ability to search and replace page properties, dynamic content and dynamic properties.

To install the plugin it is a simple as copying the compiled assembly into the bin folder and adding some configuration settings.  See the installation instructions here

How did the plug-in come about?

Myself and a couple of colleagues were discussing features missing from EPiServer.  One thing that came up several times in pitch meetings from project stake holders was whether the CMS offered the ability to search and replace content within a site. 

EPiServer doesn’t provide this functionality so I decided to create a plugin to do just this.

Search and Replace Plugin abilities

The plugin needed to meets the following requirements:

1. Search and replace page properties.

2. Search and replace dynamic properties.

3. Search and replace dynamic content.

4. For xml/xhtml content only replace the content of text nodes and attributes so that structure is not corrupted.

5. Maintain versioning history so that the editor can decide whether or not to publish/rollback the affected pages.

Using the plug-in

When the plugin has been setup a new tab will appear in the edit area named ‘Search and Replace.  The default view of this tab which is shown below allows the editor to create a new search and replace record or edit/delete an existing instance.

When the user clicks the Add ‘Search and Replace’ button. They will be presented with the following form:

Here the user can set various searching options, such as specifying a starting page, whether to search descendent pages of the start page and whether to search all language branches or specific ones, plus a few other options.

When the editor is happy with the criteria they can click ‘Go’.  This will invoke the search and replace on a seperate thread and the editor will be presented with a progress indicator which updates using AJAX like below:

Once the search and replace has completed the editor will then be presented with another screen informing them of the criteria used and any pages, dynamic properties that have been updated or any errors that have occurred:

This screen allows the editor to publish (only if the page has been in a published state) pages, roll them back or compare page versions using the new EPiServer 6 PageCompare plugin as shown below:

Further information

For further information on setup and the configuration options available please check out the Usage Instructions.

Compiled assemblies and source code can be found on codeplex http://episerversap.codeplex.com/.

Have feedback?

Please feel free to email or twitter me with any feedback @croweman