Blog posts by Epi Visuals

Optimizely Graph – Faceting with Geta Categories

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 19:08:54 GMT

Overview As Optimizely Graph (and Content Cloud SaaS) makes its global debut, it is known that there are going to be some bugs and quirks. One of the current quirks in the system is related to using the Geta Categories Addon, specifically with Faceting. Luckily, a few people have figured out how to work around […]

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OptiID – A redesigned (and welcomed) login & user management experience

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 16:53:35 GMT

At Opticon 2022, I was able to get a sneak preview of what was known as the “Product Switcher.” As a contractor, we do new implementations, as well as ongoing development updates, for numerous clients at one time. Instead of having to have an endless rolodex of bookmarks full of client environment login URLS, there is a SINGLE login interface that will allow for seamless switching between client environments. This was later to be renamed to OptiID. DISCLAIMER: AS OF TODAY, JUNE 17 2023, THIS IS A BETA PRODUCT. THE FOLLOWING FUNCTIONALITY MAY NOT REFLECT THE FINAL PRODUCT. THIS IS…

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Sneak Peek: New and Improved DXP ADEs

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 11:46:19 GMT

As an Optimizely MVP, we are sometimes given the first look at new features! In this case, we were told about a re-released DXP feature (which used to be the bane of my existence), called an ADE (Additional Development Environment) Before I go into what this is and why this is amazing, feel free to nominate someone or apply to become an MVP here: https://world.optimizely.com/community/omvp/become-a-member/ What is an ADE? Why is it useful? An ADE (Additional Development Environment) allows customers to add more integration environments to the standard sets of environments. Sizable development teams and those who have a need…

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Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of CMS 12 – Pt. 1

Thu, 05 May 2022 21:32:48 GMT

I have recently moved to a new company, and naturally I am working on new projects and opportunities. The first thing that I ended up working on is a CMS 12/.NET 5 project, which is brand new to me. This series is specifically to document and share the issues that I have come across while getting my bearings in the new .NET 5/6 + CMS 12 world. In this post, we will go through the following: My first thoughts Configuring for uploading larger file sizes Configuring image cropping and formatting using ImageSharp Conclusion MY FIRST THOUGHTS When I first got…

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Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Updates for .NET 5.0 and EpiCloud 1.0.0

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Yesterday (December 8th 2021), Optimizely sneakily released their very first major update for the EpiCloud Powershell Module; Version 1.0.0. This is great timing, as I was also about to release an update that would provide a fix for Azure.Storage (no longer relevant – ill explain why further in this post), as well as provide updates for use with .NET 5.0. In this post, we will go through the following: What is new in this update? Provisioning environments for NET5? How?! Conclusion What is new in this update? So far, there are no release notes for this update, but it looks…

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Optimizely CMS 12 – .NET 5.0 – Build/Deploy in DevOps (YAML)

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 14:39:44 GMT

The second I created a NET 5 project, the first anxiety-filled thought that ran through my head was something along the lines of… “How the heck am I going to build/deploy this to anywhere useful?!” As I mentioned in my previous post about the DXCS006 error code, this is one of the first times that I have really started to work with NET 5/Core in any real capacity, so its a whole new world to me. This all being said, the goal that I set for myself was to do the following: Learn the differences between the Build/Release process for…

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Optimizely CMS 12 – .NET 5.0 – Error ID DXCS006

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:07:24 GMT

I recently was able to start using one of the new Linux (.NET5.0/CMS12) DXP instances to do some testing/development in, and I came across an interesting error that threw me for a loop. I, for one, am not very versed in .NET Core, so this is all very new to me, so needless to say, when I FINALLY get to the point of being able to deploy code into DXP, have it successfully upload, and then ultimately fail to publish, it was very frustrating. The error code and message I got was: ::ERROR:: ErrorId=DXCS006;Description=The code package does not contain the…

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Optimizely – Slot Swapping Bookmarklet

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 03:08:17 GMT

In the beginning of this month (August 2021), I saw a blog post by EpiNova that absolutely blew my mind. There is a query string that will allow you to view your Optimizely DXP Slot with your live slot domain name. (Link to the article) I had an idea to make this even easier…..CREATE A BOOKMARKLET! This solves an issue that I faced not too long ago, since you cannot give custom domain names to the DXP Slots. If you have a multi-site instance, and you want to be able to do some spot-checks and functionality tests in the DXP…

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Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Downloading Assets

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 12:00:00 GMT

The Optimizely Deployment API (Episerver.PaaS.EpiCloud) has helped immensely as I’ve been working on new projects, but there has always been something that has plagued me; COPYING DOWN CONTENT/ASSETS INTO MY LOCAL ENVIRONMENT. When I say “Copying down Content,” I mean two pieces; Database and the Assets. For the Database Export, I have created my ExportDatabase Script, which will utilize the API to generate a download file, and will also download the database to a local location. Today, we will be talking about the hard part of this process; downloading Assets. In this post, we will go through the following: What…

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Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Provisioning new environments

Fri, 28 May 2021 01:59:02 GMT

As I continue to use the Deployment API, I always am looking for new and exciting ways to use the commands. In this case, being able to provision a brand new set of DXP Environments for a client. In this post, we will go through the following: What environments exist in DXP? Which environments need to be provisioned? Why do we provision these early? How to provision the environments (script) Conclusion What environments exist in DXP? The Optimizely DXP is made up of three environments; Integration, Preproduction, and Production. Which environments need to be provisioned? When a new customer is…

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Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Smooth Deployment Public Release

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:30:04 GMT

In my previous posts, we went over the deployment process in the Optimizely/EpiServer DXP environment. The first and the second post of the Deployment API series went through the original methods that allow for deployment into the DXP environment. Smooth Deploy is a feature that I have been looking forward to for a long time now. It is a great tool to bridge the gap during deployments for the developers, content editors, as well as the users. As of April 19th, 2021, this feature has been released for everyone to use!! In this post, we’re going to very quickly take…

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DXP Deployment API – Azure.Storage Error Fix

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 15:37:10 GMT

As of March 29th, Microsoft made the decision to publish new VM’s which archived a bunch of Az, Azure, and AzureRM modules. The side effect of this was that when the deployment API scripts were run in Azure DevOps, it would throw an error. Script Updates Until Optimizely (Episerver) puts in a fix to their EpiCloud scripts, I have put a fix into my scripts. The fix will check to see if the AZ module is installed into the current scope. If it is not installed, it will force install the Az.Storage module. This will produce a warning in some…

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EpiServer DXP Deployment API – Direct Deploy

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 19:11:10 GMT

As of Update 357, Optimizely (EpiServer) released Direct Deploy into their Deployment API, Episerver.PaaS.EpiCloud. This update changes a couple of my scripts to allow major speed improvements when deploying into the integration environment. In this post, we will go through the following: How does the current deployment to Integration work? Why Direct Deploy? Why does this make sense? How to utilize Direct Deploy Script updates Conclusion Current Deployment Workflow As mentioned in my previous blog series about the Deployment API, the current workflow is that for each environment you must go through the web app slot and then into the…

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Sat, 23 Jan 2021 20:18:24 GMT

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Sat, 23 Jan 2021 20:17:32 GMT

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Sat, 23 Jan 2021 20:15:04 GMT

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Sat, 23 Jan 2021 20:12:21 GMT

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Sat, 23 Jan 2021 20:07:03 GMT

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EpiServer DXP Deployment API - Smooth Deployment Beta

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 21:46:00 GMT

Smooth Deploy is a feature that I have been looking forward to for a long time now. It is a great tool to bridge the gap during deployments for the developers, content editors, as well as the users.

This post will not introduce any new commands, but rather add new switches to allow for Smooth Deploy to work.

We're going to go through the following:

Description of Smooth Deploy (or Zero Downtime Deployment, ZDD)
How to deploy through DXP environments using Smooth Deploy

**Note**

As of the time of this blog post, Smooth Deploy is still in closed beta.

There is no ETA for release, but please follow the EpiServer updates for more information.

Contents

What is Smooth Deploy?

Using Smooth Deploy

Conclusion

What is Smooth Deploy?

Smooth Deploy, or otherwise known as Zero Downtime Deployment (ZDD), is a feature that adds onto the publish process between environments Episerver DXP. The idea behind Smooth Deploy is that when it is enabled, a deployment can be done without the website going offline, which can be especially helpful in a production environment.

This is officially supported between the following environments:

Integration → PreProduction
PreProduction → Production

What does it solve?

Currently, code promotions go directly into the environmental slot, which means the changes aren't seen directly on production. This is great in almost all circumstances, until you have an update to the database, since the database is shared between the slot and the live environment.

Current Live/Slot setup

The idea of a slot is so easy to do on the Web App because it is a built in feature by Microsoft, but unfortunately it is not so easy for just about every other Azure feature. Episerver came up with a set of logic within their deployment API called Smooth Deployment that would solve this issue.

When a deployment starts and the slot is created for the web app, the database, and a few other Azure components are also cloned and permissioned. This creates a 100% segmented environment for testing that can also include any updates/upgrades/changes to the database (or any blocks/pages, etc) without any interference on the live environment.

Differences between Read Only and Read/Write Mode

Within the Smooth Deploy feature, there are two modes that have two different uses. The two modes are known as ReadOnly and ReadWrite.

ReadOnly - ReadOnly is the Recommended way to use Smooth Deploy. This simply means that when there is an active clone of the database in the slot, the live environment database is in a state where no data can be altered. This ensures that there is no data loss when a publish is finalized.
ReadWrite - ReadWrite mode allows data to be altered on the live environment. This does mean that there is a potential for data loss when the publish is finalized.

Login screen during ReadOnly Mode

Using Smooth Deploy

Episerver has implemented this functionality within their deployment API, which means it is available in a couple different places, which I will show you. Firstly is how to utilize it within the PAAS Portal, and then how to use it within my EpiVisuals Scripts.

PAAS Portal

The easiest way to utilize the Smooth Deploy feature is from within the PAAS Portal. Once you're authenticated and you're doing a code promotion (Integration to PreProduction or PreProduction to Production), a modal will prompt for deployment settings. This is where the dropdown will be located for if you want ReadOnly or ReadWrite.

EpiVisuals Deployment Scripts

As seen in my very first post about my deployment scripts, the two main scripts used for code deployments/promotions are DeployToEnvironment.ps1 and PromoteToEnvironment.ps1. They deploy via a nuget package to an environment directly to an environment and promote from one environment to another, respectively.

Both of these scripts have had simply one more parameter added to them in order to use Smooth Deploy. The switch is defined as follows:

 
            [ValidateSet("ReadOnly", "ReadWrite")]
            [string]$ZeroDowntimeMode

Notice that with the parameter, it does not have to be included in the command, but if it is included, it must be either "ReadOnly" or "ReadWrite".

The Deploy and Promote scripts are invoked with the following:

Deploy to Environment:

 
		   .\DeployToEnvironment.ps1 -ClientKey "****" 
                                     -ClientSecret "****" 
                                     -ProjectId "****" 
                                     -ArtifactPath "C:\FilePath" 
                                     -TargetEnvironment "PreProduction" 
                                     -UseMaintenancePage 0
                                     -ZeroDowntimeMode "ReadOnly"

Promote to Environment:

 
		   .\PromoteToEnvironment.ps1 -ClientKey "****" 
                                      -ClientSecret "****"  
                                      -ProjectID "****" 
                                      -SourceEnvironment Integration 
                                      -TargetEnvironment Preproduction 
                                      -UseMaintenancePage 1 
                                      -IncludeBlobs $false 
                                      -IncludeDb 0
                                      -SourceApp "cms"
                                      -ZeroDowntimeMode "ReadOnly"

Conclusion

At this point, if you are one of the ones in the beta program, you should be able to utilize the Smooth Deploy features from within the PAAS Portal, or within Powershell/Azure Devops by using the EpiVisuals scripts.

Personally, I love this feature, as it does indeed make deployments run a lot smoother, and I'm wishing I had this on previous projects. On one of the projects that I previously worked on, the client wanted to follow an every two week update cadence, which meant frequent issues with database upgrade conflicts within the slot and the live environment. This would have been an amazing feature for that client.

As time goes on with this beta program, I will make sure to keep any changes updated in my scripts, and in this post (or future posts, if necessary).

You can also keep an eye on this beta, and Epi's other betas here:

EpiServer DXP Deployment API – Smooth Deployment Beta

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 21:46:00 GMT

In my previous posts, we went over the deployment process in the EpiServer DXP environment. The first and the second post of the Deployment API series went through the original methods that allow for deployment into the DXP environment. Smooth Deploy is a feature that I have been looking forward to for a long time now. It is a great tool to bridge the gap during deployments for the developers, content editors, as well as the users. This post will not introduce any new commands, but rather add new switches to allow for Smooth Deploy to work. We’re going to go through the following:…

Blog posts by Epi Visuals

Optimizely Graph – Faceting with Geta Categories

OptiID – A redesigned (and welcomed) login & user management experience

Sneak Peek: New and Improved DXP ADEs

Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of CMS 12 – Pt. 1

Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Updates for .NET 5.0 and EpiCloud 1.0.0

Optimizely CMS 12 – .NET 5.0 – Build/Deploy in DevOps (YAML)

Optimizely CMS 12 – .NET 5.0 – Error ID DXCS006

Optimizely – Slot Swapping Bookmarklet

Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Downloading Assets

Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Provisioning new environments

Optimizely DXP Deployment API – Smooth Deployment Public Release

DXP Deployment API – Azure.Storage Error Fix

EpiServer DXP Deployment API – Direct Deploy

Metus Aliquam Eleifend Miinnulla Posuere Sollicitudin Aliquam

Cursus Euismod Quis Viverra Nibhcras Pulvinar Mattis Nunc

Dapibus Ultrices Iaculis Nunc Sedaugue Lacus Viverra Bitae

Sed Vulputate Odiout Enimblandit Volutpat Maecenas

Aliquet Lectus Proin Nibhnisl Condimentum Dvenenatis Condimentum

EpiServer DXP Deployment API - Smooth Deployment Beta

What is Smooth Deploy?

What does it solve?

Differences between Read Only and Read/Write Mode

Login screen during ReadOnly Mode Using Smooth Deploy

PAAS Portal

EpiVisuals Deployment Scripts

Conclusion

EpiServer DXP Deployment API – Smooth Deployment Beta

Login screen during ReadOnly Mode

Using Smooth Deploy