How to setup license for Episerver hosted in Azure

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:16:47 GMT

This article describes how to setup and activate the license for Episerver running on a Microsoft Azure web app.

Episerver Cloud license

Episerver running in an Azure web app will require a cloud license. The cloud license works differently than an ordinary license as it is not bound to MAC or IP. Instead the site “calls home” upon activation to register the server. (The server concept in this case is synonymous with a web app instance). As before, the license limits the number of sites and servers (instances) that can be run under that license.

Setup and activation

Let’s assume you have Episerver running in two environments, test and production. The same license file (license.config) should be used and deployed to both environments.

To avoid license error it’s important that you enter the same URL in both the test and production environment. The URL is found in Admin mode > Config > Manage websites > Web sites. (See screen dump below).

Now it´s time to activate the license. Navigate to admin mode > Config > Manage websites > Cloud license. Activate the license in both test and production with the activate button. (See screen dump below). The servers (azure instances) are counted towards the total number, limited by the license.

You should not activate the other host names, only the one listed that is the same as the main URL.

Since the cloud license is a floating license, you can deactivate instances and activate others as you see fit, as long as you do not exceed the total number of instances allowed by your license. For an example, if you have 3 instances for your production environment, 2 for pre-production and one for test, you can deactivate all non-production instances and use 6 instances in production in case you need to handle an increased amount of traffic for a period.

How to get your Episerver site on Facebook Instant Articles

Thu, 12 May 2016 13:00:08 GMT

What is Instant Articles?

Instant Articles is a way to enhance the user experience for users consuming your content through Facebook mobile-app. By providing Facebook with a slimmed HTML5 version of your article, Facebook will cache the content (including images and videos), resulting in a much quicker load time. Instant Articles also comes with rich storytelling capabilities and customized visual display. Read more about Facebook Instant Articles.

When to use Instant Articles

You should embrace Instant Articles when you want to reach out with your content on Facebook, benefit from the great user experience Instant Articles entails, but have low requirements for Call To Action. If the Call To Actions is just a simple link, Instant Articles could be a perfect match to help you letting your content shine.

When to avoid Instant Articles

There are a few drawbacks that you should be aware of when (cross) publishing content as Instant Articles on Facebook. With Instant Articles you will not be able to:

Track the user on your web (the user is never reaching your web)
Use input forms as call to action or other more complex user interactions
Stream video from other sources than Youtube, Facebook or Vine (but you can provide the video file through the RSS feed)

How to get started

Install the open source module Instant Articles for Episerver through the Episerver nuget feed
Continue the installation by following the instructions for the Instant Articles module

You should now have an RSS feed with your articles that Facebook can read. Continue with the following steps to get your articles published on Facebook:

Sign up your Facebook page for Instant Articles
Get your first articles publised by following the quickstart guide from Facebook

The Facebook review process

Be aware of that Facebook has a review process to verify that all Instant Articles are properly formatted and are consistent with their web counterpart. Your feed needs to be approved before you can start publishing Instant Articles. This can take several days and you will probably have to make changes to the markup on your articles.

Blog posts by Pontus Hagman