Koushik Mukherjee - XM Cloud & Sitecore 10 Certified Developer

Recently, I had the opportunity to work on a data migration project in Sitecore 10, where we migrated data from a custom application into Sitecore. For this project, I utilized the Sitecore PowerShell module, which, combined with some effective PowerShell scripts, enabled a seamless data migration process. In addition to the migration, there were other requirements, such as removing unused media files, cleaning up user accounts, and managing content. I researched solutions for these tasks and found several useful scripts from various sources. To help the community, I’ve consolidated these scripts and shared them on GitHub for reference. I hope they prove helpful to fellow Sitecore developers. As Sitecore instances grow larger, maintaining them becomes increasingly challenging, highlighting the importance of scripting tools to perform bulk operations on Sitecore items efficiently. Below is a collection of scripts designed for bulk activities and data migration from other databases. Coll...

XM Cloud comes preloaded with basic components for text, images, page content, and more. In my previous blogs, I covered how to create and manage components in XM Cloud using the Component Builder. In this post, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide to building custom components in Next.js within the XM Cloud environment. Why Custom Components Matter Developing custom components is a standard approach to creating unique elements that enhance your pages' design, functionality, and user experience. Step 1: Creating a New Headless Module To create a custom component in Sitecore XM Cloud, you first need to set up a Headless Module. Here's how: Navigate to Settings -> Project -> [Site Name] in XM Cloud. Right-click your project, select Insert , and then click Headless Module . In the popup window, choose a name for the module (e.g., Custom Component ) and assign it to a folder. For this tutorial, we created a "Tutorial Site" folder under Feature to store our custom mod...

  In the September 2024 release for XM Cloud, Sitecore introduced a range of exciting features designed to simplify website management, making it easier for teams to collaborate within a single, centralized application. This update includes enhanced tools for managing site collections, creating new websites, setting site configurations, handling languages, editing hosts, and other features tailored for large-scale, multi-site environments. Let’s take a closer look at each feature. Site Collections - Simplified Creation and Management One of the key updates in the September release is the enhanced ability to create and manage Site Collections. Site collections provide a structured way to organize sites, allowing content and templates to be shared seamlessly across sites within a collection. With XM Cloud Sites, you can now create new site collections by providing a Display Name and a System or Item Name, ensuring stable, technical references. Site Collections help group sites in a w...

In my previous blogs on XM Cloud , I covered how to create and display static data using the component builder, as well as how to style and build different versions of a component. In this post, I'll focus on creating a dynamic data source for components. Dynamic content enables components to be flexible and reusable across different contexts. Content such as text, images, videos, and links can be populated from various sources, like CMS content, APIs, or a GraphQL URL. Components are composed of elements such as buttons, cards, or other components, and each element can have a data source assigned to it. There are two primary options for displaying content within a component: Static - You can define static content for an attribute, such as entering alt text for an image or uploading an image directly. Mapped - You can map the attribute to dynamic content (text, image, or link) from a data source previously added to your XM Cloud environment. This dynamic content can be used mul...

  In my previous  blog , I discussed  how to style a component, modify elements, and customize themes. In this post, I'll focus on creating different versions of a component. In XM Cloud Components, a component can have multiple visual representations, known as component versions. These versions allow us to personalize components for specific audiences in Pages. Additionally, versions and breakpoints can be used to create responsive bundles, enabling components to adjust their appearance based on screen width. Adding a Version to a Component To add a new version to a component: In the Components Builder, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Add version . If this version is intended for responsive design, specify the breakpoints at which it should be displayed. Duplicating a Component Version Once you've styled and configured a component, you can duplicate it to easily create versions with different layouts without starting from scratch. To duplicate a component vers...