Episerver Adventures

Scenario: Wanted to add a new schema, table and stored procedure to the same database where CMS is installed. The script should run only once after deployment to an environment.

Using IMigrationSet can do this job, although is different from a Initialization Module that run every time the site starts up.

Interface IMigrationStep documentation: https://world.episerver.com/csclasslibraries/commerce/EPiServer.Commerce.Internal.Migration.Steps.IMigrationStep?version=13

Step 1. Create a folder in your project that is referenced by Episerver CMS website.

Step 2. Create two files: a class and sql script. For exemple:

Step 3. Define the content for you sql script. For good practices, we must use a different schema from the dbo where all the Episerver objects are defined. So, we need to create the following script :

--beginvalidatingquery
IF OBJECT_ID(N'[myschema].[myTable]', N'U') IS NOT NULL
   SELECT 0, 'Already installed'
else
   SELECT 1, 'Adding tables'
--endvalidatingquery

go

create schema [myschema]
go

create table [ownschema].[myTable] 
(
	[Id] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) not null,
	[Text] [nvarchar](200) not null,
	constraint [PK_myTable] primary key ([Id])
)
go

Step 4. Mark you script file as Embedded Resource.

Step 5. Define your migration step on your c# class.

using EPiServer.Commerce.Internal.Migration.Steps;
using EPiServer.Data.Providers.Internal;
using EPiServer.Data.SchemaUpdates;
using EPiServer.Logging;
using EPiServer.ServiceLocation;
using Mediachase.Commerce.Shared;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;

namespace Common.Migrations.CreateTablesStoredProcedures
{
    [ServiceConfiguration(typeof(IMigrationStep))]
    public class CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep : IMigrationStep
    {
        private static readonly ILogger Logger = 
            LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep));
        private readonly IDatabaseConnectionResolver _databaseConnectionResolver;
        private readonly ScriptExecutor _scriptExecutor;

        public CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep(
            IDatabaseConnectionResolver databaseConnectionResolver,
            ScriptExecutor scriptExecutor)
        {
            _databaseConnectionResolver = databaseConnectionResolver;
            _scriptExecutor = scriptExecutor;
        }

        public int Order => 2000;

        public string Name => "Create Tables And StoredProcedures";

        public string Description => "Create Tables and Stored Procedures using Embedded Resource sql file ";

        public bool Execute(IProgressMessenger progressMessenger)
        {
            try
            {
                using (Stream installScript = GetInstallScript())
                {
                    _scriptExecutor.ExecuteScript(
                        _databaseConnectionResolver.Resolve().ConnectionString,
                        installScript);
                }

                return true;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Logger.Error("Error occurred while creating the tables and stored procedures.", ex);

                return false;
            }
        }

        private static Stream GetInstallScript()
        {
            const string scriptFqdn = "Common.Migrations.CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep.script.sql";

            Assembly assembly = typeof(CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep).Assembly;

            return assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(scriptFqdn);
        }
    }
}

Step 6. Deploy.

Note that this migration step will run only once if no exception occurred, this is, if the return value of the Execute method is true. If returned false, this migration step will be executed next time the site started.

An workaround on development mode to repeat this migration is always return false, but ensure that this does not go to production.

I got the case, that need to repeat this step, but already returned success. Used a not documented and not official way of removing the success result of this migration by deleting the row from [dbo].[tblBigTable]. I just found it during my tests, just warning you. So, I advise to this only on you local development database.

SELECT pkId, String01 as [Name]
  FROM [dbo].[tblBigTable] where StoreName = 'EPiServer.Commerce.Internal.Migration.MigrationStepInfo'
	and [String01] = 'Common.Migrations.CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep'


delete [dbo].[tblBigTable] where StoreName = 'EPiServer.Commerce.Internal.Migration.MigrationStepInfo'
	and [String01] = 'Common.Migrations.CreateTablesAndStoredProceduresMigrationStep'

Suppose the front-end code wants supply a way to download images from the assets folder. Consider the following code:

<a href="http://127.0.0.1:5500/globalassets/images/sample.png" download="sample.png">Download this file</a>

Assuming that 127.0.0.1:5500 is your EPiServer instance, you can say that the image will be downloaded.

Note that download anchor attribute will work if the url is from the same origin of the http request.

For Internet Explorer, the download attribute is not supported, so the image is open on the same tab.

We want to ensure that the response header Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="sample.png"; filename*=UTF-8''sample.png is returned, so each browser saves the image instead of present it on the same tab.

Using the DownloadMediaRouter.DownloadSegment on the request, EPiServer will return the image with the Content-Disposition with attachment value.

So, we can replace the html anchor definition by:

<a href="http://127.0.0.1:5500/globalassets/images/sample.png/download">Download this file</a>

Creating a new page under root’s page site, the New Page menu was disabled.

So, checked the available languages for the site and the master language was not set:

Checked the English language and also check the language setting for the root page site.

And now, the New Page was available.

Context:

• Episerver authentication integrated with Azure Active Directory B2C;
• A fresh installation of Episerver;
• Virtual roles configured to map Roles configured on AD;
• Logged only with an account that was mapped for a AD role named ‘SpecialMegaRole’ 😉
• Another virtual role was mapped for an AD role named ‘NotSoSpecialRole’

Objective : Set the access rights for the ‘NotSoSpecialRole’

Problem: The ‘NotSoSpecialRole’ was not been presented at Set Access Rights page.

Possible Solution: After the first login with an AD user that belong to that “NotSoSpecialRole’, the role became available to set the permitions.

It is a good idea to provide derived types from the Episerver content types PageData, BlockData and MediaData to share common properties among all the pages on the site. We should also consider to use that also on the controllers.

Considering the class diagram:

We can start to implement the Base[Classes] and Standard and Start page as:

using EPiServer.Core;
using EpiserverAdventures.Core.Constants;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

namespace EpiserverAdventures.Core.ContentTypes
{
    public abstract class BasePageData : PageData
    {
        [Display(Name = "Include in SEO Sitemap", Description = "Include on SEO sitemap.xml", GroupName = PageTabs.Navigation, Order = 1000)]
        public virtual bool IncludeInSitemap { get; set; }
    }
}

using EPiServer.Core;

namespace EpiserverAdventures.Core.ContentTypes
{
    public abstract class BaseBlockData : BlockData
    {

    }
}

using EPiServer.Core;

namespace EpiserverAdventures.Core.ContentTypes
{
    public abstract class BaseMediaData : MediaData
    {

    }
}

Therefore, we can start to create a standard page and define the start page for the site:

using EPiServer.Core;
using EPiServer.DataAbstraction;
using EPiServer.DataAnnotations;
using EpiserverAdventures.Core.Constants;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using EpiserverAdventures.Core.ContentTypes;

namespace EpiserverAdventures.Core.Pages
{
    [ContentType(DisplayName = "Standard Page", GUID = "1D1A9C91-3F47-4ACE-90E2-06CBDFABC81A", Description = "Non specific page. Base page for content.", GroupName = PagesGroups.Content)]
    public class StandardPage : BasePageData
    {
        [CultureSpecific]
        [Display(Name = "Blocks", GroupName = SystemTabNames.Content, Order = 1000)]
        public virtual ContentArea Blocks { get; set; }
    }
}

using EPiServer.DataAbstraction;
using EPiServer.DataAnnotations;
using EpiserverAdventures.Core.Constants;

namespace EpiserverAdventures.Core.Pages.StartPage
{
    [ContentType(DisplayName = "Start Page", GUID = "BD710683-6F9D-4DA5-A2DC-5CFEF74723A8", Description = "Site start page", GroupName = PagesGroups.Content)]
    public class StartPage : StandardPage
    {
    }
}

I have decided to create a separated project from the episerver web project as:

Using the BasePageData model, every page will have the property “IncludeInSitemap” and active by default on page creation.