Mark Wiseman

Simple Email Folder Strategy

2023-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Managing emails can be tough and I have been through a number of different patterns & practices over the years trying to wrangle the breast. Most of these strategies require manaully action / move emails to be organised and ulitmatley it gets out of control.

I’ve now landed on a four folder system that allows me to quickly action email that I need to and remove “most” of the noise.

Here are the folders you need:

Inbox
Invite
CC
Feed

To enable automatically sorting of emails we only need 3-ish simple Rules and it’s important that we keep them in this order so that they land in the right place.

Feed Rule(s)
Invite Rule
CC Rule

1. Feed Rule(s)

This rule will evolve over time. For me it is a “Sender Based Rule”.

If the sender address includes the following @sharepointonline.com, @atlassian.com then Move to the Feed folder

This can end up being multiples rules if you want to target specific subject lines or body text

Feed - Sender Address Includes
Feed - Body Includes
Feed - Subject Includes

2. Invite Rule

This is really easy and helps with managing your schedule a lot.

If the Type is Invitation then Move to the Invite folder

3. CC Rule

CC emails can get realy noisy when you work for a large company. This is antoher great one for clearing out the noise

If I'm not in the To line then Move to the CC folder

Sitecore Content Hub Importing DRM Contracts Rights Profiles

2020-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

When importing data into Sitecore’s Content Hub, finding the required fields and values generally makes sense. Howerver when trying to import the Rights Profiles for DRM Contracts though, the mapping isn’t as simple as you would expect.

In this article I’d like to show you the steps I followed to get the import to work.

First I tried following the Taxonomy pattern:

Field name: AssetToAssetType
Value name: M.AssetType.Backdrop

Then I tried using the Id:

URL: https://xxx.stylelabsdemo.com/en-us/drm/contract/11000
Value: 11000

The right place to look is the Entity Manager to find the Identifier

Click on Manage
Click on Entities
Select M.DRM.RightsProfile
Click View detail for the right’s profile you’d like to use
Select the Technical Section
Copy the Identifier

Sitecore Content Hub Page Permissions

2020-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

I have been working through the Sitecore Content Hub Training and got stuck trying to configure page permissions for ages. Every time that I tried to add the Portal.Page condition all I could select was the Home value.

It turns out it is just a slight oversight in user experience and the trick is to click on the actual name of the Home item.

This affects version 3.1.04

I think updating it to function like the Taxonomy Selector for Asset details would be much better:

Adding page permissions

In case you are interested here is the process to add page permissions to a User Group here are the steps I use.

Navigate to the User Group you would like to edit

Navigate to: Manage > Users > User Groups > Policies

Create a new Rule

Click New Rule
Search for “page”
Select: “Portal page (Portal.page)”
Click OK

Add the Portal Pages

Click “Add Condition”
Search for “page”
Select: “Portal page (Portal.page)”
Click Select
Select the desired Pages: Asset Detail Page, Mass edit, Order, Reports
Click Select

Add the Rights & Save

Select the desired Permissions: Read
Click Save

Documenting Software Architecture using the c4model and PlantUML

2020-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

As someone who has always loved process improvement and finding the patterns is what we do, I am constantly on the lookout for ways to do things better. On a recent project I was documenting the Software Architecture… again, and I so I opened Visio… again and that same dread of “How the hell am I going to document this so it makes sense” hit me.

I decided to do a search and find out what other people are doing now when I came across the c4model which can be easily authored using one of my favourite documentation tools PlantUml. I couldn’t help but jump in.

Very briefly the c4model provides 4 (as in c4) levels of abstraction for documenting a project.

The top layer provides a limited set of components to keep the document simple. As we step down into each layer a few more components are added, gradually adding more detail.

The components are far simpler to remember than all the permutations of UML yet detailed enough to provide a consistent language for describing your application.

Make sure you watch this video by Simon Brown (the creator of the model) because its a great introduction.

Combining c4 with PlantUML

The process to generate these documents with PlantUML is really simple thanks to the C4-PlantUML extension created by RicardoNiepel.

1. Include a reference to the required extension from at the top of our document.

' Context Diagram
!includeurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML/release/1-0/C4_Context.puml

' Container Diagram
!includeurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML/release/1-0/C4_Container.puml

' Component Diagram
!includeurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML/release/1-0/C4_Component.puml

2. Start adding the custom types included in the extension for your diagram.

Person(personAlias, "Label", "Optional Description")
Container(containerAlias, "Label", "Technology", "Optional Description")
System(systemAlias, "Label", "Optional Description")

3. Add the required relationships.

Rel(personAlias, containerAlias, "Label", "Optional Technology")

Testing it out online

You can easily test this process out online simply by using the free PlantUml Editor.

Navigate to: https://www.planttext.com/
Paste the example Container diagram below
Hit Refresh

@startuml C4_Elements
!includeurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML/release/1-0/C4_Container.puml

Person(personAlias, "Label", "Optional Description")
Container(containerAlias, "Label", "Technology", "Optional Description")
System(systemAlias, "Label", "Optional Description")

Rel(personAlias, containerAlias, "Label", "Optional Technology")
@enduml

Setting it up locally

This process allows us to author the diagram directly from Visual Studio Code. I like it because everything is local, your business-sensitive diagrams aren’t going out to the interwebs.

Chocolatey

There are a few applications we need setup for this process.

choco install plantuml
choco install graphviz

VS Code

Install the PlantUML Extension

ext install plantuml

Configure PlantUML

Navigate to: Extensions
Select: PlantUML > Extension Settings
Update:
- Setting: PlantUML: JAR
- Value: C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\plantuml\tools\plantuml.jar

Formatting PlantUML

Here is an example of how simple it is to author and preview these documents in VS Code.

References

c4model: https://c4model.com/
c4model PlantUML Extension: https://github.com/RicardoNiepel/C4-PlantUML
VS Code Plant UML Extension: https://github.com/qjebbs/vscode-plantuml.git
PlantUML https://plantuml.com/

Confluence Deployment Plan Template

2020-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Deployment plans are an essential part of Software development but if you ask any developer to actually do one expect to see some eyes rolling! This article details the templates that I regularly use in Confluence to make this process easier to manage and report on.

The Templates in Action

Deployment Plan Templates

To ensure this is a repeatable process create a template in Confluence for this page. If you can’t, create a blank page that can be copied each time.

I can’t stress enough here how valuable it is to use the Templates helpers. It will ensure that the authors of these templates know what values they should be using / what is expected in each section.

I will only talk to the key configuration elements here. The rest is really just content.

Page Properties Macro

At the top of the page we need a Page Properties Macro. This is what will allow us to produce the deployment plan overview report.

In the template I include all the valid statuses of a deployment plan for reference. But you can see how the template helper text will be valuable as this deployment plan moves through each environment.

Description of Change: Jira Issue/Filter Macro

I recommend using Fix Versions in JIRA to track your deployments. These are more reliable than just referencing a sprint or tickets directly.

The query I set by default: project = PHO fixVersion = 'XXX' ORDER BY priority DESC

Manual Steps: Jira Issue/Filter Macro

I like to use this technique to track manual steps because if developers are continually adding manual step to a deployment plan, then their feature is not included in the release, they need to come back delete and move it.

If they maintain any manual steps within the related ticket(s) everything is moved as one.

So, to support this technique

Any JIRA tickets that require manual deployments need to be tagged with deployment-steps
The deployment steps should then be recorded in the ticket. I prefer to have a separate field but if that is not an option you can do things like putting them in a comment with a bold Deployment Steps title

The default query I set in the template looks like this: project = PHO fixVersion = 'XXX' AND labels = deployment-steps ORDER BY priority DESC

Labels

It’s important that our template has the deployment-plan label added by default. Otherwise it won’t show up in our report.

Deployment Plan Overviews

Create Deployment Plan: Create from Template Macro

The only customisation I use here is for Template Name.

Template name: @currentDate Deployment Plan

Using @currentDate will prefix the deployment plan’s name with today’s date which helps for default sorting.

Deployment Plan List: Page Properties Report

The customisation we use here are

Label: deployment-plan
In space: Current space
Columns to Show: Author, Deployment Date, Version, Status
Sort By: Deployment Date
Reverse Sort: checked

Sitecore Solr Setup Script

2019-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Running multiple versions of Solr when managing different versions of Sitecore can be a pain.

To make life easier I put this script together that will allow you to install the correct version of Solr using SSL that matches your version of Sitecore.

See the Git repo for full instructions details: https://github.com/mawiseman/sitecore-setup-solr

PS C:\projects\sitecore-solr-setup\src> .\install.ps1

Generate a pfx using p7s and key

2019-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

It’s the end of 2019 and I can’t believe I am dealing with this again.

I can’t remember the last time I had to generate a pfx for installation in IIS but it has been frustrating enough for me to blog about so I remember for next time.

Pre-requisites

OpenSSL. A quick way to install in on Windows is via chocolatey

choco install OpenSSL.Light

Files form client

my_domain.p7s
my_domain.key

Generate the PKS

# First generate a cer file
openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in my_domain.p7s -out my_domain.cer

# Second generate a cer file
openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey my_domain.key -in my_domain.cer -out my_domain.pfx

You can now install the pfx on the windows server!

Developer Machine Setup

2019-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

There are periods of your life as a developer either at home of at work where you go through a cycle of re-build your machine (and other) a seemingly high number of times and the real grind is getting your tools setup and installed each time.

The Windows 10 Development environment is a good place to start if you need a VM running Visual Studio but what about all of your other sweet dev tools?

The applications listed below are what I use everyday as a Sitecore developer you will want to update your to suite your situation.

Here is the process.

Enable PowerShell Scripts

Open Powershell as an Administrator and run the following script

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass

Install PowerShell Modules & Windows Components

Download powershell-iis-and-default-modules.ps1 file to c:\temp https://gist.github.com/mawiseman/cab07877576d5122ab3d7690266110b5
Open Powershell as an Administrator and run the following script

cd c:\temp
.\powershell-iis-and-default-modules.ps1

Install Applications via Chocolatey

Install Chocolatey: https://chocolatey.org/install
Download chocolatey-packages.config file to c:\temp https://gist.github.com/mawiseman/54fef1543f6ac8c06a16a49a15d80b36
Open Powershell as an Administrator and isntall the applications via Chocolatey

cd c:\temp
choco install chocolatey-packages.config -y

Install SQL Server 2016

Download SQL Server from https://my.visualstudio.com
Mount the ISO
Download SQLServer2016ConfigurationFile.ini file to c:\temp https://gist.github.com/mawiseman/e6e4143ddafa55cd9d67253af31e9937
Open Powershell as an Administrator and run the following script
Download and Install SQL Server Management Studio

$saPassword = "YOUR-UNIQUE-PASSWORD"

.\setup.exe /CONFIGURATIONFILE=C:\temp\SQLServer2016ConfigurationFile.ini /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=$([System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Name) /SAPWD=$saPassword

Install Node Modules

Open Powershell run the following script

npm install -g windows-build-tools
npm install -g gulp
npm install -g gulp-cli
npm install -g bower