Sitecore Habitat : what to do if 05-Sync-Unicorn is not working

I have just started to play with Sitecore Habitat project. The first problem that I encounter is Habitat setup.

 

I referred the steps mentioned at https://github.com/Sitecore/Habitat/wiki/01-Getting-Started

Everything worked fine except task “05-Sync-Unicorn”. I waited for an hour to complete it but it seems to showing in progress status as 

Sync Unicorn

I googled for the solution but didn’t find any suitable link which explained it properly. So I decided to write the article

Follow below steps if "05-Sync-Unicorn" is not working for you

• Login to Sitecore desktop

• Open http://yourinstance/unicorn.aspx

 

Unicorn Sync Page

• You can sync Sitecore items by clicking "Sync" button for each component one by one

1. Syncing process updates items in Master, core, link database and in search indexes.
2. It also sync roles, users
3. Finally it published all synced items to web

Sync Progress

• Run "06-Deploy-Transforms" from Visual Studio

Deploy Transforms

 

•  Open your instance on browser and hurreyyy you will get your Habitat site

Habitat Home Page

 

I hope you like this Sitecore trick. Stay tuned for more Sitecore related articles.

Till that happy Sitecoring :)

Please leave your comments or share this trick if it’s useful for you.

Exception in UrlAgent url: /sitecore/service/keepalive.aspx

We notice below error in our project log files on CD server as 

 

ManagedPoolThread #15 00:23:21 INFO  Job started: Sitecore.Tasks.UrlAgent

ManagedPoolThread #15 00:23:21 INFO  Scheduling.UrlAgent started. Url: http://www.sitecorelessons.com/sitecore/service/keepalive.aspx

ManagedPoolThread #15 00:23:21 ERROR Exception in UrlAgent (url: /sitecore/service/keepalive.aspx)

Exception: System.Net.WebException

Message: The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.

Source: System

   at System.Net.WebClient.DownloadDataInternal(Uri address, WebRequest& request)

   at System.Net.WebClient.DownloadData(Uri address)

   at Sitecore.Web.WebUtil.ExecuteWebPage(String url, NameValueCollection headers)

   at Sitecore.Tasks.UrlAgent.Run()

ManagedPoolThread #15 00:23:21 INFO  Job ended: Sitecore.Tasks.UrlAgent (units processed: )

What’s the root cause and how to fix this error?

Solution:

Problem was that Anonymous access permission was denied on server for Sitecore folder.

It’s a good practice to remove access permissions from Sitecore folder on CD server.

However to fix this issue either we have to provide access permission to Service folder or keep its files on some other location and then change config files entries according to that new path.

We can provide access permission to service folder as

• Open IIS

• Navigate to Service folder of your website and open Authentication as

 

Folder Authentication

• Select Anonymous Authentication and Enable its status as

 

Enable Anonymous Authentication

That's it.

We didn’t find any new error in log files after allowing permission to Service folder.

After fixing this, we are now receiving proper log as

ManagedPoolThread #6 02:12:23 INFO  Job started: Sitecore.Tasks.UrlAgent

ManagedPoolThread #6 02:12:23 INFO  Scheduling.UrlAgent started. Url: http://www.sitecorelessons.com/sitecore/service/keepalive.aspx

ManagedPoolThread #6 02:12:23 INFO  Scheduling.UrlAgent done (received: 561 bytes)

ManagedPoolThread #6 02:12:23 INFO  Job ended: Sitecore.Tasks.UrlAgent (units processed: )

I hope you like this Sitecore tip. Stay tuned for more Sitecore related articles.

Till that happy Sitecoring :)

Please leave your comments or share this script if it’s useful for you.

How to expire Sitecore session forcefully

In one of our project, I have to forcefully expire the Sitecore session so that it flush the data to MongoDB.

For this either you can restart IIS or start-stop your website. But this action require you to login into the system. But what if you are accessing Sitecore remotely or over the internet.

So I write this script which expire the session and clear the Sitecore analytics related cookies.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" %>

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head runat="server">

    <title></title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

        <%

            Context.Session.Abandon();

            HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies.Remove("ASP.NET_SessionId");

            Response.Cookies.Add(new HttpCookie("ASP.NET_SessionId", string.Empty));

            HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies.Remove("SC_ANALYTICS_SESSION_COOKIE");

            Response.Cookies.Add(new HttpCookie("SC_ANALYTICS_SESSION_COOKIE", string.Empty));

            HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies.Remove("SC_ANALYTICS_GLOBAL_COOKIE");

            Response.Cookies.Add(new HttpCookie("SC_ANALYTICS_GLOBAL_COOKIE", string.Empty));

        %>

    </form>

</body>

</html>

I called this script as "ForceSessionEnd.aspx" and keep it in "Website" folder.

Access this script over the browser as "http://yourinstancename/forcesessionend.aspx".

After running this page, you will get latest data on mongo database.

Feel free to add more cookies as per your need.

I hope you like this Sitecore script. Stay tuned for more Sitecore related articles.

Till that happy Sitecoring :)

 
Please leave your comments or share this script if it’s useful for you.