Starting in Sitecore 6.4, they introduced a new Search namespace – Sitecore.Search, this uses the Sitecore -> Search -> Configuration -> Indexes section in Web.Config.

From what I know, Sitecore recommends using the new namespace and the old namespace is going to be deprecated starting Sitecore 6.5. The following is a blurb from Sitecore 6.5 Release notes from SDN:
“The Sitecore.Data.Indexing namespace has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version of the CMS in favor of the more powerful and flexible Sitecore.Search classes and corresponding index definitions. “

Since there is only one document on this new namespace, it’s difficult to get more information when you find yourself in a bind. I had to google search to find bits and pieces and so I am writing this post.

Here is the link to the PDF on this site. Click Here (NO SDN access needed)

The basic configuration is given below:

      <configuration type="Sitecore.Search.SearchConfiguration, Sitecore.Kernel" singleInstance="true">
        <indexes hint="list:AddIndex">
          ... ... ...
          <index id="IndexNAME" type="Sitecore.Search.Index, Sitecore.Kernel">
            <param desc="name">$(id)</param>
            <param desc="folder">im_index</param>
            <Analyzer ref="search/analyzer"/>
            <locations hint="list:AddCrawler">
              <master type="Sitecore.Search.Crawlers.DatabaseCrawler, Sitecore.Kernel">
                <Database>master</Database>
                <Tags>master content</Tags>
                <Root>/sitecore/content</Root>
                <IndexAllFields>true</IndexAllFields>
                <include hint="list:IncludeTemplate">
                  <template comment="Template1">{8917CADF-2148-4328-B595-217C5A9CCA7D}</template>
                  <template comment="Template2">{2A18027D-CA51-4E5D-A7C1-51096E09C16C}</template>
                </include>
                <include hint="list:ExcludeTemplate">
                  <template>{8C18027D-CA51-4E5D-A7C1-510965555C}</template>
                </include>
                <!--<include hint="list:IncludeField">
                  <fieldId>{GUID}</fieldId>
                </include>-->
              </master>
            </locations>
          </index>
        </indexes>
      </configuration>

Here is a piece of sample code to query the index:

    Sitecore.Search.Index searchIndex = Sitecore.Search.SearchManager.GetIndex("Search Index Name"); //replace string with the name of the search index
    using (IndexSearchContext context = searchIndex.CreateSearchContext())
    {
        SearchHits hits = context.Search("search string");  //replace string with the actual search string
        SomeRepeater.DataSource = hits.FetchResults(0, 25); //first param is the start item, second is the count
        SomeRepeater.DataBind();
        ResultsCount = hits.FetchResults(0, hits.Length).Count();
    }

Here are some useful links:

Search Index Troubleshooting by Alex Shyba

Index Viewer in Sitecore Shared Source

I hope this is useful. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

We’ve been using Sitecore for our own website and for client’s websites because of its incredible power and functionality. Now Sitecore has also been recognized by independent research firm Forrester Research as a top CMS.

Forrester Research points out what the experts at Webdatamation could tell you — the flexibility and power of Sitecore make it strong in areas where competitors are weak.

The system is excellent for ease in creating content and integrating the content into a site, managing the workflow, and integrating content.

Sitecore also gets high marks for its ability to effectively target sites and content, having a global approach, integrating numerous sites, and for its community controls.

Sitecore leads out in multilingual content and in providing the means for making a separation between content and the presentation. This creates a dynamic environment for delivering the message and for using graphics and text in other contexts for different purposes.

Webdatamation chose Sitecore in part because it is a powerful solution for both simple websites as well as complex, fully powered sites.

The features of Sitecore allow for a highly flexible website that can integrate all of the Web 2.0 features.  Marketing departments can add website content or sales information to a company site easily without a great deal of technical knowledge, and still maintain a professional and responsive site.

It’s simple to integrate any analytic tools  and other business software into the Sitecore system, and it’s compatible with ecommerce products so that customers and site visitors have a seamless and enjoyable experience on your site.

We also like Sitecore because of their constant updates, research and trend forecasting. We know that our customers will have all the latest tools at their fingertips as soon as they are available.

If you haven’t yet seen what Sitecore can do for you, contact us at Webdatamation and let us give you a glimpse.

Both have the advantage of being open source programs, which means they are constantly updated and improved. There are many plugins and applications created by a core of invested users, increasing functionality and removing bugs with regularity.

Still, there are plenty of differences, as anyone who has used both systems will note.

Here are some things to consider about Umbraco:

• It can be edited in Microsoft Word, making for easy editing for most users.
• There are OSS or commercial install options
• A high-quality, highly functional CMS
• Install gives you a blank page – no template, not much of anything else – This means plenty of freedom and flexibility – freedom to succeed or freedom to fail. Success of a site is entirely up to a developer, meaning you must have a highly qualified and creative developer who also knows legal compliance and standards compliance.
• Umbraco has high requirements for hosting, so it is difficult to find a “shared” hosting environment that will support it
• Still working on good ecommerce solutions
• Version 4 has better support for Safari and Firefox
• There are good plugins available, and a management system built into Umbraco

By contrast, here are some items to consider about DotNetNuke:

Has a proprietary feel, despite being open source

• Dot NET developers like it, those who are not dot NET developers have trouble with it
• Based on Microsoft’s ASP.NET, which is the most popular web technology currently
• Cheap to use and reduces total development costs – no ongoing licensing fees
• Full access to source code so it can be altered to fit individual organizations
• Can manage text, image, documents, links, events, news, banner ads and threaded info
• Supports multiple websites
• Installs easily
• Can manage site hosting, content, security, web design and membership in one program
• Multi-language ability
• Fully extensible and scalable
• User friendly interface and intuitve site wizards, help icons and interface for those familiar with Dot NET
• DNN has a large user base (125,000 registered users) and a core programming team dedicated to the system, so it is a large community. There are also an increasing number of third party developers of plug-ins, etc. for DNN

Which open-source hosting program is right for you? It depends on your abilities, wants and business model. Either way you go, using an open source CMS might be the way for you to save money and still have a strong, attractive site.

The DotNetNuke system is particularly focused on small businesses and organizations that operate on a tight budget (for example, many non-profit organizations), giving them many of the features of a large CMS on an open source platform.

DotNetNuke benefits from community sites that host developers. End users can join these communities and benefit from the combined experience of hundred or thousands of other developers who are also using DotNetNuke for the same kinds of projects daily.

Developers are able to share ideas and solutions and propose and tweak the program constantly so everyone benefits with improved projects and results.

Some advantages of DotNetNuke include:
•    Flexible and adaptable framework that can accommodate websites, extranets, and intranets
•    Intuitive and user-friendly design that allows users with little technical knowledge manage a web site
•    Site wizards, help buttons, and a user interface that is constantly updated for ease of use
•    CMS support from a dedicated core development group
•    Straightforward, simple installation for quick deployment
•    Many language options, making DotNetNuke viable for users in many different countries
•    No-cost, open source – users can do whatever they like with the program under a BSD agreement. Users can use the program for commercial or non profit purposes, with no requirements other than directing credit to the DotNetNuke community
•    Lowers the cost of managing multiple websites
•    The opportunity to create and upsell premium content for clients – site templates, content management modules and many database options, for example
•    Utilizes all the latest technologies, including modules, module packaging, ASP.NET 2.0, Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 Express, and Visual Web Developer

There are over 150,000 registered users  of DotNetNuke, and a number of active producers of plugins, modules and templates for the program, making it a growing and dynamic content management system.

There’s some great site consistency when using DotNetNuke (DNN) and easy site navigation. The pages turnaround quickly, a number of people can work on a site at once, and there is great growth potential with DNN.

DotNetNuke is another highly versatile and functional open source solution for Content Management, particularly for small businesses and non profits.

Now, there is a new open source content management system that utilizes the power and simplicity of ASP.NET.

Umbraco has developed a Content Management System (CMS) that works on Microsoft’s ASP.NET.

Advantages to Umbraco are:
• Supports any of the current browsers – no more error messages when a client using a browser other than Explorer visits you site
• Designers can create xhtml that works and is easy to access, while still leaving their own markup intact
• It supports all .NET based controls without any alteration or modification
• Gives designers a free hand when it comes to layout and placement, and allows the latest web standards – there are no constraints on utilizing the Umbraco framework
• Everyone can help fix bugs, work on content, whatever — simultaneously
• “Brilliant” master pages
• It integrates existing technology instead of introducing new proprietary programs – ie: uses HTML instead of some new markup, and uses xslts

Other companies are creating other solutions utilizing the Umbraco platform, including an ecommerce solution. As Umbraco continues to develop, doubtless more solutions will be created for the platform.

Many users around the world appreciate the open source solution’s speed and ease of use. Users say it is easy and intuitive to pick up, and can expand to meet growing needs. Others appreciate its flexibility and speed.

However, there are still some problems with the user interface, and some users complain that there are still bugs in the code. This may be expected with an open source program, and its likely that these will continue to be improved. Several users decry the lack of documentation, as well.

Still, since Microsoft is still king of content, it makes sense to have a CMS that is Windows based. Umbraco integrates .NET technology easily and at a price that can’t be beat. It is constantly updated and improved for a constantly improving – or at least changing—CMS that is responsive to the needs of the users.

For businesses that consider their website and their customers who contact them online to be an integral part of their business, using a content management system is only logical. It will allow those businesses to provide a seamless, high quality online experience that open source or low-end solutions simply can’t provide.

For many of our customers, their website is a strategic part of their business. The added security and performance features of a CMS allow these businesses to focus the website and the usability features that make the customer experience truly superior.

By giving developers and content providers a simple to use and intuitive system, a CMS allows the marketing department or the sales department to create website content and design elements of the site. These professionals understand the customers and their needs better than developers or IT departments. With a CMS, the control goes to the people with the ideas, not only to the people with the programming expertise

The easy integration with business applications also provides a great opportunity for businesses to provide a better integration of Customer Relationship Management software and Enterprise Resource Planning software, as well as any analytics tools.

Because you, the company, are in control of the content and the programs and tools that you use on your site, you are able to better tailor your customers’ experience on your website, offer them seamless integration of eCommerce products and Web 2.0 feature, and fully optimize your site for search engines, so current and new customers can find you easily.

With so many advantages for developers and for the end customers, its easy to see why Content Management Systems are increasingly popular.

We think we offer you the best possible CMS with Sitecore. While there are still features they can improve, as we’ve mentioned here before, overall they provide a powerful program that is fully scalable so it can grow with your company. It’s also easy to use and forward thinking, constantly updating the product and forecasting the next trend, then responding to it.

Their “Gold” partner status with Microsoft ensures continuing support for all its best features.

If you haven’t utilized the power of a great CMS to provide your customer with the best possible experience online, I’d suggest giving it a try today.

With over 500,000 registered users and 5.0 million downloads in late 2007 (as per official sources), DotNetNuke has become one of today’s largest and effective open source CMS. It has been written in Microsoft’s VB.NET for the ASP.NET (also by Microsoft) framework. With an extensible core and a set of additional customization features that include modules and skins, DotNetNuke can be used to develop, deploy and efficiently manage websites, including extranets and intranets.

What makes DotNetNuke stand apart form the other CMS’s is the way in which it allows you to implement modules and skins, in order to customize your web application(s). Without any expertise of development in ASP.NET, web designers can develop skins for an application and it is this feature completely separates design from content. Only basic knowledge of HTML and understanding the inherent steps to prepare and implement the skins themselves is necessary. Skins have been implemented in DotNetNuke as basic HTML files with placeholders that serve as templates for content, menus and other GUI features. This includes support files such as JavaScript, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and images.

The DotNetNuke architecture can be extended to provide an additional set of features and functionalities by the use of pluggable modules. The core includes almost a dozen of them that is included with the distribution and other modules can be downloaded from the official DotNetNuke website. These modules include pluggable add-ons some of which are forums, blogs, wiki, e commerce systems and mailing lists.

There have also been some criticisms associated with this CMS. The instructions for creating an appropriate module are cumbersome. A very important feature that lacks in DotNetNuke is the ability to dynamically localize the content of your website. There is no provision for providing content in languages other than English. There has also been debate on the fact that some of its older modules do not work as advertised.

However recently, the quality of the newer DotNetNuke releases have improved and are more stable compared to the earlier releases. The official portal features regular updates. Moreover, DotNetNuke has an impressive fan following. It has grown more and more popular with the passage of time. There are a number of online user groups available for assistance where you can learn more about the DotNetNuke platform.

I remember playing the “Duke Nukem” game once. Speaking of CMS’s, I often DotNetNuke!

Sitecore is based on the .NET technology. Setting up and deploying Sitecore is quite straightforward and you can get started with creating your new website rightaway. Sitecore is totally committed to the .NET framework and hence provides regular stable releases and updates thus complimenting the latest releases of .NET, Visual Studio, SQL server and Windows server.

One striking feature that you would notice once you have started creating your website with Sitecore is the ability to edit content In-Line. This allows you (or your editor) to browse through the pages of your site, just as a customer or an external user would normally do, and edit content by simply clicking on desired areas. This provides you an instantaneous feedback on the overall appearance and content of the edited area and saves quite a lot of your time. Editing content on one browser window and then testing the results on another seems quite a hassle, does it not?

Sitecore has a rich set of features some of which we shall discuss here. It provides you with a role based authorization scheme for your page content editors to edit parts of the site, based on their respective needs. Design is totally segregated from content and designers get a WYSIWYG environment to effectively create designs and page layouts without having to code. Sitecore claims to increase your page rankings and goal conversions, additionally providing you exhaustive reports on website statistics.

There is also some real good news for advanced developers. Sitecore has Visual Studio integration with intellisense and this enables programmers to thoroughly explore and customize the rich Sitecore API consisting of over more than 1,300 classes and 5,000 methods. It has a pipeline based architecture based on the .NET framework that is both open and extensible. Thus, advanced developers, proficient in Visual Studio can make use of this open architecture to their advantage and customize it to fit the requirements of their organization. They may even add new custom features.

However, it is worthwhile to mention here that mere installation and getting started with any CMS that has an extensive set of features is not just enough. If your content is not professional and well managed, you may get disastrous results. It is worth paying to ensure that enough research has been put to create content that best defines your product and your customer’s requirements. All you need to do now is install your desired CMS and see your sales soar!

You do not require beforehand knowledge of Microsoft’s .NET framework or C# in particular, to get started with the Umbraco CMS. All you would need is Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) server, where you would host and deploy your website.

I would like to mention here that Umbraco has particularly laid emphasis on the “ease of use” aspect. Allowing you to insert any page control from a drop down is a huge time saver. Moreover it is a completely open templating system with which designers can create accessible and valid XHTML with their markup left intact. This means that without any extensive know-how of technical parameters, designers can create professional design templates with complete freedom. This segregates the overall logic form the design within the system that is to be developed.

Integration of custom controls is as easy as it gets when it comes to Umbraco. All you would need to do is build your custom control in Visual Studio, copy the “.ascx” and “.dll” files into their appropriate folders in Umbraco and you are done.

One thing that is worthwhile to mention here is the Umbraco forum. If you are new to Umbraco, visiting the forum is the best way to get started. The forum is quite active with both experienced and novice developers sharing their problems, views and opinions. It is quite exhaustive so if you are stuck up with a problem in Umbraco, you might get your clarifications here real quick. Umbraco has recently launched umbraco.tv which is a video based tutorial website that would aid in its documentation and a better understanding of the Umbraco CMS by its users.

The official website of Umbraco claims, “You can do anything” with Umbraco. True to the fact, if you are a C# expert, then you may modify parts of the core which are basically C# (“.cs”) scripts, to suit your custom needs. However if you are a novice, just install and get started!