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NEXT GENERATION SERIALIZATION WITH UNICORN 3

Kam FigyConnective DX@kamsar

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GOOD MORNING

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WHY DO WE NEED SERIALIZATION?

• Sitecore dev artifacts are a mixture of code files and items, such as templates or renderings.

• Items are stored in the Sitecore database, code is stored in source control.

• Source control commits are incomplete without the items that complement the code. This is bad.

Without serialization.

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WHY BUILD UNICORN?

• Back in the dark ages, we used shared databases.

• We used packages.• We tried TDS.• None of these delivered the frictionless

development experience we desired.

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HOW DOES UNICORN WORK?

• You choose items to serialize.• Database items are written to files on

disk.• Changes in Sitecore are updated to

disk in real time.• “Sync” pushes changes from disk into

your local database.• Merging is always done on disk.

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STOP

DEMO TIME

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DEMO:SETTING UP UNICORN

In which we taunt the demo gods

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DEMO:TEAM COLLABORATION

In which we bite our thumbs at the demo gods

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WHAT’S NEW IN UNICORN 3?

Features• New format (YAML)• New storage (SFS)• Sitecore UI warnings• Partial sync• Partial reserialize• Auto publish synced• Split config schema• Sync event pipelines

Improvements• SPEED: 50% more of

it• Better messaging• More extensible• No Ninject required• Versioned to shared

field conversion• Fresh paint on the UI• More info: http://

goo.gl/XwMjTa

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RAINBOW:A MODERN ITEM SERIALIZATION LIBRARY

Overview:http://goo.gl/Yl4gkM More about format:http://goo.gl/LPMbVvMore about hierarchy:http://goo.gl/8cSDNm

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• Rainbow is a code library for serialization.

• Unicorn uses Rainbow.• Easy to read file format.• Human readable file hierarchy.• Designed to be easy to merge when

conflicts occur.• Item comparison APIs.

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RAINBOW: SERIALIZING A MULTILIST FIELDWith Sitecore

serialization format…Content-Length: n{GUID}|{GUID}|{GUID}

If you and someone else both add a GUID, you get a merge conflict and have to manually recalculate content length.

With Rainbow’s YAML format…{GUID}{GUID}{GUID}

Line oriented format increases automerge chance,

no content length.

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ONE MORE THING

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INTRODUCINGTRANSPARENT SYNC

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TRANSPARENT SYNC

• Automatic, real-time sync.• One less thing to remember to do.• Amazing for code reviews.• Great for dev artifact items.• SSD recommended for the I/O.• Enabled per-configuration.• New deployment possibilities.

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DEMO:TRANSPARENT SYNC

In which we laugh at the demo gods

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QUESTIONS

“IS UNICORN 3 OUT YET?”YES. RIGHT NOW.

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THANK YOU!UNICORN IS AVAILABLE ON NUGETOPEN SOURCE (MIT) ON GITHUBTWEET @KAMSARBLOG: KAMSAR.NETSource:

https://goo.gl/VF3Mkd Documentation:https://goo.gl/ePFki1