Hi there, in this blog-post I would like to point you to an updated version of the Gutters for Sitecore Data Exchange Framework project that I worked on. The original version of the Gutters for Sitecore Data Exchange Framework project was developed by Vlad Shpak (back then working at Sitecore, nowadays working at Uniform). Recently I discovered this project while working on a Sitecore upgrade project that made use of the Data Exchange Framework. For those of you that don’t know what Sitecore’s Data Exchange Framework is all about:
The Sitecore Data Exchange Framework is designed to facilitate the transfer of data between systems. It allows you to define the logic needed to read data from a source system, transform that data into a format that is compatible with a target system, and write the transformed data into a target system. Developers can build connectors that allow 3rd party systems to serve as source and target systems.
To get a better sense of what’s going on in DEF Vlad created some gutters that allow you to quickly see (based upon the gutter icon) if batches and pipeline steps are disabled, what pipeline steps will be processed and to display the required plugins for a given pipeline step.
This project was last updated 3 years ago and the source-code used Sitecore’s Team Development for Sitecore (TDS). Since I wasn’t sure if it would work on a 9.3 install, I decided to fork the project, update the architecture to compile against .NET 4.7.2, use NuGet and introduce Unicorn into the mix and get rid off TDS. Check out the updated Gutters for Sitecore Data Exchange Framework project here.
Data Exchange – Item Disabled gutter
By default when you configure a new tenant with its batches and pipeline steps they are disabled. This gutter allows you to see immediately if the Tenant is disabled (showing a red cross icon), also, it allows you to set the Tenant as enabled through the gutter.
Data Exchange – Pipeline Batch
When you select a pipeline batch you have several options:
- Run It – allows you to run selected pipeline batch.
- Clean Summary – allows you to clean up data under summary section.
- Display Pipeline Steps – allows to display chain of pipeline steps for current batch.
Displaying the Pipeline Steps is a great way to see what a Pipeline Batch does. Here you can for example see what the Pipeline steps are for the MongoDB Contacts to xConnect Migration pipeline batch from the xDB Data Migration Tool for Data Exchange Framework 4.0.0 rev. 01437 package.
Data Exchange – Pipeline Step
There is a single option for a selected pipeline step to display the required plugins.
Conclusion & more info:
So with the updated code on the Gutters for Sitecore Data Exchange Framework fork project, this module now supports Sitecore 9.3.0 and Data Exchange Framework 4.0.0. Besides that it’s now easy maintainable for future updates, so expect an updated version for Sitecore 10 soon 😉.
- Download the Gutters for Sitecore Data Exchange Framework-Sitecore 9.3.0 for DEF 4.0.0 package
- Sourcecode of the v9.3.0 release
Big shout out once again to Vlad Shpak for the original module!
–Robbert
