Sitecore 9.3.0

Sitecore Powershell Reports – Export Functionality not working

/ Parag Daraji / Leave a comment

The QA team, we are working with has raised a very interesting issue while testing newly created data report using Sitecore Poershell Extenstion(SPE).

The Issue

The data report was executing perfectly but while trying to export the data in any of pre-defined formats offered by SPE, it was not working.

The Sitecore Powershell is allowing export of report data in various industrial standard formats out of the box as listed below:

  • CSV
  • HTML
  • XML
  • Excel
  • JSON

These formats have option links in the ribbon above but when clicking, none of those producing any output.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Investigation

First step is to try to reproduce the issue. We tried on all the available environments and it is happening on every environment except for the local environment.

I though the issue may have to do with some missing config or SPE. So, we quickly try to re-install the SPE module on CM with no over-write option for both files and content on Integration Environment. But that does not fix the issue. ☹

So, we started listing what are the major difference from modules and features point of view between local development and other environments on Azure. It turns out that all other environments have exactly the same piece of code, configurations and modules installed except for Federated Authentication using Sitecore Identity Server for CM.

The Fix

We did quick search over the internet and one of my colleague found out that there is one file which is disabled for SPE which needs to be enable if we are using sitecore 9.1 and higher(we are running 9.3) along with identity server.

The file needs to be enabled is Spe.IdentityServer.config file which is part of the SPE package.

Once package is installed, the file is located at path <<website Root>>\App_Config\Include\Spe\Spe.IdentityServer.config.disabled. The content of this disabled file is as below.

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/" xmlns:role="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/role/" xmlns:security="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/security/">
  <sitecore role:require="Standalone or ContentManagement" security:require="Sitecore">
    <pipelines>
      <owin.cookieAuthentication.validateIdentity>
        <processor type="Sitecore.Owin.Authentication.Pipelines.CookieAuthentication.ValidateIdentity.ValidateSiteNeutralPaths, Sitecore.Owin.Authentication">
          <siteNeutralPaths hint="list">
            <!-- This entry corrects the infinite loop of ExecuteCommand in the SPE Console -->
            <path hint="spe">/sitecore%20modules/PowerShell</path>
          </siteNeutralPaths>
        </processor>
      </owin.cookieAuthentication.validateIdentity>
    </pipelines>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Tip: The best way to get these config enable in Docker container world, is to leave the above mentioned .disabled file as is. Create new configuration file with above content in Visual Studio solution deploying to z folder under app_config\include on your binding volume path which will be taken care by Sitecore config patching.

Enjoy exporting SPE reports data…!!!

References

https://github.com/SitecorePowerShell/Console/releases
https://doc.sitecorepowershell.com/troubleshooting

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Sitecore Docker -Coveo Diagnosis Page Search Rest Endpoint Issue

/ Parag Daraji / Leave a comment

While configuring Coveo search on my local development environment using Docker, something got my attention on Coveo’s diagnosis page(<<Sitecore CM Host>>/sitecore modules/Web/Coveo/Admin/CoveoDiagnosticPage.aspx).

This page has all the green ticks except for the one. This is Coveo Search REST Endpoint. See image below for more details.

Coveo Diagnostic Page REST API Error
Coveo Diagnostic Page REST API Error on Docker

As usually, I copied the API end point URL and hit in the Browser and it serve the request with no error. It is HTTP-200 response with valid JSON result.

The error in the log file also not giving any lead either.

Coveo.SearchProvider.Applications.BaseVerifier.VerifyComponent(:0) ERROR StateVerifier has encountered an error while verifying the component "Coveo Search REST Endpoint".<br>Exception: Coveo.SearchProvider.Applications.StateVerifierException<br>Message: Failed to obtain resource located at 'http://sicore930.dev.local/coveo/rest/'. See inner exception for details.<br>Source: Coveo.SearchProvider.Applications<br>at Coveo.SearchProvider.Applications.CommonStateVerifier.TryPingRestEndpoint(String p_Endpoint)<br>at Coveo.SearchProvider.Applications.CommonStateVerifier.<>c__DisplayClass11_0.b__0()<br>at Coveo.SearchProvider.Applications.BaseVerifier.VerifyComponent(Func`1 p_VerifyMethod, String p_ComponentName)

I opened docker powershell command for the cm container and tried to request the host from within container.

PS> Docker container ls

Grab the name or container id

PS> Docker exec -it <<container name/id>> powershell

This will open a powershell window connected to the container specified.

PS> Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://sitecore930.dev.local/coveo/rest" | ConvertTo-Json

It has given me following error

Now things are little clear to me. The Coveo diagnosis page is using current host to make REST API request from IIS server running on the container. The container does not have host file entry to reseolve the host url.

So now, I started searching how to make entry in container’s host file??? I was sure, I am not the first person who wanted this kind of stuff.

Following command has does the trick. but for that we need to first fire up the command prompt of the cm container.



PS> Docker exec -it <<container name/id>> powershell

Once the CM’s command prompt is ready execute below command to add the host file entry.



C:> echo 127.0.0.1 sitecore930.dev.local >> "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"

After executing above command on Container’s command prompt, now my Coveo Diagnosis page is Happy…!!!

Please do let me know, is there any better solution you guys have in place for this issue.

Till that time happy Coveo searching…!!!

Additional powershell command to check the content of the file:



PS> Get-Content -Path <<fully qualified file path>>