Philadelphia Sitecore users converged to discuss Web Forms for Marketers and DMS at the first meetup.

1. “To Inspire and Engage”

2. 
PASUG’s mission is to foster a community of Sitecore
enthusiasts in the Greater Philadelphia Region. PASUG is
focused on Sitecore developers, architects, administrators,
designers, business users, marketers and managers. Our
goal is to provide value to all members, regardless of their
role or level of experience with Sitecore. PASUG provides
an open environment for our members to share their
experiences, ask questions and network; unburdened by
SPAM. Like Sitecore itself, we strive to Inspire and Engage
our members so that the community can grow and be
better equipped to utilize Sitecore as a platform to its
fullest potential.

3. Debra Loggia, NorthPoint Digital

4. David Peterson, ISite Design

5. What We’ll Cover
• Architectural Overview
• Validation
• Save Actions

6. At a Glance
• Strengths
– Flexibility for Marketers
– Time to deployment
– Built-in Analytics support
• Limitations
– Front-End/CSS
– Some aspects difficult to extend

7. Presentation

8. Form Rendering

9. Form Template

10. Form Class Structure

11. Control Structure
• Control structure matches Form structure
in content.
• Each control responsible for its output.
– HTML formatting
– Naming conventions

12. Extending WFFM Classes
• Sections
– Internal class
• Form Top-Level Controls
– Protected internal setter for item context
– Includes intro, footer, submit button

13. Form Data Processing

14. Validation
• Field Validation
– Scope: Single Form Field
– Evaluated: First
– Returns: True/False
• Form Verification Actions
– Scope: All Form Fields
– Evaluated: Last
– Throw Exception on Failure

15. Extending Field Validators
• Cross-Field Validation via
Sitecore.Form.Core.Utility.WebUtil

16. Technical Considerations
• Advantages:
– Expands scope to all form fields.
– Evaluated first with other field validators.
• Disadvantages:
– Programmatically ties field validator to
another field.
– Content Editors can add/remove fields from
forms.

17. Validator Item

18. Validation Wire-Up

19. Form Verification Actions
• Define your own via BaseCheckAction.
– Access to all form fields

20. Form Verification Actions
• Raise validation failure by throwing an
Exception

21. Save Actions
• Custom Save Actions via ISaveAction

22. Q&A
• Twitter: @PetersonDave
• Blog: http://petersondave.wordpress.com
• ISITE Design: http://isitedesign.com
• Built With Sitecore:
http://www.isitedesign.com/sitecore

23. Jamie Stump, Perficient Inc.

24. Custom DMS Integration Case Study
• B2B E-Commerce Site Integrated with Sitecore
– 1 Million Unique Applications of Products
– Site Requires Paid Login to Access / SEO of No Concern
• Products Stored in Proprietary Homegrown Database
and Served to Website via Homegrown Web Services
• Single Sitecore Page Item Serves All Products via
Querystring Parameter

25. Challenges
• Client wants to use DMS capabilities to full extent;
including Analytics & Contextual Reports,
Personalization (by Persona), Multivariate Testing
• Need to be able to track Site Visitor information on a
per-product basis even though there’s a singular
Product Page Item
• Implicit Personalization for Visitors to be done across
multiple visits

26. External Data Integration Solution
Single Products Page
(w/ Querystring to
Identify Individual
Product)
Get Product Data
Display on Page via
Web Service
Products /
Companies
DB
Product ID
Foreign Key
Using DMS API – Write Individual
Product / Score Info to Analytics DB
Get Persona Scores
for Displayed
Product
New Products
/ Persona
Scores DB
Sitecore
Analytics
DB
(Personas)
Persona GUID
Foreign Key

27. DMS Customization Solutions
• Connect Users with Particular Visitor Record
– Ensures Greatest Data Accuracy
– Reduces DB Load
• Created Customized Reports
– Profile-Centric Across Visitors
– Product-Centric Across Visitors
• Custom Conditions Allowing Personalization over
Timespan (Cross-Visit)
– Rolling and Set Time Periods

28. Lessons Learned
• Sitecore Visits can be finicky – don’t always end when you
expect them to
• Adjusting Visitor may cause Sitecore to think viewer is a Robot
– may decrease session timeout to 1 minute
• Stimulsoft Web Report Designer that ships with Sitecore has
some bugs – Customization of Reports is better done with
Stimulsoft Reports .NET
– Does carry additional cost
• API Properties can behave un-intuitively
– Example: VisitsRow.Profiles returns Profiles for Visitor not just for current
Visit.

29. Questions?
For Further Information
• Twitter: @jstump29
• Email: Jamie.Stump@Perficient.com
• Blog: http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/author/jstump/
• http://www.Perficient.com
08.08.13
7