Sitecore Pathfinder

Get started, get far, get happy!

An experimental tool chain for Sitecore.

Introduction

Pathfinder is an experimental toolchain for Sitecore, that allows developers to use their favorite tools in a familiar fashion to develop Sitecore websites.

The toolchain creates a deliverable package from the source files in a project directory and deploys the package to a website where an installer installs the new files and Sitecore items.

The developer process is familiar; edit source files, build and install the package, run tests or review the changes on website, repeat.

Please notice that this document is a brain dump, so concepts and functionality are probably not explained in a friendly manner.

How does Pathfinder make Sitecore development easier

• Familiar developer experience: Edit source files, build project, test, repeat...
• Text editor agnostic (Visual Studio not required - use Notepad, Notepad++, SublimeText, Atom, VS Code etc.)
• Build process agnostic (command-line tool, so it integrates easily with Grunt, Gulp, MSBuild etc.)
• Everything is a file (easy to edit, search and replace across multiple files, source control friendly)
• Project directory has whole and single truth (source is not spead across development projects, databases and websites) (contineous integration friendly)
• Project is packaged into a NuGet package and deployed to the website
  • Dependency tracking through NuGet dependencies
  • NuGet package installer on Sitecore website
  • SitecorePathfinderCore NuGet package tweaks Sitecore defaults to be easier to work with (e.g. removes initial workflow)
• Support for Html Templates (with Mustache tags) makes getting started with the Sitecore Rendering Engine easier
• Code Generation for generating strongly typed item model, factories and unit tests