- #1
Set it and forget it!
Make sure your Automatic Sitemap Generation is activated.
In the Administration menu, within the Tools section, look for Sitemap. Here you’ll find options for setting the frequency the sitemap is generated and whether it should be submitted automatically to Google and Bing search engines. Make sure Automatic Sitemap Generation and Submittal are enabled. If you don’t find the Sitemap tool in the Tools section, you’ll need to install the Sitemap Generator module.
Key Point: Having this feature run automatically ensures search engines crawl the most recent version of your website.
- #2
Don’t ignore this error!
What to do when you get this authentication error.
Have you seen this error? “IDX10803 Unable to create to obtain configuration from:” It means that Sitefinity can’t obtain the metadata.xml file that defines the OpenID Connect endpoints it needs for authentication. Double check the relying party defined in the AuthenticationConfig.Config file (found in /App_Data/Sitefinity/Configuration/), and make sure that the site can make requests to itself. Note: if this environment is using an IP address whitelist to control access, make sure that you’ve allowed incoming traffic from the environment’s own IP address. Also, make sure (if using HTTPS) that your SSL certificate is signed by a trusted public certificate authority.
Key Point: Fixing this error will allow your website to authenticate.
- #3
Check this default when running a single site
Turn off Multi-Site Module with a single site.
By default, your Sitefinity main site has a URL of localhost in the multi-site configuration, and this will cause all links generated by Sitefinity to use localhost as the domain name, even when the site is running in an environment that uses a real URL. Make sure to disable the multi-site module if it is not being used. When the multi-site module is enabled, the multi-site configuration site URLs take precedence over other methods that Sitefinity uses to determine the site URL. Or, alternatively, make sure you properly define URLs for your single site in the multi-site configuration, even when you have only a single site, and have not configured multi-site yet.
Key Point: By making certain you’re in Single Site mode, not multi-site, you ensure your URL is not using localhost for the domain name in its links.
- #4
Avoid Custom Backend Admins
Custom Admin for Backend Page templates can break with upgrades.
While Sitefinity makes it possible to add pages to the backend administration, which can be handy for building custom administration interfaces, it is unwise to create a custom admin template for use with these pages (unless it is not based on an existing template). Sitefinity upgrades will change these existing templates from time to time, and these changes may break custom code in widgets, which could end up requiring costly fixes be made to any custom code on pages using these templates. Instead, create an ‘Admin’ section within the normal Sitefinity pages, and use page permissions and roles to restrict access to your administrators.
Key Point: By avoiding custom backend templates you will protect the integrity of your widgets against upgrades that might break your custom code.
- #5
Yikes! Avoid a Proceed with Caution warning!
Always add all external redirects to Trusted Domains in Advanced settings.
If you have a link redirecting to an external site, your users may get an error: “Proceed with caution! You are being directed to …. This site is out of our control.” This can look scary. To prevent that message, any redirects
to external sites need to be added to Trusted Domains in Sitefinity's Advanced settings for Web Security. For more info:
https://www.progress.com/blogs/sitefinity-cms-11-1-now-includes-openredirect-protection
https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/administration-configure-redirect-validation
Key Point: You can prevent users getting a scary error message when clicking on external links.