Sitecore Best Practices

This is my first blog and i would like to start with Best Practices. Here are few Sitecore best practices which are common for any Sitecore implementation.

• Content Tree
  • Data Template
    • Standard values should be defined for data template created for application.
    • Use inheritance as much as possible. It will help to reduce the repetition of fields or data templates
    • Do not cyclical template inheritance
    • Assign icon to template so it can easily be separated from other templates and usage can be recognized.
    • Organize Templates into folders so that it can easily be identified for their function.
    • Define insert options to manage the options available for CA.
    • Use Token to reduces the amount of text that a content author is required to enter when creating a new item
    • Avoid change in /Sitecore/Templates/System
  • Branch Template
    • Define branches so that a common structure can be created for sites
  • Site Structure
    • Limit the number of items under a single node. Sitecore recommend for 100 items per node
    • Limit the number of versions.

• Code
  • Optimize Sitecore queries. Make sure that query should not traverse at n level of nodes. It should be restricted at one level.
  • Do not use Fast Queries. Fast query does not use sitecore cache and directly hit SQL server and you may have performance issues on SQL Server.
  • Avoid direct SQL call from code.
  • Use override folder to override sitecore functionality
  • Avoid direct database reference in code
  • Limit use of GetAncestors and/or GetDescendants API calls
  • Minimize the use of the SecurityDisabler
  • Minimize usage of “heavy” queries for Treelist and Multilist fields.
• Config
  • Use patching to separate custom config vs Sitecore config
  • Use number as prefix to define patch filename. It will help to define the execution order.
  • Enable SwitchMasterToWeb .config on content delivery server
• IIS
  • Enable dynamic content compression on IIS
• Analytics
  • Disable analytics if not in use
• Media
  • Store media in database.
  • Enable drag and drop functionality for media lib
• Security
  • Apply security to roles rather than users
  • Break inheritance rather than explicitly deny access rights
  • Limit access to the parts of the content tree
  • Limit access to the ribbon items relevant to the user
  • IIS should prevent anonymous users from accessing the following folders:
    •  /App_Config
    • /sitecore/admin
    • /sitecore/debug
    • /sitecore/shell/WebService
  • Restrict upload by
    • Configure IIS to denied “Script” and “Execute” permissions on “upload” folder.
    • Deny permission to users to upload files to the “Temp” folder.
    • Disable upload Watcher
    • Depending on your circumstances, “Upload Filter Tool” should be installed

• Workflow
  • Configure workflow for content items and authoring process for content
  • Make sure that workflow has final state
  • Publishing restricted to specific roles
• Publishing
  • Disable full site publishing for authors
  • If you have very large number of items in tree, restrict publishing of complete tree . It may impact performance
• Cache
  • Prefetch cache : Find the items which should be available on Sitecore startup and configure template IDs of them in prefetch cache
  • Cache size : Evaluate the size defined against the prefetch, data, item and html cache on content authoring and delivery server.
  • Use HTML Cache for better performance at presentation level.
• Agents : Make sure that only required agents should be enabled on content delivery servers