NTT DATA is sponsoring the 2015 Sitecore Hackathon. Teams that have signed up by 6 pm EST on January 20, 2015 have the opportunity to take part. Eligible teams will have 24 hours to build and submit a Sitecore module that best implements the idea for the Hackathon, as determined by our panel of judges. The window runs from Friday January 23rd 2015 at 8 PM EST to Saturday January 24th 2015 at 8 PM EST. The ideas will be announced an hour before the Hackathon starts on January 23rd.
This year, given the sheer volume of teams and the overwhelming response, we, along with Sitecore, decided to pick three different ideas in three different categories. We hope this appeals to all the teams in the competition. A winning team is picked for each category, provided enough entries are submitted per category.
Enhanced Datasources Module. The purpose of this module is to improve the editorial experience when working with datasources but also to offer developers an option that will make their work easier when dealing with Sitecore datasources. There have been many situations in which as developers we had to duplicate functionality/sitecore items that could have been refactored into using the same structure if the datasource dialog for creating new datasource items was more permissive
Mini database comparison tool. This module is intended to assist developers in comparing Sitecore databases. This could be used to compare item in the master versus web. Or, it could be useful in comparing across instances; for example: QA to Dev. The tool will compare starting at an item as selected from a source and a target database. This item an optionally its children will be compared and an output box will show the differences found. If no differences are found that result will be shown.
Tree Visualization with D3. This package is a working proof of concept which includes SVG data visualization functionality using D3.js, a JavaScript library for manipulating data-driven documents. It allows for a greater enhanced view of items and its relationships within a tree in a tidy arrangement.
Rich Text Comments, similar to sticky notes in word review. The concept for the Rich Text Comments module is to provide business users with an ms word-like comments mode. The ultimate goal of the feature would be to allow one or more comments on any region of a rich text field and show date, user and the comment made. This would allow reviewers to provide much more granular feedback in-line rather than just a single comment at the work flow level or moving content outside of Sitecore to explain edits to be made.
Content By Mail. The ContentbyMail module will enable content authors to submit new content into the Sitecore CMS Platform using their email account.
Packman. The target audience of this module are Sitecore developers who want to keep track of Item and Template changes while working on new features. It enables you to automatically track those changes and add additional Items manually to the process. At the end of your work, you can generate an Item Package which contains all those changes without having to go into the Package Designer and remember which Items you touched. All of this without leaving the Content Editor!
Prism. Easily integrate data from additional external sources including RSS, Youtube and others with a view to giving full save functionality. The api allows the integration of data through Sitecore at a data provider level, giving the developer a lot of control. The providers are setup so we can extended them later for services such as SliderShare, Vimeo, Twitter, etc.
IBeacon. iBeacon is Apple’s implementation of Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) wireless technology to create a different way of providing location-based information and services to iPhones and other iOS devices. iBeacon arrived in iOS7, which means it works with iPhone 4s or later, iPad (third generation and onwards) iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation or later). It’s worth noting the same BLE technology is also compatible with Android 4.3. and above. While Apple is cracking down on iBeacons on Android devices, the BLE standard appears on both Apple IOS and Android devices.
Reset to Standard Values. This sitecore app allows you to select a standard values item, and reset specific fields to standard value on all items based on that particular template. The module will also expand any token that exist within the chosen field. You can also do this from a sitecore item rather than a template standard value too. This will just reset the fields on this item and expand tokens. The module is build on Sitecore SPEAK and uses EntityService fas an API for the app. Sampleitems and temple included to demo feature.
Azure Media Services. The Azure Media Services for Sitecore module brings the encoding and adaptive streaming capabilities of Azure to the Sitecore platform. Video content is managed entirely from the familiar Sitecore interface while in the background Azure media encoding transforms your video assets into formats suitable for viewing on desktop and mobile devices. Azure Media Services for Sitecore generates both ‘HLS’ and ‘Smooth Streaming’ video formats. These adaptive streaming technologies provide the optimal experience on all modern mobile platforms, dynamically reducing or increasing the video bitrate according to the device’s connection quality. Users on the move may switch from WiFi, to 4G, to a low strength 3G signal without any interruption to their viewing experience, yet also receive the highest quality video possible when bandwidth allows.
Sitecore Global Editor. This module is helping editors to create global shortcuts on multisite environments. For example if editors have Sliders, Teasers or Campaigns for a site is really difficult to access them from Page Editor because this kind of items sometimes doesn’t have layouts assigned and can’t be access from Page Editor. Also Site Settings are difficult to configure from Page Editor.
Integrated Dynamic Placeholders. Dynamic Placeholders are a very desired feature set for the Sitecore community as evidenced by these links: Sitecore Developer UserVoice and Stack Overflow. Many variations of Dynamic Placeholders for both WebForms and MVC frameworks exist in various formats throughout the web, but there is not yet a single Sitecore module that allows this functionality to be added without custom coding. Furthermore, a common struggle that many developers face while implementing a custom Dynamic Placeholder solution is within the management of the Placeholder Settings items within Sitecore. Because the Placeholder Key field of a Placeholder Settings item can only contain one Key value, and the Key value must match exactly, many existing custom solutions require a one-to-one creation of Placeholder Settings items and the number of Dynamic Placeholders (of the same type) that will be used on any given page. This one-to-one relationship creates maintenance overhead over time. The Integrated Dynamic Placeholders package team Sitecore! Experienced has developed will allow both MVC and WebForms support natively, as well as programmatically connect a single Placeholder Setting Item to all instances of the named Dynamic Placeholder that appear on any page, regardless of quantity. This is why we did this….we have struggled with it in the past. We worked around it. Others have worked around it we wanted to give everyone an easier way….
Xport Module. A tool which support query and export items based on a sitecore query and several filter criteria. Our clients often ask us to create several types of exports from Sitecore which are always need extra development. We would like to avoid implementing different export tools if we can implement one tool which supports sitecore queries and several filter criteria. Also, the build in Xpath builder does not have feature which allows to us to export the results of the queries.
Sitecore Power User Toolkit (SPUT). This module aims to make Business user’s day to day tasks easy. By providing a few utilities like Unlock, Power Operations, Publish Panel, and Power Information.
Gamification Module. The idea behind this project is to encourage/motivate editors to improve their content and utilize some of the advance features in Sitecore, by earning badges through achievements. The entire framework should allow for easy creations of new achievements and using the gamification framework to maintain states for users and all their achievements. This POC ships with an example Achievement the “How many time have you clicked publish achievement”. Each achievement has a Bronze, Silver and Gold-Gold that editors can achieve. The solution could be extended to creating leaderboards, by using the sitecore/api/GetAllAchievements api or the GetAchievementsForAllUsersService. In order to use the module, the user should be logged into the Sitecore domain when calling APIs. Furthermore, Publish Item should be used, as Incremental Publish does not use the item:publish command For an end user to obtain a score for an achievement, the correct commands should be used. In this POC, the end user should do a publish, which will increment score on the publish achievement by one.
Zapier Connector. The Sitecore Zapier Connector integrates Sitecore engagement plan actions with the Zapier platform, allowing you to connect Sitecore to more than 300 apps, such as Twitter, Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mailchimp and PayPal just to name a few. Zapier resembles the platform If this, then that with the exception that Zapier offers an open API, which IFTTT currently doesn’t. What will become apparent in the following is the fact that although the configuration process on Zapier might seem lengthy and tedious in the context of this Sitecore Hackathon, it dwindles in comparison to the coding effort required to create an integration to e.g. Trustpilot from scratch in a production grade solution, not to mention the myriad of other services that are at your fingertips once the initial scaffolding has been set up in Sitecore and Zapier.
Feedback Module. The goal of the user Feedback module is to enable the users to provide feedback to the Authors (Business users) as to which any given page was helpful or not, and to provide a small comment as to why the page was not helpful. This provides the authors with an opportunity to find pages which the users did not find helpful and to, based on the comments, edit the content to make the page more usable and helpful.
Full Contact API. To allow Sitecore administrators to view enhanced information about users by utilizing the FullContact API, therefore enriching CRM data and the ability to create highly personalized marketing campaigns. Find out more about FullContact here: https://www.fullcontact.com/developer/docs/
Sitecore Achievement Tracker. The Sitecore Achievement Tracker incorporates gamification into the Sitecore editor experience. Sitecore 8 offers a wide variety of new features for both Content Editors and Marketers and the Achievement Tracker incentivizes new and experienced Sitecore users to explore various aspects of the system. The tracker has been built in an extensible fashion, allowing module users to cater achievements to their specific needs.
Media Embed Module. Summary: Cereal Killers has created a module that allows for embedding media from external service into the Rich Text Editor. Presently the only service we have wired up is Flickr, but we have plans to extend this module for YouTube embedding as well.
Box Integration Module. Gartner Names Box a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing http://content.box.com/gartner-mq Companies rely on Box because it’s secure, works on any device and scales to meet the needs of small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. Box Integration module provides instant access to Box content as well as enables seamless experience viewing office documents on your website.
Test Data Generator Tool. This is module is support developers to create test data from a selected template. This module is a solution to test your sitecore application with many item. Occuring daily problem is that to create dummy items lost a lot of time. This module can help you to accelerate your daily job, and you can have more time to deal with your implementation.
All teams must submit the following as part of their entry, on or before the end of the Hackathon on Saturday January 24th 2015 at 8 PM EST.
The winning teams each receive a $100 Amazon gift card per team member, for a total of $300 per team. The Amazon gift cards are emailed to the addresses on file no later than 10 days after the winning team is announced. No purchase necessary. See the Official Rules for complete details, including judging criteria and prize details.
