What not to do in a remote job interview

Wear a t-shirt
Not wearing pants even if you are not standing up
Show up with messy hair
Be sick and not mention it
Close the door behind you
Make sure the lighting is good
Join late for the call
Making sure the mic is working
Saying “like” and “um” more than once a minute
Pronounce the name wrong
Know nothing about the company
Know nothing about the position
Play with your phone – Unless it’s your mom from the hospital
Forget to mute your phone and notifications – Stop the buzz
Pick your nose – either one would do
Not knowing the basics (like the difference between abstract class and interfaces)
Spout bullshit – You will be surprised how many people can detect that
Lie
Talk too much – especially when it’s not related
Going off on a tangent – talking about bitcoins when asked about the weather
Show magic tricks
Brag about materials
Talk about how you hacked into (read copy pasted/ stolen code/data) from someone

Can’t hide Okta Fastpass notification & it’s killing your vibe?

Trying to get rid of this.

Don’t hide the notification. The app is still running and taking up resources.

Log on to your Okta admin portal.

Go to security > Authenticators.

and uncheck the Fastpass verification option.

Voila! Pop up will disappear as soon as you open your phone back up again.

~ Enjoy and don’t forget to set your out-of-office auto response to something funny. ~

Visual studio Code + Mac + Terminal + NodeJS + Express + Heroku = free API hosting FTW

> mkdir testapi
> cd testapi/
> npm init
> npm init -y
> npm i express --save
> touch server.js
> git init
> git add -a -m "initial commit"
> heroku login
> heroku create
> git push heroku master
> git add .
> git commit -m "initial commit"
> heroku open

Some gotchas:

I was trying to run these from visual studio terminal which should work but using the system terminal was better, less prone to error
“npm init -fy” didnt work on my computer
Only doing “npm init” was asking for package, so I did -y
server.js looks like

var express = require('express');
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
var app = express();
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.send(JSON.stringify({ Hello: 'World' }));
});
app.listen(port, function () {
    console.log('Example app listening on port !');
});

of course, make sure you have Heroku account beforehand
don’t forget to add a favicon.ico file on the root, Heroku app will crashe without it.
Package.json looks like this

{
  "name": "testapi",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "server.js", //make sure this is right
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "start": "node server.js" //this will be the same as main
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.17.1"
  }
}

That’s it
REALLY!!

~ Failure is not the pillar of success, trying is. ~

Visual Studio’s Live Share tool is a lifesaver when working from home…

Everyone knows It’s Corona Time. Like many others, I am working from home.

Here is a new tool that I always ignored that has changed our lives lately.

It’s called LIVE SHARE, a Visual Studio add-on.

Get it from https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-vsliveshare.vsls-vs

This will adda button to the bottom right corner of your VS. You will need an account to login to VS as well. Once setup just start the share. The url will be automatically copied to your clipboard as well!

We have also been using Loom a lot for recording and sharing screens.

~ The only difference between monkeys and us are that we know how to use tools. Once they learn how to do that, we are doomed. ~

How to survive the era of CORONA

Keep calm and don’t freak
Drink water, increase the intake of vitamins and minerals and boost the immune system.
Stay home. Work from home.
If you have to go to work, be careful.
Call, video chat with your people.
Reduce unnecessary travel, visits, and gatherings.
Keep 5 feet between you are everyone else.
Be mindful of what you touch.
Always keep your hands clean.
Be passionate.
Don’t get sick.

That’s it. We can do this.

We can get better and get back to normal.

~ Keep calm and live on. ~

All the Redirect Rules you will ever need in web.config

Force HTTPS redirect (Permanently)

<rule name="Root Hit Force HTTPS Redirection" enabled="false" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="^$" ignoreCase="false" />
    <conditions>
        <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
        <add input="{HTTP_METHOD}" pattern="GET" />
    </conditions>
    <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/" redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>

Sitecore Login & Admin Site Force HTTPS Redirection

<rule name="Sitecore Login or Admin Force HTTPS Redirection" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="^(sitecore/(login|admin))$" />
    <conditions>
        <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
        <add input="{HTTP_METHOD}" pattern="GET" />
    </conditions>
    <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" appendQueryString="true" redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>

Match a pattern and redirect somewhere else

<rule name="Forbidden" enabled="true" patternSyntax="ECMAScript" stopProcessing="true">
     <match url="(.*)" />
     <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAny">
         <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
         <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^(www\.)(.*)$" />
     </conditions>
     <action type="Redirect" url="https://destination.com{REQUEST_URI}" appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>

Redirect to non-www site url

<rule name="RedirectWwwToNonWww" stopProcessing="false">
   <match url="(.*)" />
   <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false">
       <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^(www\.)(.*)$" />
   </conditions>
   <action type="Redirect" url="https://{C:2}{REQUEST_URI}" redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>

Redirect some domains to another domain

<rule name="all domains to destination" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAny">
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^destination1.com$" ignoreCase="true" />
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^destination2.com$" ignoreCase="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="https://destination.com/{R:1}" />
</rule>

Am I missing some? Let me know and I can add more…

~ Delayed gratification is my type of happiness only if I am alive that long. ~

Visual Studio – Project Target Framework Not Installed

Seen this before?

Downloading the targeting pack didn’t work? Now you are on the hunt on the internet and finally ended up here?

Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer

run the vs_installer.exe

Remember you have to close all open visual studio instances while this is installing.

when the installation is complete, load up visual studio and your project. all should be well.

~ We are all bald under our hair. ~

SLACK + SITECORE + YOU

DID YOU KNOW

Sitecore has a very active Slack community.

If you don’t know what Slack is: click here.

If you don’t know what Sitecore is: How did you end us here? rethink your life choices and click here.

The community’s at https://sitecorechat.slack.com/

There are almost four thousand people over there. Talking to each other on a daily basis if not lurking and learning.

There is a bunch of channels set up for us as well.

Channels you can join

architecture
Discuss architectural decisions of Sitecore
azure
Discuss Sitecore implementations, issues, and suggestions using PaaS
coveo
Coveo for Sitecore solution and Coveo in general
data-exchange
In this channel, discuss anything related to the Data Exchange Framework, CRM connectors, etc…
digital-strategy
Discuss all kinds of strategic things…
docker
Discussions around the use of Docker in a Sitecore context
eCommerce
exm
gaming
Channel for Sitecore developers that love to game! Chat, hangout, play games together 😀
glass
discuss anything and everything about Glass.
habitathome
Discuss all things related to the Habitat Home demo sites

Go sign up today and explore.

~ There is no life without if. ~

Blue Gmail icon

You may have noticed the blue Gmail icon by now, otherwise, you would not end up on here.

Google just changed the favicon for all the business accounts to differentiate between personal and work. Which I like very much.

Funny thing that I installed Flux the same day this change came in and I thought it was a very cool trick on the color of the icon that’s making it blue cause or blue light reduction. But as soon as I opened my personal email at work I was going crazy. How could there be blue in the color red? I was switching monitors, cleaning my glasses, rubbing my eyes.

But then I opened up the dev tools and found the favicon on my work email tab.

Where gmail.com is still showing

https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/favicon5.ico

That calmed me down.

~ When freaking out, calm down.~

My Goal

I want to become an MVP.
I have been doing sitecore development for three years now and my knowledge needs to get out of my brain and to all of you.
Keep in touch and follow my blog and I will be sharing tips and tricks here.
Hopefully it will help at least one of you on our daily struggle.

Mostly About Sitecore, among other things

Topaz's blog

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