What is Serialization in Sitecore?

What is Serialization in Sitecore?

Serialization allows developers to easily move and share serialized items across different environments. Serialization is the process that converts database items to text files. Sitecore introduces content serialization tools, including:

• Internal tools: CLI (Command Line Interface) and GUI (Graphical User Interface)
• External tools: TDS and Unicon

Serialization can be done either manually or automatically:

1. Manual Serialization: Used when you need to push or pull content items to or from an Sitecore instance on demand.
2. Automatic Serialization: Utilize the CLI and SVS to activate a watch command, which continuously monitors for changes in Sitecore and automatically synchronizes serialized items to disk.

Key benefits of Sitecore Content Serialization:

1. Version Control: Enables version control using tools like Git, simplifying tracking, comparison, and rollback.
2. Collaboration: Facilitates collaborative work across multiple developers or teams, improving efficiency in branching, merging, and conflict resolution.
3. Deployment and Environment Management: Streamlines deployment across different environments, ensuring consistency and reducing deployment errors.
4. Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD): Supports CI/CD practices with automated serialization and deserialization, ensuring reliable deployments.
5. Disaster Recovery and Backup: Simplifies backup creation and restoration, providing added data protection alongside source code.

Configure serialization in Sitecore step by step:

Step 1: Please email us at [email protected] to get the Sitecore’s Management Services Package 

Step 2: Install it on your Sitecore instance using Sitecore Control Panel -> Install a package or Development Tools -> Installation Wizard.

Step 3: Open the command line interface or PowerShell interface using the administration account and execute the following commands:

• dotnet new tool-manifest: Creates a dotnet-tools.json file, which serves as a manifest file for .NET Core global tools.
• dotnet nuget add source -n Sitecore https://Sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-packages/api/v3/index.json: Adds a NuGet package source named “Sitecore” from the specified URL.
• dotnet tool install Sitecore.CLI: Installs the Sitecore Command Line Interface (CLI) tool, enabling developers to interact with Sitecore environments from the command line.
• dotnet Sitecore init: Initializes an Sitecore project by creating the necessary configuration files and setting up the project structure.
• dotnet Sitecore plugin list: Lists installed plugins, providing visibility into the plugins currently integrated into the Sitecore environment.
• dotnet Sitecore plugin add -n Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization: Adds the Sitecore serialization plugin.
• dotnet Sitecore plugin add -n Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing: Adds the Sitecore publishing plugin.
• dotnet Sitecore login –authority https://{Sitecore identity server} –cm https://{Sitecore instance} –allow-write true: Authenticates with an Sitecore instance, allowing for write operations during the session.

Step 4: CLI Command Summary

dotnet new tool-manifest
dotnet nuget add source -n Sitecore https://Sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-packages/api/v3/index.json
dotnet tool install Sitecore.CLI
or
dotnet tool install Sitecore.CLI --add-source https://Sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-packages/api/v3/index.json
dotnet Sitecore init
dotnet Sitecore plugin list
dotnet Sitecore plugin add -n Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Serialization
dotnet Sitecore plugin add -n Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing
dotnet Sitecore login --authority https://{Sitecore identity server} --cm https://{Sitecore instance} --allow-write true

Step 5: Configure Sitecore.json and module.json files
The Sitecore.json file is a project configuration file used in Sitecore for serialization tasks. It defines settings for how content is serialized, such as the serialization format, root paths, and automation tasks. The module.json file is used specifically for configuring serialization settings for individual Sitecore modules or features, allowing developers to customize serialization settings for specific modules within their Sitecore solution.

Step 6: Commands for Serialization

• dotnet Sitecore ser pull: Pulls serialized content from an Sitecore instance to your local development environment.
• dotnet Sitecore ser push: Pushes serialized content from your local development environment to an Sitecore instance.

Examples:

dotnet Sitecore ser pull (from CMS to solution)
dotnet Sitecore ser push (Solution to CMS)