The year 2025 has been great, featuring presentations at various Sitecore User Groups around the world and meaningful interactions with numerous members of the Sitecore community.
I started exploring Sitecore Personalize, which allows to craft tailored web experiences based on customer behavior and preferences.
In this blog, I’ll walk through how to integrate Sitecore Personalization for the Sitecore XP/XM/XMCloud website without installing EngageSDK – using TamperMonkey, a browser extension for running custom JavaScript.
Create a Point Of Sale (PoS)
In Sitecore CDP or Personalize create a PoS for the website.
Create a Web Experience
In Sitecore Personalize, let’s navigate to the Experiences section and click Create New Experience.
Select from experience types such as:
Web Experience (e.g., personalized banners or pop-ups)
Interactive Experience (e.g., Chatbots, real-time API integrations)
Sitecore Personalize offers 14 out-of-the-box (OOTB) templates for creating web experiences. These templates are designed to help you quickly set up and customize your web experiments and experiences without needing to write code. Here are some of the templates available:
Alert Bar (Boxever Library)
Corner Popup (Boxever Library)
Email Capture Bar (Boxever Library)
Email Capture Corner (Boxever Library)
Notification Widget (Boxever Library)
Popup takeover (Boxever Library)
Sidebar (Boxever Library)
Alert Bar (Sitecore Library)
Corner Popup (Sitecore Library)
Email Capture Bar (Sitecore Library)
Email Capture Corner (Sitecore Library)
Notification Widget (Sitecore Library)
Popup takeover (Sitecore Library)
Sidebar (Sitecore Library)
Select any of the out-of-the-box templates or custom web templates, if they have been created.
Let’s start to customize it. You have the option to use Advanced Edit for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to enhance web templates.
The final Popup looks like this – changed the following
Background color
Title
Description
Button Text
Page Targeting
I chose all the pages for simplicity.
If you like specific pages – add the condition for the page URL.
Goals
I chose not to track performance for testing purposes. Feel free to add any goal according to website needs.
Filter, Decisioning, and Notifications
They are optional, going to leave them as it is. The Decision Model is so powerful that, will be exploring it in upcoming blogs.
The preview isn’t working because the EngageSDK needs to be installed on the website. If you have EngageSDK installed on the website, feel free to skip the TamperMonkey part.
Now this is where the TamperMonkey plugin comes to the rescue to pre-load the Engage SDK on any website using Sitecore Personalize script.
pointOfSale : <PoS that you have created for the site>
cookieDomain: <Website domain>
The clientkey is found in CDP->Settings->API Access
Let’s add the script to TamperMonkey and save it. The @name value determines how the script is named.
Now it should detect the script when you visit the website.
Live
Let’s publish the Experience to make it live – If you have a notification set, it will email when it’s live, paused, etc.
The email notification is pretty helpful especially for Marketers to track their Experiences.
Preview
Let’s try the Preview – make sure to add a new script for the preview URL in TamperMonkey.
Let’s load the Preview with the page URL.
The Popup showed up and the QA Tool shows at the left side of the page.
QA Tool
The QA Tool shows the validation of everything. Feel free to change the variant to test different scenarios. It’s super helpful for troubleshooting any issues.
I came across a scenario where I needed to exclude the default value for dropdowns in Sitecore Forms. By default, dropdown fields in Sitecore Forms often preselect the first option, which might be a placeholder like “Select an option.”
If users submit the form without changing this value, it can lead to unreliable data. Custom validation helps enforce user interaction, ensuring the selection is meaningful.
Steps to Implement Custom Validation in Sitecore Forms
Step 1: Create a Custom Validator
Navigate to your Sitecore solution and open the project where Sitecore Forms is configured.
Create a new class that extends FormConditionalValidatorand override the validation logic.
Step 2: Register the Validator in Sitecore
Open Sitecore Content Editor and navigate to: /sitecore/system/Settings/Forms/Validation
Create a new validation item:
Name: Department Validator (Change it according to Project needs)
Type: Reference the class you created, e.g., Custom.Validators.DropdownDefaultValueValidator, CustomAssembly
Sitecore PowerShell Extensions (SPE) (Huge thanks to Michael West, Adam Najmanowicz, and contributors) is a robust module that adds the power of PowerShell scripting to the Sitecore platform.
It empowers Sitecore developers and administrators to automate repetitive tasks and extend Sitecore’s functionality with custom scripts.
Downloading Sitecore Logs from Azure Web Apps wasn’t easy. To troubleshoot any issues, I used to spend decent time trying to find recent logs.
AzureTools (Thank you Sitecore Community – You are simply awesome!) comes to the rescue. It’s a simple .aspx page that can be dropped into CM environments and download logs in just seconds.
The Sitecore Content Export Tool(many thanks to Erica Stockwell-Alpert) is a powerful utility designed to streamline the process of exporting content from your Sitecore instance.
It enables developers, content authors, and administrators to easily extract content in bulk, simplifying tasks like data migration, content backups, or sharing content across environments.
The Sitecore Log Analyzer (SCLA) (Sitecore Community Rocks!) is a powerful tool designed to help Sitecore developers analyze and interpret log files with ease.
It simplifies the process of identifying issues, tracking errors, and monitoring system performance by providing a user-friendly interface to view and filter Sitecore logs.
This ClickOnce installer sets up the application and enables automatic updates. After installation, the app can be launched from the Start menu or pinned to the taskbar for easy access.
The Algolia Search Provider for Sitecore is a powerful integration combining robust content management capabilities with Algolia’s lightning-fast, full-text search engine.
This provider enables Sitecore-driven websites and applications to deliver instant, relevant, and highly customizable search experiences to end-users, ensuring faster content discovery and improved user engagement.
While exploring, I found that Dmitry Harnitski and Peter Procházka have implemented the Algolia Search Provider for Sitecore 9.1 and previous versions. Thank you so much!
I was working on Sitecore SXA 10.3.1 and the workflow was somehow messed up.
Manually modifying can be time-consuming and error-prone. Sitecore SPE is a powerful tool that allows for efficient modification of content in bulk through find and replace text functionality.
In this article, we will explore the steps of using Sitecore SPE to quickly and easily bulk update workflow, streamlining the process, and saving time.
Dry-Run Script:
Running the script won’t make any changes to items, it will give the items that are going to be modified.
I’ve been delving deeper into Sitecore Personalize and have discovered how to incorporate its custom Web Templates into the website.
Let’s dive into the process of creating custom Web Templates and how to utilize them in Web Experiences.
Create Web Template
Let’s navigate to Web Templates in Sitecore Personalize and create it.
The Web Templates have the high flexibility of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and API tabs to configure.
HTML: Define the structure and content of your web template. This is where you can create the basic layout and elements that will be displayed on your website.
CSS: Style your web template to match your brand’s look and feel. You can add custom styles to ensure that the template is visually appealing and consistent with your website’s design.
JavaScript: Add interactivity and dynamic behavior to your web template. JavaScript allows you to create engaging user experiences by adding features like animations, form validations, and more.
API: Configure API responses to integrate with your organization’s data.
To build the custom web template, let’s say I want to Personalize the About page of my blog.
To create HTML and CSS, we don’t need to dive into the code. A tool called SnipCSS can turn any section of the website into a reusable component.
SnipCSS
SnipCSS is a powerful tool designed to help web developers extract CSS and HTML snippets from any web element or widget. The main key feature is extracting all HTML, images, and CSS with a single click.
Create a separate Authorization in the Identity Server for Forms
Create a Controller to bridge between Custom Submit Action and API call
Set the Custom Submit Action fields
1. Create a separate Authorization in the Identity Server for Forms
Add the FormsServerClient node and its value to the Identity Server’s Sitecore.IdentityServer.DevEx.xml file. After making the change, make sure to IIS Reset for the change to be in effect.
Note: Don’t forget to add transforms for ClientSecret!
Ideally, you can call it in Postman to verify that it’s generating a token using Form’s ClientID and ClientSecret values mentioned in the Sitecore.IdentityServer.DevEx.xml file.
Now that the config is all set to have its own ClientID and ClientSecret, let’s set up the Authorize method with BearerToken specifically for Form’s Identity Credentials.
The SitecoreRestServices handles authenticated HTTP requests to Sitecore’s REST APIs, managing access tokens and retrying requests if authentication fails. It uses dependency injection to configure the HTTP client and obtain the necessary settings.
2. Create a Controller to bridge between Custom Submit Action and API call
Let’s bridge the Custom Submit Action and API call – The CustomController class extends SitecoreController and uses dependency injection to obtain an instance of ICreateAutoPublishService.
It defines a CreateAndPublish method – HTTP POST endpoint that processes CreateAndAutoPublishModel, calls the service to create and publish content, and returns a JSON response indicating success or failure.
The method includes error handling to return appropriate HTTP status codes and messages for different exceptions.
3. Set the Custom Submit Action fields
The final step – Let’s set the Model Type and Error Message based on the class we created.
Publish the form and its related items. It should be good to go!
Sitecore Personalize offers robust capabilities for A/B testing and experimentation, allowing you to optimize customer experiences based on real-time behavior and data analysis.
By running experiments, you can determine which variations of your content perform best and drive the desired outcomes.
Let’s dive into creating the Web Experiment and test which variant appears on the website.
Web Experiment
Create an Experiment based on Web, Interactive, or Triggered.
Types of Experiments:
Web Experiments: Create dynamic offers and content using web templates. These experiments can be run on your website or deployed into web-based applications.
Interactive Experiments: Develop dynamic offers and content from back-end systems for maximum server-side personalization.
Triggered Experiments: Use FreeMarker to create dynamic offers and content that can be sent to Email Service Providers (ESP) or SMS/Push service providers.
I chose Web Experiment to keep it simple.
Create Variant
Click ‘+ Create Variant’ under the Experiment.
Pick the variant (e.g., Popup Takeover – Sitecore Library) or custom Web Template if available.
Variant 1
Fill out the details to make it customized according to the website.
Title
Description
Button
Utilize Advanced edit if you like more customized with HTML, CSS and JS.
Variant 2
Let’s create Variant 2 of the Experiment. We can duplicate Variant 1 and make tweaks, which simplifies the process.
I simply modified the background color, title, description, and button text to give it a different look and feel.
Traffic Control
Now that variants are created, let’s assign the traffic for each variant.
I’m going with 50% for each variant and make sure that Control + Variants should be 100%.
Control – 0% (Orinigal version)
Variant 1 – 50% traffic
Variant 2 – 50% traffic
Page Targeting
I chose all the pages for simplicity.
If you like specific pages – add the condition for the page URL.
Goals
I chose not to track performance for testing purposes. Feel free to add any goal according to website needs.
Preview
Let’s load the Preview with the page URL.
The Popup Variant 1 showed up and the QA Tool shows at the left side of the page.
Live
Let’s initiate the Experiment to go live—it only takes a few seconds. If notifications are set, an email will be sent.
Let’s reload the page, Yay! Popup Variant 1 showed up!!
I recently faced a scenario where I needed to integrate an external website into the Coveo Index and utilize it along with Sitecore Items on the website.
Let’s take my blog as an external data source and integrate it into the Coveo Index.
Trial Account
Feel free to create a new trial account and explore yourself – No credit card is needed it’s free and valid for 14 days.
Note: Please make sure to use your business email.
Sources
After signing up, navigate to the Sources section.
There are many sources available like Sitecore, Web, Sitemap, Sitemap, and many more.
Web Source
Let’s focus on Web sources since we want to add my blog.
There are two Web sources available on-prem crawler and cloud-based crawler. Let’s choose the cloud-based crawler that is with the cloud icon on the right.
When I start filling in my blog URL, it automatically detects the Sitemap for the website – Switching to the Sitemap URL for better Indexing performance.
After switching, it automatically updated to a Sitemap source with the appropriate sitemap URL.
Content Security
The next step in the setup is Content Security.
We can permit for
Same users and groups as in your content system (Grayed out due to trial account)
Everyone – Anonymous can access
Specific users and groups
By default, the everyone option is selected this would be best for public-facing content.
Let’s change it to Specific users and groups for the demo.
Add Source
Once added after a few minutes the source will be available. You can review other settings if further tuning is needed.
Rebuild Source
Hit save and rebuild source that will initiate the rebuilding of the index.
Download logs provide more in-depth information – It’s super helpful when you face any issues.
Content Browser
Once the rebuild is completed, Open the Content Browser from the left navigation under content to see the items in the index.
It took only a couple of minutes to rebuild the entire blog this depends on the content of the site.
Yay! My entire blog is reindexed and ready to be consumed.
Now, in the Sitecore Coveo Search interface, I could include this as an external source and use the items in the index. We could also set up a blog template and display the results with images. The source type can also be used as a facet.
Types of Experiments:
