Two Interesting New Features In Sitecore XP 10.1

In reviewing the recent feature release of Sitecore XP 10.1, had some quick thoughts around two particularly interesting features

1. Sitecore CLI
2. GeoIP Changes

Sitecore CLI ??

So yes, Sitecore now has a Sitecore CLI which allows you to install packages or plugins directly from the command line.

"The CLI comes with a built-in plugin command to add, update, list, and remove plugins from your project."

And it looks like:

Add

sitecore plugin add -n <name of plugin> -v <version of plugin>

Remove

sitecore plugin remove -n <name of plugin>

List

sitecore plugin list

Basically, this is an extension of Nuget Package Manager, just Sitecoreized ... WTG Sitecore!

GeoIP Changes

Sitecore has an API that works with the geolocation service, which gives returns data such as country/region and city from an IP request.

Sitecore.CES.GeoIp.Core.IGeoIpManager.GetGeoIpData(string ipAddress,TimeSpan? timeout = null)

What makes this nicer, is that instead of trying to persist this ourselves in some layer of caching and then worrying about how to manage that, Sitecore was thoughtful enough to provide THREE (3) levels of information retrieval!!

Three levels of information retrieval with the benefit of the reduced cost of data retrieval.

1. Memory Cache
   • Obviously and logically the quickest, and you get to manage the size and how long for each IP address in the cache.
2. Database
   • Again a logical level of caching. There is a table called [VisitGeoIpData],  which stored the IP address and GeoIP data (encrypted of course). Quite a number of configurable settings on this such as:
     • GeoIP data lifetime
     • Database used
     • Clean up agent
3. Geolocation service
   • Finally, you got to make the round trip to the service to get the data fresh. But don't worry, it will be cached in the upper 2 layers as per caching best practices.

So just a few things to look forward to in Sitecore 10.1 and beyond.