This section provides an overview of what sitecore is, and why a developer might want to use it.

It should also mention any large subjects within sitecore, and link out to the related topics. Since the Documentation for sitecore is new, you may need to create initial versions of those related topics.

Most of the above examples make use of Sitecore.Context.Database to fetch items. Keep in mind that most Sitecore implementations have multiple content databases, so using the correct database to fetch your item is important.

Sitecore search is built on top of Lucene, providing the ability to create very fast searching capabilities for your site. Instead of querying against a centralised database (such as Sitecore's SQL DB), it queries Lucene index files which are stored on the physical file system of the web-server. Sitecore provides a layer of abstraction over the Lucene.NET API including a LINQ provider which makes writing Lucene queries a simple & familiar process for .NET developers. Sitecore ships with some standard indexes configured which you can extend or define your own. You can also opt to use SOLR; a centralised & scalable platform built on top of Lucene.

Sitecore offers two ways to access items that the context user doesn't have permissions to access. The preferred way is to use the UserSwitcher class to temporarily change the user that will be used to access the item. The reason that this is preferred is because you can still have permissions in effect for the user account that is being utilised.

The alternative is to use the SecurityDisabler class. This performs the action without any security constraints.

It is recommended to only use these classes for the operations that require elevated permissions. The best way to ensure this is by utilising the 'using' keyword in C#; this will ensure that the UserSwitcher / SecurityDisabler is correctly disposed.

Sitecore out of the box supports load-balancing for multiple server. Typical configuration is Content Management (CM) and Content Delivery (CD) server, however multiple CM and CD servers are supported too.

Workflows provide a flexible and controllable way of content creation, maintenance, and review. Workflow contains a list of states and commands.

Sitecore automation gives marketer a possobility to create marketing workflows which will put user through different states on the website.

The example of automation usage could be registration workflow (registered, confirmed, logged in) or purchase workflow (new order, added products, payment details, purchase complete).