DatabaseExtensionKit 1.0.3

Database Extension Kit Overview

Database Extension Kit is Umbraco Package which allows you to easily extend your Umbraco database. It helps you to:

1. Create custom database structures.
2. Automatically generate data management UI for you and site editors.
3. Save hours of development time and completely eliminate the need for extensive manual work.

The main benefits of using the Database Extension Kit plugin are:

• management of an external data store that your site uses, such as an external relational database storing huge amounts of data in an effective way
• user friendly administration which fits perfectly with Umbraco UI
• avoiding common database pitfalls in Umbraco, such as volatile data, expensive lookups on content items and content tables reindexing

Storing volatile data in Umbraco content items can lead to serious performance issues and is listed among Umbraco anti-patterns: https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-cms/reference/common-pitfalls#using-umbraco-content-items-for-volatile-data.

The best way to address this is to keep the data which is either volatile or large in quantity, in an external data store.

With the Database Extension Kit, you can create an external data store based on the relational database which Umbraco already uses by extending the database with the data entities you need.

The entities are created and managed in a straight-forward and user-friendly way which fits perfectly with Umbraco UI and the user experience your administrative users already have.

System requirements

• Umbraco 10.0+,
• Microsoft SQL Server database

Installation

Command line

Database Extension Kit can be installed using the NuGet Package Manager, by running the following command at the command line prompt in your web project folder.

dotnet add package DatabaseExtensionKit

Visual Studio

In Visual Studio, you can use the NuGet Package Manager GUI from the Tools menu, by selecting Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution. Alternatively, you can run the following command from the NuGet Package Manager Console:

Install-Package DatabaseExtensionKit

Upgrading

Command line

Database Extension Kit can be upgraded to the latest version by running the following command at the command line prompt from your web project folder.

dotnet add package DatabaseExtensionKit

Visual Studio

In Visual Studio, you can use the NuGet Package Manager GUI from the Tools menu, by selecting Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution.

Demo / Tutorial

You can find the Demo/Tutorial of DataBase Extension Kit here: DBExtension Kit Demo. The demo project is a full implementation of a ready-made Careers module for your Umbraco website. It is based on an entity model created using the Database Extension Kit. The demo project will show you all the important features of the Database Extension Kit package and provide best practices for front-end integration of entities created and managed using the package.

Telemetry statistics

Since version 1.0.1, our DatabaseExtension Kit package has been collecting telemetry data. This provides us with insights to which Umbraco and package versions being used, so that we can make informed decisions on how to focus our future development efforts. The data is sent anonymously, no personal or sensitive data is collected.

What type of data is being captured?

An example of the data captured is as follows.

{
    "umbraco_id": "c511a89b-426a-4e15-a5f0-87c5d4590602",
    "umbraco_version": "13.0.0",
    "package_id": "DatabaseExtensionKit",
    "package_version": "1.0.1"
}

How to disable telemetry?

If you would prefer to opt-out and disable the telemetry feature, add this option in your appsettings.json file:

{
  "DatabaseExtensionKit": {
    "DisableTelemetry": true
  }
}

Documentation and Related links

• DataBase Extension Kit website: https://www.dbextensionkit.com/
• DataBase Extension Kit Getting Started Guide: Getting Started
• Database Extension Kit Technical Documentation: Technical Documentation
• Full demo documentation: Demo Documentation