Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) is a Sitecore module that allows you to speed up the production of websites and reduce the complexity of the design process. SXA provides reusable components and templates, and allows for simultaneous design and development, which can significantly reduce your time to market.
Here’s a general process for developing a website using SXA:
1. Install SXA:
You’ll need to first install the SXA module in your Sitecore instance. This is typically done through the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF) or Sitecore Install Assistant (SIA).
2. Create a Tenant and Site:
In SXA, a Tenant represents a group of related sites, while a Site is a specific website. You can create a new Tenant and Site in the Content Editor using the SXA wizard.
3. Design the Information Architecture:
SXA provides a number of predefined templates for creating the structure of your site, like pages, data folders, and media folders. You can define your own templates as well.
4. Create and Configure Renderings:
SXA includes a large number of pre-built renderings that you can use to build your pages. You can customize these renderings, or create your own. Renderings in SXA are typically associated with a Datasource template, which defines the content structure for that rendering.
5. Use the Experience Editor:
One of the main advantages of SXA is that it provides a powerful drag-and-drop interface for building pages. You can add renderings to a page, configure their properties, and set their datasources all within the Experience Editor.
6. Create and Apply Styles:
SXA includes a theming mechanism that allows you to create and manage CSS styles for your site. These themes can be applied to your pages and components to control their visual appearance.
7. Build Navigation:
SXA provides several navigation components, like the Link Menu and Main Navigation, that you can use to build your site’s navigation. These components automatically generate navigation based on your site structure.
8. Configure Page Metadata:
SXA includes several features for managing SEO metadata, like meta tags, canonical URLs, and sitemap generation. You can configure these settings at the site level, or override them for specific pages.
9. Publish and Test:
Once you’ve built your site, you can publish it to your live database and test it. SXA includes several tools for checking the validity of your site, like the Link Validator and the SEO Validator.
By using SXA, you can leverage a host of out-of-the-box features and functionalities that can expedite the website development process and make the design and build process more seamless and efficient.
