Good news everyone! We're happy to announce that all our open source projects are now available not only in Mercurial, but in Git too on GitHub! We've moved 67 projects from CodePlex to Bitbucket, so you can clone, fork, raise issues and comment on them (along with all those that were already on Bitbucket) same as before and you'll get all the latest code from us instantly. You're not missing out on anything if you're using Git either: using our repository mirroring tool - Git-Hg Mirror - we've set up repositories on GitHub as well for all our open-source projects with two-way synchronization. This means that as a Git/GitHub user, you can also submit pull requests: when they are merged, the changes will be available for those who use the Mercurial repo (and vice versa), so everybody wins! Here are the links again for quick reference: Git-Hg Mirror Lombiq projects on BitBucket (Hg) Lombiq projects on GitHub Happy cloning!

Fields in Orchard are simply to use ways of building your own content: you can enrich content items to store a variety of data in the available fields. With our Lombiq Fields module we now add two new ones: Media Library Upload Field and the Money Field. So what are these two fields doing exactly? Media Library Upload Field: with it Media items can be uploaded attached to content items, all this in a very customizable way. Money Field: with this field you can store amounts of money, including the currency in a semantic way. You can also see the module in action in the Orchard Communtiy Meeting's podcast. Check out Lombiq Fields on GitHub or see it in action on DotNest!

Microsoft is not a company that needs introduction - but one that needed Orchard training. More specifically the Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Operations (MCIO) team (who supply the infrastructure for all Microsoft divisions, including Windows, Bing or even Azure) reached out to us: before starting a big Orchard project they wanted to have some expert help. After we became Microsoft suppliers we conducted a few days of what was an online intensive training for the MCIO team. They are now familiar with Orchard's built in features and everything a beginner Orchard developer needs to know. The only problem is that we won't see what they are building - because it will be an internal portal, just for Microsoft employee eyes.

As it happens Lombiq got to be part of the Microsoft Supplier Program - that means Microsoft is now Lombiq's customer! We actually already had our first project with one of the Microsoft teams, stay tuned for more info.

If you're using a distributed version control system in your software development team (and you really should!) then most possibly you go with Git or Mercurial. But what if you'd really like to use a repository in your project that is on the other system? Now you can use Git-hg Mirror: it's a super-simple service that automatically keeps a Git and Mercurial (or two Mercurial) repos in sync, even with two-way syncing! Commits pushed to one repo will just magically appear in the other repo. What a time to be alive! The website is (obviously) built on Orchard - you can see our demo on the last Orchard Steering Committee meeting.

Our Orchard CMS SaaS DotNest got a new look and feel! The old theme was a bit clunky, but now it looks as it should. Check out DotNest where you can create Orchard sites for free, without having to think about hosting!

You can't base decisions on assumptions. What you can't measure you can't manage. Familiar? Of course, and what you want to do with your software is specifically what's hinted: measure how people use it. Azure Application Insights is a tool for this, being an application telemetry service. Now we created an Orchard module for it for easy integration! The Orchard Azure Application Insights module lets you send usage telemetry from Orchard easily: just install the module, configure the AI instrumentation key and that's it: server-side request telemetry (e.g. response time, log entries) and client-side telemetry (e.g. client-side processing time, JavaScript exceptions) will be sent to Azure and you can explore it from the Azure Portal on charts like above. With all this integrated you can get valuable insights, not just raw data but also answers to questions like "What was the request when this exception happened?" You can also chek out an overview of AI and a demonstration of the module on the Orchard Community Meeting's recording. Azure Application Insights is a very useful tool when operating Orchard applications and allows you to response to any issues quickly. Check out the module!

It's not just companies, often we help Orchard freelancers as well: this time Brent Carter, a fellow Orchard developer needed some thoughts on his running Orchard projects, like one web app helping children in the US learning Chinese. Having a second pair of eyes look through your code or having a second opinion about some long-term software design decisions is always a good thing. Brent's coding buddy this time was Lombiq. This is what Brent has to say about his experiences: I’ve been a software developer and architect for over 15 years. I have found Orchard CMS to be extremely powerful and well built, but it also has a non-trivial learning curve. Lombiq are my “go to” team when I get stuck in Orchard. What better colleague to have looking over your shoulder than one who has worked on the actual Orchard team themselves? They know the ins and outs of the code, why you want to do one thing rather than the other, the future direction in which Orchard is heading, and are all around Orchard experts. I’ve also found them to be professional and fun to work with. If you’re looking for a developer to help you elevate your Orchard skills or want to hand off some work to someone else, you can’t go wrong with these guys. Are you also looking for some online mentoring (see all our Orchard training types on Orchard Dojo)? Just drop us a line!

"No time to explain: get into development!" Roughly this is how we started to work with Aristotle, the award-winning creative agency from Arkansas. In a sprint of two weeks we had to deliver two Orchard modules for listing local businesses and managing their deals. ...which we did on time. The Business Listings module's task is to store and display local businesses (e.g. hotels, restaurants) in a searchable manner on websites aimed for tourists. The second Orchard module, Packages & Deals builds on Business Listings, enabling business owners to compile their offerings and show them to visitors. Both modules utilize the latest features of Orchard 1.8.1, efficiently storing and querying data, and presenting them in a manner that can be overridden for every website in a flexibly. This is what Jennifer Peper, President of Aristlotle says: "When Aristotle needed additional Orchard advice and application assistance, we interviewed and partnered with Lombiq. Aristotle had a very tight turn-around for the production of key Orchard modules that involve complicated query structures and access legacy data. With a very rough draft of the specifications, Lombiq’s team started immediately and independently worked in a compressed timeframe to develop a key application for our company. They asked important questions, provided in-depth and long term solutions, and used the most advanced features of the latest version of Orchard. We look forward to our next project with their team. It is so rare to work with such professionals who commit to a deadline and meet it or beat it!" Update: since then we've delivered another orchard module for Aristotle: the Trip Planner module lets you select businesses from the Business Listings module to build a trip, visiting each one. Want to get an Orchard job done? You can count on us, just drop us a line.

We all know that with software stuff tends to break or doesn't work as expected - at least for some users. Then it would be great to see exactly what those "some" users experience. So why not authenticate as them? This is now possible with our new Orchard module, Login as Anybody. The module lets site owners (i.e. the highest-level administrators) log in as any registered user. So you can select a user and authenticate in their name, seeing exactly what they see. Simple but effective way of troubleshooting or just guiding your users! You can also see the module in action on the Orchard Community Meeting.