How to Enhance Sitecore Content Editor Performance

This post is written to provide few tips to improve Sitecore Content Editor performance for Sitecore users. These tips have been uncovered during the development phases.

1. Number of items under any parent item affects how quickly that parent renders. As Sitecore suggests try to limit these items to 25 and avoid items more than 100 items under one parent item. This will have a huge impact on Sitecore performance.                    
2. While creating a data template organize fields into different sections rather than having all of them in a single section. Also remember to collapse sections that aren't used frequently.                                                                                                                          
3. For any item hide the sections and fields inherited from Standard Template. In order to do the same login into Sitecore Content Editor. Click view in the ribbon and uncheck Standard Fields option.

    4.  Application Options will also have a minimal impact on client performance. 

         Disable the options that aren't used frequently. 

         Login into Sitecore using content editor and click Sitecore icon on the top left                          corner and select Application Options.

       5. While creating a list type field types consider using TreeListEx field type since it only             processes and displays options when a user clicks the Edit command to update the               field value.                                                                                                                        

       6. If your site is configured with Page editor then I would suggest using Page Editor                   than Content Editor.                                                                                                            

       7. Encourage smart or Incremental publishing for publishing the changes to web                        database.                                                                                                                               

      8. Enable static and dynamic HTTP compression in IIS. This speeds up both the                       Sitecore client and the public web site and is especially beneficial in environments                 with a low bandwidth.

     9. Set the ContentEditor.RenderCollapsedSections setting to False. This is a hidden                  setting that is set to True by default. Changing this setting can help a lot.                           

   10.  Sitecore recommends to have no more than 5-10 versions per item in Master                         Database.

Sitecore Best Practices

This post describes few best practices that could be followed while implementing your website in Sitecore:

1. Minimize the number of Admin users and always remember to assign security access to roles. Try to use nested roles rather than creating roles for each different scenario.
2. Remember to change the default Admin password. Turn off the master database in your Production/Delivery Environments.
3. Do not provide any anonymous access to the files and folders unless required.
4. Try to log all your application exceptions and make sure to refer to Sitecore log file.
5. While creating Templates try to group your fields into sections and avoid using more number of RTE fields since it has a performance impact
6. Try to set Standard values,which includes presentation details,field values,insert options, for a template. Use tokens as needed.
7. Avoid Circular Inheritance while inheriting any template for re-usability.
8. Wherever required try to use Caching techniques. Refer to Cache configuration in SDN.
9. Don't make any changes in Core Database unless it's extremely Important
10. Minimize layouts creation and use placeholders efficiently. An Ideal architecture would consists not more than 2-3 layouts for one site.
11. Reuse your content. Use clones as needed.
12. Try to limit number of versions for an item.Sitecore recommends 10 or lesser versions on any item. I would recommend to install Version Manager to manage all versions. You can find the module here.
13. In order to maintain your content better use Governance model/workflows provided by Sitecore

I hope I have covered major ones here.... Let me know If I have missed any...

Any comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated..

Happy Sitecoring:)

Resources:

Sitecore Best Practice Blogs