Getting Started
Overview
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.
This documentation is aimed at Umbraco developers and administrative users who already possess a working knowledge and understanding of Umbraco concepts.
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.
Licensing
Database Extension Kit comes in two flavors:
Free edition which comes with the community support and limited number of entities in your data model
Premium edition which comes with our enterprise grade support, unlimited entities in your data model and automatic model generation
For details related to pricing of premium edition, please visit our pricing page: https://www.dbextensionkit.com/pricing
Configuration
When the plugin is successfully installed and configured, two new sections will appear in Umbraco backoffice: Database Extension Kit and Database Extension Kit Admin.
To enable them, you need to allow access to the sections for your back-office users. This is done via the Users section. For each user group, go to Sections and add Database Extension Kit and Database Extension Kit Admin from the list of available sections.
After refreshing the back-office, the new sections will appear in the main menu.
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