Latest from our blog

• Orchard Core-integrated AI modules now available

  Sunday, August 10, 2025 1:23:35 PM

  You are surely well aware of all the AI tools out there. Perhaps, you also used them when working with Orchard Core, like generating code or asking questions of an Orchard Core-focused AI. Now, you have the option to manage your DotNest site with AI too!

  We at Lombiq, the company behind DotNest, use AI tools in our day-to-day software development workflows all the time. However, we also know that you have to be very critical of the output these tools generate, and you have to use them wisely, otherwise they'll actually slow you down. We also don't like if the programs we need for our work try to force us to engage with their AI features: Please, we'll use your AI stuff if it's indeed worthwhile, but let us decide for ourselves, thanks.

  So, we think about AI on DotNest in a similar way too: Here it is, we think it's cool, and feel free to use it if you'd like, but it's up to you. Keep in mind though, that this is currently experimental.

  Mike Alhayek, who is an exceptionally active Orchard Core contributor, is active in his CrestApps - Orchard Core project too. This contains a wealth of AI features as part of its Artificial Intelligence Suite. Mike has demoed these as progress went on, and you can find the videos under the Lombiq YouTube channel. And now you can use them right from your DotNest site!

  The features include support for all the major AI models that you can then use to manage the content or configuration of your Orchard Core site, or to simply chat with the model from the Orchard admin. Let's see how you can create a simple setup.

  1. Go to your site's admin area, to Configuration → Features, and enable the following features (you can just tick the checkbox to their left, and enable all at once with Bulk Actions in the top-right):
     • AI Chat: To have a chat window on the admin.
     • AI Connection Management: This contains the basics of setting up connections to hosted AI models like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or DeepSeek models.
     • Orchard Core AI Agent: Now, this is the actual secret sauce (well, as secret as something open-source can be). This is the feature that integrates the modules with Orchard Core, letting you manage your site with AI.
     • And one of the features that support a concrete model family. Let's go with "OpenAI Chat" for this demo.
  2. You'll notice a new Artificial Intelligence item in the admin menu. Go to Provider Connections under it, then click Add Connection → OpenAI. Here, you need to set up a connection to an OpenAI model. We'll use DeepSeek for this example:
     • Technical Name: DeepSeek.
     • Display text: DeepSeek.
     • Deployment name: "deepseek-chat". This is important, because this points to the specific model of the provider. This value points to DeepSeek-V3-0324 as of writing this. DeepSeek also accepts "deepseek-reasoner", which points to DeepSeek-R1-0528. You can check out the current possible values in the DeepSeek docs.
     • Tick "Is default" for the sake of simplicity.
     • Endpoint: "https://api.deepseek.com/v1".
     • API key: You can create an API key on the DeepSeek Platform. Be sure to top up your account, even if it's just like $2.
  3. You can now add a Profile. This will be the configuration for the model, and thus affect how the model behaves and what it can do. Go to the Profiles menu, then click Add Profile → OpenAI. First, let's check out the Content tab (you should also see a Capabilities tab at the top):
     • Display text: DeepSeek. You may notice a pattern here!
     • Technical Name: DeepSeek.
     • Deployment name: Default deployment.
     • Profile type: Chat. This will allow us to chat with the model from the admin.
     • Tick "Show on admin menu"
     • Everything else is not mandatory, but you can customize how the model will work for you.
  4. Now you can go the Capabilities tab: Here is where the Orchard Core-specific, well, capabilities can be configured. These define what the models can do with the Orchard Core site, like managing content type and content items, turning features on or off, or managing users. Tick everything you're curious about and click Save!
  5. There will be a new admin menu under Artificial Intelligence now, called DeepSeek. This is where you can chat with the mode. Enjoy!

  For example, we can start by making the model praise DotNest!

  [image]BlogPost/2025/orchard-core-integrated-ai-modules-now-available/good-things-about-dotnest.png[/image]
  

  These models are great sycophants. But something slightly more useful is cross-checking what it can do. This should match the Capabilities we selected under the Profile:

  [image]BlogPost/2025/orchard-core-integrated-ai-modules-now-available/asking-about-capabilities.png[/image]
  

  And then we can actually ask us to do things for us:

  [image]BlogPost/2025/orchard-core-integrated-ai-modules-now-available/creating-content-types.png[/image]
  

  There's a lot more things possible to do here, but you get the idea. It's the power of AI, but it can also work for you right there in your app.

  We also updated the SDK with the same modules, so you can use them to build your site locally too.

  What will you use AI for on your own DotNest sites?

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• Test drive Orchard Core with one-click setup of a walkthroughs site

  Tuesday, August 05, 2025 4:43:00 PM

  You may have heard of the Lombiq Walkthroughs Orchard Core module: It teaches you about the most important Orchard Core features with a hands-on tutorial that guides you with interactive tooltips, right there in the app. It has been available on DotNest for quite a while too. And now it's possible to use it to test drive Orchard Core with a single click!

  Check out the new "Guided walkthrough" button on the homepage. If you click it, you'll get a site set up with the Walkthroughs module, without touching Orchard's setup screen. Useful if you've just begun learning Orchard, or if you want to help somebody get acquainted with its basics. And feel free to play around with it in any way you like, because such sites are deleted after 24 hours.

  Let the walkthroughs begin!

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• DotNest sites upgraded to the latest Orchard Core (2.1.6) version

  Tuesday, May 27, 2025 12:01:45 AM

  We have recently finished upgrading DotNest to the latest Orchard Core version (2.1.6) so that you can enjoy the very best and latest Orchard has to offer on your own sites too!

  Coming from version 1.8.3, it was a fairly large task as both .NET/ASP.NET Core and Orchard introduced tons of changes: Some of them breaking, but also a large number of bug fixes, improvements and new features. Version 2.0 was especially impactful, as it includes important changes under the hood that increase the overall performance and reliability of the whole application. We are thankful for the huge (and ongoing) community effort that went into these releases!

  Besides making everything more stable and better overall, how does this affect you as a site owner/operator? There's no easy answer, because it depends on how your site is configured, but we encourage you to check out the Orchard Core 2.0.0 and 2.1.0 release notes. Here are some of the highlights:

  • We disabled the Email feature on sites that do not send emails (e.g., for user registration, password recovery, workflow email activity) so it won't bother you. Please let us know if this happened on your site by mistake.
    
  • The Twilio SMS provider is no longer enabled by default, so if you use it to send text messages, enable it under the SMS settings.
  • Media Indexing is now split up into a handful of features specific to a file types, so enable those if you want to keep indexing PDF, plain text, and Office files.
  • Improvement: Dashboard Widget stereotype makes it easier to create dashboards.
  • New features:
    • Azure AI Search
    • User Localization (on the Admin Dashboard)
    • Secure Media Files give you control over how your media files are accessed.
    • URL Rewriting for improved SEO.
    • Workflow Trimming cleans up workflow instances beyond a specified retention period. This feature cannot be disabled and the retention period is maximized in 180 days.
  • New workflow event: User Confirmed
  • New permissions:
    • Disable Two-factor Authentication
    • Apply Theme
  • Site Owner permission is deprecated, Administrator role is now a system role.
  • Improved culture support in Liquid. Also see our tips on customizing the theme of your site.

  How do you like this upgrade? Let us know in the comments below and thanks for using DotNest!

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• Create your DotNest sites now within the Azure Portal

  Friday, April 04, 2025 5:35:37 PM

  DotNest has been available in the Azure Marketplace and Microsoft AppSource for quite a while. Both of these marketplaces are for people looking for Microsoft-adjacent technologies, and you could discover DotNest there. However, until now, you couldn't actually create and manage DotNest sites within the Azure Portal. But now you can!

  With this new integration, you can go to the Azure Portal, click "Create a resource", and from the search feature look for "DotNest" or "Orchard Core":

  [image]BlogPost/2025/azure-portal-integration/azure-portal-dotnest-offer.webp[/image]
  

  There, you can subscribe to the Free plan, and create an Azure resource for your site:

  [image]BlogPost/2025/azure-portal-integration/creating-a-dotnest-resource.webp[/image]

  Once subscribed, you'll be able to create your site on dotnest.com by clicking the "Configure account now" button:

  [image]BlogPost/2025/azure-portal-integration/configure-account-now.webp[/image]
  

  After that, you'll be able to create your site with the familiar site editor as usual:

  [image]BlogPost/2025/azure-portal-integration/create-new-site.webp[/image]
  

  Such sites function in exactly the same way as sites created right from dotnest.com. You get access to all the same features and pricing plans. Additionally, the site you created like this will be available as an Azure resource, just like other resources like virtual machines, Web App, SQL Server databases, or anything else. You can check it out by going back to the Azure Portal and browsing to the resource:

  [image]BlogPost/2025/azure-portal-integration/dotnest-site-resource.webp[/image]
  

  You can get to the site editor from the "Open SaaS Account on publisher’s site" link, or by opening the Site Management Dashboard on dotnest.com. And canceling the subscription on the Azure Portal deletes the site.

  All of this makes it a lot easier for you to create and manage DotNest sites along your existing Azure services, and thus integrate DotNest-hosted sites into your infrastructure better. So, check it out on the Azure Portal!

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• DotNest.com now runs on Orchard Core

  Monday, March 03, 2025 11:52:10 PM

  Believe it or not, while you could create Orchard Core sites on DotNest for years, until now, this website still ran on Orchard 1 :). This is now the past, though, and DotNest.com is as up to date as the DotNest sites!

  You'll get the familiar DotNest experience, nothing new to learn. There are a couple of notable improvements, though:

  • You can now secure your account with two-factor authentication. Check it out here.
  • The new site is much faster, you'll like it!
  • And finally, you'll be prompted to update your password on the next login - just something we needed to migrate the accounts to the new site. All your data is intact, especially your sites, which had nothing to do with this migration anyway (they run in a different app).

  Enjoy, and our case study is coming soon!

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