Blog
Mar 19, 2023
IntroAssociations play a critical role in organizing conferences, which often serve as a platform for continuing education credits or presenting papers and research. However, managing conferences can be a chaotic affair, particularly when there are multiple sessions, speakers,...
read the full blog post
Mar 12, 2023
Integrating Maps into Your Directory Website
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroIn this post we are going to explore creating a restaurant directory website that includes the locations of restaurants on a map via latitude and longitude coordinates. Restaurants are just an excuse to create the website, but the techniques learned in this tutorial will ...
read the full blog post
Mar 05, 2023
Create a members only website with a CMS with low-code
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroOne of the outstanding capabilities of the Raytha content management is the ability to effortlessly set up a website that includes user and account management. With Raytha, users can create their own accounts, or administrators can create accounts on their behalf, making ...
read the full blog post
Mar 05, 2023
Release of v1.0.2
Written by Zack Schwartz
Hi everyone,Excited to announce the release of 1.0.2.The key features in this release include:New field type available: wysiwyg field, which uses the MIT open sourced and awesome TinyMCE editor. This will allow you to have much more control over the content you write if you wa...
read the full blog post
Mar 01, 2023
The First 30 Days as a CTO or VP of Engineering for SaaS: What You Need to Know
Written by Zack Schwartz
Starting a new leadership position can be both exciting and daunting, especially if you're taking over a product or team that you know little about. The first 30 days are critical for setting the tone and direction of your leadership and establishing credibility with your team...
read the full blog post
Feb 25, 2023
Migrate a static HTML site to a CMS
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroIf you're a web developer who has built a static HTML website, you've probably experienced the scenario where your client wants to make updates to their site but you don't have an easy way to facilitate that. You could have them email you the changes or give them access t...
read the full blog post
Feb 25, 2023
Release of v1.0.1
Written by Zack Schwartz
Hi everyone,Excited to announce the release of 1.0.1.The key features in this release include:Built in liquid filter to convert content item time to the organization's time zone in strtotime formatRun Raytha at a different PathBase, meaning if you run behind a reverse proxy, y...
read the full blog post
Feb 23, 2023
Best Open Source .NET CMS alternative to Sitefinity for Nonprofit Associations
Written by Zack Schwartz
In 2011, I joined a web design company called NonprofitCMS. Our primary focus was creating websites for non-profit organizations and membership associations using platforms such as Wordpress, Drupal, and Sitefinity. Over time, we honed our skills in building large-scale websit...
read the full blog post
Feb 19, 2023
Lightweight alternative to aspnetboilerplate
Written by Zack Schwartz
What is aspnetboilerplate?ASP.NET Boilerplate (aspnetboilerplate.com) is a web application framework that is built on top of the popular ASP.NET Core framework. It provides a set of pre-built tools and components to help developers quickly build scalable and maintainable appli...
read the full blog post
Feb 18, 2023
Recreating 'Reddit Live' with .NET and SignalR
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroReddit Live is a unique feature of reddit.com that comes into play during serious ongoing news events with rapidly evolving information. Essentially, volunteers create a Live Thread where they constantly provide updates to visitors who are eagerly following the event. One...
read the full blog post
Feb 13, 2023
Setup a headless CMS in five minutes
Written by Zack Schwartz
Welcome to the exciting world of Raytha, the open-source .NET CMS. With its latest version 1.0.0, Raytha now offers a powerful and versatile Headless CMS mode. In this article, we'll take a closer look at this exciting new feature and guide you through the process of getting s...
read the full blog post
Feb 12, 2023
Release of v1.0.0
Written by Zack Schwartz
Hi everyone,This is the major 1.0.0 release.The headline features in this release include:Headless REST API with Swagger / OpenAPI specAdditional List View pagination controlsAble to set a List View as the home pageSupport for running in Scaled Out instanced, for example on Az...
read the full blog post
Feb 07, 2023
Setup custom domain on Azure Blob Storage behind reverse proxy
Written by Zack Schwartz
Hey there! If you're reading this, you're probably wondering about the nitty-gritty details of how we run our website here at https://raytha.com. Well, let us tell you - we've got the Raytha platform all set up and running smoothly on an Azure Web App, with all our files safel...
read the full blog post
Feb 07, 2023
Ensure users remain logged in on Azure Kubernetes Service with AddDataProtection()
Written by Zack Schwartz
Logged in sessions are lostHave you ever deployed a .NET application that allows users to log in, only to run into issues when scaling it out? It can be frustrating when everything seems to be working fine, but then users randomly get logged out or have inconsistent login stat...
read the full blog post
Feb 06, 2023
Using Cloudflare Workers and D1 to build a Twitter Clone
Written by Zack Schwartz
I dedicate my weekends to discovering new technologies and expanding my skill set. This curiosity led me to explore Cloudflare Workers and their recently launched D1 service - a serverless SQLite database. D1 is still in its alpha phase and documentation is sparse and frequent...
read the full blog post
Jan 31, 2023
The ultimate guide to hiring a software developer
Written by Zack Schwartz
A few years ago, I received a call from an acquaintance of an acquaintance, who had heard of my background as a software developer. They shared with me their idea for a complex app that would combine features of a social network, location-based services, real-time live video s...
read the full blog post
Jan 30, 2023
Simple form to email in .NET
Written by Zack Schwartz
This post will cover creating an HTML form with simple fields: name, email, and a message to represent filling out a Contact Us form. The .NET application will receive the form submission, send an email to the administrator, and also save a copy of the form submission to the R...
read the full blog post
Jan 26, 2023
Release of v0.9.4
Written by Zack Schwartz
Hi everyone,v0.9.4 has been released with some bug fixes and enhancements.Highlights:Support for DomainEvents before AND after db.SaveChanges()DomainEvents added for ContentItemsSupport for custom domains on Azure Blob StorageRedirectPermanent issue resolved on media item redi...
read the full blog post
Jan 25, 2023
Open Source .NET CMS Alternative to Wordpress
Written by Zack Schwartz
As a .NET developer, I have often found myself in a difficult position when it comes to building websites or bespoke systems with a content management component. In the past, I have had to resort to using Wordpress or Strapi, despite neither of them being built in .NET. This w...
read the full blog post
Jan 25, 2023
Solving issues with https and SSL: .NET 6, Azure App Services, Cloudflare reverse proxy
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroductionAs fans of Azure App Services, we can attest to its convenience as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution for deploying .NET applications. The Raytha platform, for instance, runs exceptionally well on Azure App Services for both .NET runtime and Azure Web App for ...
read the full blog post
Jan 25, 2023
Debugging http vs https issues on your .NET app deployed on AKS
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroductionWe recently encountered an issue that proved to be quite challenging to debug. Our team runs a standard .NET 6 application within a Kubernetes cluster that is behind a Cloudflare reverse proxy. Cloudflare provides us with the necessary SSL and HTTPS protocols to en...
read the full blog post
Jan 25, 2023
Embed mailchimp newsletter signup in your blog
Written by Zack Schwartz
If you are using the Raytha platform, embedding a MailChimp signup form is exceptionally easy. Take a look at the bottom of the blog post you are reading now and you will see exactly what we mean. **Hint hint...subscribe while you're down there.**Anyway, in MailChimp, you will...
read the full blog post
Jan 24, 2023
Integrate streaming video into your .NET application
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroductionCreating a comprehensive streaming video website requires a thorough understanding of the various components that make up the user experience. From the list view displaying thumbnails, titles, and creator information, to the detailed view featuring the video itself...
read the full blog post
Jan 22, 2023
Alternative to Orchard Core for .NET CMS
Written by Zack Schwartz
Orchard Core is an open source, modular, and multi-tenant application framework built for .NET. It is a powerful CMS that comes packed with a lot of features, making it the perfect choice for those who need a full-fledged CMS.However, Orchard Core does come with its own set of...
read the full blog post
Jan 17, 2023
The problem with drag and drop website builders is the mindset
Written by Zack Schwartz
IntroductionIt seems like every single website technology today feels compelled to implement Drag and Drop design functionality. Squarespace, Wix, Elementor and Weebly are among the most popular, but there are literally dozens. While these drag and drop website builders are ce...
read the full blog post