Note: This module supports Sitecore 8.1+. For prior versions, please submit an Issue, and I will try to add support. You can also submit a pull request.
The Sitecore Content Anonymizer allows anonymization of the field values on items. Anonymization is performed per template type on a field-by-field basis. The Content Anonymizer allows administrators to anonymize data within Sitecore's content tree. A few examples of how data can be anonymized are as follows:
- Paragraph text replaced with Lorem Ipsum text.
- First and last names replaced with randomly selected names.
- Email addresses replaced with new addresses based on the randomly generated names.
- Dates replaced with randomly generated dates.
There may be several reasons to anonymize data:
- Data from an existing client implementation might need to be anonymized so it can be used for a demo.
- Data from live should not be brought down to development due to confidentiality.
- Data needs to be sent to Sitecore for support, but needs to be anonymized for confidentiality.
Here are the key features of the Data Anonymizer:
- Anonymize the values of fields on items based on the underlying template.
- Anonymization is applied to selected items of the selected template type.
- Only the latest version of the items are anonymized. All prior versions of an item will be removed.
- All language versions are anonymized. Currently English based content will be used for some anonymization types.
- Only fields with an anonymization type selected will be anonymized.
- Only fields with inner values are anonymized. Fields containing the standard value, default value, fallback value or inherited value are not.
- 30+ out-of-the-box field value anonymization formats
- Basic custom field formats are supported. This allows combining one or more field values into a string for use on another field.
- Item renaming based on custom fields is supported. Items names will be updated to follow the configured Sitecore naming conventions.
- Global search and replace can be performed on all fields that are not flagged to be anonymized.
Note: Anonymization is a permanent action to your data. It is recommended to back up the database(s) before anonymizing.
The following field types and anonymization options are supported by the Data Anonymizer:
- Date
- Past
- Future
- Recent
- Integer
- Random
- Single-Line Text | Multi-Line Text | Rich Text
- Custom Format
- Lorem
- Replace
- Words
- Sentence
- Sentences
- Paragraph
- Paragraphs
- Name
- First
- Last
- Suffix
- Phone
- Phone
- Fax
- Mobile
- Internet
- URL
- UserName
- Date
- Past
- Future
- Recent
- Number
- Integer
- Address
- Street
- City
- State
- PostalCode
- Country
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Coordinates
- File
- Random - Randomly chosen media item.
- Image
- Random - Randomly chosen image.
Note: Other field types are not currently supported. Relationship-based fields, such as Droplink and Multi-list, should be anonymized by anonymizing the related item.
- Only content you choose to be anonymized will be anonymized. This only includes content in the content tree. Other content and data will NOT be anonymized.
Install the update packages located here: https://github.com/onenorth/content-anonymizer/releases
The Sitecore Content Anonymizer is dependent on the "sitecore_master_index" Lucene index. For the Anonymizer to process all items of a template type, the maximum number of items returned from a Lucene query needs to be increased. Set the following in a App_Config/Include .config file. Confirm the setting by viewing /sitecore/admin/showconfig.aspx
<setting patch:instead="*[@name='Query.MaxItems']" name="Query.MaxItems" value="0"/>
The Content Anonymizer lives under the Sitecore Admin folder. To run the Anonymizer, navigate to:
http://site.com/sitecore/admin/contentanonymizer
You will be required to sign in if you are not already signed in.
To start, you first need to select a template.
Data is anonymized based on the template selected.
Only items based on the chosen template can be anonymized.
To select a template, start typing the template name in the type-ahead.
A list of templates should appear that contain the text you typed.
Select the template you desire.
Once the template is chosen, additional options appear.
You can define a global search and replace for text-based fields that are not chosen to be anonymized. If you need to add a search and replace, click the Add button. Click the Add button as many times as you need search and replace. The content entered in the Replace field is replaced with the content entered in the With field. The replacement is case sensitive.
You can optionally rename the items that are anonymized. Currently, Custom Format and Lorem Replace anonymization types are supported. If renaming, choose an anonymization type.
For Custom Format, type of the name of the custom format to use and chose the item in the type-ahead. The type-ahead will search the names provided in the Custom Format section. You can define a custom format by clicking the "...". The Configure Custom Formats dialog will appear. You need to specify the language that the custom format will use to populate the name.
Custom formats allow you to combine one or more value(s) into a single string format. The resulting string can be used for text-based fields or the name of the item.
If you need a custom format, click the Add button. Click Add as many times as you need custom formats.
Each entry needs a name. The name is used when specifying the Item Name or Field format. The name can be anything you desire.
Each entry also needs at least one token. The token is tied to a field and represents the chosen field. The first field, will be assigned "$0" as the token. The second "$1", third "$2", and so on. The tokens are used in the format string.
A format string also needs to be specified. The format string should contain the tokens and any desired surrounding text. The result shows the interpreted format.
An Example may be as follows for an email address related to person template:
- Name: Email
- Tokens: $0|FirstName $1|LastName
-
Format:
$0_$ 1@domain.com - Result: FirstName_LastName@domain.com
Choose which fields you want to anonymize by specifying the type of anonymization. Fields that do not have a selected anonymization type will not be anonymized. Relationships remain as-is (Anonymize relationships by anonymizing the target template). You can optionally anonymize fields that are currently empty by selecting the Anonymize Empty Values checkbox.
Choose which standard fields you want to anonymize by specifying the type of anonymization. This functionality is the same as for configuring normal fields.
Choose which items you want to anonymize. You can optionally select all with the all items checkbox.
To run the anonymization, click the Anonymize button. Note: the anonymize button appears disabled if required fields are not populated. Please make sure all required fields have been filled out. You will see a confirmation dialog appear that summarizes the selections.
If everything looks okay, click the Anonymize button on the dialog.
In order to develop, you must update the references to the Sitecore assemblies. To do this, open the Properties of the OneNorth.ContentAnonymizer project. In the properties, navigate to the Reference Paths tab. Enter the location of the bin folder for the Sitecore installation.
In order to generate the .update packages, TDS needs to be updated to reference the location of the Sitecore assemblies. To do this, open the Properties of the TDS.Core project. In the properties, navigate to the Update Package tab. Enter the location of the bin folder for the Sitecore installation in the Sitecore Assembly Path field.
#License
The associated code is released under the terms of the MIT license.
The Sitecore Content Anonymizer was inspired by and has used data definitions from:
- https://github.com/marak/Faker.js/ - Copyright (c) 2014-2015 Matthew Bergman & Marak Squires