1.2. Examples of Sitecore Helix

While reading this documentation will help you understand the practices and conventions recommended by Sitecore Helix, having real code examples as a reference is very helpful when envisioning how you would apply them to your own solution.

Note

These Examples are not “Starter Kits”

While all of the examples below are intended to demonstrate good application of Helix practices, you should not utilize any as a starter kit for your implementation. You can follow patterns from these examples, and even copy code from them as needed, but they should not be copied “wholesale” when starting a new implementation. Doing so will add technical debt to your solution since the examples are made for an imaginary solution context.

There’s one notable exception to this – SXA provides many components and platform extensions to help speed your Sitecore implementation while following Helix solution architecture.

1.2.1. Helix Examples

The Sitecore Helix Examples are a new repository of example solutions meant to demonstrate Helix practices for various types of sites and tooling. You will see these examples referenced throughout this documentation.

These examples are a work in progress and are intended to replace the original Sitecore Habitat.

1.2.2. Sitecore Habitat

In March 2016, Sitecore released Habitat and did something it had never done before – released not just a demo site, but one that reflected a solution architecture which the community should adopt. Later that year, the solution architecture of Habitat was codified into the Sitecore Helix practices. Habitat continued to be used as a demo and training framework as well.

This “original” Habitat site had dual purposes as a developer example for Helix, and a marketing demo site. You will still see references to Habitat throughout this documentation, but the new Helix Examples will eventually replace those references.

Habitat Home has fully replaced Habitat as a demo platform.

1.2.3. Habitat Home

Habitat Home, Habitat Home Corporate, Habitat Home Commerce, and Habitat Home Omni are all part of the Habitat Home demo framework. While still demonstrating Sitecore Helix solution architecture, Habitat Home’s primary intent is to demonstrate Sitecore’s full product capabilities in a realistic website. These should not be confused with the “original” Sitecore Habitat.

1.2.4. SXA

The Sitecore Experience Accelerator is a Sitecore solution accelerator which implements Helix practices. It also contains a number of extensions to the Sitecore platform which can make it easier to implement a modular architecture.