Latest from our blog

• Modernizing hajosnep.hu: Rebuilding an Orchard 1 website with Orchard Core on DotNest

  Tuesday, January 06, 2026 7:20:40 PM

  Hajosnep.hu is the website of TIT Hajózástörténeti, -Modellező és Hagyományőrző Egyesület (TIT HMHE), a Hungarian non-profit civil association dedicated to preserving and promoting nautical history and ship modeling. As Hungary's longest-established maritime history organization, the association combines historical research, model building, public education, and cultural preservation in its activities. They regularly organize exhibitions, model competitions, publish materials related to maritime history.

  Fun fact: the name "hajosnep", or properly written, "hajós nép" means "seafaring nation". Something that Hungary, being a landlocked country, definitely isn't. However, the site's name is a homage to the time when Hungary in fact was a seafaring nation, with ports on the Adriatic sea and a shipbuilding industry that launched not only merchant vessels but also submarines, cruisers, and even a battleship for World War I. Something that TIT HMHE members research with scientific rigor.

  This project focused on renewing the association's long-running website by rebuilding it on Orchard Core and deploying it to DotNest. The goal was to modernize the visual design, improve usability across devices, and merge previously fragmented blog content into a single, maintainable system.

  This case study was written by Ádám Jakab, software engineer at Lombiq, who also carried out the technical implementation of the project.

  Why modernization was important

  The original website was launched in 2010, originally built with PHP and a custom CMS, to share news, activities, media about the association, and information about NAVIGA ship model competitions. While the site evolved over time, it had not received a major redesign since 2012, when it was migrated to Orchard (1) CMS. The passing of time resulted in an outdated visual appearance and a lack of mobile-friendly design, which made modernization overdue. In addition, blog content was split between the website and an external blogging platform, blog.hu, making content management fragmented.

  For a direct visual comparison, representative pages from the old (top) and renewed (bottom) websites are shown below.

  [image alt="The contact page of the old hajosnep.hu."]BlogPost/2026/modernizing-hajosnep-hu-rebuilding-an-orchard-1-website-with-orchard-core-on-dotnest/elerhetosegeink-tit-hmhe.webp[/image]
  

  [image alt="The contact page of the new hajosnep.hu."]BlogPost/2026/modernizing-hajosnep-hu-rebuilding-an-orchard-1-website-with-orchard-core-on-dotnest/kapcsolat-tit-hmhe.webp[/image]

  Technical details

  The project was approached as a renewal rather than a strict migration. Instead of attempting to recreate the previous Orchard 1 setup feature by feature, the focus was on rebuilding the site using Orchard Core's modern capabilities while preserving existing content where it made sense.

  Starting point

  To establish the core structure, the association's other website, lajtamonitor.hu (which also runs on DotNest), served as a proven foundation. Both sites utilize Orchard Core's built-in Blog recipe, providing ready-made content types for blogs, posts, pages, and tag-based taxonomy.

  Most individual pages were built using the standard Page content type with an attached Flow Part. This allowed me to compose pages using multiple Liquid Widgets, with each widget representing a distinct section of the page. To ensure a consistent design, I used Lombiq's Base Theme, which provides reusable mixins and shared components that keep the styling maintainable.

  Developing for DotNest

  Building an Orchard Core application for DotNest primarily focuses on custom theme development. To achieve this, I used Lombiq's DotNest Core SDK, which is specifically designed for building themes and sites in a SaaS environment. Because DotNest is a restricted SaaS platform, I utilized Lombiq's Media Theme module. This allowed me to deploy the theme directly to the Media Library, giving me full control over the site's appearance while working within the platform's constraints.

  Building on these foundations, the site's search functionality was implemented using Orchard Core's built-in Lucene during development, with Elasticsearch used in the production environment. To ensure a cohesive user experience, I applied consistent styling across the main search page, the blog search, and the various taxonomy-based results.

  I also used custom Liquid templates and overrides to define the site's layout and content presentation. To manage static assets like SCSS, images, and JavaScript, I used Lombiq's NodeJS Extensions. This provided a modern asset pipeline with SCSS compilation, CSS minification, and npm dependency management, allowing me to easily integrate frontend libraries such as Swiper, Lightbox, and imagesLoaded.

  As an example, here is the Swiper image gallery in action:

  [image alt="An image gallery on the new hajosnep.hu."]BlogPost/2026/modernizing-hajosnep-hu-rebuilding-an-orchard-1-website-with-orchard-core-on-dotnest/kepgaleria-tit-hmhe.webp[/image]

  Key challenges and solutions

  Developing for DotNest requires working within the platform's constraints, most notably the inability to use custom back-end C# code. To overcome this, the project was implemented entirely using built-in Orchard Core features, and Liquid templates, overrides and theme-level customizations. By using Liquid, I was able to handle complex tasks such as building dynamic breadcrumbs, managing resource injection, and creating sophisticated content, part, and field overrides. This project demonstrates that by using custom shapes and Orchard Core's flexible templating system, it is possible to achieve high-level functionality and design without the need for custom server-side logic.

  Keeping accessibility in mind

  Accessibility was an important consideration throughout the development of the site. The templates and layouts were implemented with semantic HTML, proper heading structure, sufficient color-contrast and keyboard-friendly navigation to support assistive technologies and improve overall usability.

  To help ensure ongoing accessibility compliance, automated UI tests were added using Lombiq's UI Testing Toolbox. These tests integrate axe-core to validate pages against common accessibility rules and detect potential issues early during development. By running accessibility checks as part of the automated test suite, regressions can be identified quickly as the site evolves.

  This approach helps maintain a consistent level of accessibility across the website while reducing the manual effort required to validate changes.

  Migrating blog posts from blog.hu

  A key part of the project was consolidating content from the association's external blog on blog.hu. Using the platform's export functionality and a custom-built Python script, I successfully migrated blog posts dating all the way back to 2010 into the new system.

  The migration process involved several technical steps:

  • Format Conversion: The original XML export from blog.hu was converted into an Orchard Core-compliant JSON recipe.

  • Asset Management: I automated the download of all necessary images and files, migrating them into the new site's Media Library.

  • URL Rewiring: To ensure a seamless transition and preserve SEO value, I rewired all content URLs and internal links to match the new structure.

  By leveraging Orchard Core's recipe functionality and AI-assisted data transformation, I was able to preserve over a decade of history in a modern, unified format.

  Future plans

  At the time of writing, the website is primarily available in Hungarian. However, the site was built from the ground up with multilingual support in mind. The content structure and Liquid templates are fully compatible with Orchard Core’s localization features, allowing additional languages to be introduced without any structural or code changes.

  An English version of the site is planned as the next major step. While the website already hosts a small number of English-language blog posts, extending full bilingual support will make the association’s research and nautical history work accessible to a much broader international audience.

  Until then, here are few English blog posts for you to check out:

  • https://hajosnep.hu/blog/book-about-the-history-of-the-yacht-rumija
  • https://hajosnep.hu/blog/inspirations-japanese-naval-engineering-student-revives-long-forgotten-plans-for-the-steamship-nederland-of-1914
  • https://hajosnep.hu/blog/the-success-of-scientific-activity
  • https://hajosnep.hu/blog/inspirations-solving-the-puzzle-investigating-the-details-of-an-abandoned-project
  • https://hajosnep.hu/blog/the-development-of-oceangoing-steamships-1840-1940

  Summary

  The renewed hajosnep.hu website now provides a modern, mobile-friendly platform for the association to share content, engage with the community, and showcase Hungary's maritime history. The site is fully maintainable, accessible, and prepared for future multilingual expansion, ensuring it can evolve alongside the association's needs for years to come.

  If you are considering a website renewal or migration, especially on Orchard Core or DotNest, this project demonstrates how a robust theme foundation and an automated asset pipeline can help modernize even complex legacy sites in a maintainable and future-proof way.

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• Shoogr case study: A stunning, high-converting marketing website with lead magnets on DotNest

  Saturday, November 08, 2025 11:42:34 AM

  Shoogr is a clean and modern marketing website built for Hungarian marketing strategist and coach Judit Sugár, whose main audience includes solo founders and small businesses. The site was developed and this blog post was written by Márk Bartha, one of the longest-serving team members at Lombiq, as part of his freelance work.

  In this case study, you’ll see how to create a user-friendly, visually engaging, and SEO-optimized marketing website that runs smoothly on DotNest, without the usual hosting headaches.

  From Squarespace to Orchard Core

  Judit already had a website on Squarespace, but she wanted a new, modern site that could better represent her services and brand, while offering more flexibility in design and features. She also had a free guide that she wanted to use as a lead magnet to convert visitors into subscribers as part of her marketing funnel.

  Since her mailing system was running on MailerLite, she needed the subscription forms integrated directly into the website. Alongside these, she wanted several additional pages and a contact page where potential clients could easily get in touch. SEO was also important to her, and she wanted the entire site to remain simple and user-friendly to manage.

  Designing the components: start in Magic Patterns, finish in Orchard Core

  Judit already had a clear brand identity created by a graphic designer. However, there was no actual website design, so I needed to create one. Magic Patterns proved to be one of the best AI-based design tools for this. By providing prompts that described the brand’s visual style, including colors and typography, it was possible to generate a beautiful, on-brand website design. With the help of ChatGPT for crafting the prompt and Magic Patterns for design generation, we arrived at a look and structure that both Judit and I were happy with.

  [image]BlogPost/2025/shoogr-case-study/shoogr-design.png[/image]
  

  Magic Patterns generates a React application using Tailwind CSS for styling and Lucide for icons. These designs then needed to be adapted into Orchard Core templates. Each section of the generated design was translated into a Template item in Orchard Core, starting from the Layout template and continuing with widget-specific templates such as Section, Button, and Icon.

  Pages and widgets with flexibility in mind

  To bring the design to life, I created a set of modular content types that represented the core elements generated in Magic Patterns. The aim was not just to replicate the design but to build a flexible and reusable foundation that allows the site to grow and evolve.

  For example, the Section widget includes four visual styles — two light and two dark. Instead of hardcoding these variations, the styling was made dynamic so Judit can switch between them directly in the admin interface. This makes it easy to experiment with colors and contrast while maintaining brand consistency across the site.

  [image]BlogPost/2025/shoogr-case-study/shoogr-sections.gif[/image]

  Each widget was built with reusability in mind. While the templates follow Shoogr’s unique visual identity, the underlying structures are generic enough to be applied to other projects. The Button widget, for instance, has fields for text, link, icon, and style type. These widgets could be reused across different websites or even serve as part of a shared recipe kit for quick project setup.

  To keep the editing experience simple, key configuration fields were moved to the Properties tab. This keeps the Page and Flow editors organized.

  Integrating subscriptions and contact forms

  One of the key goals for Shoogr was to connect the website with MailerLite, which handles all newsletter subscriptions and lead magnets. MailerLite provides an embedded form that can easily be added through an Embed widget, making the integration simple and reliable. After a visitor subscribes, they receive a short automated email sequence. The first message directs them to a page on the Orchard Core site where they can download the lead magnet file stored in the Media Library. This way, the entire flow, from signup to content delivery, stays within the Orchard environment.

  The contact page is powered by Orchard Core’s Forms and Workflows modules. A Google reCAPTCHA protects the form from spam submissions. Once the form is submitted, the workflow validates the input and sends an email notification to Judit.

  To ensure compliance with privacy regulations, the site also uses the Lombiq Privacy module to display a consent banner and manage user consent consistently.

  Optimizing for SEO

  A marketing website like this can’t succeed without proper SEO configuration. Using the built-in SEO module, Judit could easily set page titles, meta descriptions, and Open Graph values such as featured images for each page.

  The Sitemaps module was used to automatically generate a sitemap, which is also referenced in the site’s robots.txt.

  To fine-tune the setup, I used Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to audit the site. It provided clear, actionable insights on what could be improved — and best of all, it’s free.

  Hosting on DotNest with Cloudflare

  There was never any doubt about where to host the website. DotNest, the largest Orchard Core SaaS platform, offered everything needed, including custom domain support and all the essential modules, even third-party ones.

  The hosting experience was smooth and performant, which also benefits SEO. The DotNest documentation made it easy to connect the site with Cloudflare, handling the custom domain setup, CDN, and caching. Cloudflare adds another layer of performance optimization and security, helping ensure that Shoogr loads quickly and reliably for all visitors.

  Summary

  Shoogr is a small but complete example of how Orchard Core and DotNest can power modern marketing websites that are both visually engaging and technically solid. The project demonstrates how AI-assisted design, flexible content modeling, and a thoughtful editor experience can come together to create a fast, maintainable, and conversion-oriented marketing site.

  Thanks to Orchard Core’s modularity and DotNest’s managed hosting, Judit now has a website that’s easy to update, scalable for future needs, and perfectly aligned with her brand.

  If you’d like to build something similar, you can create your own Orchard Core site on DotNest and start experimenting right away.

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• 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?

  More >

• 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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