Category: Sitecore

Step by step install Sitecore XC 10.2 using SIF on Windows 11

November 17, 2021 /

Follow these steps to install Sitecore Commerce 10.2 On Premise. To successfully install refer to Installation Guide provided by Sitecore.

Before installing Sitecore Commerce install Sitecore XP 10.2. See this blog to install Sitecore XP 10.2 using SIF. Say the XP site name is- xp0.sc

Download Installation Guide

Hosting Environment Requirements/ Download and Install following software-

  1. OS – Windows Server 2019/2016 or Windows 10 Pro(64-bit) or Windows 11 Pro(64-bit)
  2. Redis (Windows): 3.0.504 (or later)
  3. Database – Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express Edition (This should be already installed as a part of XP 10)
  4. Install Microsoft Web Deploy 3.6 if not already installed
  5. Install URL Rewrite using Web Platform Installer
  6. SOLR 8.2.0 (This should have already installed as a part of XP 10 install)
  7. Install PowerShell 5.1 or later is not already installed
  8. Web Platform Transformer (Download nuget package)
  9. (Important) Install Web hosting- here

IMPORTANT – As per the release notes –

The deployment of SXA has been removed from the Commerce installation, and instead installed as a Platform pre-requisite before installing Commerce packages.

Install Powershell Extension for Sitecore – Download Sitecore PowerShell Extension for Sitecore

Install Sitecore Experiemce Accelerator 10.2.0 – Download Sitecore Experience Accelerator 10.2.0

Also Commerce Ops service is removed from deployment configuration this will reduce deployment time and hosting cost.

Before starting the installation ensure XP 10.2 instance is working and indexed. If not indexed rebuild all search indexes-

Download Sitecore Experience Commerce 10.2

Step-by-step installation process-

  1. Create a installation folder for XC – xcinstall for e.g.- c:\scinstallation\xc

2. Copy and extract Sitecore.Commerce.WDP.2021.11-8.0.218.zip file to c:\scinstallation\xc folder

3. Copy Sitecore Experience Accelerator 10.2.0 rev. 04247.zip file c:\scinstallation\xc folder

4. Copy Sitecore.PowerShell.Extensions-6.3 – IAR.zip file to c:\scinstallation\xc folder

5. Extract Web Platform Transfomer nuget package and copy Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll to c:\scinstallation\xc folder

6. Extract SIF.Sitecore.Commerce.7.0.37 to c:\scinstallation\xc folder. Rename this to SIF

7. Folder structure should look like this-

8. Install Sitecore.PowerShell.Extensions-6.3 – IAR.zip package in your earlier installed Sitecore instance

9. Install Sitecore Experience Accelerator 10.2.0 rev. 04247.zip pakcagein your earlier installed Sitecore instance

11. Open Deploy-Sitecore-Commerce.ps1 file in SIF folder to update the following-

  • $XCInstallRoot
  • $XCSIFInstallRoot = “$XCInstallRoot\SIF” or $PWD is fine – it is Present Working Directory,
  • $SiteNamePrefix
  • $SiteName
  • $SiteHostHeaderName [optional]
  • $MergeToolFullPath= “$XCInstallRoot\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll”
  • $CommerceServicesDbServer = “sc102comm\MSSQL2017”

12. Create Commerce Engine Connect Client Secret for the Sitecore Identity Server

  • Copy below script to file to scinstall/SIF.Sitecore.Commerce.5.0.49 folder example XC10SecretClientCertificate.ps1
  • Execute the script and copy secret key to $CommerceEngineConnectClientSecret
$bytes = New-Object Byte[] 32
$rand = [System.Security.Cryptography.RandomNumberGenerator]::Create()
$rand.GetBytes($bytes)
$rand.Dispose()
$newClientSecret = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)
echo $newClientSecret

13. [Optional] Update Sitecore domain or keep it default

  • $SitecoreDomain
  • $SitecoreUsername
  • $SitecoreUserPassword
  • $UserName
  • $UserPassword

14. Update other DB related settings

  • $SqlUser
  • $SqlPass
  • $SitecoreDbServer
  • $CommerceServicesDbServer

15. Update SOLR details-

  • $SolrUrl
  • $SolrRoot
  • $SolrService

Execute Deploy-Sitecore-Commerce.ps1 script to install commerce

IMPORTANT – After deployment is complete Disable TLS 1.3 over TCP for all the sites and all bindings

Errors-

Error -The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request. on GetIdServerToken

Resolution – Check your admin credentials if correctly configured in installation script.

Error – Commerce roles site not reachable

Resolution- Check if the SSL certificate for Comerce Engine is in Trusted Root Certification Authorities. If not copy the relevant certs to same.

Step by step guide to install Sitecore XP 10.2 using SIF on Windows 11

November 14, 2021 /

To install XP Single Developer(XP0) 10.2 on development machine, follow the steps in this blog post

Use the Sitecore Installation Guide for hardware, OS, database and other software requirements

Installation guide for XP Single (XP0) 

OS Requirements-

Windows 11 (64 bit)

Ensure IIS 10x installed

Ensure Powershell version 5.1 or later is installed. Check here the latest version

Install .Net Framework 4.8.0 – Download Developer Pack

Install .NET Core 3.1 Windows Hosting Bundle or later.

Install Microsoft Visual C++ 2015

Install Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Express Edition OR Install Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Express

You may also install the above prequisites using CLI. Goto section Install prerequisites before installing XP 10.2 after installing SQL Server and SIF

Install SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

This will ask you to restart your VM/Machine

  • Enable Contained Database Authentication

After installing SQL Server launch SQL Server Management Studio and run following-

EXEC sp_configure 'contained', 1;
 RECONFIGURE;

  • Install SIF Module
  1. Open PowerShell as an administrator.
  2. Set unrestricted execution to current user
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted

3. Register repository

Register-PSRepository -Name SitecoreGallery https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-powershell/api/v2

4. Install SIF

Install-Module SitecoreInstallFramework

5. After SIF installation check if the SIF 2.3.0 is installed

Get-Module SitecoreInstallFramework –ListAvailable

To install specific version of SIF or run multiple version of SIF see this blog

Download XP Single Developer (XP0)

  • Prepare the installation folder

1. Extract downloaded XP Single Developer package to a folder e.g.:- C:\SCInstallation\XP102
2. Extract XP0 Configuration files 10.2.0 rev. 006766zip in same folder

  • Install prerequisites before installing XP 10.2

Switch to the installable e.g.:- C:\SCInstallation\XP102 folder and execute following script

Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\Prerequisites.json
  • Install SOLR 8.4.0

1. Create a SOLR folder e.g.:- C:\SOLR and switch to e.g.- C:\SCInstallation\XP102  folder. Open Solr-SingleDeveloper.json file.

2. Change the Install Root for SOLR in Solr-SingleDeveloper.json – DefaultValue

 "SolrInstallRoot": {
            "Type": "String",
            "Description": "The file path to install Solr. This config will add the prefix and solr version e.g C:\Solr becomes C:\Solr\[SolrServicePrefix]Solr-8.4.0",
            "DefaultValue": "C:\\SOLR"
        },

3. Execute –

Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\Solr-SingleDeveloper.json

Prepare and Execute script for installation

Open XP0-SingleDeveloper.ps1 file to update following-

  • $Prefix
  • $SitecoreAdminPassword
  • $SCInstallRoot – change path to the folder installers are available
  • $SolrUrl
  • $SolrRoot
  • $SolrService
  • $SqlServer
  • $SqlAdminUser
  • $SqlAdminPassword

Copy license to the e.g. – C:\SCInstallation\XP102  folder

Execute installation script – .\XP0-SingleDevelor.ps1

Error while installation

xconnect Marketing Automation fails to start-

Solution–

Disable TLS 1.3 over TCP for xconnect. Rerun the installation script or disable this as soon as the xconnect bindings are setup by script during installation.

No registration for extension ‘AppPool’ of type ‘Task’

Solution

Check if the Asp.Net options in Windows features – Internet Information Services.

Sitecore Commerce Business Tools Compatibility Table

November 8, 2021 /

Sitecore Commerce installation package comes with Sitecore Business Tools SDK.

If you are planning to custommise Business Tools you might have to setup the development environment for Business Tools. You can find more information on how to setup the development environment here

For each version of Sitecore Commerce you need to install the specific version of Business Tools in you development environment.

See below the compatibility table for Business Tools with Sitecore commerce-

Package for the same can be found here

Sitecore Commerce (XC) VersionSitecore Business Tools VersionDownload Link
10.27.0.6https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/7.0.6
10.16.0.6https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/6.0.6
10.05.0.12https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/5.0.12
9.34.0.8https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/4.0.8
9.23.0.7https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/3.0.7
9.12.0.3https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/2.0.3
9.0.31.4.1https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/1.4.1
9.0.21.2.19https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/1.2.19
9.0.11.1.9https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/1.1.9
9.0.01.0.572https://sitecore.myget.org/feed/sc-npm-packages/package/npm/@sitecore/bizfx/1.0.572

Sitecore SXA Series

November 1, 2021 /

Sharing my experience on developing and configuring a site using Sitecore SXA.

Topics-

  1. Creating a SXA tenant and site
  2. Know what is in your installed Tenant and Site
  3. Themes – Create and Assign themes
  4. Create Sitecore SXA module
  5. Create a SXA component form scratch using Scriban
    1. Create data and rendering templates
    2. Setup content and create renderings
    3. Create rendering variants using Scriban
    4. Add rendering to Page (Option 1)
    5. Setup page and partial design
  6. Install module to SXA Site
  7. Add rendering to Page using Toolbox (Option 2) – Coming Soon
  8. Setup custom domain for SXA site – Coming Soon
  9. Debug- Remove div row wrappers when using Sitecore placeholders
  10. Debug- Enable and configure the Asset optimizer
  11. Setup Favicon for your SXA site
  12. Configure settings for Error Handling SXA site- Coming Soon

Sitecore SXA- Remove div row wrappers when using Sitecore placeholders

October 2, 2021 /
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Sitecore uses placeholders to render components which allows to dynamically assemble the page layout. This allows the content editors to design specific pages.

When using MVC layout and BootStrap grid, SXA adds additional DIV when a placeholder is used.

For e.g. if you see the views/sxalayout/Bootstrap4Body.cshtml file. If has a placeholders header, main and footer.

Page is rendered with the header, main and footer tags having placeholders within.

These placeholders is wrapped with a div tag when rendered with class row.

Problem– Extra div tag with class row might not be required or if you don’t to have this as part of your markup. How to remove div tag?

Solution –

The configuration to exclude the placeholder wrappers is in Sitecore.XA.Foundation.Grid.config

Any custom or OOTB placeholders can be added to placeholderWrapper/exlcudedPlaceholders list

Best Practice – Never modify the OOTB config’s as this can be changed in the future releases and upgrades. Patch the config instead.

Patch file should look something like this-

Resulting to the entry added in excludePlaceholders list and the div been not rendered-

Hope this helps

Install Sitecore 9.0.2 – Cannot process argument transformation on parameter ‘Signer’

August 30, 2021 /

If you see this error whilst installing Sitecore 9.0.2 the issue might be due to multiple certificates been issues.

In this case delete both certificates listed –

Get-ChildItem Cert:\LocalMachine\Root\<<Thumbprint>> | Remove-Item

Try the installation again

ERROR-

SOLUTION-

Check and remove – DO_NOT_TRUST_SitecoreRootCert if its expired from Local Computer and Current User.

Also remove the same form the dis mainly from C:\certificates

ERROR-

SOLUTION-

Sitecore 10 SXA- Improve site performance by enabling Asset Optimizer

July 8, 2021 /

Asset optimizer helps improve the performance in production site by compressing/minifying the CSS and JS.

Minification of assets helps to cut the unnecessary portions of code and reduce the size of file to boost the performance by reducing amount of data over the internet.

Sitecore administrators can enable/disable optimizer globally of to a specific site.

Enable/Disable the Asset Optimizer globally

Enabling or disabling optimizer globally affects all the sites configured in the Sitecore instance.

To change the optimiser settings navigate to following location. This is accessible to Administrators-

/sitecore/system/Settings/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Theming/Optimiser

You can also search “optimiser”-

If you can’t find this you may have to re-index master.

Select Scripts or Styles to change the settings

Modes of Optimizations

Concatenate And Minify Mode

When this option is selected. Sitecore will concatenate and minify the OOTB and Custom Scripts and Styles.

Example:- If you have a custom theme you can add the css files in your extension theme

This is in master database

Highlighted CSS is a extension to the base theme.

Web database when the page is first requested Sitecore will concat and minify all css in extension theme folder and create a optimised-min.css file

Styles loaded from the extension theme is concatenated and minified version with timestamp in query parameter (optimised-min.css)

Notice that the file name is optimised-min.css

Size of the optimized version is 367 KB
Concatenate and minified. Loads without comments

Concatenate Mode

Change the mode of optimization to “Concatenate”.

Web database now has optimized file created in extension theme

Styles loaded from the extension theme is concatenated version with timestamp in query parameter (optimised.css)

Notice that the reference to file is changed to optimised.css

Size of the optimized version is 381 KB
Concatenate but not minified. CSS loads with comments

Disabled Mode

Change the mode to “Disabled” and should see all the files loaded separately. Disabled mode is good for debugging but should not be used for production as it will give a performance hit.

CSS files are loaded separately and not concatenated nor minified

Best Practice – Enable Asset Optimizer in production environments

The same can be applied to the Scripts.

You have set the optimizer to concatenate and minify globally to your Sitecore instance but still don’t see the site been optimized.

Create a new Sitecore 10 SXA module

June 29, 2021 /

Sitecore SXA module contains templates, Renderings, Layouts, Placeholder Settings, branch etc. It helps structure the SXA site by scaffolding items required to setup the component.

In this blog post I will walkthrough the steps to create a module manually to have a better understanding and helps specially to debug when there are issues with the existing modules.

Create Module (Part 1)

Navigate to – /sitecore/system/Settings/Feature

Right click Featur folder to create module

Create new module overlay will open.

  1. Provide a Module name – i.e. Custom Image Block
  2. Choose the location where this module to be created.
  3. Select the system areas the module folders to be created
  4. Choose the module should be applied to tenant or site

When module is created should be able to see the folder with the Site Setup Root item

Once the Site Setup Root is created you should be able to see folders with name “Custom Image Block” will be created in Branch, Template, Renderings, Placeholder Settings, Layouts and Media Library or the system areas selected.

Create template required for creating Branch

For creating a branch you will need a template and rendering. Create a template in “Custom Image Block” folder. For now you don’t have to add fields. See blog the fields that were created for component.

Create “Image Block Folder” Template

Create rendering required for creating Branch

Create controller rendering with name “Image Block” in – /sitecore/layout/Renderings/Feature/Wits/Custom Image Block.

For now don’t setup anything in rendering. See blog for the configuration required in rendering-

Create Branch

Navigate to /sitecore/templates/Branches/Feature

Create a new branch. Right click on the folder “Custom Image Block” and insert new branch option

Select the template earlier created-

Branch with name “Image Block” will be created.

Delete $name item in the branch

Rename the Image Block to “Available Image Block Renderings”.

Right click branch and insert item from template-

/sitecore/templates/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Presentation/Available Renderings/Available Renderings

Give it a name $name as this will create a item in “Available Renderings” folder in site with the component name

Select $name and select the newly created rendering-

Create or Copy the existing branch and name it as “Image Block Variant”

Create a variant, name it as “$name” from template – /sitecore/templates/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Rendering Variants/Variants

Create Variant Definition under Variant name it as “Default” from template

Path of the variant definition- /sitecore/templates/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Rendering Variants/Variant Definition

Create Scriban Variant named “Scriban” from template – /sitecore/templates/Foundation/Experience Accelerator/Scriban/Scriban

Add markup in template field or the same can be added when the module is installed on the site – if the markup is specific to the site.

Branch structure should like this-

Create Module (Part 2)

Add Site Item to add Available rendering to the site module is installed

Name it “Add Available Renderings”

Select the Location from the Site>>Presentation>>Available Renderings

In Template field select the “Available Image Block Renderings” from the newly created branch.

Provide the Name

Add Site Item to add rendering variant to the site module is installed

Add another site item, name it “Add Image Block Variant”

Select “Rendering Variant” in Location and “Image Block Variant” created in branch

This will create a “Image Block” in the “Rendering Variant” folder in the site where the module will be installed

Add Site Item to add data folder to the site module is installed

Add another site item, name it “Add Image Block Data Item”

This will create a “Image Block Folder” in “Data” folder in the site where the module will be installed

That’s it you are good to install “Image Block” module.