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Elements of a Sitecore Commerce Plugin project template

June 28, 2020 / sandeeppote

In my previous post we saw the first step to create a new plugin by adding a new plugin project to the solution, restoring the correct binaries and reference new plugin to the Engine project.

In this post I will share what comes with the Plugin project template.

Sitecore Commerce Plugin project template creates folders and classes which helps to quick start creating a plugin, lets see what are these files –

1. Commands

To my understanding command is unit of work to perform set of actions. Commands allows to execute a pipeline and blocks within a transaction scope. Create a custom command by inheriting from CommerceCommand class. Use PerformTransaction method to run a pipeline in a transaction scope.

2. Components –

If you want to extend existing or custom entities, use component. Component has attributes that support entities.

3. Controllers –

Controllers expose commerce functionality implemented in plugins. They are the api endpoints. Sitecore Commerce has various Controller type- Entity, Api, Devops and Command. Create your own controllers by inheriting from CommerceController

4. Entities-

They are the persistable unit and represent the business concept. Inherited from the CommerceEntity they has a unique identifier that helps to retrieve the entity by using a Entity controller type.

5. Models –

They are the POCO classes that are reusable in entities and components. Can be used to present data as part of command response .

6. Pipelines – They do the heavy lifting in plugin by making it possible to define the extensible behavior. Create your own pipeline and add blocks you want to execute to implement your business logic. Blocks within pipelines execute in a sequence they are registered.

7. Policies –

Policies defines behavior for the functionality provided by the plugin. Its is recommended to not extend or inherit out-of-box plugins instead create your own. Plugins can be changed or created new by updating the JSON files provided in environment folder of the various roles site.

ConfigureSitecore –

ConfigureSitecore class helps to register the pipeline and block definitions that a plugin defines. You can create a new plugin and AddPipeline or extend the existing pipeline by adding a block After or Before any existing blocks. ConfigureSitecore class registers pipelines every time engine loads. You can also register commands or register your custom class in this class.

ConfigureServiceApiBlock –

This registers customer entities, components and controller action with ODATA model. It allows to these elements to be used when a REST API call is made and available when generating a proxy.

Enable Catalog search in business tool for Sitecore 9.1 Commerce environments

June 23, 2020 / sandeeppote

Sitecore Commerce indexes Catalogs, Categories and SellableItems to help search items in Business tools. The settings for the Search can be found in PlugIn.Search.PolicySet-1.0.0.json

These indexes has a search scope, for searching catalog and related items by default the scope is “xc910CatalogItemsScope”

So in SOLR indexed items related to catalogs are kept in core – “xc910CatalogItemsScope”

By default Sitecore will index only Habitat Environment in Sitecore Commerce 9.1. If you want to index your custom environment or AdventureWorks environment, follow these steps-

Open Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connectors.Index.Common.config file. This should be in CM Y.Commerce.Engine folder
In this instance for Adventureworks add “AdventureWorksAuthoring” in Environemnts element for Master Index and “AdventureWorksShops” for Web Index

Open Postman and Run – Full Index Minion Catalog Items
Check if the items are indexed correctly in SOLR.

Search the same keyword in Business tool for AdeventureWorks environment

First Steps | Sitecore Commerce Development | Create a Custom Plugin

May 16, 2020 / sandeeppote

In my last post, I have described the steps to set up the Sitecore Commerce development environment. In this post, I will describe how to create a custom plugin in Sitecore Commerce. I was working on version 9.3 but these steps should work with all versions of 9 series.

Sitecore Commerce provides an extensible framework which can be extended using plugins. A plugin is an independently publishable extension to the Sitecore Commerce Engine. Generally, you will find the following contained in a plugin and are used to extend the platform.

Entities
Components
Entity Views
Pipeline
Policies etc.

You can extend the platform or add more features using the plugins. Let’s get started and look into the steps to create a new plugin in Sitecore Commerce 9.3. If you have already set up your commerce development environment, please skip to step 2

Step 1 – Setup developer environment

Create a developer environment for Sitecore Commerce to run the engine from Visual Studio, can be either VS 2017 or 2019. Follow this blog post for same Setup development environment for Sitecore Commerce 9.3 Engine

Step 2 – Install Visual Studio Extension for creating plugin

Go to solution root folder or SDK folder and run the Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.vsix file. Close the Visual Studio solution if open.
This should install extension on selected Visual Studio Version

Step 3 – Create a plugin

Open your solution. Create a Feature solution folder, just to follow Helix best practice. Right click solution folder to create a new project
Search Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin. Select project type and click next.

Give the project name, location and select .Net Framework 4.7.1. Create a Project.

Sample Folder and Files for Commands, Components, Controller etc shall be added.

Update the Sitecore Commerce Core from 5.0.0 to 5.0.4

4. Build the project. There shouldn’t be any reason the build should fail.

Step 4 – Reference project and run engine

Add Plugin project reference to your Commerce.Engine Project
Run the Engine. You should be able to see the newly created plugin is now registered in Engine.

This should allow to start customizing commerce and truly use plug-gable and extendable feature of Sitecore Commerce.

We intentionally didn’t add any code to this plugin to keep this simple. In the next blog, we will cover the anatomy of the newly created plugin and show how to inject this plugin into Commerce Pipelines and execute some custom code.

Next understand the Elements of Sitecore Commerce Plugin project templates

Hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned.

Step-by-step – Setup development environment for Sitecore Commerce 9.3 Engine

April 15, 2020 / sandeeppote

On a XC installed instance you might want to customize the XC by adding your own Entities, Components, Entity Views etc. In this topic I will describe how to setup your development environment to add your custom plugin.

This topic assumes a Sitecore CMS and Commerce engine version 9.3 are running under IIS. I am using Visual Studio 2019.

Steps to setup-

Step 1- Extract Commerce Engine SDK

Copy the downloaded SDK Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.SDK.5.0.76.zip on your development folder.
If not available you may download Packages for On Premise WDP 2020.01-5.0.145
Extract the commerce package and then extract Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.SDK.5.0.76.zip

Step 2 – Setup Visual Studio Solution

Open the Solution, by default this is Customer.Sample.Solution.sln
Ensure Package Source is configured for Commerce- https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-commerce-packages/api/v3/index.json
Build the Solution. It should restore the package and build successfully.
(optional)Rename the Solution name. In this case I have renamed to Retail.Commerce
(Optional) Create a solution folder “Project” and move Sitecore.Commerce.Engine project
(Optional) Rename “Sitecore.Commerce.Engine” project to “Retail.Commerce.Engine”. Re reference AdventureWorks, Habitat and BrainTree projects if required. Adjust/rename namespace in classes.
(Optional) Create Foundation and Feature projects. Build the solution again.

Step 3 – Generate Development Certificate

Generate development certificate using script “New-DevelopmentCertificate”, so the localhost runs on SSL(https)

Open powershell script and navigate to scripts folder.
Execute New-DevelopmentCertificate script
Change the Path($certificateOutputDirectory) if required. Certificate should be copied to \src\Project\Engine\code\wwwroot

Step 4 – Update configuration

Change environment in Engine project/wwwroot/config.json file to HabitatAuthoring
Change “SitecoreIdentityServerUrl”: “https://storefront930.identityserver.local”,
Add the site name in AllowedOrigins in config.json
Open Global.json in wwwroot/bootstrap folder in Engine project
Update SQL Server, UserName and Password in EntityStoreSqlPolicy
Check the database name

7. Update Host to your site host name in SitecoreConnectionPolicy

Note: You may copy the config.json and gloal.json file from Authoring Site hosted in IIS to your project, but to better understand the changes required I have noted the changes.

Step 5 – Update allowed origins in Identity Site

Open Sitecore.Commerce.IdentityServer.Host.xml file. Should be in /config/production/Sitecore.Commerce.IdentityServer.Host.xml
Navigate to section <CommerceEngineConnectClient><AllowedCorsOrigins>
Add https://localhost:5000 to the

Step 6 – Ready for running the Engine

Set Engine as your Startup Project
Change the debug profile to “Engine” instead of “IIS Express”
In IIS stop Authoring site. i.e. for your default instance it might be CommerceAuthoring_sc930 site
Run the Engine from Visual Studio. This will open the console.
Once the plugins are instantiated, it should listen to 5000 port. At this point you have configured Engine to run/debug from Visual Studio. Any calls from the business tool should be received by engine and console should be able to show the request that’s been received.

And here we have business tool sending request to engine running on Visual Studio, see GetNavigationView() been called in console-

Resharper – My most used shortcuts

April 14, 2020 / sandeeppote

Ctrl + T – Find anything in Visual Studio Solution

Fastest way to find files in your visual studio solution. Press this shortcut and start typing the keyword to navigate to your desired file.

Ctrl E + C – Code Cleanup

Re-sharper allows to clean code based on the defined tasks. Configure the tasks for C#, Html , CSS, Javascript etc. and follow the action after pressing this shortcut.

Ctrl R + R – Rename

The Rename refactoring allows you to rename any symbol, including: namespaces, types, methods, parameters, local variables, properties, fields, and events. It automatically finds and corrects all references to the symbol. The Rename refactoring can be invoked directly from the editor and sometimes from other views (Class View, Object Browser).

Ctrl + Alt + D – Todo explorer

Although nobody likes tech debt but there are instances when on an agile projects few tasks are to be pushed back to the future sprint. In such cases a TODO comments are applied. Re-sharper gives a feature to view such TODO items and a best practice its good to fix the TODO items before a production code is ready. Please this shortcut to view all the TODO items in your solution/project

Alt + Enter + Enter

Shortcut helps to rename the file same as the class name. These instances might come after the file (e.g.: .cs) is created and you decide to change the

Sitecore Commerce – Product listing page error- The Layout for the requested document was not found

March 30, 2020 / sandeeppote

Each Storefront in Sitecore Commerce has its own Storefront settings and Catalog configuration. Whilst configuring multiple environment in a single Commerce instance you might come up with the layout not found error on the Product Listing or Details page.

If you see the image above the path is directly been severed from Sitecore Content i.e. a direct navigation is used. To resolve this issue goto- /sitecore/Commerce/Commerce Control Panel/Storefront Settings/Storefronts/Storefront/Catalog Configuration

Uncheck Use Direct Navigation

The product listing and details page should be shown.

Sitecore 9.3 installation error- Install-SitecoreConfiguration : The ‘Install-SitecoreConfiguration’ command was found in the module ‘SitecoreInstallFramework’, but the module could not be loaded. For more information, run ‘Import-Module SitecoreInstallFramework’.

March 10, 2020 / sandeeppote

Whilst installing Sitecore 9.3 received following error-

Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\prerequisites.json
Install-SitecoreConfiguration : The 'Install-SitecoreConfiguration' command was found in the module
'SitecoreInstallFramework', but the module could not be loaded. For more information, run 'Import-Module
SitecoreInstallFramework'.
At line:1 char:1
+ Install-SitecoreConfiguration -Path .\prerequisites.json
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Install-SitecoreConfiguration:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotAutoloadMatchingModule

To resolve this issue, you need to set execution policy to your machine-

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy AllSigned

You may also provide a scope to the current powershell session-

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy AllSigned -Scope Process

This should help resolve issue and any further powershell script execution process depending on what scope you provide the script to run.

References – Set Execution Policy

Sitecore Commerce – Promotion Dashboard and creating Promotion Book in Business Tool

March 6, 2020 / sandeeppote

1. Promotion dashboard

Promotion dashboard shows all Promotion Book where all the Promotions are kept. Dashboard allows to add new Promo book.

2. Creating a Promo Book

All promotions are organised in a promo book. The list of promotion books on the Promotion dashboard is shown in alphabetical order. Promotion dashboard has options to Add new promotion book. By default Habitat_PromotionBook is created in the Commerce is installed.

To add new promotion book click on Add icon. This should show the popup to add a new promo book.

Promo book with same name cannot be added.

Promo book name should not exceed 50 characters.

Sitecore commerce – No catalog data available

February 28, 2020 / sandeeppote

Sitecore Storefront can have multiple catalogs, but only one catalog can be used to each Storefront.

At times whilst development you might have to switch between the Authoring site and Visual Studio Commerce Engine Solution for debugging. I have seen sometimes the Catalog for the Storefront is reset during the switch which results in error – No catalog data available.

This message is shown on the menu as seen in the screenshot-

Solution-

Navigate to following location in Content Editor- /sitecore/content/Sitecore/Storefront/Home/Catalogs
If none of the Catalog is selected, please select the Catalog and Save. In this case Habitat_Master
Should now display the menu as the Catalog details are now setup

You also might need to consider checking Catalog Configuration here – /sitecore/content/Sitecore/Storefront/Settings/Commerce/Catalog Configuration

Setup the Catalog and Start Navigation Category

Hope this helps.

Sandeep Pote

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Sandeep Pote – Sitecore MVP 2021