Tag: development

Setting up a Sitecore JSS development environment with the Containers template for Next.js

Follow steps in this link —

https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/211/sitecore-headless-development/walkthrough–setting-up-a-development-environment-with-the-sitecore-containers-template-for-next-js.html

Following are thre pre-requisite for setting on your local machine-

Apart from this also install Sitecore JSS CLI-

npm install -g @sitecore-jss/sitecore-jss-cli

Install the template

dotnet new -i Sitecore.DevEx.Templates --nuget-source https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-packages/api/v3/index.json

dotnet new sitecore.nextjs.gettingstarted -n samplejss

Should first Restores dotnet local tools for the solution and Initializes the JSS project

What is your Sitecore hostname (used if deployed to Sitecore)? (samplejss.dev.local) << leave blank or provide the host name>>

How would you like to fetch Layout and Dictionary data? 
GraphQL
REST

How would you like to prerender your application?
SSG
SSR

Which additional language do you want to support (en is already included and required)? << leave blank or type the language you want. should select da-DK by default and additional language>>

JSS application is now ready and updated for continerized environment.

Navigate to project folder and initialize the environment.

.\init.ps1 -InitEnv -LicenseXmlPath "<C:\path\to\license.xml>" -AdminPassword "<desired password>"
setx NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS C:\Users\sandeep\AppData\Local\mkcert\rootCA.pem

Execute up.ps1 to create containers-

.\up.ps1

Error-

CM is not coming up-

Checked the docker logs, and found this error-

The path is not set correctly. Need to escape the characters-

Resolution-

Change – entrypoint: powershell.exe -Command “& C:\tools\entrypoints\iis\Development.ps1” to entrypoint: powershell.exe -Command “& C:\\tools\\entrypoints\\iis\\Development.ps1” in docker-compose.override.yml file for xm1, xp0 and xp1

Take down all the containers and build again.

Now this should look fine-

Enter CM admin credentials and allow the access-

CM and App should load –

As of writing this post, this setup installed Sitecore 10.3.

Loading

Sitecore Asp.Net rendering with Content Resolver for Helix Examples Solution

In my previous post we saw how to create a simple rendering with data source.

For creating rendering using content resolver first follow the blog <<enter blog url here>>

Content resolvers help provice more complex data beyond the serialization of a component data source.

In this blog will list all the Articles on the page which are marked as Featured Article.

The custom logic for filtering will go in Content resolver.

Craete a project for Content Resolver(.net framework 4.8) . This framework is used just to follow with the exisitng content resolvers provided by Helix Examples Solution.

Content Resolver Project (BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Platform)

Create a new .Net Framework project

Instead of creating new poroject I will copy the project from Navigation/Platform folder and rename it to BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Platform.

Delete all the files from this project as it relates to Navigation. You may also want to change the AssemblyName and the AssemblyInfo file.

Create Models for Articles and Article

Create Models Folder and add below models

Articles.cs

using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Models
{
    public class Articles
    {
        public Item ArticlesPage { get; set; }

        public IList<Article> ArticleItems { get; set; }
    }
}

Article.cs

using Sitecore.Data.Items;

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Models
{
    public class Article
    {
        public Item Item { get; set; }

        public Item ItemData { get; set; }
        public string Url { get; set; }
    }
}

Create Service for ArticleBuilder and ArticleRootResolver

Create a new folder Services and following-

//IArticleBuilder
 public interface IArticleBuilder
    {
        Articles.Models.Articles GetArticles(Item contextItem);
    }
//ArticleBuilder 

 public class ArticleBuilder : IArticleBuilder
    {
        private readonly IArticleRootResolver _articleRootResolver;
        private readonly BaseLinkManager _linkManager;

        public ArticleBuilder(BaseLinkManager linkManager, IArticleRootResolver articleRootResolver)
        {
            _articleRootResolver = articleRootResolver;
            _linkManager = linkManager;
        }

        public Articles.Models.Articles GetArticles(Item contextItem)
        {
            var articleRoot = _articleRootResolver.GetArticleRoot(contextItem);
            if (articleRoot == null)
            {
                return new Articles.Models.Articles();
            }

            return new Articles.Models.Articles()
            {
                ArticlesPage = articleRoot,
                ArticleItems = GetArticleItems(articleRoot, contextItem)
            };
        }

        private IList<Article> GetArticleItems(Item articleRoot, Item contextItem)
        {
            var items = new List<Item>();

            items.AddRange(articleRoot.Children.Where(item => item.DescendsFrom(Templates.ArticleItem.Id)));

            var articleItems = items.Select(item => new Article()
            {
                Item = item,
                ItemData = item.Axes.GetDescendants().FirstOrDefault(itemData => itemData.DescendsFrom(Templates.ArticleItemData.Id)),
                Url = _linkManager.GetItemUrl(item)
            }).ToList();

            return articleItems;
        }
    }
//IArticleRootResolver

 public interface IArticleRootResolver
    {
        Item GetArticleRoot(Item contextItem);
    }

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Services
{
    public class ArticleRootResolver : IArticleRootResolver
    {
        public Item GetArticleRoot(Item contextItem)
        {
            if (contextItem == null)
            {
                return null;
            }
            return contextItem.DescendsFrom(Templates.ArticleRoot.Id)
                ? contextItem
                : contextItem.Axes.GetAncestors().LastOrDefault(x => x.DescendsFrom(Templates.ArticleRoot.Id));
        }
    }
}

Create Layout Service i.e. content resolver class

Create new folder LayoutServices and add following-

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.LayoutService
{
    public class ArticleContentResolver : Sitecore.LayoutService.ItemRendering.ContentsResolvers.RenderingContentsResolver
    {
        private readonly IArticleBuilder _articleBuilder;

        public ArticleContentResolver(IArticleBuilder articleBuilder)
        {
            _articleBuilder = articleBuilder;
        }

        public override object ResolveContents(Rendering rendering, IRenderingConfiguration renderingConfig)
        {
            var articles = _articleBuilder.GetArticles(this.GetContextItem(rendering, renderingConfig));

            var contents = new
            {
                ArticleItems = articles.ArticleItems.Select(item => new
                {
                    Item = item.Item,
                    ItemData = item.ItemData,
                    Serialized = base.ProcessItem(item.ItemData, rendering, renderingConfig)
                }).Select(article => new
                {
                    Url = LinkManager.GetItemUrl(article.Item),
                    Id = article.Item.ID,
                    Fields = new
                    {
                        Title = article.Serialized[article.ItemData.Fields["Title"].Name],
                        Description = article.Serialized[article.ItemData.Fields["Description"].Name],
                        ShortDescription = article.Serialized[article.ItemData.Fields["ShortDescription"].Name],
                    }
                })
            };

            return contents;
        }
    }
}

Create Service Configurator to register the services-

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles
{
    public class ServicesConfigurator : IServicesConfigurator
    {
        public void Configure(IServiceCollection serviceCollection)
        {
            serviceCollection.AddTransient<Services.IArticleBuilder, Services.ArticleBuilder>();
            serviceCollection.AddTransient<Services.IArticleRootResolver, Services.ArticleRootResolver>();
        }
    }
}

Create Template Class

Change the Item ID’s as per your Sitecore Instance

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles
{
  public static class Templates
  {
        public static class ArticleItem
        {
            public static readonly ID Id = new ID("{EE5CE126-890D-4F01-9DD5-3D81FC397A91}"); //
        }

        public static class ArticleItemData
        {
            public static readonly ID Id = new ID("{8AA19CA1-99A6-4588-B1D7-3FA9A8F6756A}"); //
        }

        public static class ArticleRoot
        {
            public static readonly ID Id = new ID("{A46A11C6-C7F9-4F61-BF0C-FFF060F0FECC}"); //
        }
  }
}

Create App Config to register the ServiceConfigurator-

Create Feature.Articles.config file in App_Config/Include/Feature folder

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <services>
      <configurator type="BasicCompany.Feature.Navigation.ServicesConfigurator, BasicCompany.Feature.Navigation" />
    </services>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Create Templates for Article

These templates are used to indicate the different level s of Article. i..e Article Page- will inherit from _ArticleRoot, ArticlePage will inherit from _ArticleItem and Article Content will inherit from _ArticleItemData

Sitecore Items

Create Rendering Content Resolver

Create a New “Rendering Contents Resolvers Folder” in /sitecore/system/Modules/Layout Service

Craete a New “Rendering Contents Resolver” in this folder.

Provide the type – BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.LayoutService.ArticleContentResolver, BasicCompany.Feature.Articles

Create Articles Json Rendering

Craete a neJson rendering name “Articles” and newly created content resolver in the “Rendering Contents Resolver” field.

Add the new rendering to the page

Publish items

Rendering Project

Create Models Articles.cs

using Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine.Binding.Attributes;
using Sitecore.LayoutService.Client.Response.Model.Fields;

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Models
{
    public class Articles
    {
        [SitecoreComponentField]
        public ContentListField<Article> ArticleItems { get; set; }
    }
}

Create new view Articles.cshtml in /Views/Shared/Components/SitecoreComponent

@using Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine.Extensions
@model BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Models.Articles


<div class="container">
    <div class="product-list-columns columns is-multiline">
        @foreach (var article in Model.ArticleItems)
        {
            <partial name="_ArticleList" model="article" />
        }
    </div>
</div>

Create _ArticleList.cshtml in Views/Shared folder

Note its using ItemLinkField

@model ItemLinkField<Article>

<a href="@Model.Url" class="column product-list-column is-4-desktop is-6-tablet">
    <div class="card">
        <div class="card-content">
            <div class="content">
                <h4 asp-for="@Model.Fields.Title"></h4>
                <p asp-for="@Model.Fields.ShortDescription"></p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</a>

Update the RenderingEngineOptionsExtensions

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Extensions
{
    public  static class RenderingEngineOptionsExtensions
    {
        public static RenderingEngineOptions AddFeatureArticle(this RenderingEngineOptions options)
        {
            options

                .AddModelBoundView<Article>("Article")
                .AddModelBoundView<Models.Articles>("Articles");
            return options;
        }
    }
}

Update Articles.modules.json to serialiaze content resolver

{
  "namespace": "Feature.Articles",
  "items": {
    "includes": [
      {
        "name": "templates",
        "path": "/sitecore/templates/Feature/Articles"
      },
      {
        "name": "renderings",
        "path": "/sitecore/layout/Renderings/Feature/Articles"
      },
      {
        "name": "contents-resolvers",
        "path": "/sitecore/system/Modules/Layout Service/Rendering Contents Resolvers/Articles"
      }
    ]
  }
}

IMP – Ensure the Startup.cs has AddFeatureArticle() added in AddSitecoreRenderingEngine

Output

List of Articles-

When we click on any of the Article take to the Article page-

The above pages are shown as per this structure in Sitecore

Debug Helix Examples solution using Asp.Net Rendering hosted in Docker Containers

See this blog to setup the development environment for Helix Examlpes using Docker

Open the solution from following location – \examples\helix-basic-aspnetcore

Open the containers tab and should list all the containsers with its status-

You may also use following command to check the status of contrianers-

docker ps

Lets debug the Navigation which has content resolver-

Right click the CD container and Attach to Process

Select Managed(.Net 4.x) debug type. Select w3wp.exe and click Attach.

Helix Examples Solution should now run in debug mode.

Build the solution, add a breakpoint to any of the resolvers (Header or Footer)

Refresh or visit the site – https://www.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost/ and should be able to see the debugger-

Issues debuging or just building the solution-

Bad Gateway-

Solution- You may see the errors with command-

docker-compose logs -f rendering

Following log appears- binary is being used by another process. This is the issues with the dotnet watch with the docker

Solution- Restart the rendering container

This should bring up the site.

You can also watch the changes outside the docker. See here for more details-

https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/29566/asp-net-core-rendering-sdk-every-time-i-have-to-run-docker-compose-restart-ren

Sitecore Headless Development with ASP.NET Rendering SDK – Helix Examples Solution – The Docker Way

This blog will give a quick overview of setting development environment for Headless Development with ASP.Net Rendering SDK using the Helix Examples and the docker.

Although there are videos and blogs around same I will do a quick walk through on setting Helix Examples and any errors I faced whilst setting up the environment.

Refer the following for same – https://github.com/Sitecore/Helix.Examples/tree/master/examples/helix-basic-aspnetcore

Install .Net Core 3.1

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/3.1

Install .Net core 3.1 on your machine and this is required to create any rendering or platform projects later to extend the Helix Examples Solution or compiling the existing code.

Install Docker Desktop on Windows

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/windows/install/

Run this on Hyper-V mode and Switch to Windows Containers

Install Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/

https://code.visualstudio.com/download

Whilst installing Visual Studio 2022 select the .Net Framework project and templates option as the platform projects uses .Net Framework 4.8 version. This will also help further if you want to extend the solution.

Install and Configure Windows Terminal (optional)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/install

https://dev.to/shahinalam02/customize-your-terminal-using-oh-my-posh-theme-38if

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/my-ultimate-powershell-prompt-with-oh-my-posh-and-the-windows-terminal

Install Windows Terminal, refer above link and if you fancy applying the themes, although this is optional.

Install git

https://git-scm.com/download/win

Clone Helix Examples Solution

https://github.com/Sitecore/Helix.Examples

https://github.com/Sitecore/Helix.Examples.git

Initialise the config

Navigate to \examples\helix-basic-aspnetcore and run following-

.\init.ps1 -LicenseXmlPath C:\<<path to license>>\license.xml -SitecoreAdminPassword "b"

This should initalise teh .env file and fill in the values of the variables for License and Admin Password. Also it will populate other variables.

Build Images

Once the config are initialised run folowing command-

up.ps1

Once all the images are downloaded and built along with solution login to CM should will be asked.

Login to the CM and Allow access to Sitecore API and Offline Access

Once this done the CD and CM app should be ready along with the data been synched.

Check the logs for any errors in rendering with following command-

docker-compose logs -f rendering

Access Application

Site can be accessed with the following url –

Sitecore Content Management: https://cm.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost/sitecore/

Sitecore Identity Server: https://id.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost

Basic Company site: https://www.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost

Use following to stop/remove containers-

docker compose down

Issues while building the images

Error response from daemon: Unrecognised volume spec: file ‘\\.\pipe\docker_engine’ cannot be mapped. Only directories can be mapped on this platform

Solution-

Disable Docker Compose V2 using command or in Docker Desktop-

docker-compose disable-v2

or Uncheck the “Use Docker Compose V2” option

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68010612/error-response-from-daemon-unrecognised-volume-spec-file-pipe-docker-engi

Install Ganache for Solidity development

Ganache is the development tool used to run local blockchain for Ethereum development.

Ganache can be used to deploy the contract to local Blockchain. Its a simutated environemnt like Javascript VM when developing on Remix. It helps spin up a local Blockchain.

Ganache UI

Install the Ganache from following location-

https://trufflesuite.com/ganache/

Click the QUICKSTART to get started with Ethereum. By default Ethereum is selected. Ganache can also be used for Corda development

The next screen shows the local Blockchain with the Accounts having 100 ETH and ready to receive the contracts and transactions.

Options in Ganache in later post.

Ganache CLI-

Similar to Ganache UI the local Blockchain node can be setup using CLI.

Install nodejs – https://nodejs.org/en/download/

Check the version of node js

node -v

Install yarn

npm install --global yarn

Install Ganache CLI

yarn global add ganache-cli

Verify installation by checking the version

ganache-cli --version
Ganache CLI v6.12.2 (ganache-core: 2.13.2)

Use following command to see the Accounts, Transactions, Contracts etc in command line same as UI.

ganache-cli --deterministic

For more CLI options see –

https://www.npmjs.com/package/ganache-cli

Start deploying Contracts, signing and sending transactions to the local Blockchain.

To use Blockchain as a service use-

https://infura.io/

https://www.alchemy.com/

Sitecore SXA- Remove div row wrappers when using Sitecore placeholders

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-50.png

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

Sitecore Commerce 10- Setup Development Environment for Business Tools – Part 1

Business Tools is extensible using pluggable framework and can extend a UI using Entity Views. Although Business Tools offers a rich set of controls you might want to create your own custom control for the best business experience.

For this you need to first setup the development environment for business tools. Once the environment is setup you should be ready to develop custom control/customize the business tools.

Prerequisites

  1. Instance of Commerce Engine deployed in development environment
  2. Install Node.js Javascript runtime
  3. Install Angular CLI tool – npm install -g @angular/cli

NPM configuration to have NPM Packages from Sitecore public feed

Sitecore BizFx SDK relies on NPM packages available on the Sitecore official public feed for NPM packages.

Open Poswershell as Administrator

Execute these 2 commands in powershell

npm config set @speak:registry=https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-npm-packages/npm/

npm config set @sitecore:registry=https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-npm-packages/npm/

This will add following line to–

C:\Users\[your user]\.npmrc

[Optional] – you may check if this lines are added

@speak:registry=https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-npm-packages/npm/
@sitecore:registry=https://sitecore.myget.org/F/sc-npm-packages/npm/

Setup and Install SPEAK and BizFx packages for development solution

Copy Sitecore.BizFX.SDK.4.0.8 folder to your development folder and extract the SDK zip file to folder e.g. c:\BizFXDevelopment\SitecoreBizFx

Copy below files to the folder SDK was extracted. You should find this files from the Sitecore XC release package.

  1. speak-icon-fonts-1.1.0.tgz
  2. speak-ng-bcl-2.0.0-r00116.tgz
  3. speak-styling-1.0.0-r00110.tgz

Execute the following commands where the above files were copied

​​​​​​​npm install speak-icon-fonts-1.1.0.tgz
​​​​​​​npm install speak-ng-bcl-2.0.0-r00116.tgz
npm install speak-styling-1.0.0-r00110.tgz
npm install @sitecore/bizfx

Run npm install. This should install required npm modules and add a folder node_modules

npm install

Setup the business tools config.json with your deployment configuration

Once the npm installed successfully open config.json file located in src\assets folder

Update the config to the same as the BizFx site instance except for BizFxUri. Note BizFxUri points to http in below config

{
  "EnvironmentName": "HabitatAuthoring",
  "EngineUri": "https://localhost:5000",
  "IdentityServerUri": "https://xp10.IdentityServer",
  "BizFxUri": "http://localhost:4200",
  "Language": "en",
  "ContentLanguage": "en",
  "Currency": "USD",
  "ShopName": "CommerceEngineDefaultStorefront",
  "LanguageCookieName": "selectedLanguage",
  "ContentLanguageCookieName": "selectedContentLanguage",
  "EnvironmentCookieName": "selectedEnvironment",
  "AutoCompleteTimeout_ms": 300,
  "AccessTokenUpdateInterval_ms": 300000
}

Run the development environment

Important!

Stop the SitecoreBizFx site as the site listens to 4200 port. Next step will help listen the site from the extracted SDK folder.

Execute following Powershell command –

ng server

Open browser on http://localhost:4200/ this should ask to enter the Sitecore client credentials, once provided it will throw an error

This site can’t provide a secure connection

The reason this error occurs the identity server is not configure to server BizFx site on http

Update the Sitecore Identity Server Configuration

Open the Sitecore.Commerce.Identity ServiceHost.xml from the installed Identity Server instance \wwwroot\Config\production

Add http://localhost:4200 to AllowedCorsOriginGroup1

<AllowedCorsOrigins>
<AllowedCorsOriginsGroup1>http://localhost:4200</AllowedCorsOriginsGroup1>
</AllowedCorsOrigins>

Update Commerce Engine configuration

  • Open config.json from wwwroot folder in CommerceAuthoring site
  • Update AllowedOrigins in AppSettings to have http://localhost:4200
  • Since the config is changed need to bootstrap so the changes are applied to authoring site
  • Restart IIS. Optionally you may just restart Commerce Authoring site

Run Business tool from development environment

Open browser on http://localhost:4200/

Business tools running on http and in developer mode.

References –

step-by-step instructions on how to setup and compile the Business Tools (BizFX) application using the ​Sitecore.BizFX.SDK

Stay tuned next blog will walk through on how to create a new custom control/component in Business Tools

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-43.png

Setup development environment for Sitecore Commerce Engine 10 and 10.2

Update: Below is applicable for Sitecore Commerce 10.2. Change the SDK version accordingly. Ignore the step mention for Content Hub

Sitecore Experience Commerce 10 has come up with great new features like Dynamic Bundles, Free gift with Purchase promotion and a sample Sitecore DAM to Commerce connector.

Before you start looking into this, it is important to setup the development environment to debug and test the changes you are making to engine.

Main changes I could see compared to previous versions are integration with Content Hub and Configuring the Commerce Engine using environment variables which not only helps for on-premise installation of Commerce Instance but also helps setup the Docker technology where XC solution is running in containers.

In this post I will walk you through on how to setup the development environment. This post assumes you have Sitecore Commerce Engine along with Visual Studio 2019 installed on developer workstation. If Commerce not installed no worries see this post on how to install Sitecore XC 10 step-by-step.

Step-by-step install Sitecore Commerce (XC) 10

For previous version of XC you may follow this blog post

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

Step 1- Extract Commerce Engine SDK

  • Copy the downloaded SDK Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.SDK.6.0.130.zip on your development folder. e.g: c:\development. Note– there is an update on 19th August where the external dependencies are removed. Download the package again if you have a version before this date.
  • If not available you may download Packages for On Premise WDP 2020.08-6.0.238. Login before you download the file.
  • Extract the commerce package and then extract Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.SDK.6.0.130.zip in your development folder

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
  • Whilst opening solution login from slpartners.myget.org will be prompted
  • Create an account on https://slpartner.myget.org/ and login here. You may unload Plugin.Sample.ContentHub project if you dont want to integrate ContentHub and the login should not require. Also note myget account has a trial for 14 days.
  • 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 Foundation and Feature projects. Build the solution again.

Step 3- Important – Commerce Engine configuration

Sitecore.Commerce.Engine project should have a config.json file in wwwroot folder. Open this file you will see the placeholders that needs to be filled in.

Instead updating config file, you should update the launchSettings.json and the placeholders in config.json will be updated on launch on commerce engine.

Similarly Global.json you can find this in wwwroot/bootstrap folder of your Sitecore.Commerce.Engine project. Again this file has the Placeholders that will be populated from launchSettings.json,

You need to update mainly following variables in launchSettings.json file for both config and global json. There are other variables apart from listed below, you may need to update those based on your site instance name etc.-

  1. COMMERCEENGINE_Caching__Redis__Options__Configuration
  2. COMMERCEENGINE_GlobalDatabaseServer
  3. COMMERCEENGINE_GlobalDatabaseUserName
  4. COMMERCEENGINE_GlobalDatabasePassword
  5. COMMERCEENGINE_SharedDatabaseServer
  6. COMMERCEENGINE_SharedDatabaseUserName
  7. COMMERCEENGINE_SharedDatabasePassword
  8. COMMERCEENGINE_AppSettings__SitecoreIdentityServerUrl
  9. COMMERCEENGINE_EngineAuthoringUrl
  10. COMMERCEENGINE_EngineShopsUrl
  11. COMMERCEENGINE_EngineMinionsUrl
  12. COMMERCEENGINE_EngineHealthCheckUrl
  13. COMMERCEENGINE_AppSettings__AllowedOrigins

Step 4 – Generate Development Certificate

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

  1. Create a folder named “dev” in the root directory of SDK
  2. Create a folder named “Sitecore.Commerce.Engine_Dev” under “dev” folder
  3. Create a folder named “wwwroot” under “Sitecore.Commerce.Engine_Dev” folder
  4. Open powershell script and navigate to scripts folder.
  5. Change the Path($certificateOutputDirectory) if required. Certificate should be copied to \src\Project\Engine\code\wwwroot
  6. Execute New-DevelopmentCertificate script. This script should be available in script folder in SDK folder.

Step 5 – Update EngineUri in BizFx Site

  • Open config.json file. Should be in assets folder of your BizFx instance
  • Change EngineUri to https://localhost:5000
  • Change BizFxUri to https://localhost:4200
  • Restart BizFx site

Step 6- Run the Commerce Engine from Visual Studio

  • Set the Sitecore.Commerce.Engine project as Startup Project
  • Change the emulator to Engine
  • Stop the CommerceAuthoring_SC site hosted in IIS
  • Run the solution

Hope there should be nothing that should block to run the Business Tools requesting a call to Engine running from Visual Studio

Note: some places you may have to restart IIS also clear the browser cache before you start checking Business Tools is highly recommended.

Hope this post helps you setting your XC 10 development environment.

ISSUES

Request origin https://bizfx.sc.com does not have permission to access the resource

Resolution- Follow Step 5

First Steps | Sitecore Commerce Development | Create a Custom Plugin

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

  1. Go to  solution root folder or SDK folder and run the Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.vsix file. Close the Visual Studio solution if open.
  2. This should install extension on selected Visual Studio Version
create plugin1

Step 3 – Create a plugin

  1. Open your solution. Create a Feature solution folder, just to follow Helix best practice. Right click solution folder to create a new project
  2. Search Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin. Select project type and click next.
create plugin2
  1. Give the project name, location and select .Net Framework 4.7.1. Create a Project.
create plugin3
  1. Sample Folder and Files for Commands, Components, Controller etc shall be added.
create plugin4
  1. Update the Sitecore Commerce Core from 5.0.0 to 5.0.4
create plugin5
create plugin6

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

Step 4 – Reference project and run engine

  1. Add Plugin project reference to your Commerce.Engine Project
  2. 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.

create plugin9

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

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

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

Step 2 – Setup Visual Studio Solution

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

Step 3 – Generate Development Certificate

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

  1. Open powershell script and navigate to scripts folder.
  2. Execute New-DevelopmentCertificate script
  3. Change the Path($certificateOutputDirectory) if required. Certificate should be copied to \src\Project\Engine\code\wwwroot
generate_certificate
generate_certificate1

Step 4 – Update configuration

  1. Change environment in Engine project/wwwroot/config.json file to HabitatAuthoring
  2. Change “SitecoreIdentityServerUrl”: “https://storefront930.identityserver.local”,
  3. Add the site name in AllowedOrigins in config.json
  4. Open Global.json in  wwwroot/bootstrap folder in Engine project
  5. Update SQL Server, UserName and Password in EntityStoreSqlPolicy
  6. Check the database name
globalconfig1

7. Update Host to your site host name in SitecoreConnectionPolicy

globalconfig2

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

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

Step 6 – Ready for running the Engine

  1. Set Engine as your Startup Project
  2. Change the debug profile to “Engine” instead of “IIS Express”
  3. In IIS stop Authoring site. i.e. for your default instance it might be CommerceAuthoring_sc930 site
  4. Run the Engine from Visual Studio. This will open the console.
  5. 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.
RunVSComm1
RunVSComm3

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

Bixfx
RunVSComm4