Sandeep Pote

Sitecore MVP 2021

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Setup Sitecore 10.2 JSS using next js in secured and connected mode

November 29, 2021 /

Sitecore 10.2 uses Sitecore Headless Rendering 19.0.0. See link here

See this blog for prerequisites and setting jss using next js in disconnected mode.

Follow below steps after the steps completed in above blog

Download Sitecore Headless Services for Sitecore XM

Prerequisite

Install Sitecore 10.2 XP0 on local development environment. See hte blog here if not already installed

Install downloaded package for Headless Service

Run the next js app in connected mode

Before working on connected mode create API Key

Navigate to – /sitecore/system/Settings/Services/API Keys

Create a new API Key e.g.:- nextjsservice

API key here is Item ID

Create a custom binding-

For this create a self signed certificate with a custom domain name in this case – next-jss-prj.dev.local

New-SelfSignedCertificate -CertStoreLocation C:\certificates -DnsName "next-jss-prj.dev.local" -FriendlyName "My First Next JSS App" -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddYears(10)

Create a new https binding and assign the newly create SSL certificate

Setup JSS

Run the command

jss setup

Provide the path to the Sitecore instance – e.g.:- C:\inetpub\wwwroot\XP0.sc

Provde the host name – e.g.:- https://next-jss-prj.dev.local

Import Service url – e.g.:- https://next-jss-prj.dev.local/sitecore/api/jss/import

Provide the Sitecore API Key – i.e. the Item ID of the key created earlier in my case it is -{8FCF8D4A-8421-4406-B658-800C48796F8E}. See screenshot

Deployment secret– Leave this blank as this will generate new secret key

Deployment secret key is generate and stored in <<jss development folder>>\sitecore\config\next-jss-prj.deploysecret.config

JSS connection settings saved to scjssconfig.json

Connection and the deployment secret is created, now this needs to be deployed to Sitecore instance so the JSS app is able to establish a connection with Sitecoore

To deploy the config setting deploy the config to Sitecore instance-

jss deploy config

Configs are copied to Sitecore instance App_Config\Include\zzz…

Deploy the artifacts to Sitecore instance-

Since we don’t know hte thumbprint use the below command with –acceptCertificate as test

jss deploy app –includeContent –includeDictionary –acceptCertificate test

This will provide the thumbprint. highllighted in red

Copy the certificate and try deploying again-

jss deploy app –includeContent –includeDictionary –acceptCertificate E4:54:12:A0:7E:D5:95:9B:B0:C2:00:17:3A:26:1B:AD:71:73:9F:05

To run the app run following command

jss start:connected

If you receive this error-

Execute following command to get this working on port 3000

$env:NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0

Execute JSS start again-

jss start:connected

ERROR-

Connection to your rendering host failed with a Not Found error. Ensure the POST endpoint at URL http://localhost:3000/api/editing/render has been enabled.

Copy the deploy secret and update the – value of setting of JavaScriptServices.ViewEngine.Http.JssEditingSecret in Sitecore.JavaScriptServices.ViewEngine.Http with the deploy secret.

This now work in connected mode. Any content changes in Sitecore should reflect localhost:3000 and Sitecore instance (https://next-jss-prj.dev.local/)

Sitecore next js working in connected mode with SSL

Error-

Exception thrown while importing JSS app
Exception: System.UnauthorizedAccessException
Message: The current user does not have write access to this item. User: sitecore\JssImport, Item: ContentBlock ({23CE8001-F405-5E50-AE61-AD3057660BBD})
Source: Sitecore.Kernel

Resolution-

Error-

Resolution-

Check if the API key is correct at the location – /sitecore/system/Settings/Services/API Keys

Also check if the CORS and Allowed Controllers are set correctly

For developement environment put * for both the highlighted fields

Setup Sitecore 10.2 JSS using next js with disconnected mode

November 27, 2021 /

Prerequisite

Install Node js – Download the latest node js from here

Install JSS CLI

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

Create a new next js app using JSS CLI

Note the project name should be valid as per below error

next-jss-prj1 is not a valid name; you may use lowercase letters, hyphens, and underscores only.

Numbers not allowed in project name

jss create next-jss-prj nextjs

Installs all the required artifacts in the specified folder

Run the next jss app in desconneted mode-

jss start

The app should listen to port 3000

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.

Sitecore Commerce 10 Create a custom plugin project

November 6, 2020 /

If you want to get started and create a custom plugin for XC 9.3 here is the post for same First Steps | Sitecore Commerce Development | Create a Custom Plugin

There are few updates on how the plugins are created in XC 10.

Sitecore Commerce 10 SDK does not include Visual Studio Extension (VSIX) package for creating a plugin project.

Let’s get started and look into the steps to create a new plugin in Sitecore Commerce 10. 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 10 Engine

Step 2: Download Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Template from Nuget Feed

  • Navigate to Official Sitecore Commerce Nuget Feed
  • Search for Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Template
  • Download the package for Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Template 6.0.4. Copy to file Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Template.6.0.4.nupkg desired folder.

3. Install Sitecore Commerce Plugin Template Nuget Package

  • Open Powershell in admin mode and navigate to the folder nupkg file is copied and execute following command to install package
dotnet new -i .\Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Template.6.0.4.nupkg
  • Run the dotnet new command and should be able to see Sitecore Commerce Sample Plugin template

4. Create a new Sitecore Commerce Plugin Project

As we have a plugin project template we should be able create a new plugin project.

Execute following command in Powershell. Navigate to the solution src folder-

dotnet new pluginsample -o Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.SampleTest

New plugin project is created with the project name specified in command.

Include the project in Customer.Sample.Solution and compile.

Notice even though the command has project name “Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.SampleTest” the actual project is created as “Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin.Sample”. You will have to rename this unfortunately as per your requirement.

Setup development environment for Sitecore Commerce Engine 10

September 8, 2020 /

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

Options to Install Sitecore (XP) and Commerce (XC) 10

September 1, 2020 /

If you are looking for upgrade to Sitecore 10, below are the various options you are able to install Sitecore 10.

Sitecore XP 10

Sitecore Installation Assistant (SIA)

Sitecore Installation Assistant helps guides you through the Sitecore XP Developer Workstation installation. Use this option to review system requirements, install prerequisites and complete the entire installation process. With Sitecore 10 you have a option to also install SXA with SIA.

To install Sitecore 10 using SIA follow this post- Step-by-step how to install Sitecore 10 using SIA

Sitecore Installation Framework On-Premises (SIF)

Sitecore Install Framework (SIF) is a Microsoft PowerShell module that supports local and remote installations of Sitecore Experience Platform.

SIF deploys Web Deploy Packages (WDP) by passing parameters to SIF configuration through a Microsoft PowerShell module and is fully extensible.
The Sitecore Experience Platform is designed to be secure-by-default. For developer environments all the required self-signed certificates are created automatically if you do not provide any.
In a production environment, you can provide your own certificates In a non-production environment, you can choose to have the module generate the certificates for you.

You must set up SIF before you can install Sitecore Experience Platform

To install Sitecore XP 10 using SIF follow this post – Step-by-step install Sitecore XP 10 using Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF)

Sitecore Containers

Sitecore Containers support rapid deployment and more efficient solution and team onboarding with modern Docker and Kubernetes technology.

Sitecore Experience Platform 10.0.0 uses Docker Compose as the container
orchestrator on developer workstations. Docker Compose is a simple containerdeployment tool that is bundled with Docker for Windows. Sitecore container images can be deployed with other tools but we recommend that you use Docker Compose to deploy the containers that form the Sitecore Experience Platform.

To install Sitecore XP 10 using Sitecore Containers with Docker Compose- Step-by-step install Sitecore XP 10 to developer workstation using Sitecore Containers with Docker Compose

Sitecore XC 10

Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF)

Sitecore Install Framework (SIF) is a Microsoft PowerShell module that supports local and remote installations of Sitecore Experience Platform.

The SIF.Sitecore.Commerce package contains Sitecore Installation Framework scripts and Web Deployment Packages (WDP).

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

Sitecore XP 10 identity server error – failed to start process with commandline ‘dotnet .\Sitecore.IdentityServer.Host.dll’

August 17, 2020 /

After installing Sitecore 10 using Sitecore Installation Assistant (see the blog here how to install Sitecore XP 10 usig SIA) you might find the Identity Server not working since it is not able to start the process with command line ‘dotnet .\Sitecore.IdentityServer.Host.dll’

You may see this error in Application logs.

You may also see Sitecore login been not redirected to identity server site instead redirects to XP login page.

To identify the problem first try manually starting the process in powershell. You can find command to start the process in error.

Navigate to the identity server site physical folder and execute this command

dotnet .\Sitecore.IdentityServer.Host.dll

This should tell the solution to the issue i.e. it needs AspNetCore version 2.1.16 to be installed.

Install SDK 2.1.804 from here, this also install Runtime 2.1.16 – https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/2.1

Execute the command dotnet .\Sitecore.IdentityServer.Host.dll

This time the Identity Server should start.

Identity Server site is working now –

This will also help whilst installing the Sitecore Commerce 10.

Hope this helps.

Install Sitecore XP 10 using Sitecore Installation Assistant(SIA) in easy steps to development machine

August 4, 2020 /

Installing Sitecore 10 with Sitecore Installation Assistant (SIA) is quick and easy. Only manual prerequisite is to install SQL Server 2017

Please see through screens to install Sitecore 10-

Step 1- Install SQL Server 2017 and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

Step 2- Download Sitecore 10 Graphical setup package for XP Single

Step 3- Extract the zip and start setup

Step 4-

Step 5- Install prerequisite. This should install SIF and Windows Server prerequisites including IIS and modules etc.

Step 6 – Once prerequisites are installed successfully yo may have to restart machine. Install Solr search service. Sitecore 10 needs SOLR 8.4

Step 7- After SOLR is installed enter the Sitecore settings along with SQL server details and SOLR details

Step 8 – Optionally select Sitecore modules (SXA)

That’s it and everything is managed by SIA to sucessfuly install Sitecore 10 on machine

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