Tag: Sitecore Commerce

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

September 25, 2020 /

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

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Setup development environment for Sitecore Commerce Engine 10 and 10.2

September 8, 2020 /

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

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

How to resolve user registration error in Sitecore Commerce- “Invalid or missing value for property Domain .”,”User created but external Id was not provided”

July 31, 2020 /

Are you wondering why this error occurred while registering user?

You may come across this error when the engine is trying to create a customer in Commerce and the domain you have created for Storefront is not available in Commerce. The customer in commerce are mapped to the domain and if the domain is not found or matched with what is configured in Storefront this error will come.

So how to resolve this error-

Lets say your Storefront is mapped to use the default environment i.e. HabitatShops.

Follow steps below to make this work-

  • Open PlugIn.Habitat.CommerceAuthoring-1.0.0.json and find the CustomerPropertiesPolicy
  • You may see the list of Domains default been Storefront, extranet and CommerceUsers
  • Add the domain you have configured in your storefront in this list e.g.:- HabitatStorefront
  • Add the same domain to PlugIn.Habitat.CommerceShops-1.0.0.json
  • Ensure the domain is created and mapped in the Storefront correctly
  • Bootstrap Habitat Environment using Postman and now you should see the domain in the list whilst creating a customer

You should now able to see the domain in the list whilst creating a customer in business tool

Should also allow to create a customer with the new domain-

Hope this helps.

Elements of a Sitecore Commerce Plugin project template

June 28, 2020 /

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 /

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 /

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

April 15, 2020 /

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

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

March 30, 2020 /

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.

StorefrontConfiguration

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

StorefrontConfiguration_resolve

The product listing and details page should be shown.

StorefrontConfiguration_resolve)product

 

Step by Step – Create promotions in Sitecore Commerce 9.3

March 6, 2020 /

Who don’t like discounts. People eagerly wait for Black Friday or Christmas offers. During festive these are the discounts applied mostly without a promo codes. When its no festive period you may still find the discounts but those asks for promo codes i.e. coupons.

giphypromo

In this article I will walk through how to create and setup the promotions in Sitecore Commerce 9.3  by defining qualifications, benefits and coupons. How the discounts are automatically applied when Public Coupons are set and how to restrict an auto discounts by setting private coupons.

I assume you have installed Sitecore Experience and Commerce 9.3.

See these links more details on Creating and Setting Promotions step by step

Step 1- Promotion dashboard and Promotion Book

To be continued…