Tag: Sitecore

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

Configure Sitecore Content Serialization for ASP.Net Rendering with Helix Examples Solution

In this blog will creata a new component name Article in the Helix Examples Solution to demonstrate how to configure and use Sitecore Content Serlialization (SCS).

Assuming the Sitecore CLI is installed along with Sitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.SerializationSitecore.DevEx.Extensibility.Publishing plugins are installed.

For more details on the plugin installation please see this link- https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/101/developer-tools/install-sitecore-command-line-interface.html

Open the helix-basic-aspnetcore folder in Visual Studio and see Sitecore.json file. This file has the configuration settings for SCS.

modules – willl look into the src folder for *.module.json file for any component specific configuration the items that need to be serialized.

So lets create a new module or rendering feature named “Articles”. Just a folder and not a project itself

1. Create a module json for serlialization configuration

IMP – Create Articles.module.json file in the project root folder

Add following to the json file-

{
  "namespace": "Feature.Articles",
  "items": {
    "includes": [
      {
        "name": "templates",
        "path": "/sitecore/templates/Feature/Articles"
      },
      {
        "name": "renderings",
        "path": "/sitecore/layout/Renderings/Feature/Articles"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Here the items that will be serliazed are templates and rendering from the given path in Sitecore to the local Solution Folder configured in Sitecore.json file the path mentioned in defaultModuleRelativeSerializationPath property. See step 1

IMP- Ensure the module file is in Articles folder. Your project folder should looks like this-

2. Create a Sitecore Template and Rendering for Articles

Create a Json Rendering for now(fill in the details later)

3. Sync the items (manual)

Execute following command to serlaize the items for Articles-

dotnet sitecore ser pull

Project folder should now have items folder with templates and rendering-

Thats it any Templates and rendering created for Articles (new component) should be serliazed.

Refer BasicCompany.module.json for any placeholders, layouts etc serlization at the project level.

Hope this helps.

Create a Asp.Net simple rendering using data source in Helix Examples Solution

In this blog will create a simple rendering uing Asp.Net Rendering SDK in Helix Examples Solution

Please refer the blog to create a rendering folder and configure the SCS before proceeding this blog.

So lets create a new module or rendering feature named “Articles”.

1. Create a Feature project using Razor Class Library

Project Name – BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering

Notice the project path

Choose .Net Core 3.1 Framework-

Delete any exisitng files and folders under this project-

Edit the project to use netcoreapp3.1 and AddRazorSupportForMvc to true

Rename helix-basic-aspnetcore\src\Feature\Articles\BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering to rendering. Just to follow other feature fodler structure.

2. Install Sitecore packages

Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine

Sitecore.LayoutService.Client

I have installed verions 16 just to be in sync with other projects. You may install the latest.

New rendering project should have these packages installed-

Remove these packages as this may be not required at thi point of time or downgrade this to 3.1.1

Refer the new created rendering project to BasicCompany.Project.BasicCompany.Rendering

When the solution is build you may see this error-

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error The package reference ‘Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine’ should not specify a version. Please specify the version in ‘C:\projects\Helix.Examples\examples\helix-basic-aspnetcore\Packages.props’ or set VersionOverride to override the centrally defined version. BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering C:\projects\Helix.Examples\examples\helix-basic-aspnetcore\src\Feature\Articles\rendering\BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering.csproj

Solution– Remove the version for the plugin fropm project file

Edit the project file and remove version from the PackageReference-

Solution should build successully.

3. Ensure Articles.modules.json file in Feature folder

Please see this blog <<Enter blog url here>> how to create a module.json file to serliaze the Sitecore items for new Feature.

4. Create required Sitecore Templates, content, renderings and Placeholder Settings

Template – Article in following path- /sitecore/templates/Feature/Articles

Page Type Template – Create 2 page type templates “Articles” and “Article” page as below.

Add any required Insert Options where necessary.

IMP- inherit from _NavigationItem to display the Articles as Navigation option

Enter Navigation Title for Articles page-

Content

Create content in Home page based on the Article templates created.

Rendering

Create a new Json Rendering Article. See previous post

Set Datasource Location- ./Page Components|query:./ancestor-or-self::*[@@templatename=’Site’]/Shared Content/Articles

Datasource Template- /sitecore/templates/Feature/Articles/Article

Add rendering to Template

Add Header, Article and Footer Controls to the Presentation

Select appropriate datasource for the Article component-

You can also add the component from experience editor. For simplicity purpose I am adding this from the presentation details manually.

Publish the changes and see https://www.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost

Note:- If you get bad gateway error the resolution is in this blog <<blog for resolution>>

you should see the Articles option in Navigation-

Note- We wont be configuring “Articles” page in this blog. Will see that in next blog when uing Content Resolver.

See thie Article page-

https://www.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost/Articles/Sitecore%20Content%20Serialization%20structural%20overview

There is a error – “Unknown component ‘Article'”. This is because we havent yet created view for this component.

Create Model in BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering project for rendering Article component

Note the propeties are using Sitecore.LayoutService.Client.Response.Model.Fields

using Sitecore.LayoutService.Client.Response.Model.Fields;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering.Models
{
    public class Article
    {
        public TextField Title { get; set; }

        public RichTextField Description { get; set; }

        public TextField ShortDescription { get; set; }
    }
}

Create View in BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering project for rendering Article component

Create Article.cshtml file under Views/Shared/Components/SitecoreComponent

Add following markup-


@model Article

<div class="container">
    <section class="hero is-small product-detail-hero">
        <div class="hero-body">
             <h3  class="title" asp-for="Title"></h3>
            <sc-text class="subtitle is-one-quarter" asp-for="Description"></sc-text>
        </div>
    </section>
</div>

InViews Folder create _ViewImports.cshtml file and put the following in file-

@using Sitecore.LayoutService.Client.Response.Model
@using Sitecore.LayoutService.Client.Response.Model.Fields
@using Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine.Extensions
@using BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering.Models

@addTagHelper *, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.TagHelpers
@addTagHelper *, Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine

Add Extensions for registering the ModelBoundView. This is a static class and will be used in Project Rendering on application startup (BasicCompany.Project.BasicCompany.Rendering).

using BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Rendering.Models;
using Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine.Configuration;
using Sitecore.AspNet.RenderingEngine.Extensions;

namespace BasicCompany.Feature.Articles.Extensions
{
    public  static class RenderingEngineOptionsExtensions
    {
        public static RenderingEngineOptions AddFeatureArticle(this RenderingEngineOptions options)
        {
            options
                .AddModelBoundView<Article>("Article");            
            return options;
        }
    }
}

In BasicCompany.Project.BasicCompany.Rendering project, Startup.cs register the component-

Build the Project

Output– https://www.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost/Articles/Sitecore%20Content%20Serialization%20structural%20overview

Issues

Bad gateway error while accessing – https://www.basic-company-aspnetcore.localhost/

Solution-

Restart the rendering container

docker ps
docker restart <<rebdering container>>

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

Setup Sitecore OrderCloud Headstart Buyer UI App – Part 4

Part 1 using offline Azure resource and Part 1 using online Azure resources gives a walkthrough on setting Sitecore Ordercloud Headstart pre-requisites. While Part 2 helps setup middleware.

Part 3 helps setup Seller UI App

In this blog will setup Buyer UI

Step 1- Setup the Buyer UI project

If you have followed earlier steps to setup Seller UI App you must have already installed node js.

Open the BuyerUI project in Visual Studio Code (prefered) from /src/UI/Buyer folder

Step 2 – Change configuration defaultbuyer-test.json

Navigate to \src\UI\Buyer\src\assets\appConfigs\defaultbuyer-test.json

Update the clientID to your Marketplace Buyer UI client ID

Update baseUrl e.g.:- http://localhost:4300

Update middlewareUrl. If you are in local update this to – https://localhost:5001

Update translateBlobUrl e.g.:- http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1/ngx-translate/i18n/

Step 3 – Change configuration environment.local.ts

Update the useLocalMiddleware to true if this is locally setup

Update localMiddlewareURL to https://localhost:5001

Update localBuyerApiClient, same as in the previous step

Step 4 – Run the Buyer UI application

RUN – from the visual studio terminal or powershell

npm install
np run start

This should compile successfully and ;listen to 4300 port

Headstart Buyer application- http://localhost:4300

Setup Sitecore OrderCloud Headstart Seller UI – Part 3

Part 1 using offline Azure resource and Part 1 using online Azure resources gives a walkthrough on setting Sitecore Ordercloud Headstart pre-requisites. While Part 2 helps setup middleware.

In this blog we are setting the Sitecore Ordercloud Headstart UI for Seller

Step 1- Setup the UI project

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

Open the Seller UI project in Visual Studio Code (prefered) from /src/UI/Seller folder

Step 2 – Change configuration defaultadmin-test.json

Navigate to – \src\UI\Seller\src\assets\appConfigs\defaultadmin-test.json

Change the highlighted values-

Change Client ID

This is a Seller Client ID. In Part 1 response to the seed also provided Seller Client ID.Use the same clinet id here

OR

Goto the marketplace you have created earlier and API Client to copy the Default HeadStart Admin UI ID

Copy the ID in clientID below-

{
  "hostedApp": true,
  "marketplaceID": "ocdockertest",
  "marketplaceName": "Default Admin",
  "appname": "Default Admin",
  "clientID": "your-seller-client-id",
  "middlewareUrl": "https://localhost:5001",
  "translateBlobUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1/ngx-translate/i18n/",
  "supportedLanguages": ["en", "fr", "jp"],
  "defaultLanguage": "en",
  "blobStorageUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1",
  "orderCloudApiUrl": "https://sandboxapi.ordercloud.io"
}

Change the storage account created in Step 1

Keep everything else as is or you may change as per your configuration.

Step 3 – Change/Check the configuration environment.local.json

Navigate to \src\UI\Seller\src\environments\environment.local.ts

Change/Check useLocalMiddleware=true if not already set.

Change/Check localMiddlewareURL = ‘https://localhost:5001’

Step 4 – Setup the App Configuration either using appSettings or Azure App Configuration

Setup a App Configuration using appSettings.json

Use/Download the template here provided by Sitecore to setup the configuration

Create a json file on your local machine by copying the content in the template. In my case I have created OCHeadstartConfig.json. The template looks as below- Highlighted values are the minimum configuration required for Headstart project. Few of the configuration will come from the Seed step explained in Part-2Step 4 – Populate Ordercloud Markeplace with the seed request

Following configuration(highlighted) needs to be updated minimum to get the Headstart project working-

OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientID

OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientSecret

OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceID

OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceName

{
"ApplicationInsightsSettings:InstrumentationKey": "",
"AvalaraSettings:AccountID": "0",
"AvalaraSettings:BaseApiUrl": "https://sandbox-rest.avatax.com/api/v2",
"AvalaraSettings:CompanyCode": "",
"AvalaraSettings:CompanyID": "0",
"AvalaraSettings:LicenseKey": "",
"CardConnectSettings:Authorization": "",
"CardConnectSettings:AuthorizationCad": "",
"CardConnectSettings:BaseUrl": "cardconnect.com",
"CardConnectSettings:CadMerchantID": "",
"CardConnectSettings:Site": "fts-uat",
"CardConnectSettings:UsdMerchantID": "",
"CosmosSettings:DatabaseName": "",
"CosmosSettings:EnableTcpConnectionEndpointRediscovery": "false",
"CosmosSettings:EndpointUri": "",
"CosmosSettings:PrimaryKey": "",
"CosmosSettings:RequestTimeoutInSeconds": "15",
"EasyPostSettings:APIKey": "",
"EasyPostSettings:FreeShippingTransitDays": "3",
"EasyPostSettings:NoRatesFallbackCost": "20",
"EasyPostSettings:NoRatesFallbackTransitDays": "3",
"EnvironmentSettings:AppTimeoutInSeconds": "30",
"EnvironmentSettings:BuildNumber": "",
"EnvironmentSettings:Commit": "",
"EnvironmentSettings:Environment": "Test",
"EnvironmentSettings:MiddlewareBaseUrl": "",
"EnvironmentSettings:TaxProvider": "Avalara",
"FlurlSettings:TimeoutInSeconds": "40",
"OrderCloudSettings:ApiUrl": "https://sandboxapi.ordercloud.io",
"OrderCloudSettings:IncrementorPrefix": "DB_TEST",
"OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceID": "<<market place id >>",
"OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceName": "<<market place name>>",
"OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientID": "<<Middleware ClientId>>",
"OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientSecret": "<<middleware client secret>>",
"OrderCloudSettings:WebhookHashKey": "<<webhook key>>",
"OrderCloudSettings:ClientIDsWithAPIAccess": "<<Enter the Seller or Buyer ClientID's sperated with comma>>"
"SendGridSettings:ApiKey": "",
"SendgridSettings:BillingEmail": "",
"SendgridSettings:CriticalSupportEmails": "",
"SendgridSettings:CriticalSupportTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:FromEmail": "",
"SendgridSettings:LineItemStatusChangeTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:NewUserTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:OrderSubmitTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:PasswordResetTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:ProductInformationRequestTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:QuoteOrderSubmitTemplateID": "",
"SendgridSettings:SupportCaseEmail": "",
"SmartyStreetSettings:AuthID": "",
"SmartyStreetSettings:AuthToken": "",
"SmartyStreetSettings:RefererHost": "",
"SmartyStreetSettings:WebsiteKey": "",
"StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameCache": "cache",
"StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameExchangeRates": "currency",
"StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameQueue": "queue",
"StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameTranslations": "ngx-translate",
"StorageAccountSettings:BlobPrimaryEndpoint": "http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1",
"StorageAccountSettings:ConnectionString": "<<copy Connectionstring from Storage explorer >>",
"UI:BaseAdminUrl": "",
"ZohoSettings:AccessToken": "",
"ZohoSettings:ClientId": "",
"ZohoSettings:ClientSecret": "",
"ZohoSettings:OrgID": "",
"ZohoSettings:PerformOrderSubmitTasks": "false"
}

Get the StorageAccount.Settings.ConnectionString from Storage Explorer-

Create appSettings.json file and copy the above configuration in the file.

appSettings.json file should be in Headstart.API project-

IMP – Check if the middleware applicaiton is running and listening to localhsot 5001 port. If not you should run the Headstart.Api before running UI application.

Setup a App Configuration using Azure App Configuration

Get the configuration connection string

Goto the Access Keys – Read-only keys tab and copy the connection string

Add a new Environment Variable named – APP_CONFIG_CONNECTION and copy the connection string in the Value.

Run the middleware application with the Demo profile.

IMP – If you see compiler error’s whilst running the application. See this blog for the resolution.

Step 5 – Run the Seller UI application

Now that we have all the required configuration checked and changed, time to run the Seller UI application

RUN – from the visual studio terminal or powershell

npm install
npm run start

Now we have Seller application runing on localhost:4200 port

Provide Admin Username and Password as noted in Part -1 of the blog Step 3- Prepare Seed Request

After successful login-

Also we can see the Seller Admin-

Hope you enjoyed setting Sitecore Ordercloud Headstart 🙂

Setup Sitecore OrderCloud Headstart Project – Part 2

This blog will walkthrough step by step to setup OrderCloud Headstart Solution on your development machine.

You may want to first see Part 1 with Azurite or through Azure resources

Headstart project and instructions are here

In this blog we are setting the Sitecore Ordercloud Headstart middleware

Step 1- Create a Sitecore OrderCloud Marketplace

See this blog to setup the OrderCloud Marketplace

Create a new maketplace e.g.- OrderCloudHeadstart in Us-West region

IMP– At the time this blog was written looks like only Us-West region is supported when a seed request is sent. This may change in future but connect to OrderCloud team is you want this to be in region other than Us-West

Note the newly created Marketplace ID – in my case it is – OrderCloudHeadstart

If you havent provided the Marketplace ID whilst creating the OrederCloud will create once for you. You can find the same in the Marketplace.

Navigate to API Console and Get the Admin User, as you see there are no Admin users. You may also check other endpoints.

Step 2 – Setup Middleware

Clone headstart repository – https://github.com/ordercloud-api/headstart.git

Open Headstart.sln in src/Middleware. I am using Visual Studio 2019.

Open Headstart.API project proerties

Create a new Debug Profile for Headstart.Api project. Set this as Start project.

Run the Headstart.Api project and should listen to localhost 5000 and 5001 port

Step 3- Prepare Seed Request

Open postman and create a new Post request to – https://localhost:5001/seed

Use the below request body –

{
  "Portal": {
    "Username": "username@company.com",
    "Password": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
  },
  "Marketplace": {
    "Environment": "sandbox",
    "Region": "Us-West",
    "ID": "your-marketplace-id",
    "Name": "your-marketplace-name",
    "InitialAdmin": {
      "Username": "adminuser",
      "Password": "XXXXXXXXXX"
    },
    "EnableAnonymousShopping": true,
    "MiddlewareBaseUrl": "http://localhost:5000",
    "WebhookHashKey": "hashkey"
  }
}

PortalUsername – enter the portal username you used to create a marketplace

PortalPassword – enter the portal password you used to create a marketplace

InitialAdminUsername – this request will create a admin user. Enter the admin username you wish to create

InitialAdminPassword – enter the admin password you want to set

MiddlewareBaseUrl – this is not required for local build

MarketplaceID – Enter the Marketplace ID you created in Step 1

Marketplace.Region– enter this to be sandbox in this case. For the other environments you might want to user different values for Staging and Production

WebhookHashKey – Set the webhook haskey to secure your webhook request.

Postman request should look like this –

STEP 4 – Setup a App Configuration using appSettings.json

Use/Download the template here provided by Sitecore to setup the configuration

Create a json file on your local machine by copying the content in the template. In my case I have created OCHeadstartConfig.json. The template looks as below- Highlighted values are the minimum configuration required for Headstart project.

Following configuration(highlighted) needs to be updated minimum to send the seed request working-

StorageAccountSettings:ConnectionString

StorageAccountSettings:HostUrl

StorageAccountSettings:Key

{
 "StorageAccountSettings:ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;AccountName=devstoreaccount1;AccountKey=Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsuFq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw==;BlobEndpoint=http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1;QueueEndpoint=http://127.0.0.1:10001/devstoreaccount1;",
  "StorageAccountSettings:ContainerNameCache": "cache",
  "StorageAccountSettings:ContainerNameExchangeRates": "",
  "StorageAccountSettings:ContainerNameTranslations": "ngx-translate",
  "StorageAccountSettings:ContainerNameQueue": "queue",
  "StorageAccountSettings:HostUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:10000/devstoreaccount1",
  "StorageAccountSettings:Key": "Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsuFq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw=="
}

Get the StorageAccount.Settings.ConnectionString from Storage Explorer-

Create appSettings.json file and copy the above configuration in the file.

appSettings.json file should be in Headstart.API project-

IMP – Check if the middleware applicaiton is running and listening to localhsot 5001 port. If not you should run the Headstart.Api before running UI application.

Step 5 – Send the seed request to Ordercloud Markeplace

Ensure the Headstart Api is running and listening to 5001 port as mentioned in Step 2

Send the seed request

You can see the same in application that is listening to 5001 port the request was sent to-

If you have set the request correctly you should receive the success response-

IMP – Note the below response and the request that was sent specifically Admin Username and Password as this will be required later when configuring the UI application

{
    "Comments": "Success! Your environment is now seeded. The following clientIDs & secrets should be used to finalize the configuration of your application. The initial admin username and password can be used to sign into your admin application",
    "MarketplaceName": "ocdockertest",
    "MarketplaceID": "ocdockertest",
    "OrderCloudEnvironment": "Sandbox",
    "ApiClients": {
        "Middleware": {
            "ClientID": "1141E496-8517-4953-809B-XXXXXXXXX",
            "ClientSecret": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
        },
        "Seller": {
            "ClientID": "6E98D7A1-35E9-4156-B60B-XXXXXXXXXX"
        },
        "Buyer": {
            "ClientID": "E1EBE13C-CC74-4021-B4A9-XXXXXXXXXX"
        }
    },
    "Success": true,
    "Exception": null
}

Comments – seed response comments

MarketplaceName – gets the Marketplace name that was configured in Step 1

MarketplaceID – UniqueId that was sent as part of request and the data seeded in this Marketplace

OrderCloudEnvironment – Environment where the request was sent

ApiClients.Middleware.ClientID – Note down Middleware ClientID

ApiClients.Middleware. ClientSecret – Note down Middleware ClientSecret

ApiClients.Seller.ClientID – Note down the Seller ClientID

ApiClients.Buyer.ClientID – Note down the Buyer ClientID

Step 5- Check the Marketplace for the data been puplated

In Step 1- we saw there was not admin user created. After the seed request you can see the Admin User is created with the name mentioned in request.

Admin User

InitialAdminUser with the username provided in request is created

Also the MiddlewareIntegrationsUser is created

Buyer User

Buyer User is created-

Api Clients

Api clients created and the same was sent as response. This is used so each client have a different Id’s that helps any application to connect.

Errors-

Ensure the StorageAccountSettings:HostUrl and ConnectionString is configured correctly.

Thats it in this blog. Hope you are enjoying setting your Ordercloud Headstart project.

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Setup Sitecore OrderCloud Headstart project using Azure Resources – Part 1

Follow below steps to configure Sitecore Ordercloud Headstart middleware using Azure Resources

Step 1 – Setup a Azure App Configuration

Since we will be now setup a backend application (i.e. admin etc) the Client IDs and Client Secret that was create in Step 5 needs to be secured. This can be condifured in Azure App Configuration. See the link on how to setup this.

Use/Download the template here provided by Sitecore to setup the configuration

Create a json file on your local machine by copying the content in the template. In my case I have created OCHeadstartConfig.json. The template looks as below-

{
    "ApplicationInsightsSettings:InstrumentationKey": "",
    "AvalaraSettings:AccountID": 0,
    "AvalaraSettings:CompanyCode": "",
    "AvalaraSettings:CompanyID": 0,
    "AvalaraSettings:LicenseKey": "",
    "AvalaraSettings:BaseApiUrl": "https://sandbox-rest.avatax.com/api/v2",
    "StorageAccountSettings:ConnectionString": "",
    "StorageAccountSettings:BlobPrimaryEndpoint": "",
    "StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameQueue": "queue",
    "StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameCache": "cache",
    "StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameExchangeRates": "currency",
    "StorageAccountSettings:BlobContainerNameTranslations": "ngx-translate",
    "CardConnectSettings:Authorization": "",
    "CardConnectSettings:AuthorizationCad": "",
    "CardConnectSettings:BaseUrl": "cardconnect.com",
    "CardConnectSettings:CadMerchantID": "",
    "CardConnectSettings:Site": "fts-uat",
    "CardConnectSettings:UsdMerchantID": "",
    "CosmosSettings:DatabaseName": "",
    "CosmosSettings:EnableTcpConnectionEndpointRediscovery": "false",
    "CosmosSettings:EndpointUri": "",
    "CosmosSettings:PrimaryKey": "",
    "CosmosSettings:RequestTimeoutInSeconds": "15",
    "EasyPostSettings:APIKey": "",
    "EasyPostSettings:FreeShippingTransitDays": "3",
    "EasyPostSettings:NoRatesFallbackCost": "20",
    "EasyPostSettings:NoRatesFallbackTransitDays": "3",
    "EnvironmentSettings:AppTimeoutInSeconds": "30",
    "EnvironmentSettings:MiddlewareBaseUrl": "",
    "EnvironmentSettings:BuildNumber": "",
    "EnvironmentSettings:Commit": "",
    "EnvironmentSettings:Environment": "Test",
    "EnvironmentSettings:TaxProvider": "Avalara",
    "FlurlSettings:TimeoutInSeconds": "40",
    "OrderCloudSettings:ApiUrl": "https://sandboxapi.ordercloud.io",
    "OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientID": "",
    "OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientSecret": "",
    "OrderCloudSettings:IncrementorPrefix": "DB_TEST",
    "OrderCloudSettings:WebhookHashKey": "",
    "OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceID": "",
    "OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceName": "",
    "SendGridSettings:ApiKey": "",
    "SendgridSettings:FromEmail": "",
    "SendgridSettings:CriticalSupportEmails": "",
    "SendgridSettings:SupportCaseEmail": "",
    "SendgridSettings:BillingEmail": "",
    "SendgridSettings:OrderSubmitTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:OrderApprovalTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:LineItemStatusChangeTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:QuoteOrderSubmitTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:NewUserTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:ProductInformationRequestTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:PasswordResetTemplateID": "",
    "SendgridSettings:CriticalSupportTemplateID": "",
    "SmartyStreetSettings:AuthID": "",
    "SmartyStreetSettings:AuthToken": "",
    "SmartyStreetSettings:RefererHost": "",
    "SmartyStreetSettings:WebsiteKey": "",
    "UI:BaseAdminUrl": "",
    "ZohoSettings:AccessToken": "",
    "ZohoSettings:ClientId": "",
    "ZohoSettings:ClientSecret": "",
    "ZohoSettings:OrgID": "",
    "ZohoSettings:PerformOrderSubmitTasks": "false"
  }

Select the subscription and Resource group

Provide the Resource name in this case I have used OrderCloudHeadStartConfig

Select Location and Pricing tier.

Once the resource is created in the Import/Export option select –

Source service – Configuration file

For language – Other

File type- Json

Source file – *.json (auto selected)

Select the folder icon in Source file option and click Apply to import the configuration.

After the config file is imported navigate to “Configuration Explorer”. There are 63 config key values are imported but in template there are 64.

“SendgridSettings:OrderApprovalTemplateID”: “”, is not imported for due to some reason. Create a new manually if required. For the Demo this is not required.

Click on the values to see the values of the key that was imported-

Set the following values by Right clicking the keys. Copy this from Step 4 where the response was received from seed request-

OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientID

OrderCloudSettings:MiddlewareClientSecret

OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceID

OrderCloudSettings:MarketplaceName

Continue updating config in next section for Storage Account.

Step 2- Create a Azure Storage Account (if you already don’t have)

Create a Azure Storage Account

Follow the steps and set the configuration as per your requirements

Copy the storage account name and Storage connection string

Set StorageAccountSettings:BlobPrimaryEndpoint – https://yourstorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/occontainer

Set StorageAccountSettings:ConnectionString

Thats in in this blog. In next blog will cover setting up the UI project.

Hope you are enjoying setting your Ordercloud Headstart project.