Lesson 1 - How to deploy and configure Virto Commerce

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Summary

Use this guide to deploy and configure precompiled Virto Commerce Platform (backend) and Virto Commerce Storefront (frontend).

Video

Prerequisites

Install-WindowsFeature -name Web-Server -IncludeAllSubFeature

Initial configuration of VirtoCommerce Platform (backend).

Navigate to the Releases section of Virto Commerce Platform in GitHub.

You will find and download VirtoCommerce.Platform.2.x.x.zip file.

Unpack follow zip to the web server in IIS application root directory C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin. If there is no admin directory inside wwwroot, create it manually or with PowerShell commands:

$folder="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin"
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $folder -Force

Setup of Virto Commerce Platform

Configure connection strings

  • Open the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin\Web.config file in a text editor.

  • In the connectionStrings section find the add node:

    VirtoCommerce: parameters for  SQL server database. Change (local) to IP address of your SQL Server. For locally running instance SQL Express set Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS.

    <add name="VirtoCommerce" connectionString="Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=VirtoCommerce2;Persist Security Info=True;User       ID=virto;Password=virto;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;Connect Timeout=420" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

Create virto user in SQL Server Manager

  • Open SQL Server Manager and connect to the local sql server on Database Engine. Add to Security/Logins new login name virto with password virto, give him in Server Roles dbcreator and public roles.

Configure permissions for admin folder of VirtoCommerce Platform

Open properties for C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin folder and give permission Modify to IIS_IUSRS user group.

Setting admin folder security options

The same can be done with PowerShell commands:

$acl = Get-Acl $folder
$acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($True, $True)
Set-Acl -Path $folder -AclObject $acl
$permission = "BUILTIN\IIS_IUSRS","Modify, Synchronize", "ContainerInherit, ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow"
$accessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule $permission
$acl.SetAccessRule($accessRule)
$acl | Set-Acl $folder

Configure IIS

  • Open the IIS Manager and create a new application named admin inside an existing Default Web Site.
  • In the Physical path field enter the full path to the platform site data folder C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin

Website configuration in IIS

  • Select application pool named DefaultAppPool which uses .NET CLR Version 4.0 and Integrated pipeline mode
  • Inside the admin application add the new virtual directory with alias assets and physical path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin\App_Data\Assets. If there is no Assets directory inside App_Data, create it manually or with PowerShell commands:
$folder="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin\App_Data\Assets"
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $folder -Force

Create a virtual folder for Virto Commerce Platform assets

First sign in

  • Open the Virto Commerce Platform application in the browser - in the IIS Manager select admin and click on right column to "Browse *:80(http)".
  • On the first request the application will create and initialize Virtocommerce2 database. Wait a minute...
  • After that you should see the sign in page.

Sign in page

  • Use the following credentials:
    • Login: admin
    • Password: store

Modules auto installation

  • Next step - platform modules auto installation, after that you should click the Restart button.

Modules auto installation page

Sample data installation

  • After restart you should see next page with possibillity to sample data installation (you should choose Closing and Electronics option - new products would be added to your Virtocommerce2 database).

Sample data installation page

Change administrator password

  • In the left menu select More > Configuration > Security.
  • Select Users
  • Select the admin user.
  • Click Change password.
  • Enter the new password twice and click OK.

Change frontend password

  • In the left menu select More > Configuration > Security.
  • Select Users
  • Select the frontend user.
  • Click Change password.
  • Enter the new password twice and click OK.

Change API credentials for storefront application

  • In the left menu select More > Configuration > Security.
  • Select Users
  • Select the frontend user.
  • Click the API Keys widget.
  • Select the Frontend Hmac key
  • Click Generate, then OK, then Save.

Initial configuration of VirtoCommerce Storefront (frontend).

Navigate to the Releases section of Virto Commerce Storefront in GitHub.

You will find and download VirtoCommerce.Storefront.2.x.x.zip file.

Create new folder named storefront in IIS application root directory C:\inetpub\wwwroot manually or with PowerShell commands:

$folder="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront"
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $folder -Force

and unpack this zip file to this folder of web server.

Setup of Virto Commerce Storefront

Configure Web API base URL

  • Open the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\Web.config in a text editor.
  • In the connectionStrings section find the add node named VirtoCommerceBaseUrl. Make sure that its connectionString attribute value is http://localhost/admin. 
    <add name="VirtoCommerceBaseUrl" connectionString="http://localhost/admin" />

Configure CMS content storage

  • Open the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\Web.config in a text editor.
  • In the connectionStrings section find the add node named ContentConnectionString. Make sure that its connectionString attribute rootPath value is ~/App_Data/cms-content. 
    <add name="ContentConnectionString" connectionString="provider=LocalStorage;rootPath=~/App_Data/cms-content" />

Configure Api credentials

  • Open the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\Web.config in a text editor.
  • In the appSettings section find the add node with key attribute named vc-public-ApiSecretKey. Make sure that its value attribute is set to the value obtained earlier in the 'Change API credentials for storefront application' step. 
    <add key="vc-public-ApiSecretKey" value="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" />

Configure IIS

  • Open the IIS Manager and add a new application named storefront inside an existing Default Web Site.
  • In the Physical path field enter the full path to the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront folder:

Add application in IIS

  • Select application pool named DefaultAppPool which uses .NET CLR Version 4.0 and Integrated pipeline mode

Add default themе for VirtoCommerce Storefront

  • Open the IIS Manager and add a new virtual directory named cms-content inside C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\App_Data.
  • Physical path is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin\App_Data\cms-content.

Add virtual directory cms-content

The same can be done with PowerShell commands:

New-Item -Path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\storefront\App_Data\cms-content -ItemType SymbolicLink -Value C:\inetpub\wwwroot\admin\App_Data\cms-content

Now you could first open the VirtoCommerce Storefront application in the browser after full modules and sample data installation on Virtocommerce Platform - in the IIS Manager select storefront and click on right column to "Browse *:80(http)".

First storefront page