Deploy Platform from source code

Summary

Use this guide to deploy and configure Virto Commerce Platform from source code and setup development environment.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1
• Internet Information Services 7 or later
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or later (Express or Full)
• Visual Studio 2015 or later (optional)
• Git

Downloading source code

Fork your own copy of VirtoCommerce Platform to your account on GitHub:

1. Open Virto Commerce Platform in GitHub and click Fork in the upper right corner.
2. If you are a member of an organization on GitHub, select the target for the fork.
3. Clone the forked repository to local machine:

git clone https://github.com/<<your GitHub user name>>/vc-platform.git C:\vc-platform

4. Switch to the cloned directory:

cd C:\vc-platform

5. Add a reference to the original repository:

git remote add upstream https://github.com/VirtoCommerce/vc-platform.git

In result you should get the C:\vc-platform folder which contains full platform source code. To retrieve changes from original Virto Commerce Platform repository, merge upstream/master branch.

Restore NuGet packages in one of the following ways:

• Open VirtoCommerce.Platform.sln solution in Visual Studio. In Solution Explorer window right-click on solution and select Manage NuGet Packages for Solution. In the opened window click the Restore button.
• Run this command:

  nuget restore C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\VirtoCommerce.Platform.sln
  

Build the solution.

Configure SQL Server

SQL Server Authentication mode must be enabled.
 

Create the new login named virto with password virto. The password policy enforcement should be switched off for a simple password like this.

USE master; CREATE LOGIN virto WITH PASSWORD = 'virto', CHECK_POLICY = OFF

Give the CREATE ANY DATABASE permission to user virto. This will allow you to create a database automatically when Commerce Manager starts. For new databases created with this permission the user will have the db_owner role while access will be denied for any other database.

USE master; GRANT CREATE ANY DATABASE TO virto

Open the C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\web.config file and make sure the VirtoCommerce connection string has correct parameters for your configuration, particularly Data Source (SQL Server address), Initial Catalog (database name), User ID (user name) and Password.

Configure IIS

Open IIS Manager and add new application to Default Web Site with alias admin and physical path to C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web. Select application pool which uses .NET CLR Version 4.0 and Integrated pipeline mode.

Inside the admin application add a new virtual directory with alias assets and physical path to C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\App_Data\Assets. If there is no Assets directory inside App_Data, create it.

Your web site structure should be similar to the one shown below:

Configure file system

Open properties for the folder where you have extracted precompiled version or source code (C:\vc-platform) and give permission Read & execute to Users group if this permission is not inherited from the parent folder.

Open properties for C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\App_Data folder and give permission Modify to IIS_IUSRS user group.

Open properties for C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\Modules (create this folder if not exsist) folder and give permission Modify to IIS_IUSRS user group as shown above.

Configure CMS content (optionally)

VirtoCommerce CMS Content module provide you ability to view & update CMS content from platform UI. You can optionally change default path of CMS content:

• In the C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\web.config file in the connectionStrings section add the add node named CmsContentConnectionString
• Change its connectionString attribute value to needed folder path (provider=LocalStorage;rootPath=~/App_Data/cms-content connection string will be used by default).

  <connectionStrings>
    ...
    <add name="CmsContentConnectionString" connectionString="provider={provider name};rootPath={URL to CMS content location}" />
    ...
  </connectionStrings>
  

Start VirtoCommerce Platform

Open the http://localhost/admin URL in browser. A sign in page should open:

The default administrator account login is admin and the password is store.

Next steps (optional)

The VirtoCommerce Platform is up and running. What's next? Here are some ideas to try.

Modules

Install modules in VirtoCommerce Platform UI

Install some modules as described in Modules management tutorial.

Manual module installation from source code

Do you prefer the installation in developer way? Great, follow these steps for each module:

• Download the latest module source code from module GitHub repository in the same way as you did that for VirtoCommerce Platform in first step.
• Extract it to platform's Modules directory. You also can extract it to any directory (C:\vc-module for example) and link it to the Modules directory using the following command:

  mklink /d C:\vc-platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform\VirtoCommerce.Platform.Web\Modules C:\vc-module
  

• Open and compile module solution.
• Restart IIS.
• Open Platform app.
• The new module will be loaded automatically.
• Check its status in Configuration → Modules → Installed.

Create your own module

Why not to create your own module? Follow the steps described in Developing a custom solution tutorial.

How platform loads modules

Sample data

If you have no data for your VirtoCommerce Platform, but want to easy develop VirtoCommerce Platform or its modules, you can install our sample data.

At first login you will see the following dialog after optional module choice & installation:

Click to Clothing and Electronics. Sample data installation will start.