Deploy an existing Commerce Connect site

11 min

When is this applicable?

This is an onboarding scenario for an existing site which you want to move to a cloud-based environment for the first time, for further development and maintenance there. In this case you already have a database with content, and you will need to get that restored to the correct application, which will be done by Optimizely.

Before you start

This topic uses Visual Studio with the Optimizely extensions and publish profiles. However, you can also use other deployment methods.

See DXP requirements for recommended software versions, tools, and services when deploying.

See Get started with DXP for deployment information.

Important

If not already done, remember to change the default login credentials (admin/store) provided in the Commerce Connect installation, before deploying.

Output and file formats

To deploy from your local development environment, you must create a set of output files and provide these to Optimizely for deployment to the Integration environment.

A Commerce Connect solution comprises two databases: one for CMS and one for Commerce Connect. So, there are additional output components compared to a plain CMS site.

Create the output files

To deploy from your local development environment, export the database as a .bacpac file and upload it to the DXP integration environment's storage account. Optimizely Support will import it for you.

You can also upload the BLOBs directly (unpacked) to your DXP integration environment's storage account.

Also, you can deploy the code using the deployment API to the DXP integration environment.

Step 1 – Create a code package

Add a cloud platform to the website. In the NuGet package manager:

Select Browse.

Enter cloud in the search field.

Select the EPiServer.CloudPlatform.Commerce package.

Select your project.

Click Install and confirm the installation.

Repeat steps 1 to 5 to install EpiServer.CloudPlatform.Cms package.

To configure the EPiServer.CloudPlatform.Cms package, you need to add this code in ConfigureServices method in startup.cs file.

public class Startup 
{ 
    private readonly IWebHostEnvironment _webHostingEnvironment; 
    private readonly IConfiguration _configuration; 

    public Startup(IWebHostEnvironment webHostingEnvironment, IConfiguration configuration) { 
        _webHostingEnvironment = webHostingEnvironment; 
        _configuration = configuration; 
    } 

    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services){ 
       ... 
       services.AddCmsCloudPlatformSupport(_configuration); 
       services.AddCommerceCloudPlatformSupport(_configuration); 
    } 
}

Note

If you only want to add the EPiServer.CloudPlatform.Cms package to specific environments, you can run something similar to the following code to check the environment.

public class Startup 
{ 
    private readonly IWebHostEnvironment _webHostingEnvironment; 
    private readonly IConfiguration _configuration; 

    public Startup(IWebHostEnvironment webHostingEnvironment, IConfiguration configuration) { 
        _webHostingEnvironment = webHostingEnvironment; 
        _configuration = configuration; 
    } 

    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services){ 
       ...        
        if (!_webHostingEnvironment.IsDevelopment()) { 
           services.AddCmsCloudPlatformSupport(_configuration);
           services.AddCommerceCloudPlatformSupport(_configuration); 
        } 
    } 
}

Run the solution.

Step 2 – Publish the website to create a code package

Right-click the project in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer and select Publish.

In the Pick a publish target dialog box, select New Folder.

Click Next.

Choose a location or keep the default.

Click Finish.

Zip the contents of the publish directory and rename it to ProjectName.cms.app.00001.nupkg.

Step 3 – Deploy package

Get API credentials. If you need to know how to do that, click Deployment API authentication. The sample to deploy the code is using PowerShell. Any deployment API method will work as long as you deploy a package.

# Connect EpiCloud using credentials from portal
Connect-EpiCloud -ProjectId "projectId" -ClientKey "key" -ClientSecret "secret"

# Upload .NET Core Alloy to blob storage
$sasUrl = Get-EpiDeploymentPackageLocation
Add-EpiDeploymentPackage -SasUrl $sasUrl -Path .\AlloyNetCore.cms.app.0.1.0.nupkg

# Deploy package to environment. This will first build a docker image out of the package and then deploy it to the target environment.
Start-EpiDeployment -DeploymentPackage "AlloyNetCore.cms.app.0.1.0.nupkg" -TargetEnvironment "Integration" -DirectDeploy -Wait

Step 4 – Connect the database

In Microsoft SQL Server Studio, repeat steps 1-4 below for the front-end site database and for the back-end Commerce Manager database to create the bacpac output files.

Connect to the database to use.

Right-click on the database, and select Tasks > Export Data-tier Application...

In Export Settings:

Select Save to local disk.

Select a target location for the files.

Enter a name for the bacpac file.

Click Next.

dxc10.jpg

After the export, verify the results and click Close.

11.jpg

Media/BLOB

For the front-end site, use the following steps to create the output file for the media/BLOB content.

In Visual Studio, right-click on your project and select Open folder in File Explorer.

Locate the blobs folder under App_Data, and zip the content of the blobs folder using a zip tool of your choice.

dxcblobs.png

Upload the output files

When you have created the output files, contact Optimizely and follow the instructions provided to upload them to the assigned area. Optimizely will then finalize the deployment.