Install Sitefinity CMS

You can install Sitefinity CMS in two ways – you can install Telerik.Sitefinity.All NuGet package on a blank web application or you can use Sitefinity CMS Project Manager.

RECOMMENDATION: We recommend installing Sitefinity CMS using the NuGet package.
Use the Project Manager to install Sitefinity CMS for evaluation purposes only. For more information, see Create projects with the Project Manager.

NOTE: To install Sitefinity CMS using NuGet, you must use Visual Studio 2017 or later. This tutorial uses Visual Studio 2019 as a reference.

To install Sitefinity CMS in a blank web application using a NuGet package, perform the following:

To do this, perform the following:

1. Open Visual Studio.
2. In the toolbar, click File » New Project…
   The Create a new project window appears.
3. In the All languages dropdown, select C#.
4. In the All platforms dropdown, select Windows.
5. And in the All project types dropdown, select Web.
6. From the list of projects, select ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework).
7. In Project name, enter a name of your project.
   For example, enter SitefinityWebApp
8. Choose a location to store your project.
9. Enter a name for the solution.
   For example, enter SitefinityWebApp
10. In Framework, select .NET Framework 4.8.
11. Click Create.
12. In the window that appears, select Empty and click Create.

In Visual Studio, perform the following:

1. In the toolbar, click Tools » NuGet Package Manager » Package Manager Settings.
2. In the left pane, expand NuGet Package Manager.
3. Select Package Sources.
4. Add a new source by clicking the plus button.
5. In Name, enter Sitefinity Nuget
6. In Source, enter https://nuget.sitefinity.com/nuget
7. Click OK.

In Visual Studio, perform the following:

1. In the toolbar, click Tools » NuGet Package Manager » Package Manager Console.
   The Package Manager Console opens.
2. In Package source, select Sitefinity Nuget.
3. In Default project, select the empty project that you have created.
4. Depending on whether you want to install the full Sitefinity CMS package or a light version:
   • To have all Sitefinity CMS modules installed in your project, install the Telerik.Sitefinity.All package by entering in the console: Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All
   • To have only the core Sitefinity CMS modules installed in your project, install the Progress.Sitefinity package by entering in the console: Install-Package Progress.Sitefinity
     

     NOTE: With these commands, you install the latest patch build. If you want to install a specific version, you must use the command followed by -Version and the version number.
     For example, enter Install-Package Telerik.Sitefinity.All -Version 13.0.7322

     Proceed by adding any of the desired additional Sitefinity CMS modules. For more information, see Work with decoupled modules.

5. Wait until Sitefinity CMS is installed on your empty project.
6. Build your solution.

1. Open the project in Visual Studio.
2. In the Solution Explorer, open the context menu of your newly created project.
3. Click View » View in browser.
   Your project starts in a browser.
4. Install your license.
   After the project initialized in the browser, the License activation page appears.
   Perform procedure Activate a license.
5. Setup the project.
   After you activate your license, the Project Startup page appears.
   Perform procedure Setup the project.

RESULT: Sitefinity CMS Dashboard appears.

To access additional installation files that are used for authentication and debugging visit http://www.telerik.com/account/ to access your account. When you open your account, navigate to Downloads and select your Sitefinity CMS license. There you may access the following files:

With the ASP.NET Core Renderer, Sitefinity CMS is moving toward three-tier architecture. Instead of the two-tier architecture, where the first tier hosts the database and the second tier hosts both the backend administration and the frontend page rendering, the three-tier architecture separates the backend from the frontend. The backend presentation layer and the frontend presentational layer are deployed as two separate applications.

For more information, see Three-tier architecture.

To install and set up a new Sitefinity CMS project that works with a .NET Core Renderer, you must perform the following:

1. Install and setup Sitefinity CMS, using the procedures in this article.
2. Set up and connect the Renderer app, using procedure Setup.

RECOMMENDATION: In case you want use Sitefinity CMS only with .NET Core pages and you do not want to use any MVC components, we recommend that you set up the entire CMS by installing Progress.Sitefinity.Headless, instead of Telerik.Sitefinity.All NuGet package.