Setup procedure

The following article describes how to setup Sitefinity CMS to work with a standalone ASP.NET Core application as renderer.

You first install Sitefinity NuGet packages in an ASP.NET Core application. This enables the application to render ASP.NET Core pages and to serve as a Sitefinity CMS proxy for all other types of pages, created with Sitefinity.

The following procedure describes how to setup Sitefinity CMS to work with the .NET Core Renderer application locally – when both applications are hosted locally. After you have ran and tested this scenario and you can move to a cloud hosting or a mixed hosting configuration. For more information see Hosting configurations.

1. You configure Sitefinity CMS to work with the .NET Core Renderer.
2. You can run the quick setup, using the .NET Core CLI

OR

1. You configure Sitefinity CMS to work with the .NET Core Renderer.
2. You create an ASP.NET Core web application
3. You install the NuGet packages
4. You configure the .NET Core Renderer
5. You run the Renderer

After creating and configuring your ASP.NET Core application, you have to configure your Sitefinity CMS. Perform the following:

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend, navigate to Administration » Web services.
   
2. Open the Default web service.
   
3. Under Who can access the content by this service?, select Everyone.
   
4. Save your changes.
   

Sitefinity comes with a .NET Core Sitefinity template which allows you to quickly setup your renderer and start experimenting with it. To do this, you use the .NET CLI that comes with the .NET Core SDK.

1. Setup Sitefinity CMS, using the procedure above.
2. Run the .NET CLI.
3. Add Sitefinity NuGet source with the following command:
   dotnet nuget add source https://nuget.sitefinity.com/nuget
4. Install the template with the following command:
   dotnet new -i Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore.Templates::*
5. Create a new Renderer app with the following command:
   dotnet new sitefinity --project-name "YourProjectName" --sfurl "http://your.sitefinity.url"
6. Add a widget to your project with the following command:
   dotnet new sitefinity-widget --widget-name "YourWidgetName"
7. Start the renderer using the following command:
   dotnet run

You install the Renderer in a separate ASP.NET Core application. If you do not have one, create it in the following way:

1. In Visual Studio, navigate to File » New » Project…
   
2. Click ASP.NET Core Web Application » Next.
   
3. In Project name, enter Renderer and click Create.
   
4. Make sure ASP.NET Core 5.0 is selected and click Create.
   

In your Renderer application, you must install the provided NuGet packages:

• Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore.nupkg
  
• Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore.Widgets.nupkg
• Progress.Sitefinity.Renderer.nupkg
  You need this package, if you want to customize the widget designers.
• Progress.Sitefinity.RestSdk.nupkg

Perform the following:

1. Save the provided NuGet packages in a folder on your computer.
   
2. In Visual Studio, navigate to Tools » NuGet Package Manager » Package Manager Settings.
   
3. Under NuGet Package Manager, click Package Sources.
   
4. Add a new source, name it Sitefinity NuGet Repository, and, in Source field, enter https://nuget.sitefinity.com/nuget
5. Click OK.
   
6. Navigate to Tools » NuGet Package Manager » Manage NuGet Packages for Solution…
   
7. In Package source dropdown, select Sitefinity NuGet Repository.
   
8. Open the Browse tab, select Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore, and install it in project Renderer.
   
9. Select Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore.Widgets and install it in project Renderer.
   

After you have created the project and installed the NuGet packages, you must configure it to connect it to Sitefinity CMS. In Visual Studio, perform the following:

1. In the Solution Explorer on the right, select appSettings.json.
   Edit the file to add the Sitefinity-related configurations.
   

   The file should look in the following way:
   

2. Select the Startup.cs file.
   Edit the file to add the Sitefinity-related configurations.
   

   The file should look in the following way:
   

3. In the Solution Explorer on the right, expand Properties and select launchSettings.json.
   
4. Find the object with property "commandName": "Project" and edit this object’s applicationUrl property.

   The property should look in the following way:
   "applicationUrl": "https://localhost:5001;http://localhost:5000"

5. In Visual Studio toolbar, expand the run button dropdown, and select the launch profile you just edited.
   In your case, it is named Renderer.
6. Build your solution.
   

To run the renderer, navigate to https://localhost:5001/Sitefinity or http://localhost:5000/Sitefinity

NOTE: You use these URLs to run the Renderer locally for development purposes. To setup the Renderer for production, you can use on of the hosting scenarios, described in Hosting configurations.

To setup the .NET Core application, use the following video:

For Sitefinity CMS setup, use the following video: