Setup procedure

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

You first configure Sitefinity CMS to work with the Renderer, then install Sitefinity NuGet packages in an ASP.NET Core application, and finally make the required configurations in 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.

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 6.0 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
• Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore.FormWidgets.nupkg

Perform the following:

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

   NOTE: To debug your solution, you need to use the profile you have configured. Debugging of the IIS Express profile is not supported.

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.