Configure a development environment

Optimizely Commerce Connect is installed with templates through Visual Studio or the dotnet command-line interface tool, providing everything you need to get a website up and running and start developing.

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Note

See the Optimizely system requirements for production and development environment requirements.

• Install Visual Studio – Visit Microsoft Visual Studio to download a suitable version if you do not already have Visual Studio installed.

• Install the Optimizely templates – dotnet new -i EPiServer.Templates

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  Note

  The latest version of the EPiServer.Templates and CLI tool require .NET 6.

• Install the EPiServer CLI tool –

  dotnet tool install EPiServer.Net.Cli --global --add-source https://nuget.optimizely.com/feed/packages.svc/

• Licenses – A license is not required when running on localhost or domainname.local. You need a commercial Optimizely license for testing and production environments. Order a time-limited demo license from the Optimizely License Center for evaluation purposes.

To explore more advanced features such as multi-site and language support, and to test deployment locally, you need a more production-like development environment using Internet Information Services (IIS).

When you test deployment, back up, and restore databases, install SQL Express or SQL Server Developer Edition and Management Studio.