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Install CMS 11 and Commerce 13

Describes a first-time installation of Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) and Optimizely Customized Commerce websites with the latest updates, with or without sample templates, and Optimizely Search & Navigation, and other platform components.

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Note

This topic applies to versions Optimizely Content Management System (CMS 11) or Optimizely Customized Commerce version 13 and earlier, which are based on ASP.NET Framework.

For versions CMS 12 and Commerce 14 and higher, based on ASP.NET Core, see Install Optimizely.

Prerequisites

You can install the desired Optimizely products individually, with or without sample templates. It is useful if you want to explore each product and its components or build a site from scratch with more control. You can also use the Optimizely Foundation reference architecture to get a solution with multiple products up and running.

Before installing, check the System requirements for Optimizely to ensure your installation environment has the required components and versions.

The following components are needed to follow the instructions described here:

  • Use Microsoft Visual Studio to install and update Optimizely. (Community, Professional, or Enterprise)
  • Optimizely Visual Studio extension is a full set of templates for MVC to get a jump-start when developing websites. To install the Optimizely extension:
    1. In Visual Studio, select Tools > Extensions and Updates.
    2. In the extensions window, select Online, and type episerver in the search box.
    3. Select CMS Visual Studio Extension and click Download (or Update if installed).
    4. Restart Visual Studio.
  • The Optimizely NuGet feed source <http://nuget.optimizely.com/feed/packages.svc/> added to your Visual Studio to add Optimizely Customized Commerce, Optimizely Search & Navigation, and other add-ons to your solution and upgrade your project with the latest. See Install Optimizely updates (CMS 11 and Commerce 13) on how to add the NuGet feed.
  • If your solution will be running in the cloud, follow the steps below to install the desired Optimizely components, and see Cloud deployment how to deploy the solution to cloud environments.

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Note

You can order a time-limited demo license for evaluation purposes—see Optimizely License Center (a license is not required when using IIS Express). You need a commercial Optimizely license for testing and production environments.

Install through reference architecture

The Optimizely Foundation reference architecture is an open-source option for installing an Optimizely solution with multiple products. Foundation offers a structured and modular starting point, allowing you to select products as projects to include or exclude from the solution. See Optimizely Foundation to learn how to install and get started.

Install CMS

Install a CMS website, empty or with the "Alloy" sample templates.

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Note

The description below applies to Visual Studio 2019. The steps are similar in Visual Studio 2017 and 2015. See Install Optimizely for a video illustrating the procedure.

  1. Open Visual Studio and select File > New > Project.

  2. Search for the Episerver Web Site project template, select it, and click Next.

  3. Provide a name for your project and click Create.

  4. Select Alloy (MVC or WebForms) to create a site with sample content or Empty for a site without templates. You should use MVC for new projects because WebForms is deprecated.

  5. Select a search option:

    • For an Alloy site, select Episerver Find to use Optimizely Search & Navigation or Episerver Search to use a basic search.
    • An empty site disables the Configure Search option and does not install the search. If desired, you can add Optimizely Search & Navigation or Episerver Search later.

  6. Click OK. Visual Studio creates the project. When finalized, build and open the website in a browser.

  7. Log in to the site:

    • For an empty site, add /episerver to the site URL, and log in using your Windows credentials. For further information on configuring your empty project, see Create a starter project. 
    • For Alloy MVC, you will be prompted to create an administrator account (the site is using ASP.NET Identity). Provide the account credentials, click Register, and you will be logged in. See also Install a sample site.  
    • For Alloy WebForms, select the Log in link at the bottom of the start page, and log in using your Windows credentials. Note that you must be a local admin on the server you run Optimizely on. If not, create a local user with admin rights under Control panel > Local Users and Groups, and log in using that account.

Install Optimizely Customized Commerce

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Note

The description below applies to Visual Studio 2019. The steps are similar in Visual Studio 2017 and 2015. See Install Optimizely Customized Commerce for a video illustrating the procedure.

Empty Commerce site

These steps install an empty website locally with CMS and Optimizely Customized Commerce. Note that a Commerce installation has two sites: a front-end site with CMS and Optimizely Customized Commerce and a back-end site with Commerce Manager.

Part 1: Create the front-end site with CMS

  1. Open Visual Studio and select File > New > Project.
  2. Search for the Episerver Web Site project template, select it, and click Next.
  3. Provide a name for your project, and set the .NET Framework to 4.6.1 or higher.
  4. Click Create.
  5. In the Select a template dialog, select Empty and click OK. Visual Studio creates the project.

Part 2: Install Optimizely Customized Commerce components on the front-end site

  1. In Solution Explorer (CTRL + ALT + L), expand the project you just created, right-click on References, and select Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. In the Package source dropdown, select Episerver.
  3. Click Browse and enter Commerce in the search field.
  4. Select the EPiServer.Commerce (main) package and click Install.
  5. When the installation completes, a Readme.txt file displays.
  6. Close the Readme.txt file, select EPiServer.Commerce.UI.ManagerIntegration and click Install, which adds the Commerce front-end components.
  7. When the installation completes, a Readme.txt file displays.

Part 3: Create the back-end site

  1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the solution you created in part 1 and select Add > New Project.

  2. Select ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework) as the project type and click Next.

  3. Give the project a name and click Create.

  4. Select Empty and click Create.

Part 4: Install Commerce Manager on the back-end site

  1. Right-click on the back-end site you created in part 3 and select Manage NuGet Packages.

  2. In the Package source dropdown, select Episerver.

  3. Click Browse and enter Commerce in the search field.

  4. Select the EPiServer.CommerceManager package and click Install.

  5. When installation completes, a Readme.txt file displays.

  6. Close the Readme.txt file and select the EPiServer.ServiceLocation.StructureMap package and click Install, which adds an implementation of the ServiceLocation / Dependency Injection framework.

Part 5: Final steps

  1. Update the database.
    a. Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console.
    b. At PM, enter update-epidatabase.
  2. Build the solution (CTRL + SHIFT + B).
  3. Start the front-end site (Ctrl + F5).
  4. When prompted, log in using the default credentials admin/store (remember to change these later).
  5. If you see a page of migration steps, click Execute all pending steps.
  6. Verify that you can access the edit and admin views using http://localhost:nnnnn/episerver (where nnnnn is the port number already displayed in the URL).

If you have difficulty accessing Commerce Manager from edit view:

  1. Right-click your back-end site with the Commerce Manager project in Visual Studio.
  2. Select Set as StartUp Project.
  3. Start the Commerce Manager site and log in.
  4. Make the front-end project the start-up project again.

To further set up your Commerce project, continue with the project structure section on Create your project.

Install Optimizely Search & Navigation

Optimizely Search & Navigation consists of a service you sign up for and client packages you install on your site. See Create your project for instructions on how to add Search & Navigation to your solution.

Integrate Optimizely Search & Navigation with Commerce

This integration adds Commerce-specific functionality when using Optimizely Search & Navigation with Optimizely Commerce. To install this on your website, run the Search & Navigation content indexing job on the site after the EPiServer.Find.Commerce package is installed.

Install tracking and personalization

The Optimizely Personalization product suite adds personalized content and, product recommendations, and personalized search results to the site. You can also add components to store and analyze visitor activity through Optimizely Visitor Intelligence. Tracking and personalization components are based on services you sign up for and client packages you install on the site.

See the following how to install and get started:

Install Marketing Automation components

The Marketing Automation product suite includes Optimizely Campaign for cross-channel automated campaign management and many marketing automation connectors for popular marketing tools like Delivra, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics. Marketing automation components are based on services you sign up for and client packages you install on the site.

See the following how to install and get started:

Install other apps

You can extend Optimizely through applications (apps, also known as add-ons) that are available for a wide selection of areas, such as analytics, search optimization, and marketing automation. You install most apps as NuGet packages; see Optimizely add-ons and Install add-ons.

If your solution is using the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform cloud services, see DXP Requirements for supported apps.

Cloud deployment

There are different options for managing and deploying Optimizely solutions in the cloud. Before deploying, ensure that you have followed the requirements and recommendations to optimize your solution for cloud-based environments. 

Updated 7 months ago