Install Zodiac for Sitecore 10

A starter kit for Sitecore implementation projects.

Sponsored by Verndale

What's in the Box

A "complete" Visual Studio 2019 solution that you can fork/clone and use as the basis of your net-new Sitecore implementation project.

Features include:

• ASP.NET MVC implementation
• No external build frameworks required, just Visual Studio 2019
• Helix-compatible
• IIS Url Rewrite 2.1 compatible with "Sitecore safe" default rules
• "Must Have" overrides for Sitecore configuration defaults that provide improved performance during development and production.
• Drop-in Rules for organizing Content Tree Items alphabetically or by date
• A framework for creating navigation within the Content Tree and retrieving it on the presentation layer
• Drop-in solution for managing analytics scripts within the CMS
• Drop-in solution for page meta tags including basic support for social network tagging
• Drop-in solution for managing 301/302 redirects within the CMS
• Drop-in Rules for managing the URLs of Page Items
• A framework for accessing the Sitecore Cache
• Drop-in semantics and supporting framework for organizing page and page-fragment Items
• Drop-in solution for managing link options on a site-by-site basis
• Lightweight Item to ViewModel mapping framework
• Base MVC components to enforce Item-Repository-Controller-ViewModel-View design pattern
• Drop-in solution for ensuring a Sitecore Package.Zip file is installed in a given instance
• A framework for creating dynamic robots.txt and sitemap.xml responses for each site in the installation

Installation

There are several options, depending upon what you want to do. In all cases, you need a target Sitecore 10 installation! so...

Step 1: Compatibility Check!

Workstation Assumptions:

• You are running Windows 10, 64-bit.
• IIS 10 is installed.
• IIS Url Rewrite 2.1 https://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite is installed.
• Your Windows instance meets Sitecore's minimum requirements of 4 cores and > 16 GB of RAM
• If you're running SOLR and SQL Server locally as well, we recommend having even more cores & RAM available. (at least 8 threads)

If your machine does not meet these minimums, you will likely experience resource-related problems that are virtually impossible to troubleshoot.

Development Enviornment Assumptions:

• For Sitecore 10, you must have the .NET Framework SDK version 4.8 installed.
• This solution was tested on Visual Studio 2019 v16.6.5.
• You must run Visual Studio in "as Administrator" mode to ensure you have sufficient local privileges.
• Your NuGet feeds should include the Sitecore package feeds. You can get the feed links here: https://sitecore.myget.org/gallery/sc-packages

Step 2: Install Sitecore 10

Since these instructions are intended for developers expecting to use Zodiac for development, we assume you are installing a "Standalone" local instance of Sitecore on your personal development machine.

• Follow the instructions on https://dev.sitecore.net/
• Note the hostname and the installation folder of your new install, you'll need these facts later.

Step 3: Verify Sitecore 10 is Installed Correctly

It is essential that you have a "stock" copy of Sitecore running before proceeding.

• If you load your supplied hostname, do you get the default Sitecore web page?
• Can you log into Sitecore?
• Can you load the Content Editor and browse the Content Tree?
• Can you see & rebuild all of the SOLR indexes?
• Rebuild all the SOLR indexes.
• Can you run a "site publish?"
• Can you create users?
• Can you load the default web page in Experience Editor?
• Can you edit the content in Experience Editor?
• Have you resolved all errors in your log file?

If the answer to anything above is "no", stop now and address these problems.

IMPORTANT: Zodiac will not be stable if Sitecore is not stable. Fix any install issues now.

• Run a full Site Publish
• Rebuild all Indexes

IMPORTANT: Rebuilding the Indexes makes sure your otherwise "new" Sitecore installation is fully primed. Buckets and Content Search will not function until you have rebuilt the Indexes. Zodiac REQUIRES these Indexes to be built and available.

Step 4: Clone or Fork the Repository:

• https://github.com/constellation4sitecore/zodiac-sitecore10.git

Go ahead & set up a Working Copy on your local machine. We recommend creating a new Branch based on the "master" branch of the repo.

Step 5: Load the Solution in Visual Studio

• Zodiac-Sitecore10.sln

Assuming Visual Studio fires up and everything looks OK, click on the Solution in Solution Explorer and choose "Restore NuGet Packages". After NuGet Packages have been restored, run a Solution Build. Verify that the solution does build. Building will not deploy, and you should not deploy at this stage.

IMPORTANT: Do not perform a TDS sync at this time, Just run the Build to verify all your Nuget packages installed.

Step 6: AppSettings.Config

In the "Website" project there is an AppSettings.Config file located at /App_Config/AppSettings.config. You must manually copy this file into your local installation. It contains essential pre-Sitecore config patch settings that must be set to parse the config files correctly.

    Example = C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\zodiac.local.sc\App_Config\AppSettings.config

IMPORTANT: After Deployment, your install will not start unless this file exists at the above location.

Step 7: Configure Visual Studio Publishing

• In the Solution Explorer select the "Website" project.

• If it's not already visible, add the "Web One-Click Publish" toolbar by right-clicking outside any existing Toolbars in Visual Studio, and selecting it from the menu.

• In the (now visible) "Publish" toolbar, there should be a "Debug" target selected. Click the cog/gear icon to edit the publishing profile.

• Within the "Publish" panel that is now exposed, ensure the "Target Location" matches the location of your IIS Web App's root. (Use the Configure link to change it.)

    Example Target Location = "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\zodiac.local.sc"
  

Step 8: Deploy!

With the "Website" project selected in Solution Explorer, hit the "publish" button in the One-Click Publish toolbar.

IMPORTANT: Do not perform a TDS sync at this time, Just run the Publish to push your code to your Sitecore installation

Step 9: Run Sitecore

Access your Sitecore installation in a browser, but don't log into Sitecore yet. You should get the default "Sitecore Girl" page.

IMPORTANT: After Visual Studio deploys your solution for the first time, you must run Sitecore immediately. This will install a number of prerequisite Items that allow you to start development.

Step 10: Log into Sitecore

Access the /sitecore login page and authenticate. Run a Full Site publish and then Rebuild all Indexes.

___IMPORTANT: Rebuilding the Indexes makes sure your otherwise "new" Sitecore installation is fully primed. Buckets and Content Search will not function until you have rebuilt the Indexes.

Step 11: Configure TDS to talk to your installation

In Visual Studio, expand the /_TDS solution folder and edit the TdsGlobal.config

• Alter the value of the <SitecoreWebUrl /> element to match the hostname for your local installation.

    Example = https://zodiac.local.sc
  

• Alter the value of the <SitecoreDeployFolder /> element to match the target location of your local installation.

    Example = C:\inetpub\wwwroot\zodiac.local.sc
  

Select any TDS project in the solution, right-click and choose "Install Sitecore Connector".

Step 12: Use TDS to push all Zodiac Manual Features and Content into Sitecore

• Select the Solution object in Solution Explorer
• Right-Click and navigate to Sitecore TDS >> Sync all Project with Sitecore.
• Push all highlighted changes into Sitecore (Update Sitecore option), even if the Sitecore Item appears to be newer.

Step 13: Verify Zodiac is installed into Sitecore and Publish it.

• Sign into Sitecore

• Launch the Content Editor

• In the Content Tree, there should be a Site node (with decendants located at:

    /sitecore/content/Zodiac/Zodiac Manual
  

• Do a Full Publish.

Step 14: Configure IIS and Sitecore to respond to a discrete hostname for the Zodiac Manual site.

If you want Zodiac Manual to be the Default Site

• In your Visual Studio solution, Open: Website/App_Config/Include/Project/ZodiacManual/ZodiacManual.Site.config
• Find the <patch:attribute name="hostName"> element and modify the inner text to match your installation's hostname (ex: zodiac.local.sc)
• Find the <patch:attribute name="targetHostName"> element and modify the inner text to match your installation's hostname (ex: zodiac.local.sc)
• Select the Website Project in the Solution Explorer
• Right-click and choose Clean
• Re-Select the Website Project and Publish it via WebDeploy.
• In your browser, navigate to your local website. The "Sitecore Girl" page should be replaced with the Zodiac Manual home page.

If you want Zodiac Manual to be a discrete hostname on your install

• In your Visual Studio solution, Open: Website/App_Config/Include/Project/ZodiacManual/ZodiacManual.Site.config
• Find the <patch:attribute name="hostName"> element and modify the inner text to match your desired hostname (ex: zodiacmanual.local.sc)
• Find the <patch:attribute name="targetHostName"> element and modify the inner text to match your desired hostname (ex: zodiacmanual.local.sc)
• Select the Website Project in the Solution Explorer
• Right-click and choose Clean
• Re-Select the Website Project and Publish it via WebDeploy.
• In Windows, open the IIS mangement console.
• Open your Sitecore install's Website by selecting it in the Sites folder on the left-hand panel of the console..
• Select Edit >> Bindings from the right-hand panel
• Add a new Binding for your desired hostname (ex: zodiacmanual.local.sc)

We strongly recommend using SSL and assigning the binding to both port 443 (SSL) and 80 (regular HTTP) You may need to create a new local self-signed cert for this hostname in order to complete the binding process. Here's a quick tip on how to do this with Powershell.

• Save the new bindings and close the IIS console.
• In your browser, navigate to the hostname you just configured (ex: https://zodiacmanual.local.sc)
• The Zodiac Manual home page should load.

If you get a Layout Not Found or other unexpected response, check that the correct ZodiacManual.Site.Config is deployed and that your Zodiac Manual content Items are published!

Step 15: Read the Manual

Zodiac's Manual helps you understand the architecture philosophies of Zodiac and teaches you how to begin designing Items and building Renderings. There are step-by-step instructions for creating a new Site, a new Rendering, and new Label Groups. Use the Manual Site in Sitecore to see how Zodiac is supposed to be used.

Step 16: Start Development

At this point you should have a running installation using Zodiac (with Constellation) as the backbone. Congratulations, your project is underway!

For details on how to use various features of this installation, visit https://constellation4sitecore.com/ the official documentation site for Constellation and Zodiac.

Credits

A big thank you to Verndale for providing the time to assemble this kit.

Sponsors/Developers/Testers

(in no particular order)

• Hetal Dave
• Davan Etelamaki
• Sandy Foley
• Joe Fusco
• Deepthi Katta
• Richard Leiva
• Ozell McBride
• Santiago Morla
• Mike Reynolds
• Liz Spranzani
• Steve Striga