Back to results
- stars
- 2
- watchers
- 3
- forks
- 7
- open issues
- 0
- Last updated
- 06/27/2023
gem-hunterA "complete" Visual Studio 2019 solution that you can fork/clone and use as the basis of your net-new Sitecore implementation project.
Features include:
There are several options, depending upon what you want to do. In all cases, you need a target Sitecore 10 installation! so...
If your machine does not meet these minimums, you will likely experience resource-related problems that are virtually impossible to troubleshoot.
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.
It is essential that you have a "stock" copy of Sitecore running before proceeding.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
A big thank you to Verndale for providing the time to assemble this kit.
(in no particular order)