St. Louis Sitecore User Group: February 2020 Meeting

User Group
Meetup
St. Louis
https://www.meetup.com/St-Louis-Sitecore
February 20, 2020

Agenda
01 Community Update, with Brett Berchtold
02 Sitecore Experience Commerce 9.3: Overview, Setup, and Plugins,
with G.C. Blocker, Jr.
03 Horizon Editor Overview, with Benjamin Vidal
© 2001-2019 Sitecore Corporation A/S. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks of Sitecore Corporation A/S. All other brand names are the property of their respective owners.
Community
Update
A look ahead in 2020.
BRETT BERCHTOLD, CO-ORGANIZER,

STRATEGY MVP 2020
February 20, 2020

Community Update
Community Goals
• Community-led…not partner-led
• A local Sitecore community resource
• To help you become an MVP
4
Community Update
Co-Organizers
Benjamin Vidal Brett Berchtold
© 2001-2019 Sitecore Corporation A/S. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks of Sitecore Corporation A/S. All other brand names are the property of their respective owners. 5
Community Update
St. Louis Sitecore User Group Channels

• Twitter (https://twitter.com/StLouisSitecore)
• YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrJDhxG_LqkAkvR_snFK4WQ)
• Slack (https://sitecore-stlouis.slack.com/)
Sitecore Community Channels

• Sitecore Community (https://community.sitecore.net/)
• Stack Exchange (https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/)
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/Sitecore)
• YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/mastersitecore)
• Slack (https://sitecorechat.slack.com/)
• Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Sitecore)
6
Sitecore
Commerce
9.3
Overview, Setup,
Plugins
Sitecore Commerce 9.3
• Overview
• New Features and Improvements
• Installation Process and Requirements
• Setting up your Development Environment
• Working with Plugins
Overview
Sitecore Experience Commerce™ (Sitecore XC) is an e-commerce solution, built on

the Sitecore Experience Platform and empowers marketers and merchandisers to
fully personalize the end-to-end shopping experience – before, during and after the
transaction.
Sitecore XC provides all the tools you need for managing your e-commerce
storefront with multiple layers of extensibility including:
Commerce Engine
Commerce Business Tools
SXA Storefront
Overview
Commerce Engine
A thin ASP.NET Core application that

serves as a host for a group of micro-
services that enable commerce
functionality.
• An extensible commerce core

framework.
• Provides a pluggable framework for

extending the engine to modify or add
to existing functionality.
• The Commerce Service Plugins provide

the layer that developers interact with
to extend or modify existing
functionality or to develop new
commerce functionality.
Overview
Commerce Engine Roles
• Authoring Role: serves traffic from the

Commerce business tools.
• Shops Role: serves traffic from one or

more storefronts.
• Minions role: Runs independently and

supports asynchronous processing. This
includes any post-order capture
processing as well as any cleanup or
pruning.
• DevOps role: Internal to DevOps

personnel to perform maintenance tasks
that are not permitted to other roles
(e.g., bootstrapping and environment
initialization functions).
Overview
• A set of rich business tools for

merchandisers and CSRs built on
Angular.
• Extensible through pluggable

framework and allows updating of
the OOTB tools to meet specific
needs.
• The Commerce Views Service,

provided by Views plugin, allows
creation of custom Entity Views
Overview

Management Features
Sitecore XC Business Tools provide six

key e-commerce management
features:
• Catalog and Sellable Items

• Inventory
• Customers
• Orders
• Promotions
• Pricing
New Features and Improvements in 9.3
Sitecore Commerce 9.3 focuses on increased solution performance and ability to scale,
along with functional enhancements and corrective content.
Some of the improved areas include:
Scalability
Business Tools Usability
Promotions
Price Cards
Inventory
Connect
Storefront
Scalability
• Added a new Commerce based index.
• Replaced the cache in CE Connect with the centralized Redis cache to improve
response time.
• Reduced the depth of pipeline calls, and the allocation of tasks to improve page
view rate.
Business Tools Enhancements

• Added search to the Business Tools for Promotions and Price Cards.
• Added paging to the display of lists of promotions, coupons, inventory sets,
orders.
• Improved the display of sections on a Sellable Item page.
Promotions/Inventory
• Added the ability to create a promotion that applies to all products in a category.
• Added the ability to extend the end date of active promotions.
• Added new features to the Inventory Manager to allow sellable items search inventory
set removal.
Connect/Storefront
• Added the ability to configure product recommendations emails based on shoppers'
purchases.
• Updated xProfile reports to work with Abandoned Carts
• Added a generic Commerce Search Results component that can list product cards with
price and stock info based on dynamic queries.
Installation Requirements
Hardware Operating System
• 4 Core Processor • Windows Server 2016

• 16 GB of RAM • Windows Server 2019
Database • Windows 10 Professional (64-bit)

• Microsfot SQL Server 2019 .NET Framework
• Microsoft SQL Server 2017 • .NET Framework 4.7.1 Developer Pack (including
• Microsoft SQL Server 2016 SP2 available updates)
• Microsoft Azure SQL • ASP.NET MVC 5.2 or later
• Redis data store • ASP.NET Core 2.1
• .NET Core Windows Server Hosting 2.1.6 or later

versions of 2.1
• OData 7.2.0
Installation Requirements
Web Server Deployment
• IIS 10.0 FC: (XPO 9.3) • PowerShell 6.0 or later

• Microsoft Web Deploy 3.6 Runtime
• URL Rewriter • .Net Core Runtime 2.1
Development • Node.js
• Visual Studio 2017 + latest updates
• OData Connected Service
• Visual Studio 2017 Tooling
Search Indexing
• Visual Studio 2019
• Visual Studio 2019 Tooling • Solr 8.1.1
• .NET Core 2.1.7 Windows Hosting module

• MSBuild Microsoft Visual Studio Web
targets (available from Nuget)
• Git client
Installation Process (Before you begin)
Setup Search Provider

• Solr is the recommended search provider for Sitecore XC on-premises installation (although
Sitecore also supports Azure Search as a search provider)
• Successfully Rebuild Search Indexes and Link Databases
• Find/Copy these values from your XP Setup
• SolrUrl, SolrRoot, SolrService
SQL Server Setup
• Ensure that you add a recognized user (for example, collectionuser) to the xDB shared
databases
• Ensure that the user identity running the Sitecore XC deployment script has proper database
permissions (for example, sysadmin at the SQL instance level) during the installation.
• Make note of the SQL Server value used for your XP installation
Installation Process (Before you begin)
Download Release Package and Prerequisites

• Setup a deployment folder where you will store and extract installation files
• Setup an assets folder within the deployment folder and download/install
• Sitecore PowerShell Extensions 6.0 for Sitecore 9.3
• Sitecore Experience Accelerator 9.3
• MSBuild Microsoft Visual Studio Web targets (Copy Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll)
Download and Install Redis
• Ensure you take note of your Redis directory
• Start Redis by running .\redis-server.exe from directory
Create a Secret Client Certificate
• Take note of the new certificate value to update the CE deployment script
Installation Process (Configuration)
$XCInstallRoot – Default Value: “..” $SqlDbPrefix – The prefix for Sitecore core and master dbs.
$SkipInstallDefaultStorefront – Default Value: “false” $SolrUrl
$Path – Path to the Master_SingleServer.json file $SolrRoot – The folder that Solr has been installed to.
$MergeToolFullPath – Path to the $SolrService
Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll $RedisConfiguration - The URL of the Redis service.
$SiteNamePrefix - The prefix that will be used on SOLR, $RedisInstanceName
Website and Database instances. $RedisInstallationPath
$SiteName - The name of the Sitecore site instance. $CommerceServicesDbName – _SharedEnvironments DB name
$IdentityServerSiteName $CommerceServicesGlobalDbName - _Global DB name
$CommerceEngineConnectClientSecret – Your recently $CommerceOpsServicesPort Default Value: "5015"
generated client secret. $CommerceShopsServicesPort = Default Value: "5005"
$SiteHostHeaderName - The host header name for the Sitecore $CommerceAuthoringServicesPort - Default Value: "5000"
storefront site. $CommerceMinionsServicesPort - Default Value: "5010"
$InstallDir - The path of the Sitecore XP site. $CommerceServicesPostfix - The value that is appended to
$XConnectInstallDir each Commerce Service instance.
$CommerceInstallRoot
Installation Process (Execute Script)
Powershell Script Execution
• Ensure you’ve met all requirements

before execution
• Back up Sitecore XP files and DBs
• Review, Review, Review
• Be Patient
If Error Occurs
Take note of what task/module has errored.
Remove completed tasks from Master_SingleServer.json and Commerce Configuration files if necessary
Installation Process (Finalization)
Once Deployment Successfully

Completes • Visit Service Urls
• Verify Business Tools • Update SXA Themes and Began Modification to

Storefront
• Verify Catalog Exists in Content Tree
• Publish and rebuild indexes
Setting Up Your Development Environment
Locate the Commerce Engine SDK

• Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.SDK.5.0.76
• Install VS Extension (VSIX) - Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin
Find the Commerce Sample Solution

• Copy the solution into your working directory
• Rename to meet your project requirement
• Clean up the solution for unnecessary projects or keep for reference
Run CE from Visual Studio

• Set the Sitecore.Commerce.Engine as start project and set to debug
• Ensure you have an SSL certificate for authentication in project wwwroot
• Update.json files with local values (config.json, Global.json)
• Stop IIS Commerce Authoring Instance
Working with Plugins
The Commerce Core infrastructure defines the various core classes that
compose a Commerce plugin.
• Entities • Pipelines
• Components • ConfigureSitecore
• Models • Policies
• Controllers • Minions
• Commands
Creating a Plugin
Add New Project

• To create a plugin, use the recently installed Visual Studio extension Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin
template
• Be sure to add your plugin to the development solution folder
• The Sitecore.Commerce.Plugin template creates a project with a sample Command and Pipeline,
Entities and Models folders.
• Develop logic in Pipeline Blocks
Configure Sitecore
• Configure your new pipeline/blocks to the generated ConfigureSitecore.cs
• Add before/after existing pipelines and blocks
• Add reference to project in Sitecore.Commerce.Engine project
Deploy Project
• Follow your standard deployment process
• Each instance has the same codebase, but possibly different policies
• Be careful not to overwrite environment specific configs and policy files
• Backup all files before deploying
Thank you
FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY.
Sitecore Confidential and Proprietary. ©2019 Sitecore Corporation
A/S. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks
of Sitecore Corporation A/S. All other brand names are the property
of their respective owners.

Sitecore Horizon Review
Benjamin Vidal
NyaTaxis, Inc.
President / Sitecore Architect
Benjamin.vidal@nyataxis.com
Building great experiences with Sitecore for 15 years
Sitecore Horizon Agenda
• What Is Sitecore Horizon

• Sitecore Editor’s History
• Why Horizon?
• What Doesn't Horizon Offer
• Installation Requirements
• Should I Use Horizon Today
Sitecore Horizon
The next-generation editor for the Sitecore Experience Platform. This editor
will allow you to create and edit content quickly within the context of your
website. This editor has reimagined the page editor experience in Sitecore to
enable authors to easily manage their audience’s experiences.
Sitecore Editor History: Version 4 & 5
• Sitecore Content Editor V4.3 (2005)

• Sitecore Content Editor V5 (2006)
• Web Edit Mode V4 and V5
Sitecore Editor History: Version 6
• Sitecore Content Editor V4.4 (2005)

• Page Editor V6 (2008)
• Sitecore Content Editor V4.4

(2005)

(2005)
• Sitecore Content Editor V5
(2006)

(2005)
• Sitecore Content Editor V5
(2006)
• Experience Editor V8 (2014)
Sitecore Site Editor Challenges
• Visual Editing Content For A Single Page

• Using Workflow In Page Editor
• Publishing Required Content To Display The Page Correctly
• Editing Designs that are not apart of a template rigid structure
• Speed Of Editing
• Conflicts With Client-Side Scripting
Sitecore Horizon
• New Interface
• Auto Saving
• Simulator
• Page Insights
• Faster
Demo
I HOPE IT WORKS
Sitecore Horizon: System Requirements
• Sitecore 9.3
• Build on .NET Core
• Requires IT Team
• Access to Authoring URL
Sitecore Horizon: My Thoughts
• Not Product ready

• Lack many functionality aspect of editing content and designing a page
• Unable to edit image in rich text
• Unable to sort components on the screen

• Better exception handling
• More documentation
• Not extensible (currently)

• Great potential
• It is faster
Thank you
FOR DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY.
Sitecore Confidential and Proprietary. ©2019 Sitecore Corporation
A/S. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks
of Sitecore Corporation A/S. All other brand names are the property
of their respective owners.

St. Louis Sitecore User Group: February 2020 Meeting

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User Group

February 20, 2020

A look ahead in 2020.

BRETT BERCHTOLD, CO-ORGANIZER,

February 20, 2020

Benjamin Vidal Brett Berchtold

St. Louis Sitecore User Group Channels

Sitecore Community Channels

Sitecore Experience Commerce™ (Sitecore XC) is an e-commerce solution, built on

A thin ASP.NET Core application that

• An extensible commerce core

• Provides a pluggable framework for

• The Commerce Service Plugins provide

Commerce Engine Roles

• Authoring Role: serves traffic from the

• Shops Role: serves traffic from one or

• Minions role: Runs independently and

• DevOps role: Internal to DevOps

Commerce Business Tools

• A set of rich business tools for

• Extensible through pluggable

• The Commerce Views Service,

Commerce Business Tools

Sitecore XC Business Tools provide six

• Catalog and Sellable Items

Some of the improved areas include:

Business Tools Enhancements

Hardware Operating System

• 4 Core Processor • Windows Server 2016

Database • Windows 10 Professional (64-bit)

• .NET Core Windows Server Hosting 2.1.6 or later

Web Server Deployment

• IIS 10.0 FC: (XPO 9.3) • PowerShell 6.0 or later

• .NET Core 2.1.7 Windows Hosting module

Setup Search Provider

Download Release Package and Prerequisites

Powershell Script Execution

• Ensure you’ve met all requirements

• Review, Review, Review

Take note of what task/module has errored.

Once Deployment Successfully

• Verify Business Tools • Update SXA Themes and Began Modification to

• Publish and rebuild indexes

Locate the Commerce Engine SDK

Find the Commerce Sample Solution

Run CE from Visual Studio

Add New Project

Sitecore Confidential and Proprietary. ©2019 Sitecore Corporation

A/S. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks

of their respective owners.

• What Is Sitecore Horizon

• Sitecore Content Editor V4.3 (2005)

• Sitecore Content Editor V4.4 (2005)

• Sitecore Content Editor V4.4

• Sitecore Content Editor V4.4

• Sitecore Content Editor V4.4

• Visual Editing Content For A Single Page

• Not Product ready

• Unable to edit image in rich text

• Unable to sort components on the screen

• Not extensible (currently)

Sitecore Confidential and Proprietary. ©2019 Sitecore Corporation

A/S. Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks

of their respective owners.