Sitecore CMS installation: A step by step guide to set-up Sitecore 8.0
To start working with Sitecore, first of all you need to install Sitecore on your system and setup a development environment. Here in the blog I describe the easy steps to setup the environment for you. You can download the latest version of Sitecore from SDN. Sitecore CMS is distributed in two ways- It can be downloaded as an .exe file or one can get a ZIP file i.e. “an archived copy of a Sitecore CMS solution”. Downloading ZIP file gives more control on the installation and it’s easy to use.
On extracting the ZIP file, you will find three logical components/folders:
– WebSite : IIS document root
– Data: Store for logs and data.
– Database: Relational database files used by Sitecore solution
To install Sitecore 8.0, the basic hosting environment requirements are:
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1
- IIS 7.0
- Sitecore License File
Sitecore installation uses three databases, mainly:
– Master: It contains every version of all the content and data items
– Web: It contains most recent version of all the content and data items. Data on published site is rendered using this database.
– Core: It contains Sitecore settings and.Net membership provider tables for User/Role management
Steps to Install Sitecore using ZIP file:
1. Choose a parent directory path for the project, for example – C:inetpub
2. Create a Folder with project name, for example – Sitecoredemo, and extract the ZIP folder inside that at the location C:inetpubSitecoredemo. The extraction will create folders as below:
– C:InetPub Sitecoredemo Website
– C:InetPub Sitecoredemo Data
– C:InetPub Sitecoredemo Databases
3. Place the license.xml file to the /Data folder
4. Change the location of /Data folder in the web.config file placed inside Website folder to use the absolute path as below:
<sc.variable name=”dataFolder” value=” C:InetPub Sitecoredemo Data” />
5. Open SQL server Management Studio and attach all these three databases (Core, Master & Web) using .mdf files placed in Databases folder.
6. Create new SQL server login and select User Mappings tab
7. Select Sitecore databases one by one and select the following check boxes In the Database role membership for field.
For Master and Web databases
db_datareader
db_datawriter
public
For Core database
aspnet_Membership_BasicAccess
aspnet_Membership_FullAccess
aspnet_Membership_ReportingAcces
aspnet_Profile_BasicAccess
aspnet_Profile_FullAccess
aspnet_Profile_ReportingAccess
aspnet_Roles_BasicAccess
aspnet_Roles_FullAccess
aspnet_Roles_ReportingAccess
db_datareader
db_datawriter
public
8. Modify the ConnectionStrings.config file placed inside /Website/App_Config/ folder by providing values in a line for each database, for example:
<add name=”core” connectionString=”user id=sqlserveruser ;password=userpassword; Data Source=sqlserver; Database=core_database_name_” />
9. Open IIS, create new Application Pool by inserting Projectname, appropriate .Net framework version and set managed pipeline mode as Integrated.
10. Now create new website in IIS by providing sitename as Sitecoredemo, Application Pool name as the newly created App Pool name, set physical path to the Website folder located at:
C:InetPub Sitecoredemo Website
11. Limit anonymous users access to following folders inside /website
/App_Config
/Sitecore/admin
/Sitecore/debug
/Sitecore/shell/WebService
Go to the Authentication panel and disable Anonymous Authentication for these folders.
12. Add following entry in your hosts file located at:
C:WindowsSystem32driversetc:
127.0.0.1 Sitecoredemo
13. Now access your website by browsing the below address:
You can access the Admin section using the below address:
http://Sitecoredemo/sitecore
With this, you complete your local development environment set up and now you can start with your development work.
I will be discussing the set up of website solution in Visual Studio in my next blog.
Advaiya has the Sitecore experience and expertise to integrate Sitecore solution with your business critical systems like ERP and CRM. You can contact us anytime to help you get the most out of this powerful content management system.
Sitecore for enterprise
What is a Content Management System?
Content Management System or CMS or Web Content Management System is used to manage content of a website. It means you can create, measure, develop, optimize, deliver, manage, extend and modify your content on websites.
What is a Sitecore CMS?
Sitecore enterprise CMS is very flexible Content Management System. It is one of the leading enterprise-level content management system (CMS) using which you can create enterprise website and Intranet portal website.
Sitecore was founded in 2001 and it is built on Microsoft .NET platform. It also allows deployment via Microsoft Azure.
Why Sitecore CMS?
In today’s market, it is important to manage not only the content shown on the web pages but also to show the context and flow of the content appearing on the web pages. The business requirements for a corporate website are changing from a simple application that produces static web pages, to an extensible platform that gathers, combines, assembles and distributes the content for interactive uses.
Top 10 reasons to choose Sitecore CMS
Top features of Sitecore enterprise CMS which makes it better CMS than others, include solutions to website user behavior as well as tools to increase site visitors. Here are some of its popular Sitecore CMS features:
1) Awareness to website traffic conversion
2) Quickly and easily personalize each visitors experience
3) Optimizes content for different devices
4) Easily integrate with third party tools
5) Refined Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
6) Microsoft technology can be integrated fast
7) Highly scalable
8) Intuitive and user-friendly design
9) A/B and multivariate testing optimizes the web experience
10) Web 2.0 and social media integration
Why Sitecore is better than other Open Source CMS
System security
Source code In Open Source CMS is available to all so it’s easy for hackers and others to find system vulnerabilities in the first place.
Ease of use for non-technical staff
Sitecore have much more ‘human’ interface than open source like Drupal, WordPress. Non-technical people can make changes on website without the need of Sitecore developer involvement.
New features and marketing tools
Sitecore provide new features compare to Open Source CMS. It is true that system like Drupal, Joomla and WordPress are catching up but they are always slightly behind on features.
Integration potential
This is primarily because of the kind of pitches that licensed platforms are invited to. Integration with system like Microsoft, Salesforce, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics, SharePoint and Sage is allowed in Sitecore.
Is open source really ‘free’?
It is true there is no license fee for open source CMS, but sometimes the license fees of Sitecore is less than the cost of making.
With Sitecore, you can adapt your site and your content to your customer’s interests for driving new revenue. Advaiya has the Sitecore experience and expertise to integrate Sitecore solution with your business critical systems like ERP and CRM. You can contact us anytime to help you get the most out of this powerful content management system.