Get Started

Quick start and guides for installing and running Optimizely CMS project.

Notes

In this guide, we will create a new Optimizely CMS website for a fictional company named Precise Alloy. As you follow the setup steps, be sure to replace it with your company's name.

Prerequisites

Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code
.NET 8 SDK
SQL Server 2022 - Developer Edition
You'll need an account with SQL Server Authentication enabled.

Steps

Install the Optimizely templates

dotnet new install EPiServer.Templates --force --add-source "https://nuget.optimizely.com/feed/packages.svc/"

Install the Episerver CLI Tool

dotnet tool install EPiServer.Net.Cli --global --add-source "https://nuget.optimizely.com/feed/packages.svc/"

Create new Optimizely CMS website

Create a new folder named PreciseAlloy/PreciseAlloy.Web, open it in the command line, and run the following command: (Note the .Web suffix):

dotnet new epi-cms-empty --name "PreciseAlloy.Web" --force

This command will generate several files. Open the appsettings.Development.json file, delete the /ConnectionStrings block inside it, save it, and proceed to the next step.

Create new Optimizely CMS database

In the same folder, run the following command:

dotnet-episerver create-cms-database "PreciseAlloy.Web.csproj" -S . -U "sa" -P "password" -dn "alloy-episerver-cms"

Whereas:

Parameter	Meaning
-S	server name
-U	server username
-P	server password
-dn	database name

Run the site

In the same folder, run the following command:

dotnet run

Notes

If you encounter the following error:

Unhandled exception. System.InvalidOperationException: Unable to configure HTTPS endpoint. No server certificate was specified, and the default developer certificate could not be found or is out of date.

It means you haven't installed any developer certificates yet, or they have become invalid. Follow the steps in this link to resolve the issue and then rerun the above command.

Open the site at https://localhost:5000. If everything is working correctly, you will be redirected to the registration page to create the first admin account.

CMS Login

Enter a username, email, and password, then click Create. You should see the Not Found page:

This localhost page can't be found

This is not an error; since we haven't created any pages yet, the site has nothing to display. Now go to https://localhost:5000/episerver/cms, where you should see the Optimizely CMS interface.