Building a website in Sitecore CMS involves several steps. Here’s a general process, with a simple example of creating a basic website:
1. Set Up Sitecore:
First, ensure Sitecore CMS is installed and properly set up on your server. You’ll need to have SQL Server installed for Sitecore’s databases. The Sitecore installation also includes the creation of a new IIS website.
2. Create Templates:
Templates in Sitecore define the data structure of the items that you’ll create. Suppose we’re creating a simple blog, you’ll need at least two templates:
- Blog Post Template: This might include fields for Title (Single-Line Text), Published Date (Date), Author (Single-Line Text), and Body (Rich Text).
- Author Template: This could include fields for Name (Single-Line Text), Bio (Rich Text), and Profile Picture (Image).
These templates can be created using the Template Manager in the Sitecore Desktop.
3. Create Content Items:
Now you can create items based on the templates you’ve defined. You might create several blog post items, each with a title, publish date, author, and body content. You could also create author items for each of the blog post authors. This can be done in the Content Editor in Sitecore.
4. Define Layouts and Renderings:
You’ll need to create layouts and renderings in your .NET MVC solution that correspond to the structure and components of your website. For example, you might have a layout that defines the common structure of your pages (header, main content area, footer), and renderings for a blog post and author details.
5. Set Presentation Details:
For each item you create, you can set the presentation details to determine how that item will be displayed. This involves choosing a layout and adding renderings to the placeholders in that layout. For each rendering, you’ll also specify a datasource, which is the item that the rendering will display.
6. Configure the Site:
You need to configure your new site in the `<sites>` section of the Sitecore configuration (usually in the Sitecore.config file or a custom .config file in the App_Config/Include folder). This includes settings like the site name, start item, domain, etc.
7. Publish:
Finally, you need to publish your items to make them available on the live website. This can be done in the Content Editor using the Publish option.
Remember, building a Sitecore website involves not only Sitecore itself, but also a .NET MVC solution where you implement your layouts, renderings, and any custom functionality. Also, these steps are a very basic overview – a real Sitecore website would likely involve more complex data structures, more templates, many more renderings, and potentially multiple sites and languages.
