The Retail SDK contains the whole solution code for the Online store, you’ll need to sign it with your own strong name key before starting any development.
To debug the Online store code, the DLL used by the Online store has to match the solution.
But the standard code/DLL used at the initial deployment has a different version & public key token than your solution even though the code within it is identical (before any changes is made), this will prevent the debugging.
In order to debug it, you’ll need to deploy your solution to the Online store so that it will use the updated DLL (with your own version & public key token that match the solution file).
This post will walk through the steps required to:
1. Sign the Retail SDK with your strong name key
2. Update the storefront solution file
3. Generate the package (*.wsp) for deployment
4. Deploy the solution package
5. Debugging
Pre-requisites:
• Install Retail Online Channel
• Install Retail SDK
NOTE:
For shorter path in the example below, I’ll copy the “Retail Online Channel” folder to “C:\Retail\” and rename it to “OnlineChannel”.
So, we’ll be working on:
• C:\Retail\OnlineChannel
instead of
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics AX\60\Retail Online Channel
So does the Retail SDK, we’ll copy it from:
• C:\Users\admin\Documents\Retail SDK
to
• C:\Retail\SDK
All the steps/changes below will be using the files in the new path:
• C:\Retail\OnlineChannel
• C:\Retail\SDK
Preparing for debugging:
#1. Update the Retail SDK with your own strong name key
> Update the file “C:\Retail\SDK\UpdateAssemblyIdentities.ps1”, Line 98 with your public key token
> Execute this PowerShell script (UpdateAssemblyIdentities.ps1) with administrator right
(This will takes several minutes to run)
*Due to we changed the “Retail Online Channel” path from “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics AX\60\Retail Online Channel” to “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel”, we’ll need to do some manual work later to change the value in a file. This is due to the “UpdateAssemblyIdentities.ps1” used a fixed path to update the “RetailPublishingJob.App.config” file, so it only update the file in the original directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics AX\60\Retail Online Channel) but not the new directory (C:\Retail\OnlineChannel). In addition to that, the Commerce Runtime is not updated to 1.0.0.0 as well. The steps in this article only allows you to debug the storefront solution, if you need to debug the CRT, you may follows the steps in “Debug AX 2012 Retail Online Store commerce runtime services”.
#2. Open up the StoreFront solution from “C:\Retail\Retail SDK\Online Channel\StoreFront\StoreFront.sln”
#3. Find solution’s code that’s not updated with the correct version & public key token, update them manually
Eg. Find with “6.3.0.0” is easier
*Workflow assembly should left intact due to you can’t customize it
(Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj916618.aspx)
Example of files that need change.
Eg. \Storefront\MiscSettingsAssets\safeControls.config
Eg. \Storefront\Assets2\commerceRuntime.config
#4. Update the project’s Site URL property (5 projects in total)
#5. Build the solution
#6. Right click on the “CommonGlobalModules” project and click “Publish”
#7. Select “Publish to File System”
#8. Browse to “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\CommonGlobalModules” and create a new folder called “Original_WSP”
#9. Select this “Original_WSP” folder as the destination to publish the “CommonGlobalModules.wsp” and click “Publish”
*If you’re getting an error - “The following file cannot be found: "C:\Retail\Retail SDK\Commerce Run-time\References\Microsoft.Dynamics.Commerce.Runtime.WorkflowFoundation.Activities.dll”, a quick workaround is to copy the required DLL into the reference folder.
Eg. Copy the file “Microsoft.Dynamics.Commerce.Runtime.WorkflowFoundation.Activities.dll” from “C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Dynamics.Commerce.Runtime.WorkflowFoundation.Activities\v4.0_6.3.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35” to “C:\Retail\Retail SDK\Commerce Run-time\References”
#10. Right click on the “SharePoint.Web.Storefront” project and click “Publish”
#11. Select “Publish to File System”
#12. Browse to “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\StoreFront” and create a new folder called “Original_WSP”
#13. Select this “Original_WSP” folder as the destination to publish the “Storefront.wsp” and click “Publish”
#14. Open up DemoData solution from “C:\Retail\Retail SDK\Online Channel\DemoData\SharePoint.DemoData.sln”
#15. Update the project’s Site URL property
#16. Build the solution
#17. Right click on the SharePoint.DemoData.Contoso project and click “Publish”
#18. Select “Publish to File System”
#19. Browse to “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\ContosoDemoData” and create a new folder called “Original_WSP”
#20. Select this “Original_WSP” folder as the destination to publish the “ContosoDemoData.wsp” and click “Publish”
#21. Update the “oob-settings.xml” and “oob-topology.xml” in the folder “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\tools”
*Update the value as required for deployment (More info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj991927.aspx)
Eg.
For “oob-settings.xml”, set these
- <Setting key="SharepointPackageInstanceIdentifier" value="1" />
*The “1” correspond to the number on the site
- <Setting key="StoreFront_ShoppingCartExpiryTerm" value="3" />
- <Setting key="StoreFrontPublicSSLCertDirectory" value="%SystemDrive%\Sharepoint_Install\Certificates\SSL" />
- <Setting key="StoreFrontWebAppPoolUser" value="CONTOSO\RetailOnlineUser1" />
- <Setting key="ProductCatalogWebAppPoolUser" value="CONTOSO\Admin" />
- <Setting key="ProductCatalogName" value="Contoso product
catalog" />
- <Setting key="STSWebAppPoolUser" value="CONTOSO\Admin" />
- <Setting key="RetailJobUser" value="CONTOSO\Admin" />
- <Setting key="ChannelId" value="5637144608" />
- <Setting key="DestinationId" value="9D58F661-7501-4E6D-B667-85F9F1A7C86D" />
- <Setting key="PublishingConnectorServiceInstanceServers" value="AX2012R2A" />
- <Setting key="FarmAdministratorAlias" value="CONTOSO\spfarm" />
- <Setting key="FarmAdministratorEmail" value="spfarm@contoso.com" />
- <Setting key="ChannelDatabaseServerName" value="AX2012R2A" />
- <Setting key="ChannelDatabaseName" value="RetailContosoStorefront" />
- <Setting key="IdentityProviderDatabaseServerName" value="AX2012R2A" />
- <Setting key="CustomClaimsProviderDatabaseServerName" value="AX2012R2A" />
For “oob-topology.xml”, set these
> Change the generate=”true” to “false”, so that it won’t generate the package (we’ll use the one generated in previous steps under “Original_WSP” later)
<WSPPackage generate="false" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="true">
<RootFolder>..\CommonGlobalModules</RootFolder>
<WSPPackage generate="false" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="true">
<RootFolder>..\StoreFront</RootFolder>
<WSPPackage generate="false" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="true">
<RootFolder>..\ContosoDemoData</RootFolder>
> Set the line below if you’re not using Facebook authentication
<TrustedIdentityTokenIssuer id="Facebook" install="false" deleteifexists="false">
#22. Open the file “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\RetailJobs\SP\SharePoint.Services.RetailJobs_RetailPublishingJobFeature_1\Assets\RetailPublishingJob.App.config” and on Line 25, change the Version to 1.0.0.0 & PublicKeyToken to your token.
*As mentioned in Step #1, this is the manual work to change the version & public key token.
#23. Run SharePoint PowerShell as administrator
#24. Change the directory to “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\tools”
#25. Execute the PowerShell script - .\Generate-WSP.ps1 oob-topology.xml oob-settings.xml
This will package up the retail jobs to “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\RetailJobs\Final_WSP” and leave the other 3 intact (CommonGlobalModules, StoreFront, & ContosoDemoData).
After this step is done, we have one “Final_WSP” for retail jobs, this will be used during the deployment later.
At this point, the folder structure should looks like this (1 “Final_WSP” and 3 “Original_WSP”)
Before deployment, we need to prepare the other 3 “Final_WSP” from the “Original_WSP” (CommonGlobalModules, StoreFront, & ContosoDemoData).
#26. Update the “oob-topology.xml” in the folder “C:\Retail\OnlineChannel\tools” again
> Change the generate=”false” to “true”
<WSPPackage generate="true" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="true">
<RootFolder>..\CommonGlobalModules</RootFolder>
<WSPPackage generate="true" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="true">
<RootFolder>..\StoreFront</RootFolder>
<WSPPackage generate="true" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="true">
<RootFolder>..\ContosoDemoData</RootFolder>
> Change the generate=”true” to “false”
<WSPPackage generate="false" deploy="true" retract="true" unpack="false">
<RootFolder>..\RetailJobs</RootFolder>
#27. Execute the PowerShell script - .\Prepare-FromWSP.ps1 oob-topology.xml oob-settings.xml
After the script execution completed, we’ll have “Final_WSP” for the other 3 folders (CommonGlobalModules, StoreFront, & ContosoDemoData)
#28. Execute the PowerShell script - .\InstallPrereqs-SPFarm.ps1 oob-topology.xml oob-settings.xml
*This will take quite some time to run
#29. Execute the PowerShell script - .\Deploy-FarmSolutions.ps1 oob-topology.xml oob-settings.xml
*This will take quite some time to run
The updated retail store DLL and code has now been deployed, you can start putting in breakpoint, attach to process and debug.
NOTE: Once this custom solution is deployed, next time when code is changed, just copy the DLL into the GAC (no need to redeploy the whole thing as above)
Perform debugging:
#1. Open the StoreFront solution (“C:\Retail\Retail SDK\Online Channel\StoreFront\StoreFront.sln”)
#2. Attach to the Online store process (Menu: Debug > Attach to Process…)
*Refers to Debug AX 2012 Retail Online Store commerce runtime services for details on how to identify and attach to the Online store process
#3. Put breakpoint to the code you wanted to debug, the breakpoint will appear in solid red dot
#4. Run the process that you wanted to debug (Eg. Click on the link on the Online store that will trigger the breakpoint)
NOTE:
If the debugging still not working, you might want to check the web.config to enable the debugging if it is not enabled yet.
Eg. <compilation batch="false" debug="true">
