node-express-ssr

node/express scaffolding for SSR outside of Sitecore Content Delivery

This is a sample setup showing one one of how you can configure rendering server on top of node.js and Express.

The setup is using sitecore-jss-proxy that enables request proxying to Sitecore CD along with the http cookies to enable tracking, personalization and contact identification.

This is a sample setup that hasn't been tested in production and is not officially supported by Sitecore, so use this on your own risk.

You can use this as a starting ground to unlock deployment of your JSS apps to any managed node.js hosting environment (Azure App Service, Heroku, IBM BlueMix, you name it).

Pre-requisites

1. Your Sitecore instance needs to be configured with JSS.Server and the API Key provisioned. Read more here how to set it up.

   LayoutService API should be returning output if you make the following request to your Sitecore instance. http://sitecore-host/sitecore/api/layout/render/jss?item=/&sc_apikey={YOUR_API_KEY}

2. Build your JS app bundle with npm run build.

   You can use any of the samples from this repo.

3. Take the JS bundle files and copy them under this project's ./dist/Your-App-Name. You can lookup the value of Your-App-Name from your JSS app's package.config:

"config": {
  "appName": "JssBasicAppAngular",

Setup

1. Open config.js and specify connection settings to your Sitecore CD instance, specifically apiHost and apiKey:

   module.exports = {
     //change to https to enable Login functionality
     apiHost: 'http://your-sitecore-host',
     layoutServiceRoute: '/sitecore/api/layout/render/jss',
     //needs to be populated before use
     apiKey: '{API-KEY}', 
     pathRewriteExcludeRoutes: ['/dist', '/assets', '/sitecore/api'],
     debug: false,
     proxyOptions: {
       secure: false, //for demo ONLY, allows self-signed SSL certs
     },
   };

   Sitecore API key needs to be provisioned ahead of time.

Build & run

1. Run npm install

2. Run npm run start

You should be able to see the following message: server listening on port 3000! and see all the communication between this server and your Sitecore CD instance in the console.

More info on this setup can be found here.