Installing The Portal Connector on Sitefinity 12

Prerequisites

• A web server running Sitefinity with one of the last two builds of the following Sitefinity versions:
  
  • Sitefinity 12.0 (7000, 7029, 7037)
  • Sitefinity 12.1 (7100, 7131, 7200, 7230)
  • Sitefinity 12.2 (7200, 7230, +)
• No existing Portal Connector installation (see Upgrade for information on updating an existing installation)
• Any Microsoft® Visual Studio editions for versions 2015, 2017 or 2019
• Microsoft® .NET Framework 4.7.2

Setup

1. Navigate to The Portal Connector customer portal to download the TPC build for your respective Sitefinity version.
   
   
2. Back up your Sitefinity website and Sitefinity database.

Installation

1. Verify that the contents of the downloaded TPC .zip file will not blocked by right-clicking on the file and selecting Properties. On the General tab, ensure Unblock is checked, if the option is available.
2. Extract the contents of the downloaded TPC .zip file.
3. Navigate to the bin directory of your Sitefinity installation.
4. Copy and paste the contents of the downloaded .zip file into this directory.
5. Open the Sitefinity site project file (usually named SitefinityWebApp.csproj) in Visual Studio.
6. Open the SitefinityWebApp project properties by double clicking on the Properties item under the expanded project.
   
7. In the Properties menu, open the Application sub-menu and change the target framework:
   • For Sitefinity 12.0+: Select .NET Framework 4.7.2
    
8. In the Solution Explorer on the right-hand side, right-click References and then Add Reference…
9. On the left-hand side of the dialog, click on Browse andthen on the bottom of the dialog, click Browse…
10. Navigate to the bin folder and select the copied pavliks.PortalConnector.dll from step 2. Once selected, click Add.After the file is added, click OK.
11. If deploying to Azure, add the following additional .dll files to your references list:
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Mvc
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Mvc.Forms
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Mvc.Pages
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Mvc.FormFlow
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Migrations
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Mvc.PowerBI
    • pavliks.PortalConnector.Mvc.KnowledgeBase

12. If references exist in the project for the following assemblies, they will need to be deleted and then re-added pointing to the files that are in the TPC distribution. Otherwise, they will be overwritten by the references that Sitefinity includes.

    • Microsoft.SharePoint.Client
    • Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime

    Aditionally, for TPC 6.0 and above:

    • Telerik.Reporting
    • Telerik.Reporting.XpsRendering
13. For TPC 6.0 and above, add the following required Binding Redirects:

<!-- Required Binding Redirects -->

<dependentAssembly>

    <assemblyIdentity name="Newtonsoft.Json" publicKeyToken="30ad4fe6b2a6aeed" culture="neutral"/>

    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-11.0.0.0" newVersion="10.0.0.0"/>

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

    <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Http.WebHost" publicKeyToken="31BF3856AD364E35" culture="neutral"/>

    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-5.2.3.0" newVersion="5.2.3.0"/>

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

    <assemblyIdentity name="Telerik.Reporting" publicKeyToken="a9d7983dfcc261be" culture="neutral"/>

    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-14.1.20.618" newVersion="14.1.20.618"/>

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

    <assemblyIdentity name="Telerik.Reporting.XpsRendering" publicKeyToken="a9d7983dfcc261be" culture="neutral"/>

    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-14.1.20.618" newVersion="14.1.20.618"/>

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Client" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral"/>

    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-16.1.0.0" newVersion="16.0.0.0"/>

</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>

    <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral"/>

    <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-16.1.0.0" newVersion="16.0.0.0"/>

</dependentAssembly>

14. At the top of Visual Studio, under the Build menu, select Build Solution
     
15. Once built, open the site by navigating to it in your browser.

Activation

Now that the Portal Connector binaries are installed, we need to activate the module in order to gain access to all of the custom widgets and functionality TPC provides.

To activate The Portal Connector, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Sitefinity backend
2. Under the Administration menu, select Modules & Services
   
3. Scroll down until you find “The Portal Connector” module. On the right-hand side of this option, select “Actions” and then “Install”. This process usually takes between 2-4 minutes, depending on server speed.
   
4. After installation and activation of this module, you are ready to use The Portal Connector.
5. For users wishing to utilize the new MVC features, you must also install and activate The Portal Connector (MVC) module. Once this module is installed, all new MVC widgets and features will be available to you within the toolbox.

Licensing

This section will show you how to apply your license to your Portal Connector installation. For more information on licensing please contact sales at info@crmportalconnector.com

You can read The Portal Connector End-User License Agreement here: https://www.crmportalconnector.com/license/eula.pdf

1. Navigate to the license keys page on The Portal Connector web portal found here.
2. Select View Keys next to the portal where you wish to install the license.
3. On the next page, click View on the appropriate TPC version for your installation.
4. Copy the contents of the License Key in the text box to your clipboard.
5. Log in to the Sitefinity backend of your portal.
6. Under the Administration menu, select Portal Connector Licensing.
   
7. Paste the license key from your clipboard into to the license text area.
8. Click Update License.
   
9. If the correct license was copied, the Portal Connector will be licensed with a valid license