Installing Umbraco for the first time

Problem:

Installing a new CMS can be tricky, and Umbraco is no different.
There are many ways, but even the easiest path can be a bumpy road.
For this reason, I like to do things manually, and define a process that really works.


Solution:


1 - Setup SQL Server and SQL Server Management Studio

Umbraco will install a SQL Compact Database by default, but in my opinion it is better to start working with SQL Server from the very beginning.
While opening the site for the first time (Step 7), there will be a setting "Customize" to allow selecting an SQL Server and instance, as opposed to the default compact database in the AppData folder.

I personally installed, from web platform installer:
"SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Studio Express with SP1" (management studio)
"SQL Server Express 2008 R2 Service Pack 2" (sql server instance)

If you want to use SQL Server, now it is a good time to use Management Studio and create a new database.


2 - Setup the Visual Studio Solution / Project

Open up Visual Studio (make sure you do it as Administrator to avoid future problems) and create a new project, ASP.NET Web Application, using .NET Framework 4.5.



3 - Add Umbraco to the project

Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console and type:


Install-Package UmbracoCMS


4 - Setup a proxy, if you need one

A proxy can be defined in the web.config file, adding the below:




5 - Deactivate LoaderLock to avoid "ProfileDB.cs" request error


Debug > Exceptions > Managed Debugging Assistants > uncheck "LoaderLock"

source




6 - Compile the solution

Make sure the solution is fully working and that a new build is generated.
If you have classes in the App_Code folder, they might need to be set with "Build Action" to "Compile", or move them altogether.


7 - Deploy Umbraco using SQL Server

- Run (F5) or add your path to an IIS application to start Umbraco
- You will need to click "Customize" and then setup the SQL Server settings
- Finally, you will need to select a template



8 - Configure the project as an MVC application

If you are trying to right-click "Models" or "Controllers", you will not get the usual "Add Controller" or "Add Model" contextual options.

The workaround for this is to add the guid,  "{E3E379DF-F4C6-4180-9B81-6769533ABE47};"
to your .csproj file, inside the following tags:

source

However, you might want to consider creating a different project to place these elements.


9 - Delete the "Install" folder

Umbraco recommends that once you have installed the application, delete the install folder to prevent problems in the future.


Known issues

I have experienced some issues myself, some of them resolved with running one or more of the following commands, but for those making their first instances of Umbraco, I definitely recommend backing up the site and database often, to be able to rollback to a working state.

Update-Package
Install-Package -Id  Microsoft.AspNet.WebHelpers
Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc -Version 5.0.0

Other resources:
Setting up Umbraco with Visual Studio
Install Umbraco manually

Update:

Version 7.2.2 was throwing a "missing plugins folder" error when choosing certain site templates.
This can be fixed by creating a folder "App_Plugins" in the Umbraco root folder.

There you go!

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