Setup Hawksearch with .NET Core Renderer

In this article you will find:

1 Goal
2 Steps for Setting-up the Project
3 Prerequisite
4 Steps to install the connector
5 Steps to configure the .NET Core Renderer
6 Steps to configure the .NET Core widgets

Goal

Sitefinity .NET Core Renderer is a standalone application that is deployed separately from Sitefinity CMS to offload the task of rendering pages as HTML for improved scalability and performance, and reduce the CPU load for the main CMS node.

This article will provide information for installing the Hawksearch widgets for Sitefinity .NET Core Renderer.

Steps for Setting-up the Project

In order to use Sitefinity .NET Core Render you will need to configure two projects -one for the CMS and one .NET Core project for the Renderer.

For more information on how to configure the .NET Core Render you can refer to the official documentation - https://www.progress.com/documentation/sitefinity-cms/overview-renderer

Prerequisite

Sitefinity CMS project
Sitefinity .NET Core Renderer project

Steps to install the connector

Install the Hawksearch NuGet package for the CMS project - Hawksearch.Sitefinity.Renderer*
Install the NuGet package for the .NET Core project - Hawksearch.Renderer.UI*
Build your projects

Steps to configure the .NET Core Renderer

Edit the Startup.cs or Program.cs file of your .NET Core Renderer application and add Hawksearch to your services.
The Startup.cs should look like this:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore;
using Renderer.Hawksearch.UI.Infrastructure.Extensions;

namespace Renderer
{
    public class Startup
    {
        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
        // For more information on how to configure your application, visit https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=398940
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddHawksearch();
            services.AddSitefinity();
            services.AddViewComponentModels();
        }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
        {
            if (env.IsDevelopment())
            {
                app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
            }

            app.UseStaticFiles();
            app.UseRouting();
            app.UseSitefinity();
            app.UseEndpoints(endpoints => { endpoints.MapSitefinityEndpoints(); });
        }
    }
}

In Configure method add app.UseStaticFiles() before app.UseRouting()

For .NET 7.0 Reference the Program.cs below

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore;
using Progress.Sitefinity.AspNetCore.FormWidgets;
using Renderer.Hawksearch.UI.Infrastructure.Extensions;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Add services to the container.
builder.Services.AddHawksearch();
builder.Services.AddSitefinity();
builder.Services.AddViewComponentModels();
builder.Services.AddFormViewComponentModels();

var app = builder.Build();

// Configure the HTTP request pipeline.
if (app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
}
else
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error");
    app.UseHsts();
}

app.UseStaticFiles();
app.UseRouting();
app.UseSitefinity();

app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
    endpoints.MapSitefinityEndpoints();
});

app.Run();

Steps to configure the .NET Core widgets

Changes in the widget designer are introduced with the .NET Core Renderer. To set up widgets, you should provide the correct index name in the Hawksearch Index Name field.

Hawksearch Index Name is the name of the created index in the Hawksearch engine. You can obtain the index name from the Hawksearch Admin → Index Mappings backend page (your-website-url/Sitefinity/Administration/Indexmappings) Hawksearch Indexes column.