Deploy a project and environment

Timing 10 minutes

This is part one of the getting started walkthrough series. After you complete this step, move on to create a site and page.

When you create a new project in the Deploy app, it automatically creates an environment and runs an initial deployment. In this topic, we'll create a project that uses the XM Cloud starter foundation template. You can also create a project using the Sitecore CLI or the XM Cloud Deploy API.

This walkthrough describes how to:

  1. Open the XM Cloud Deploy app

  2. Deploy a project and environment

Before you begin

  • Make sure you have an email invite to an XM Cloud instance, and you've been assigned an Organization Admin or Organization Owner role in the organization where you want to create a project.

  • Prepare a GitHub or Azure DevOps service account and its authentication details.

Open the XM Cloud Deploy app

You access XM Cloud for the first time by accepting the invitation you received to a Cloud Portal environment. This opens the Sitecore Cloud Portal, from which you navigate to XM Cloud.

To open the Deploy app:

  1. In the invitation email, click Accept invitation.

  2. Your browser opens. Follow the authorization process on screen and accept the terms and conditions.

  3. You are now logged in to the Cloud Portal. It shows the apps and actions available to you, depending on your access rights. The portal is where you manage users, invite team members, and assign permissions. Now that you've accepted the invitation, you can access the portal directly at https://portal.sitecorecloud.io, and read the documentation to learn more about using it.

  4. To start creating your first project, open the Deploy app by clicking XM Cloud Deploy under the quick links in the menu on the right. The Deploy app can also be accessed directly by opening https://deploy.sitecorecloud.io/.

    Note

    After you create an environment, you can access it from the portal by clicking the tile in the Apps section.

Deploy a project

When you create a new project in the Deploy app, it automatically creates an environment and runs an initial deployment there. In this walkthrough series, we'll deploy a project that uses the XM Cloud starter foundation template.

To create a project in the deploy app using the foundation template:

  1. In the XM Cloud Deploy app, on the Projects page, click Create project.

    The 'create project' button in the XM Cloud Deploy app

  2. Name the project XMC Getting Started, then click Continue.

  3. To choose the source control provider you want to use for your project click Connect, then Continue. The Deploy app will create a new repository there to store your environment code.

  4. In the Set up repository window, make sure Use XM Cloud template is selected.

  5. Assuming there is no existing connection, click Connect to a new account, and follow the steps to authorize the Deploy app in your account. You can later manage the connection for the source control provider.

  6. Enter a name for the repository, such as XMC-Getting-Started, then click Continue.

    Note

    Your repository name can only contain alphanumeric characters, underscores, periods, or hyphens, and a maximum of 100 characters. It must also follow the repository naming convention of your source control provider.

  7. Name the environment XMC Getting Started.

  8. In the Production SaaS SLA field, select No.

    Important

    A production environment is optimized for production traffic and is covered by the Sitecore SaaS Service Level Agreement. This setting cannot be changed later.

  9. In the Auto deploy on push to repository field, select Yes.

  10. Review the configuration and click Start deployment.

  11. The deployment runs for a few minutes, and you are redirected to the deployment log screen to see the progress (this might take a few seconds). After it completes, you can click Go to XM Cloud to open the Sites dashboard in a new tab and create a new site.

The deployment process:

  • Creates a new repository in the connected source control account and copies the source code from the XM Cloud foundation template to the new repository.

  • Provisions the infrastructure and SaaS tenants to host the Content Management (CM) instance in the environment you defined.

  • Pulls the source code from the repository to a hosted XM Cloud build server and builds the solution.

  • Deploys the XM Cloud build artifacts on the provisioned CM instance.

Now that you've provisioned the project and environment, the next thing you'll do is create a site and page.

A project is a logical grouping of XM Cloud environments. Each project can include several environments, such as a development, testing, and production environment. In XM Cloud, you can create a project using the Deploy app, the CLI, or REST APIs.

When you create a project using the Deploy app, one environment is automatically created, and you can choose whether it’s a production environment (that gets faster support than the non-production environments). The number of projects you can create depends on your subscription.

An environment is an entity that holds a set of configurations, code, and implementations. Each environment includes the following:

  • A single content management (CM) instance

  • Experience edge tenant

  • Databases

  • Indexes

  • Automation clients

  • Environment variables

  • Rendering hosts

  • An app tenant that connects the CM instance with functionality such as Pages and Components

Each environment is isolated and unique. This allows you to have unique customizations, deployments, and configurations on your environment, based on implementation needs.

The starter kit is a code base that’s intended to be the basis of most XM Cloud implementations. To use it, you select the XM Cloud template option when creating a new project. It is open source, and available on GitHub. Using the starter kit ensures you get the most stable and up-to-date version of the assets, references, assemblies, and artifacts we recommend using when you start building a solution with XM Cloud. It includes:

  • Local development workstation resources that support debugging and testing.

  • JSS and headless libraries.

  • Headless SXA reference components, written in Next.js.

  • Personalization and analytics middleware.

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