Oqtane Blazor CMS And Its Configuration

Introduction

In this article, I'm going to explain most of the things related to Oqtane CMS. We'll cover, what is Oqtane CMS and why we need Oqtane CMS. And the most important thing is how to configure the Oqtane CMS. So let's start this article with what is Oqtane CMS.

What is Oqtane CMS?

Oqtane is developed by Mr. Shaun Walker, who is also the founder of  DNN. According to the Oqtane organization, "Oqtane is an open source and cross-platform modular application framework for building single-page applications." Here we can easily understand that Oqtane is extremely helpful for single-page Application development. It has most of the necessary features that are really helpful for development. It provides support for in-build Oauth and open ID connect which are really helpful for your authentication, and you use them as per your requirement. It has multitenant support in its latest version. It also provides swagger UI support. So we can say that Oqtane is a framework that provides a lot of features for development. Next, I'm going to explain why we need Oqtane CMS.

Why do we need Oqtane CMS?

Whenever we need to develop a site, first we need to create a really good project structure to manage the files in an understandable manner. Second, we need to configure some necessary things that are required for a basic project like authentication and themes, and these all things take too much time in some cases, and it becomes very complex to configure. The solution to these all problems is to use a framework that provides these things ready to use or customizable based on our requirements. The next question is, which framework should we choose for the development and answer is it all depends on your requirements. You can use Ghost CMS or Oqtane CMS, or any other one. Here are some really awesome features that are provided by Oqtane. 

Features of Oqtane

• Multi-Tenant support
• Cross Platform
• Composite UI - By using composite UI anyone who is Admin can create a page with the help of old components. 
• Themes
• Modules

So if you want to use Oqtane then the first question that comes to mind is how we can use Oqtane for rapid development. So let's find out. 

How to Configure Oqtane?

First, we need to install SQL server and  SSMS for database connectivity.

Second, we need to install and configure IIS. After installation, we need to follow these steps to configure it for Oqtane

Step 1

Search for Turn windows features on or off you will see the following window.

Figure-Turn windows feature on or off

Step 2

Click on Internet Information Services, then click on the web management tool and check the IIS Management Console. Then click on world wide web services, and under word wide web services click on application development features, now check the WebSocket Protocol. Next, click on the Common HTTP Features and check the following checkbox 

• Default Document
• Directory Browsing
• HTTP Errors
• HTTP Redirection
• Static Content

Figure -Configure IIS

And don't click on WebDAV publishing

Figure-Don't check 

Step 3

Next, you need to install the Url Rewrite Module using the following URL 

Figure-URL Rewrite Module

You can choose and install it as per your requirement and specification.

Step 4

Next, you need to install .NET Core Hosting Bundle. After a successful installation, we need to jump to the next step.

Step 5

Next, you need to download or clone the latest version Oqtane framework from Github and extract it to a separate folder. if you are downloading it as a zip then don't forget to rename it as Oqtane.framework.

Step 6

Next, we need to add a website. For adding a website just open IIS Manager, right click on sites, right-click on add website, and put the site name awesome.oqtane.me, and the physical path will be the same location where we have extracted the zip and hostname must be awesome.oqtane.me then click on ok.

Step 7

Next, we need to allow modify permissions to the application pool identity user. To do this we need to follow the steps below.

• Open IIS 
• Click on sites
• Select the site that we created a few moments before.
• Then right-click on the site name and click on modify-permissions.
  
  
  Figure-Modify permissions
• Then go to the security tab and click on the edit button
  
  
  Figure-Edit Security Permissions
• Next just follow the steps below
  
  
  Figure-Editing the security permissions

Step 8

Now we need to set No Managed Code to do this follow these steps.

Figure-Setting no managed Code

Now just choose No managed code from the drop-down list

Figure-Choosing No managed code

Then click on okay. Now we are done from the IIS side but not all things are done. Now we need to configure the database for the application, so let's jump into the next step.

Step 9

Now open SQL Server Management Studio and create a new database with the name awesome.oqtane.me. Next, we need to add a new window user for Oqtane to do this we need to follow the steps below.

• Click on Security
• Then right-click on Logins
• And choose new login.

Figure-New login

Next, enter the login name as IIS APPPOOL\awesome.oqtane.me and check on db_owner

Figure-Adding new Login

Now your login is created successfully and your configuration is done for the Oqtane. Now just search for localhost on your browser enter the detail and click on install your Oqtane. In case you are not getting Oqtane wizard on localhost you can check it on IIS and if port 80 is not allowed to Oqtane then allot the port.

Figure-Configuration

Now just build the Oqtane.sln file and make changes, but remember one thing each time you make some changes you need to rebuild your code.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed Oqtane and its features and also how to configure Oqtane in your machine. Oqtane provides multiple inbuilt functionalities that are really helpful for development and I hope it'll be helpful for you guys.