Installing e-Business 7.4

Madhuri Dange

June 20, 2024 10:44

This topic describes how to install the Aptify e-Business 7.4 site on a web server.

To do this, perform the following steps:

To utilize all functionalities of the e-Business 7.4 setup and install both, e-Business services (SOA) and e-Business React website, it is mandatory to have e-Business 7.4 installed. On database servers having Aptify 7.1, Aptify 7.2 or Aptify 7.3, you will be allowed to install only e-Business React website.

This website must be tested first only in a non-production environment.

Please take a backup copy of the database and website folder before starting the installation.

For specific database which has customization done on process flow: 'eBusiness Login Cart Conversion for Anonymous Users', it has been observed that the changes done was replaced with the stock process flow changes. To minimize the errors, please take a copy of this process flow so that the custom changes can manually be updated on the process flow once e-Business is installed successfully.

Confirm that the database server is running Aptify 7.4 for installing e-Business services (SOA), e-Business database server components and e-Business React website (see Server requirements for e-Business 7.4). Please note that e-Business 7.4 services and database server components are supported only on the Aptify 7.4 version.
Identify the web server that will host Aptify e-Business 7.4. This server must meet the required hardware and software requirements: (see Server requirements for e-Business 7.4)

For web servers that will be available on the public Internet, you must secure the site using HTTP over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to create an HTTPS site. The default installation of the Aptify site requires SSL. The site will not load successfully unless the site is configured to use SSL. For more information on how to secure the site will SSL, see Securing the Aptify Web Site Using SSL.
Create a new domain account or identify an existing domain with a valid end user license account to use on the Aptify e-Business 7.4 web server. If you have Aptify Web installed on the Web server, then you can use the same SOA App Pool user for e-Business 7.4 and Aptify Web. For more information on how to create a user, see Creating User Accounts.
- The account must be a trusted user with a valid end user license (elevated permissions are not required) with the appropriate privileges to conduct the e-Business 7.4 activity. The SOA user should also be in the Users group.
- During the setup process, the SOA user is added to the AptifySOAAppPoolGroup. This group is only intended for the SOA user and ensure user tokens are secure.
Log into the web server using an account with administrative privileges.

It is highly recommended that the user account used for the SOA layer is not used to log into the Aptify web server.
Download the Aptify 7.4 Service Pack Installer ZIP file to a folder and unzip its contents. This Zip file has installer for Aptify Database, Aptify Web and Aptify eBusiness7. Copy the APTIFY_7.4_eBusiness ZIP file to a folder on the web server and unzip its contents.
Right-click the Setup application file and select the Run As Administrator option to launch the installation program.
When prompted, enter login information for the database server, specifying an installation account with system administrator privileges to both the Aptify database and SQL Server. The installation user should also be tied to a Developer license to ensure that the setup can perform such tasks as entity creation when needed.

Selecting the System Administrator option when creating a user in the Aptify database (through the Aptify User Administration wizard) sets the user to a dbowner in SQL Server. It does not add the user to the sysadmin role. You will need to manually add the user to the sysadmin role in SQL Server through SQL Management Studio. If in doubt, check the user's permissions in the Security > Logins area of SQL Management Studio before proceeding with the installation.
Click OK to continue. On the Welcome page, review the set of requirements to install. If your environment does not meet one or more of the specified requirements, click Cancel to abort the installation. See Server requirements for e-Business 7.4 for more information on the pre-requisites.
On the e-Business Installation Details page, enter the Installation information as detailed below:
Select the appropriate checkboxes from Install e-Business SOA and Install React UI as per your requirement.
In the Website field, select the name under which the e-Business 7.4 site will be hosted. The recommended deployment for Aptify Web and e-Business 7.4 is on separate servers or at least separate domains under different websites on the same web server.

Default Website is selected by default for e-Business installation. However, you should host the e-Business website under another site and not on the same site where Aptify Web is installed.

If Aptify Web has been installed on a different website other than the default, then e-Business 7.4 can be installed on the 'Default Website'. The new site must be manually created through the IIS Manager prior to running the e-Business website setup. A valid port should be assigned to the Website which will be different for Aptify Web as well as for e-Business site. For additional steps to be followed on Aptify Web 7.4 after the e-Business 7.4 installation, see Installation of Aptify Web 7.4 and e-Business 7.4 on same DB instance.
The Aptify e-Business 7.4 site has been successfully tested on a cloud in following distributed environment set up:
1. Aptify Web 7.4 and eBusiness 7.4 installed on two different cloud servers and pointing to a database server on a different server.
2. Aptify Web 7.4 and eBusiness 7.4 on the same cloud server where both websites are installed separately, one on default site and another on non-default site respectively.
3. e-Business 7.4 SOA and e-Business 7.4 Web UI installed on different cloud servers.
In the Application Pool SOA field, enter the application pool name to be used for the Aptify e-Business SOA site.
- The default application pool name is Aptify_EbusinessSOAWeb
In the Application Pool React UI field, enter the application pool name to be used for the Aptify e-Business React website.
- - The default application pool name is Aptify_EbusinessReactUI.
If you wish to install e-Business services,
- In the SOA Pool User Name field, specify the trusted user account that you want to use as the SOA App Pool user for the Aptify e-Business website. This is the user identified in Step 4.
- In the Password field, enter the password for this user.
  
  The setup program, at this step, is unable to validate the user credentials entered. Make sure that the username and password entered are correct.
In the Website Location field, specify the location where the Aptify e-Business website files should be installed on the web server.
- The default path is c:\inetpub\wwwroot.
- For example, if you have selected 'Website' of a non-default path then the same path should be mentioned in the Website location as well.
In the Site Name field, enter the name of the website to be used in creating URLs.
- It is not necessary to include the protocol prefix (https://) in the site name as Aptify appends it automatically.
- This is the site name for the website that user will enter to browse this site. For example, enter MyOrg.org, if users will browse to https://MyOrg.org to connect to the server.
- This field can be left blank, and the setup program uses the server hostname and domain name to create URLs.
  
  Additional configuration needs to be done to support the site name entered. Microsoft IIS must be updated with the new site name, and the host file at c:\windows\system 32\Drivers\etc\host must be updated to include the web server’s IP address and the site name.
Only if the database server has Aptify 7.4 running, you can install the e-Business Database server components. To do so, ensure that the Install Database Component option is selected.
- This option installs the e-Business specific necessary entities and metadata on your database server.
- While you can run the installer multiple times to create multiple Aptify sites that communicate with the same database server, you should only install the necessary entities and metadata on your database server once.
To install only the Aptify e-business services (SOA) and Aptify e-Business React website, ensure that the Install Database Component option is cleared. This option is only applicable if you have previously installed the e-Business Database Components on the Aptify database server.
Click Next to continue and review your installation options. The Installer automatically selects the options in the box(es) for the installation(s) not currently installed.
Click Finish to begin the installation process.
Click OK when prompted that Aptify has been successfully installed to close the installer.

If a problem occurs during the installation, the Aptify Installer will notify you that an error occurred.
Once the Aptify e-Business site is installed successfully, new "SOA" and "eBizUI" applications are created on IIS. Check the bindings for this site in IIS. The site should be bound with HTTPS. A valid SSL certificate should be associated with the bindings.
Restart the IIS service.
- Although technically not required, restarting the IIS service will ensure that all existing sessions connected to the web server are terminated before the website is used.
- You can restart the IIS service from either the Internet Information Service (IIS) Manager or from the Windows Services dialog.
Now Connect to Aptify e-Business SOA to confirm that it loads correctly.
You can access the e-Business SOA site by typing the below URL and confirm that SOA help displays correctly on the browser.
https://servername.domain.com/SOA/help
Right-click eBizUI site on IIS and click Explore. This opens the contents of the hosted site in File Explorer.
In the ebConfig.json file, verify that the "ServicePath" property is correctly set as per the URL of the server's e-Business SOA site similar to step 24.
Connect to the Aptify e-Business React website to confirm that it loads properly using a supported web browser.
- You can access the e-Business React site using the below URL where servername is the name of your web server and domain.com is your organization's domain:
  If e-Business is installed on Default Website, below would be the URL to access:
  https://servername.domain.com/eBizUI
  If e-Business is installed on the non-Default Website, then find the port on which the non-default website is linked and below would be the URL to access:
  https://servername.domain.com:eBusinessPortNo/eBizUI

Post Installation Configurations

This section provides the instructions to carry out configurations to make sure that the e-Business 7.4 website works as expected:

Loading Default Image

Follow the below instructions for loading the product images on the e-Business React website:

On the web server, navigate to the e-Business React site contents through the File Explorer.
Locate and open the ebConfig.json.
Update the loadDefaultImage attribute as required:
loadDefaultImage = true // This value displays the 'Image Not Available' Image by default.
loadDefaultImage = false // This value searches for the product’s images in the Large and thumbnail folders and displays them accordingly.
*** For loading the Product images, set loadDefaultImage = false.

"loadDefaultImage": false

Configuring Image extension

Follow the below instructions for setting the image extension type on the e-Business React website:

On the web server, navigate to the e-Business React site contents through the File Explorer.
Locate and open the ebConfig.json.
Update the imageExtension attribute as required. By default, it has been set to ".jpg". You must keep it in accordance with the "Image Format" field set in the ProductDetails and ProductCatalog sync image categories records. See Configuring Image Sync Utility sections for information on setting up the "Sync Image Categories" records for ProductDetails and ProductCatalog .

e-Business SOA Configuration Changes

After installation, the following modifications can be made to the e-Business SOA (services) Web.config file.:

To make payment via Bluepay, the attribute Aptify.FrameWork.Payment.BluePay.RemoteUrl needs to be updated with the URL of the e-Business React website. The value for this attribute should be: <<domainName/ebizUI/hostedpaymentresponse.html>>, for example domainName can be "https://aptifyebizreactwindows.azurewebsites.net"
For Password Reset functionality to work, the attribute PasswordResetURL needs to be updated with the URL of the e-Business React website. Its value should be:
"<<domainName/ebizUI/change-password>>" for example domain name can be "https://aptifyebizreactwindows.azurewebsites.net" .
Also, follow the instructions given in Configuring Forgot Password and Change Password functionality.

Configuring Image Sync Utility

To sync the product images from the database to the images folder of the e-Business React website, the Image Sync Utility must be executed. Following instructions need to be followed by the user for configuring the Image Utility:

Log in to the Smart Client application as an administrator.
Select Product Maintenance application -> Sync Image Record services.
Create a new record under Sync Image Categories services with following details. Refer to the snapshot below:
Name: ProductDetails
Width: 100 //This case be changed by the user based on the size of the image required.
Height : 100 //This case be changed by the user based on the size of the image required.
No Image : NoPhotoAvailable //This can be changed by the user with any other image required.
Image Format : Jpeg //This can be set to 'png' as well
Naming Convention: RecordId.Extension
Sync Path : <Database Server>\inetpub\wwwroot\eBizUI\images\large // The path 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\eBizUI\images\large' can be used if the setup is installed on the default path. Else update the same to reflect the appropriate site path where the setup is installed. Update the 'Sync Path' field to reflect the following: '<e-Business React setup path>\eBizUI\images\large' folder.

Save and Close the record.
Create another new record under Sync Image Categories services with following details (Refer to the snapshot below):
Name: ProductCatalog
Width: 50 //This case be changed by the user based on the size of the image required.
Height : 50 //This case be changed by the user based on the size of the image required.
No Image : NoPhotoAvailable //This can be changed by the user with any other image required.
Image Format : Jpeg //This can be set to 'png' as well
Naming Convention: RecordId.Extension
Sync Path : <Database Server>\inetpub\wwwroot\eBizUI\images\products // The path 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\eBizUI\images\products' can be used if the setup is installed on the default path. Else update the same to reflect the appropriate site path where the setup is installed. Update the 'Sync Path' field to reflect the following: '<e-Business React setup path>\eBizUI\images\products' folder.

Save and Close the record.
Create a new record under Sync Image Records services with following details. Refer to the snapshot below:
Entity: Products
Field Name: Photo
Category: Id of the above created ProductDetails Sync Image Categories record
Stored Procedure: spGeteBusiness6_0ProductImages

Save and close the record.
Create another new record under Sync Image Records services with following details (Refer to the snapshot below):
Entity: Products
Field Name: Photo
Category: Id of the above created ProductCatalog Sync Image Categories record
Stored Procedure: spGeteBusiness6_0ProductImages

Save and close the record.
Create a new record under 'Sync Image Records' services with the following details (Refer the snapshot below):
Entity: Companies
Field Name: Logo
Category: Company
Stored Procedure: spGeteBusiness7_0CompanyImages
Save and close the record.
Create a new record for 'Category' with the following details (Refer the snapshot below):
Name: Company
Width: 50   //This case be changed by the user based on the size of the image required.
Height: 50    //This case be changed by the user based on the size of the image required.
No Image: NoPhotoAvailable   //This can be changed by the user with any other image required.
Image Format: Jpeg //This can be set to 'png' as well.
Naming Convention: RecordId.Extension
Sync Path: <Database Server>\inetpub\wwwroot\UI\Images\company // This path 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\UI\Images\company' can be used if the setup is installed on the default path. Else update the same to reflect the appropriate site path where the setup is installed. Update the 'Sync Path' field to reflect the following: '<e-Business Web setup path>\UI\Images\company folder.
Save and Close the record.
Close the SmartClient application.

Setting up automated product image upload functionality

With the e-Business 7.4 release, the product image upload functionality has been automated on the e-Business application. Whenever a new product record is created, or an existing product record is updated in Aptify database, it is automatically syncs with e-Business. For setting up this functionality refer to Uploading Product and Company Images document.

Adding binding redirect for Classic e-Business hosted on Azure Instance

If you have a classic e-Business application hosted on Azure, then after installing e-Business 7.4, add the below binding redirect entry in the web.config file.

<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="Azure.Core" publicKeyToken="92742159e12e44c8" culture="neutral" />
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-1.23.0.0" newVersion="1.25.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="System.Threading.Tasks.Extensions" publicKeyToken="cc7b13ffcd2ddd51" culture="neutral" />
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.2.0.0" newVersion="4.2.0.1" />
</dependentAssembly>

Running the Application Server with e-Business 7.4

For automatic sending of the order confirmation email, we have utilized the Aptify Application Server Async processor.

Following additional steps need to be performed for Aptify Application server to be working correctly with e-Business 7.4

Install Aptify Application server. Refer the Installation guide for the same. Perform the required configuration and Updations as instructed in the guide.
Traverse to the Application server installed path and locate the file "AptifyAsyncProcessor.exe.config".
Open the file and perform following updates in the config file:
<runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="Newtonsoft.Json" publicKeyToken="30ad4fe6b2a6aeed" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-10.0.0.0" newVersion="10.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
The "AptifyAsyncProcessor.exe.config" would appear as follows. Save and close the record.
Restart the following services 'Aptify 5.5 Asynchronous Processor'. The user should be able to use the application server with e-Business 7.4.

Configure Default Order Values

Customers who want to configure default order values for the order associated with the shopping cart are instructed to change the last step in the Process Flow ‘Ensure Active Cart Exists’. If you open this Process Flow in the designer, you may see the last step as a rule step with the label ‘Assign Default Values’ (pictured below)

Unfortunately, this is an orphaned rule step that is overlaying the real final step of the process flow. If you click and drag this step to a new position in the designer, you will see it is not wired up to the steps around it and the real final step is a sub-process step named ‘Assigned Default Values To Order’ (pictured below).

Customers can feel free to delete the ‘Assign Default Values’ step as it is no longer used. This will avoid confusion with developers thinking the ‘Assign Default Values’ step is actually wired up, making changes to it, and not understanding why they are not being executed.