nopCommerce is an open-source e-commerce platform that allows users to create and manage their online stores. It is built on the ASP.NET Core framework and supports multiple database systems, including MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL as it’s backend. The platform is highly customizable and offers a wide range of features, including product management, order processing, shipping, payment integration, and customer management. nopCommerce is a popular choice for businesses of all sizes because of its flexibility, scalability, and user-friendly interface.
In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing nopCommerce on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx reverse proxy and SSL.
Register Microsoft key and feed
To register the Microsoft key and feed, launch the terminal and execute these commands:
1. Download the packages-microsoft-prod.deb file by running the command:
wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb -O packages-microsoft-prod.deb
2. Install the packages-microsoft-prod.deb package by running the command:
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
Install the .NET Core Runtime
To install the .NET Core Runtime, perform the following steps:
1. Update the available product listings for installation by running the command:
sudo apt-get update
2. Install the .NET runtime by running the command:
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https aspnetcore-runtime-7.0
To determine the appropriate version of the .NET runtime to install, you should refer to the documentation provided by nopCommerce, which takes into account both the version of nopCommerce you are using and the Ubuntu OS version. Refer to the link below:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux-ubuntu
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux-ubuntu#supported-distributions
3. Verify the installed .Net Core runtimes by running the command:
dotnet --list-runtimes
4. Install the libgdiplus library:
sudo apt-get install libgdiplus
libgdiplus is an open-source implementation of the GDI+ API that provides access to graphic-related functions in nopCommerce and is required for running nopCommerce on Linux.
Install MySql Server
Latest nopCommerce support latest MySQL and MariaDB versions. We will install the latest MariaDB 10.6.
1. To install mariadb-server for nopCommerce, execute the following command in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server
2. After installing MariaDB Server, you need to set the root password. Execute the following command in the terminal to set the root password:
sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation
This will start a prompt to guide you through the process of securing your MySQL installation and setting the root password.
3. Create a database and User. We will use these details while installing nopCommerce. Replace the names of the database and the database user accordingly.
mysql -u root -p create database nopCommerceDB; grant all on nopCommerceDB.* to nopCommerceuser@localhost identified by 'P@ssW0rD';
Please replace the database name, username and password accordingly.
4. Reload privilege tables and exit the database.
flush privileges; quit;
Install nginx
1. To install Nginx, run the following command:
sudo apt-get install nginx
2. After installing Nginx, start the service by running:
sudo systemctl start nginx
3. You can verify the status of the service using the following command:
sudo systemctl status nginx
4. Nginx Reverse proxy configuration
To configure Nginx as a reverse proxy for your nopCommerce application, you’ll need to modify the default Nginx configuration file located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/nopcommerce.linuxwebhostingsupport.in. Open the file in a text editor and replace its contents with the following:
server { server_name nopcommerce.linuxwebhostingsupport.in; listen 80; listen [::]:80; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:5000; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection keep-alive; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } }
You need to replace nopcommerce.linuxwebhostingsupport.in with your domain name
5. Enable the virtual host configuration file:
Enable the server block by creating a symbolic link in the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled directory:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nopcommerce.linuxwebhostingsupport.in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
6. Reload Nginx for the changes to take effect:
sudo systemctl reload Nginx
Install NopCommerce
In this example, we’ll use /var/www/nopCommerce for storing the files.
1. Create a directory:
sudo mkdir /var/www/nopCommerce
2. Navigate to the directory where you want to store the nopCommerce files, Download and unpack nopCommerce:
cd /var/www/nopCommerce sudo wget https://github.com/nopSolutions/nopCommerce/releases/download/release-4.60.2/nopCommerce_4.60.2_NoSource_linux_x64.zip sudo apt-get install unzip sudo unzip nopCommerce_4.60.2_NoSource_linux_x64.zip
3. Create two directories that nopCommerce needs to run properly:
sudo mkdir bin sudo mkdir logs
4. Change the ownership of the nopCommerce directory and its contents to the www-data group:
sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www/nopCommerce/
www-data is the user Nginx webserver runs.
Create the nopCommerce service
1. Create a file named nopCommerce.service in the /etc/systemd/system directory with the following content:
[Unit] Description=Example nopCommerce app running on Xubuntu [Service] WorkingDirectory=/var/www/nopCommerce ExecStart=/usr/bin/dotnet /var/www/nopCommerce/Nop.Web.dll Restart=always # Restart service after 10 seconds if the dotnet service crashes: RestartSec=10 KillSignal=SIGINT SyslogIdentifier=nopCommerce-example User=www-data Environment=ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production Environment=DOTNET_PRINT_TELEMETRY_MESSAGE=false [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
2. Start the nopCommerce service by running:
sudo systemctl start nopCommerce.service
3. To check the status of the nopCommerce service, use the following command:
sudo systemctl status nopCommerce.service
Also, check if the service is running on port 5000
sudo lsof -i:5000
4. After that, restart the nginx server:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Now that the prerequisites are installed and configured, you can proceed to install and set up your nopCommerce store.
Install nopCommerce
After completing the previous steps, you can access the website through the following URL: http://nopcommerce.linuxwebhostingsupport.in. Upon visiting the site for the first time, you will be automatically redirected to the installation page as shown below:
Provide the following information in the Store Information panel:
In the Database Information panel, you will need to provide the following details:
Click on the Install button to initiate the installation process. Once the installation is complete, the home page of your new site will be displayed. Access your site from the following URL: http://nopcommerce.linuxwebhostingsupport.in.
Note:
You can reset a nopCommerce website to its default settings by deleting the appsettings.json file located in the App_Data folder.
Adding and Securing the nopCommerce
We will be using Let’s Encrypt to add free and secure SSL certificate.
Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority that allows you to obtain SSL/TLS certificates for your website. Certbot is a command-line tool that automates the process of obtaining and renewing these certificates, making it easier to secure your website with HTTPS.
Here are the steps to install SSL with Certbot Nginx plugins:
1.Install Certbot: First, make sure you have Certbot installed on your server. You can do this by running the following command:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
2. Obtain SSL Certificate: Next, you need to obtain an SSL certificate for your domain. You can do this by running the following command:
sudo certbot –nginx -d yourdomain.com
Replace yourdomain.com with your own domain name. This command will automatically configure Nginx to use SSL, obtain a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate and set an automatic redirect from http to https.
3.Verify SSL Certificate: Once the certificate is installed, you can verify it by visiting your website using the https protocol. If the SSL certificate is valid, you should see a padlock icon in your browser’s address bar.
4. Automatic Renewal: Certbot SSL certificates are valid for 90 days. To automatically renew your SSL certificate before it expires, you can set up a cron job to run the following command:
sudo certbot renew --quiet
This will check if your SSL certificate is due for renewal and automatically renew it if necessary.
5. nopCommerce also recommend turning “UseProxy setting to true in the appsettings.json file located in the App_Data folder if we are using SSL. So change this value too.
nopCommerce is a popular open-source e-commerce platform that offers users a flexible and scalable solution for creating and managing online stores. In this tutorial, we provided a step-by-step guide for installing and configuring nopCommerce on Ubuntu Linux with Nginx reverse proxy and SSL. We covered the installation of Microsoft key and feed, .NET Core Runtime, MySQL server, and Nginx reverse proxy. We also discussed how to configure Nginx as a reverse proxy for the nopCommerce application. By following this tutorial, you can set up a secure and reliable nopCommerce e-commerce store on Ubuntu Linux.
