Building the Spartacus Storefront Using 4.x Libraries

Note: Spartacus 4.x is no longer maintained. Please upgrade to the latest version.

Note: Spartacus 4.x was tested with SAP Commerce Cloud versions 1905 to 2205. Spartacus 4.x has not been verified to work with (and is not guaranteed to work with) SAP Commerce Cloud 2211 or later releases.

The following instructions describe how to build a storefront application, for both B2C (Electronics, Apparel) and B2B (Powertools) sample stores. If you are building Spartacus from source, see Contributor Setup.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

Before carrying out the procedures below, ensure the following front end and back end requirements are in place.

Front End Development Requirements

Your Angular development environment should include the following:

  • Angular CLI: Version 12.0.5 or later, < 13.
  • Yarn: Version 1.15 or later.
  • Node.js: Version 14.15 is required. Version 12.x reached end-of-life on April 30, 2022, and is no longer supported by Spartacus. It is strongly recommended that you migrate any existing Spartacus storefronts to Node.js 14 as soon as possible. If there are any issues with Spartacus and Node.js 14, please upgrade to the latest releases. If you continue to experience issues with Node.js 14, create a support ticket with SAP.

Back End Server Requirements

Spartacus uses SAP Commerce Cloud for its back end and makes use of the sample data. Spartacus should only be used with SAP Commerce Cloud 1905 or newer; the latest release is recommended. The difference between releases is in the APIs and features available. Newer releases of SAP Commerce Cloud contain new OCC APIs. For example, the B2B Commerce Organization API was added in release 2005. For more information on which back end releases contain which APIs, see Feature Compatibility.

No matter the version, the latest patch is required, as important fixes are often added that affect Spartacus.

For more information, see Installing SAP Commerce Cloud for use with Spartacus.

Creating a New Angular App

The following procedure describes how to create a new Angular application with the name mystore.

  1. Open a terminal or command prompt window at the location of your choice.

  2. Using the Angular CLI, generate a new Angular application with the following command:

    ng new mystore --style=scss

    When prompted for Angular routing, enter n for ‘no’.

    The mystore folder and the new app are created.

  3. Access the newly created mystore folder with the following command:

    cd mystore

Spartacus Project Setup

The easiest way to start a new project is to use Spartacus schematics to quickly set up your application.

For a full list of available parameters, see Schematics.

Setting Up Your Project Using Schematics

Run the following command to install the latest official release of Spartacus using schematics:

ng add @spartacus/schematics@latest

When you run this command, you are asked to choose which features you would like to set up. Some of the features are already selected by default, but this is only a suggested setup. You can select and unselect the features that are relevant for your installation, although it is highly recommended to install the User - Account feature.

Notes:

  • Spartacus does not support B2C and B2B storefronts running together in a single storefront application. If you install any of the B2B features, the B2C storefront will load but it will not work properly.
  • If you select a feature that is for B2B storefronts, the schematics automatically add any required B2B configurations if they are missing. If you install any of the following features, your Spartacus storefront will automatically become a B2B storefront:
    • Organization - Adminstration
    • Organization - Order Approval
    • Product - Bulk Pricing
    • Product Configurator - CPQ Configurator
  • The schematics add the core Spartacus files and configuration that are needed to work with the SAP Commerce Cloud sample stores.
  • To install the latest “next” release, you can add @next at the end of the command.
  • To install the latest release candidate, you can add @rc at the end of the command.
  • To verify what versions of Spartacus libraries were installed, open package.json and look for @spartacus.
  • To bypass the schematics prompts and install Spartacus with a predefined set of features, you can use the --interactive=false flag. For more information, see Adding Spartacus Core Libraries and Features to Your Angular Project.
  • With each release of Spartacus, existing features are moved out of the core libraries and into their own dedicated feature libraries. With time, the core libraries will shrink as features are extracted to their own, separate packages.

Installing Dependencies

Install dependencies needed by your Spartacus app with the following command:

yarn install

Checking spartacus-configuration.module.ts for Base URL and Other Settings

Open the src\app\spartacus\spartacus-configuration.module.ts file, and check for any changes you want to make for your setup.

For example, check:

  • baseUrl: Points to your SAP Commerce Cloud server.
  • prefix: Defines the prefix for OCC calls.
    • The default for Spartacus libraries 3.0 and later is /occ/v2/; this entry is not added by schematics.
    • If using 2005 or later, the default backend prefix is /occ/v2/.
    • If using 1905, or 2005 with the OCC AddOn, add the line prefix: '/rest/v2/'.
  • features.level: Defines the compatibility level
  • context: Defines the site context such as base site, language, and currency.

    • To see the base site in the URL and add Apparel store support, change context to the following:

       context: {
 urlParameters: ['baseSite', 'language', 'currency'],
 baseSite: ['electronics-spa','apparel-uk-spa'],
 currency: ['USD', 'GBP',]
 },

    • If using Powertools, add powertools-spa to the list in baseSite.

Starting Your Spartacus App

Start your app with the following command:

yarn start

Your app will be compiled and then started.

To display your storefront, assuming everything is installed locally, browse to http://localhost:4200. If you installed Electronics sample data and the Spartacus Sample Data extension, the Spartacus storefront for Electronics should appear.

Note: If your storefront doesn’t appear, likely you have to accept a privacy certificate. To do so, browse to https://localhost:9002/occ/v2/electronics/cms/pages (or ../rest/.. if using 1905), and then accept the privacy certificate. This step is necessary because your browser will block calls the app will make to localhost:9002 due to security settings. To see the browser message, right-click in your browser, select Inspect, then click Console.

  • You can display the Apparel storefront through this URL: http://localhost:4200/apparel-uk-spa/en/GBP
  • You can display the Powertools storefront through this URL: http://localhost:4200/powertools-spa/en/USD

Congratulations! You’ve built your first Spartacus storefront.