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Introduction

In this article, you will learn how to use Orchard CMS as a decoupled CMS with the .NET Blazor (SSR/Server Interactive) Application.

Setting up the project

Prerequisites

Create Orchard Core CMS Application

  • Create a new Orchard Core CMS Application and set up the default site using a headless recipe. Follow create orchard cms application guide to create a new Orchard Core website.
  • Alternatively, you can run the following commands to create a new Orchard Core application. 
mkdir OCBlazor
cd OCBlazor
dotnet new sln
dotnet new occms -o BlazorCms
dotnet sln add ./BlazorCms
  • Open OCBlazor.sln in Visual Studio 2022 and run the application. If you are using Visual Studio Code, you can run the application by running dotnet run --project ./BlazorCms/BlazorCms.csproj.
  • Open a browser, navigate to https://localhost:5001, and complete setting up a default site. In this guide, we are using the Headless site recipe.

Setup Default Orchard Core site

  • Once the setup is complete, log in to the admin and create a new content type as following. (By navigating to Content -> Content Definition -> Content Types)
    • Create a 'MarkdownPage' content type.
    • Add Parts
      • TitlePart
      • AliasPart
      • MarkdownBodyPart.
  • Create a new content item and publish it.
  • Alternatively, you can import the following recipe to create the content definition and content item that we are using for this guide.
  • To import the recipe, log in to administration, and go to Configuration > Import/Export > JSON Import
{
  "name": "",
  "displayName": "",
  "description": "",
  "author": "",
  "website": "",
  "version": "",
  "issetuprecipe": false,
  "categories": [],
  "tags": [],
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Content",
      "data": [
        {
          "ContentItemId": "48swn17t4vn6dwvgkzk970q6dp",
          "ContentItemVersionId": "4x0wa7sfp911brv9gmvdmp7rmf",
          "ContentType": "MarkdownPage",
          "DisplayText": "ORCHARD CORE",
          "Latest": true,
          "Published": true,
          "ModifiedUtc": "2024-01-27T20:26:30.0529958Z",
          "PublishedUtc": "2024-01-27T20:26:30.0704945Z",
          "CreatedUtc": "2024-01-27T20:26:08.2132621Z",
          "Owner": "4bs2031dvfyh2zxwvvz109e1nr",
          "Author": "admin",
          "MarkdownPage": {},
          "AliasPart": {
            "Alias": "orchard-core"
          },
          "MarkdownBodyPart": {
            "Markdown": "## Introduction \r\nOpen-source, modular, multi-tenant application framework and CMS for ASP.NET Core\r\n\r\n## Features\r\n- Media Management\r\n- Multi-Lingual\r\n- Modular\r\n- Multi-Tenant\r\n- Security\r\n- Workflows"
          },
          "TitlePart": {
            "Title": "ORCHARD CORE"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "ContentDefinition",
      "ContentTypes": [
        {
          "Name": "MarkdownPage",
          "DisplayName": "Markdown Page",
          "Settings": {
            "ContentTypeSettings": {
              "Creatable": true,
              "Listable": true,
              "Draftable": true,
              "Versionable": true,
              "Securable": true
            },
            "FullTextAspectSettings": {},
            "GraphQLContentTypeSettings": {}
          },
          "ContentTypePartDefinitionRecords": [
            {
              "PartName": "MarkdownPage",
              "Name": "MarkdownPage",
              "Settings": {}
            },
            {
              "PartName": "AliasPart",
              "Name": "AliasPart",
              "Settings": {
                "ContentTypePartSettings": {
                  "Position": "1"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "PartName": "MarkdownBodyPart",
              "Name": "MarkdownBodyPart",
              "Settings": {
                "ContentTypePartSettings": {
                  "Position": "3"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "PartName": "TitlePart",
              "Name": "TitlePart",
              "Settings": {
                "ContentTypePartSettings": {
                  "Position": "0"
                }
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "ContentParts": []
    }
  ]
}
  • Go to Content -> Content Items and verify that the content item is available as shown in the image below.

Content Item

Create a Blazor App in the Razor Class library.

In this section, we will create a .NET Blazor application, as Razor Class library and then, we will reference it in the Orchard Core application.

Note

You can add .razor files in the main Orchard Core Web application, however adding .razor files in Orchard Core modules is not supported. For this reason, and to have maximum reusability of your razor components, always use the razor class library and add it as a reference to your Orchard Core Web project or Orchard Core module.

  • Create a Razor class library project OCBlazorLib.csproj and add it to the solution BlazorCms.
  • Add the project's reference to your web application project.
  • You can run the following commands to create a new Razor class library project.
dotnet new razorclasslib -f net8.0 -o OCBlazorLib
dotnet sln add ./OCBlazorLib
dotnet add ./BlazorCms/BlazorCms.csproj reference ./OCBlazorLib/OCBlazorLib.csproj

Now, your project explorer should look like the image below.

OCBlazor.sln Solution Explorer

  • We are using ASP.NET Core Framework-specific features in our class library so we need to add a reference to AspNetCore.App. To achieve this, edit OCBlazorLib.csproj and add the following ItemGroup section:
  <ItemGroup>
    <FrameworkReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.App" />
  </ItemGroup>
  • Next, let's create the basic structure of our Blazor application that includes the main App, Layout, NavMenu, and router components in the project OCBlazorLib
  • Add New Item -> Razor component -> App.razor.
  • Add New Item -> Stylesheet -> App.razor.css
  • Update App.razor, App.razor.css, and _Imports.razor with the following code.
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html lang="en">

        <head>
            <meta charset="utf-8" />
            <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
            <base href="/" />
            <link rel="stylesheet" href="OrchardCore.Resources/Styles/bootstrap.min.css" />
            <link rel="stylesheet" href="_content/OCBlazorLib/OCBlazorLib.bundle.scp.css" />
            <HeadOutlet />
        </head>

        <body>
            <Routes />
            <script src="_framework/blazor.web.js"></script>
        </body>
    </html>

    html, body {
        font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
    }

    a, .btn-link {
        color: #006bb7;
    }

    .btn-primary {
        color: #fff;
        background-color: #1b6ec2;
        border-color: #1861ac;
    }

    .btn:focus, .btn:active:focus, .btn-link.nav-link:focus, .form-control:focus, .form-check-input:focus {
        box-shadow: 0 0 0 0.1rem white, 0 0 0 0.25rem #258cfb;
    }

    .content {
        padding-top: 1.1rem;
    }

    h1:focus {
        outline: none;
    }

    .valid.modified:not([type=checkbox]) {
        outline: 1px solid #26b050;
    }

    .invalid {
        outline: 1px solid #e50000;
    }

    .validation-message {
        color: #e50000;
    }

    .blazor-error-boundary {
        background: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) no-repeat 1rem/1.8rem, #b32121;
        padding: 1rem 1rem 1rem 3.7rem;
        color: white;
    }

    .blazor-error-boundary::after {
        content: "An error has occurred."
    }

    .darker-border-checkbox.form-check-input {
        border-color: #929292;
    }

    @using System.Net.Http
    @using System.Net.Http.Json
    @using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Forms
    @using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Routing
    @using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web
    @using static Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web.RenderMode
    @using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web.Virtualization
    @using Microsoft.JSInterop
    @using OCBlazorLib
  • Now create a Layout for our Blazor application in OCBlazorLib. Create a folder Layout and add new files MainLayout.razor and MainLayout.razor.css with the following content.
    @inherits LayoutComponentBase

    <div class="page">
        <div class="sidebar">
            <NavMenu />
        </div>

        <main>
            <div class="top-row px-4">
                <a href="https://docs.orchardcore.net/" target="_blank">Learn Orchard</a>
            </div>

            <article class="content px-4">
                @Body
            </article>
        </main>
    </div>

    <div id="blazor-error-ui">
        An unhandled error has occurred.
        <a href="" class="reload">Reload</a>
        <a class="dismiss">🗙</a>
    </div>

    .page {
        position: relative;
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column;
    }

    main {
        flex: 1;
    }

    .sidebar {
        background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, rgb(5, 39, 103) 0%, #3a0647 70%);
    }

    .top-row {
        background-color: #f7f7f7;
        border-bottom: 1px solid #d6d5d5;
        justify-content: flex-end;
        height: 3.5rem;
        display: flex;
        align-items: center;
    }

    .top-row ::deep a, .top-row ::deep .btn-link {
        white-space: nowrap;
        margin-left: 1.5rem;
        text-decoration: none;
    }

    .top-row ::deep a:hover, .top-row ::deep .btn-link:hover {
        text-decoration: underline;
    }

    .top-row ::deep a:first-child {
        overflow: hidden;
        text-overflow: ellipsis;
    }

    @media (max-width: 640.98px) {
        .top-row {
            justify-content: space-between;
        }

        .top-row ::deep a, .top-row ::deep .btn-link {
            margin-left: 0;
        }
    }

    @media (min-width: 641px) {
        .page {
            flex-direction: row;
        }

        .sidebar {
            width: 250px;
            height: 100vh;
            position: sticky;
            top: 0;
        }

        .top-row {
            position: sticky;
            top: 0;
            z-index: 1;
        }

        .top-row.auth ::deep a:first-child {
            flex: 1;
            text-align: right;
            width: 0;
        }

        .top-row, article {
            padding-left: 2rem !important;
            padding-right: 1.5rem !important;
        }
    }

    #blazor-error-ui {
        background: lightyellow;
        bottom: 0;
        box-shadow: 0 -1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
        display: none;
        left: 0;
        padding: 0.6rem 1.25rem 0.7rem 1.25rem;
        position: fixed;
        width: 100%;
        z-index: 1000;
    }

    #blazor-error-ui .dismiss {
        cursor: pointer;
        position: absolute;
        right: 0.75rem;
        top: 0.5rem;
    }
  • Let's create the navigation component. Add new files NavMenu.razor and NavMenu.razor.css in the Layout folder and add the following code.
    <div class="top-row ps-3 navbar navbar-dark">
        <div class="container-fluid">
            <a class="navbar-brand" href="">BlazorCMS</a>
        </div>
    </div>

    <input type="checkbox" title="Navigation menu" class="navbar-toggler" />

    <div class="nav-scrollable" onclick="document.querySelector('.navbar-toggler').click()">
        <nav class="flex-column">
            <div class="nav-item px-3">
                <NavLink class="nav-link" href="" Match="NavLinkMatch.All">
                    <span class="bi bi-house-door-fill-nav-menu" aria-hidden="true"></span> Home
                </NavLink>
            </div>
            @*More Nav links here *@
        </nav>
    </div>

    .navbar-toggler {
        appearance: none;
        cursor: pointer;
        width: 3.5rem;
        height: 2.5rem;
        color: white;
        position: absolute;
        top: 0.5rem;
        right: 1rem;
        border: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
        background: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 30 30'%3e%3cpath stroke='rgba%28255, 255, 255, 0.55%29' stroke-linecap='round' stroke-miterlimit='10' stroke-width='2' d='M4 7h22M4 15h22M4 23h22'/%3e%3c/svg%3e") no-repeat center/1.75rem rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1);
    }

    .navbar-toggler:checked {
        background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5);
    }

    .top-row {
        height: 3.5rem;
        background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.4);
    }

    .navbar-brand {
        font-size: 1.1rem;
    }

    .bi {
        display: inline-block;
        position: relative;
        width: 1.25rem;
        height: 1.25rem;
        margin-right: 0.75rem;
        top: -1px;
        background-size: cover;
    }

    .bi-house-door-fill-nav-menu {
        background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='16' height='16' fill='white' class='bi bi-house-door-fill' viewBox='0 0 16 16'%3E%3Cpath d='M6.5 14.5v-3.505c0-.245.25-.495.5-.495h2c.25 0 .5.25.5.5v3.5a.5.5 0 0 0 .5.5h4a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5v-7a.5.5 0 0 0-.146-.354L13 5.793V2.5a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5h-1a.5.5 0 0 0-.5.5v1.293L8.354 1.146a.5.5 0 0 0-.708 0l-6 6A.5.5 0 0 0 1.5 7.5v7a.5.5 0 0 0 .5.5h4a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5Z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
    }

    .bi-plus-square-fill-nav-menu {
        background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='16' height='16' fill='white' class='bi bi-plus-square-fill' viewBox='0 0 16 16'%3E%3Cpath d='M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v12a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h12a2 2 0 0 0 2-2V2a2 2 0 0 0-2-2H2zm6.5 4.5v3h3a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1h-3v3a.5.5 0 0 1-1 0v-3h-3a.5.5 0 0 1 0-1h3v-3a.5.5 0 0 1 1 0z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
    }

    .bi-list-nested-nav-menu {
        background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='16' height='16' fill='white' class='bi bi-list-nested' viewBox='0 0 16 16'%3E%3Cpath fill-rule='evenodd' d='M4.5 11.5A.5.5 0 0 1 5 11h10a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1H5a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5zm-2-4A.5.5 0 0 1 3 7h10a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1H3a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5zm-2-4A.5.5 0 0 1 1 3h10a.5.5 0 0 1 0 1H1a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
    }

    .nav-item {
        font-size: 0.9rem;
        padding-bottom: 0.5rem;
    }

        .nav-item:first-of-type {
            padding-top: 1rem;
        }

        .nav-item:last-of-type {
            padding-bottom: 1rem;
        }

        .nav-item ::deep .nav-link {
            color: #d7d7d7;
            background: none;
            border: none;
            border-radius: 4px;
            height: 3rem;
            display: flex;
            align-items: center;
            line-height: 3rem;
            width: 100%;
        }

    .nav-item ::deep a.active {
        background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.37);
        color: white;
    }

    .nav-item ::deep .nav-link:hover {
        background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.1);
        color: white;
    }

    .nav-scrollable {
        display: none;
    }

    .navbar-toggler:checked ~ .nav-scrollable {
        display: block;
    }

    @media (min-width: 641px) {
        .navbar-toggler {
            display: none;
        }

        .nav-scrollable {
            /* Never collapse the sidebar for wide screens */
            display: block;

            /* Allow sidebar to scroll for tall menus */
            height: calc(100vh - 3.5rem);
            overflow-y: auto;
        }
    }
  • Now, let's create a router. Select OCBlazorLib project, add a new Item -> Razor component -> Routes.razor at same level as App.razor and add following code.
    <Router AppAssembly="typeof(App).Assembly">
     <Found Context="routeData">
      <RouteView RouteData="routeData" DefaultLayout="typeof(Layout.MainLayout)" />
      <FocusOnNavigate RouteData="routeData" Selector="h1" />
     </Found>
    </Router>

Our blazor application's basic structure is finished. Now we are ready to create the page that will get the Orchard Core CMS content item and will render in Blazor app.

  • Let's create new folder Pages and add a home page. To add home page, Add New Item -> Razor Component -> Home.razor
  • Also create Content Page Content.razor. Replace the page content with following code:
    @page "/"

    <PageTitle>Home</PageTitle>

    <h1>Hello, Orchard!</h1>

    Welcome to your new Blazor CMS app.

    @page "/content"
    <h3>Content</h3>

    @code
    {
     protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
     {

     }

     protected override async Task OnParametersSetAsync()
     {

     }
    }
  • Next, let's add a link to our /content page in NavMenu.razor. Use the following code to add a new NavLink in NavMenu.razor to our content page below Home link.
     <div class="nav-item px-3">
        <NavLink class="nav-link" href="content">
            <span class="bi bi-list-nested-nav-menu" aria-hidden="true"></span> Orchard Core
        </NavLink>
    </div>
  • Our Blazor application razor class library is now complete.

Serving Blazor App from Orchard Core CMS.

The Blazor application razor class library is not ready to be served by the ASP.NET pipeline yet. To achieve this, in the BlazorCms project, open Program.cs and replace all comments for \\Orchard Specific Pipeline with the following code.

builder.Services
    .AddOrchardCms()
    // Orchard Specific Pipeline
    .ConfigureServices( services => {
        services.AddRazorComponents()
       .AddInteractiveServerComponents()
       ;

 })
    .Configure( (app, routes, services) => {
         app.UseStaticFiles();
         app.UseAntiforgery();
         routes.MapRazorComponents<App>()
             .AddInteractiveServerRenderMode()
        ;
     })

Now, it's time to run our application. Once the application is running, notice that the Blazor application is now served from / as the Home page and you can access admin from /admin as shown below.

Working Blazor App served from Orchard Core

Add Orchard Core CMS content to the Blazor Page

In our OCBlazorLib blazor Library project, Let's enrich our /content page to serve content from Orchard Core CMS. To achieve this, follow these steps:

  • In OCBlazorLib.csproj Add a NuGet package reference to OrchardCore.ContentManagement
dotnet add ./OCBlazorLib/OCBlazorLib.csproj package OrchardCore.ContentManagement --version 2.0.2
  • Add the following using statements in _Imports.razor
@using OrchardCore;
@using OrchardCore.ContentManagement;
@using OrchardCore.Settings;
  • From the Pages folder, open Content.razor and edit the @page route and add an alias to the route, and add the following @using and @inject. Here we are injecting IContentHandleManager and IContentManager. IContentHandleManager helps to retrieve the content item ID from the alias and IContentManager helps retrieve the content item using the content item ID.
@page "/content/{alias}"
@using OrchardCore.ContentManagement.Models
@inject IContentHandleManager handleManager
@inject IContentManager contentManager
@inject ISiteService SiteService
  • Within the @code section, add a property to access the alias defined in the route parameter.
[ParameterAttribute]
public string Alias { get; set; }
  • Also define the following three properties in the @code section.
 protected ContentItem ContentItem { get; set; }
 protected string Markup { get; set; }
 protected ISite Site { get; set; }
  • Update OnParametersSetAsync with the following code, to retrieve the content item using an alias.
protected override async Task OnParametersSetAsync()
{
    string id = await handleManager.GetContentItemIdAsync($"alias:{Alias}");
    ContentItem = await contentManager.GetAsync(id, VersionOptions.Published);
    var bodyAspect = await contentManager.PopulateAspectAsync<BodyAspect>(ContentItem);
    Markup = bodyAspect.Body.ToString();
}
  • Let's get SiteName from Site settings on OnInitializedAsync with the following code.
protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
{
    Site = await SiteService.GetSiteSettingsAsync();
    await Task.Delay(500);
}

Notice that we are adding Task.Delay(500); to mimic a long-running task.

  • In razor markup replace <h3>Content</h3> with the following code to render the Markup property.
@if (ContentItem == null)
{
    <p><em>Loading...</em></p>
}
else
{
    <PageTitle>@ContentItem.DisplayText - @Site.SiteName</PageTitle>

    <h1>@ContentItem.DisplayText</h1>
    @((MarkupString) Markup)

}
  • Finally, update NavLink in NavMenu.razor to add an alias for our content item. In our example, we are using a sample content item created earlier with the alias orchard-core. Update the href value for Orchard Core NavLink to content/orchard-core.
<div class="nav-item px-3">
    <NavLink class="nav-link" href="content/orchard-core">
        <span class="bi bi-list-nested-nav-menu" aria-hidden="true"></span> Orchard Core
    </NavLink>
</div>

Run the application. Click on the Orchard Core link on the Left Nav will load the Markdown of content item renders as per the image below.

Blazor App Rendering Orchard Content

  • Now lets add @attribute [StreamRendering] on Content.razor to add stream rendering. Run the application and see stream rendering in action as per the below image.

Sendering Orchard Content in Blazor App

Add multitenancy to the Blazor App

One of the key features of Orchard Core is its multi-tenancy support. In this section, we will add multi-tenancy support to our Blazor application.

Note

Orchard Core listens for requests, also on '/' (e.g. when a site needs to be configured). So having our Blazor app listening to '/' as well can pose a problem. A solution is to replace @page "/" with @page "/home" in our home.razor file (and update our navmenu.razor), so Blazor (the app) will listen to /home while Orchard Core is not hindered by that.

     @page "/home"

     <PageTitle>Home</PageTitle>

     <h1>Hello, Orchard!</h1>

     Welcome to your new Blazor CMS app.

    <div class="top-row ps-3 navbar navbar-dark">
        <div class="container-fluid">
            <a class="navbar-brand" href="">BlazorCMS</a>
        </div>
    </div>

    <input type="checkbox" title="Navigation menu" class="navbar-toggler" />

    <div class="nav-scrollable" onclick="document.querySelector('.navbar-toggler').click()">
        <nav class="flex-column">
            <div class="nav-item px-3">
                <NavLink class="nav-link" href="home" Match="NavLinkMatch.All">
                    <span class="bi bi-house-door-fill-nav-menu" aria-hidden="true"></span> Home
                </NavLink>
            </div>
            <div class="nav-item px-3">
                <NavLink class="nav-link" href="content">
                    <span class="bi bi-list-nested-nav-menu" aria-hidden="true"></span> Orchard Core
                </NavLink>
            </div>
            @*More Nav links here *@
        </nav>
    </div>

Enable the tenant feature.

In orchard core admin, go to Configuration -> Features and enable the Tenants feature.

Enalbe tenants feature

Add the first tenant

Navigate to Multi tenancy -> Tenants and add a new tenant with the following settings.

Create first tenant

  • Tenant name: FirstTenant
  • Url Prefix: tenant01
  • Recipe: Headless site

Create first tenant

Now setup the first tenant, by clicking on the Setup button.

Setup new tenant

Setup screen first tenant

After setup is finished, you can access the first tenant by navigating to https://localhost:5001/tenant01. Since Orchard listens to / (and on /tenant01/), it presents the login screen. You can log in with the user you just created in the setup procedure.

The base url

In App.razor in the razor class library that contains our Blazor App, we need to add the base url to the base tag. This is necessary because the Blazor App is served from a subpath of the Orchard Core application.

<base href="/" />

This is the default and works great if we only use one tenant, the default.

But each tenant lives on a different subpath, so we need to adjust the base tag to reflect that.

The most obvious way to do this is to use the NavigationManager to get the base path of the current tenant and set the base tag accordingly.

So, let's modify our App.razor to use the base path of the current tenant.

@inject NavigationManager NavManager

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
 <meta charset="utf-8" />
 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
 <base href=@_baseUrl />
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="OrchardCore.Resources/Styles/bootstrap.min.css" />
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="_content/OCBlazorLib/OCBlazorLib.bundle.scp.css" />
 <HeadOutlet />
</head>

<body>
 <Routes />
 <script src="_framework/blazor.web.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

@code
{
 protected string _baseUrl = "/";

 protected override void OnParametersSet()
 {
  base.OnParametersSet();
  _baseUrl = NavManager.BaseUri;
 }
}

The NavigationManager is injected into the App component and the base path is set in the OnParametersSet method.

NOTE:

There are other ways of retrieving, or composing the base path, but this is the simplest and most straightforward way. Other ways include:

  • Using the HttpContext (Request.BasePath)
  • Using the ShellScope (Context.Settings.RequestUrlPrefix)
  • Using the settings of ISiteService (Site.BaseUrl). This can be set in the admin UI.

The example contains a page with the url baseurl that demonstrates the various methods.

Base url retrievement

NOTE:

The base url can be specified as an absolute path, or as a relative path.

NOTE:

The settings for the base path can be set in orchard. If you don't set them, the value returned is null/empty.

Tenant site settings

Test the modifications

Now make sure the tenant 01 also imports the content type and content item, so we can verify multi-tenancy in the Blazor App.

Import the following:

Log in to administration, and go to Configuration > Import/Export > JSON Import

{
  "name": "",
  "displayName": "",
  "description": "",
  "author": "",
  "website": "",
  "version": "",
  "issetuprecipe": false,
  "categories": [],
  "tags": [],
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Content",
      "data": [
        {
          "ContentItemId": "48swn17t4vn6dwvgkzk970q6dp",
          "ContentItemVersionId": "4x0wa7sfp911brv9gmvdmp7rmf",
          "ContentType": "MarkdownPage",
          "DisplayText": "ORCHARD CORE FOR TENANT 01",
          "Latest": true,
          "Published": true,
          "ModifiedUtc": "2024-01-27T20:26:30.0529958Z",
          "PublishedUtc": "2024-01-27T20:26:30.0704945Z",
          "CreatedUtc": "2024-01-27T20:26:08.2132621Z",
          "Owner": "4bs2031dvfyh2zxwvvz109e1nr",
          "Author": "admin",
          "MarkdownPage": {},
          "AliasPart": {
            "Alias": "orchard-core"
          },
          "MarkdownBodyPart": {
            "Markdown": "## Introduction \r\nOpen-source, modular, multi-tenant application framework and CMS for ASP.NET Core\r\n\r\n## Features\r\n- Media Management\r\n- Multi-Lingual\r\n- Modular\r\n- Multi-Tenant (as we are seeing)\r\n- Security\r\n- Workflows"
          },
          "TitlePart": {
            "Title": "ORCHARD CORE"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "ContentDefinition",
      "ContentTypes": [
        {
          "Name": "MarkdownPage",
          "DisplayName": "Markdown Page",
          "Settings": {
            "ContentTypeSettings": {
              "Creatable": true,
              "Listable": true,
              "Draftable": true,
              "Versionable": true,
              "Securable": true
            },
            "FullTextAspectSettings": {},
            "GraphQLContentTypeSettings": {}
          },
          "ContentTypePartDefinitionRecords": [
            {
              "PartName": "MarkdownPage",
              "Name": "MarkdownPage",
              "Settings": {}
            },
            {
              "PartName": "AliasPart",
              "Name": "AliasPart",
              "Settings": {
                "ContentTypePartSettings": {
                  "Position": "1"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "PartName": "MarkdownBodyPart",
              "Name": "MarkdownBodyPart",
              "Settings": {
                "ContentTypePartSettings": {
                  "Position": "3"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "PartName": "TitlePart",
              "Name": "TitlePart",
              "Settings": {
                "ContentTypePartSettings": {
                  "Position": "0"
                }
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "ContentParts": []
    }
  ]
}

Import content definition and item into tenant 01

Now, navigate to https://localhost:5001/tenant01 and click on the Orchard Core link in the left navigation. You should see the content item rendered in the Blazor App.

tenant specific content page

Blazor SSR works, what about interactivity?

The Blazor App is now served from a tenant-specific subpath, and the content is rendered correctly. But what about interactivity? As you saw we specified to use the InteractiveServerRenderMode in the MapRazorComponents method. This should mean that when we specify a component to be rendered using the InteractiveServerRenderMode, it should be interactive.

Let's add a button to our BaseUrl page that displays the current local time. This will demonstrate that the interactivity works.

Create a Components solution folder in the Blazor App project and create a file called InteractiveButton, with the following content:

<h3>Interactivity test</h3>

<button class="btn-primary" @onclick="Clicked">Test</button>
<hr />
@_interactiveFeedback

@code {

    protected string? _interactiveFeedback;

    protected void Clicked()
    {
        _interactiveFeedback = $"Clicked! [{DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime()}]";
    }
}

On the BaseUrl page, we add:

<OCBlazorLib.Components.InteractiveButton @rendermode="RenderMode.InteractiveServer" />

Note the @rendermode="RenderMode.InteractiveServer" attribute. This tells the framework to render this component in interactive mode.

When you navigate to the BaseUrl page, you should see the button. When you click it, the text should change to reflect the time of the click.

Interactive button

To further verify that there is now an active SignalR connection with the server, you can open the browser's developer tools and look at the network tab. Filter on web socket connections, and refresh the page. You should see a connection to the server. Click it to see the messages being sent when you click the button.

Conclusion

In this guide, we have seen how to create a Blazor application, in a Razor class library, and serve it from an Orchard Core CMS application. We have seen how to add multi-tenancy support to the Blazor application, and how to make the Blazor application interactive.

The source code for this guide is available at github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore.Samples