Dear uCommerce Folk,

After installing Umbraco 7.1.8 and uCommerce and the uCommerce Demo Store I am getting an exception trying to access the Demo Store catalog  at http://localhost:50320/catalog/ .

I have reinstalled Umbraco 7.1.8 and uCommerce and the uCommerce Demo Store from scratch over 8 times now and the Error / Exception is very reproducible.

Please see below my entire installation procedure which I have included in case there is an obvious error or else to make it easier to replicate.

I have highlighted key concerns and errors in Pink.

Here are the steps I took:

• Installed Umbraco

  • I installed Umbraco in Visual Studio using Nuget following instructions at http://our.umbraco.org/documentation/Installation/install-umbraco-with-nuget

  • I applied “Include in Project” to all folders and files in the site root and in folders in the site root 

  • I ran Umbraco Site  in Debug mode and provided Name, Email, Password and using Customize Button specified Microsoft SQL Server (local) as Database with Login account with Default Schema of db_owner and role membership of db_ower.

  • I choose NOT to install any starter website.

• Testing

  • Clicking around Umbraco Backoffice worked fine.

• Reset

  • Stopped Visual Studio Debug session to recycle site

• Installed    uCommerce-for-Umbraco7-6.4.4.14301.zip

  • On Page Titled: “Install Package / Installing the package: uCommerce 6.4.4.14301”

    • Clicked “Accept License” CheckBox

    • Clicked “Install Package” Button

  • Got to Page Titled: “Install Package / Installation is complete. Thank you for choosing uCommerce”

    • “All you have to do is refresh your browser, and uCommerce will appear in the applications tray. Have fun!”

• Installed    uCommerce_Demo_Store_-_Razor_3.0.2.14195.zip

  • Page Titled:  “Install Package / Installing the package: Avenue Clothing Demo Store for uCommerce 6 - Razor 3.0.2.14195”

    • Clicked “Accept License” Check Box

    • Clicked “Install Package” Button

  • Got to Page Titled:  “Install Package / uCommerce Demo Razor Store,  Installation Complete” (Here)

    • Page included the following text

      • “What's installed?

        • Example Document Types

        • Example Templates (master pages)

        • An example site structure

        • A set of Scripting Files to display the catalogue”

      • “What next?

        • Install the example uCommerce configuration[?]

        • Install the example catalogue[?]

        • Delete the default uCommerce catalogue[?]

        • Publish  the installed pages

        • Install Button “

    • I pressed the Install Button

    • After pressing Install button Visual Studio’s output window recorded activity indication action but the web page never changed to indicate that that last phase of the installation has completed. SHOULD IT HAVE CHANGED TO CONFIM SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION? IS THIS NORMAL BEHAVIOUR?

• Testing

  • I “Saved and Published” following content pages: Shop, Catalog, Cart, Search, Emails, Product, Address, Shipping, Payment, Preview, Confirmation

• Restarted Umbraco

  • Stopped VS Debug session and restarted it to  recycle Umbraco

• Testing

  •  

    • After restarting Umbraco Home page was visible (with picture of guy with canal in background) but no link to catalogue

    • Link to “Software” did not work

    • Link to “Support” did not work

    • No other links to other site pages on the Home page – this seems wrong or lame, not sure which?

  • Opened Backoffice (http://localhost:50320/umbraco )

    • Clicked around – seemed to be working OK

  • Used Content / Shop / Properties / Link to Document to open Home page

    • Worked OK (same comments about home page as above)

  • Used Content / Catalog / Properties / Link to Document to open Calalog page

    • GOT EXCEPTION (reproducible , I reinstalled everything > 5 times kept getting the same error):

System.NullReferenceException was unhandled by user code

  HResult=-2147467261

  Message=Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

  Source=App_Web_catalog.cshtml.4b7a33be.a6qeu2pc

  StackTrace:

       at ASP._Page_macroScripts_uCommerce_Catalog_cshtml.Execute() in c:\Clancy\A_ClancyCom\Dev\ClancyCom4\ClancyCom4\macroScripts\uCommerce\Catalog.cshtml:line 10

       at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy()

       at System.Web.WebPages.WebPage.ExecutePageHierarchy(IEnumerable`1 executors)

       at System.Web.WebPages.WebPage.ExecutePageHierarchy()

       at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage)

       at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer)

       at umbraco.MacroEngines.RazorMacroEngine.ExecuteRazor(MacroModel macro, INode currentPage)

       at umbraco.MacroEngines.RazorMacroEngine.Execute(MacroModel macro, INode currentPage)

  InnerException:

 

• Looking at the offending code from Catalog.cshtml  the exception occurred  in the line highlighted in Yellow.  This appears to have been caused by the line highlighted in Green assigning a Null value to “category”

   

@using UCommerce.EntitiesV2

@using UCommerce.Extensions

@using UCommerce.Runtime

@using umbraco.MacroEngines

@{

    Category category = SiteContext.Current.CatalogContext.CurrentCategory;

}

<div class="row-fluid">

    <div class="hero-unit">

        @if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(category.ImageMediaId))

        {

            dynamic mediaItem = new DynamicMedia(category.ImageMediaId);

            <img src="@mediaItem.umbracoFile" alt="@category.DisplayName()" />

        }

    </div>

• Please let me know if you can help resolve this.

• At this point I am not sure what to do next – if I cannot simply install uCommece Demo store then I do not have a platform to start development on. This is causing a delay in my project and I need to resolve ASAP or select another direction.

Any  help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Terry Clancy