Deploying to Render

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you need to have:

• A Render account.
• A commercetools account and a Project.
• A customization configured in the Merchant Center:
  • For Custom Applications, see Managing Custom Applications.
  • For Custom Views, see Managing Custom Views.

Configuration

Adding the customization identifier and URL

Depending on the customization type, you'll need to specify either the Custom Application ID or the Custom View ID that was provided to you when you added the customization in the Merchant Center.

You'll also need to specify the production URL of your Render site. You can keep the standard Render URL https://<site>.onrender.com or provide your custom domain.

For Custom Applications, make the following changes to the Custom Application config:

• Add the Custom Application ID to env.production.applicationId.
• Add the production URL of your Render site to env.production.url.

{
  "env": {
    "production": {
      "applicationId": "ckvtahxl90097sys6har1e6n3",
      "url": "https://<site>.onrender.com"
    }
  }
}

For Custom Views, make the following changes to the Custom View config:

• Add the Custom View ID to env.production.customViewId.
• Add the production URL of your Render project to env.production.url.

const config = {
  env: {
    production: {
      customViewId: 'ckvtahxl90097sys6har1e6n3',
      url: 'https://<site>.onrender.com',
    },
  },
  // ...
};

Using environment variables

To avoid hardcoding values (such as the customization identifier or the Project key), you can use variable placeholders in your Custom Application config or Custom View config.

Example of environment variables with Custom Applications:

{
  "env": {
    "production": {
      "applicationId": "${env:APPLICATION_ID}",
      "url": "https://<site>.onrender.com"
    }
  }
}

Example of environment variables with Custom Views:

const config = {
  env: {
    production: {
      customViewId: '${env:CUSTOM_VIEW_ID}',
      url: 'https://<site>.onrender.com',
    },
  },
  // ...
};

Connect Render with GitHub

The easiest way to deploy to Render is to use the GitHub integration.

Follow the steps in Render to create a new static site and import a new Git repository.

Configuring build settings

In the Render setup process you need to configure the following things:

• Override the Build command with: yarn build.

  In your package.json make sure to have the following scripts defined:

  package.jsonjson

  {
    "scripts": {
      "build": "mc-scripts build"
    }
  }

• Override the Publish directory with: public.

• If possible, select or specify the Node.js Version. Recommended version is >= v14.

Configuring rewrite rules

A customization is a Single-Page Application that uses client-side routing. Therefore, we need to instruct Render to rewrite all requests to serve the index.html.

/* --> /index.html

Test your deployment

Install your customization in the Merchant Center to access it within your Projects:

• For Custom Applications, see Managing Custom Applications.
• For Custom Views, see Managing Custom Views.