Getting Started with AspDotNetStoreFront

If you are setting up AspDotNetStoreFront as your ASP.NET E-Commerce engine, you may have some initial trouble getting started with setting up your site and then knowing where to begin setting up your site.

Therefore, here are the steps that I followed to get an AspDotNetStoreFront site up and running:

1. Install AspDotNetStoreFront by folowing this article: http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-479-installation-guide-windows-vista-windows-server-2008.aspx  For some reason, they do not have an updated installation guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012/2012 R2, but the main difference is applying the "IIS_IUSRS" account instead of "Network Service"
2. Once you have been set up, you should immediately log into the Admin Console by following the instructions here: http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-474-the-admin-home-page.aspx
3. Now that you have logged into the Admin Console, you will need to perform some customizations.
4. Under the Configuration menu select --> Site Configuration Wizard.  This will allow you to enter all of the relevant basic data about your AspDotNetStoreFront (ASPDNSF) site including Payment types and Payment Gateways.  If you need to specify a Payment Gateway such as Authorize.Net, you can click on the "Configure" link next to the appropriate Payment Gateway and then enter the required information.  Only after doing this will you be able to select the Authorize.Net radio button.
5. Beneath the Configuration menu, select Email and enter the necessary details for your Smtp Server.
6. Beneath the Configuration menu, select Shipping-->Shipping Methods to configure 1 or more Shipping Methods for your products.
7. Now to customize the content of your site, click on Content-->Manage Topics. Some of the common topics you will want to customize are the following:  
• HomeTopIntro
• Template.Header
• Template.Footer
• Template.Logo
• EmptyCartText
• Copyright
• Template.TopNavigation
• Template.VerticalNavigation
• PageNotFound
8. You may have to customize some additional "built-in" strings that are used in ASPDNSF, so you can do this by select Content-->String Resource Mgr.  For example, I needed to change the text for the following String Resource: product.CallToAction.IsRecurring
9. For additional customizations, you may need to go into Configuration-->Advanced-->AppConfig parameters and alter some values to support functionality that you might need (such as for Recurring Orders)
10. Now that you have set all of this up, you can now begin setting up Products.  However, you will need to set up at least 1 Manufacturer before you can create your first product.  Therefore, from the Products menu, select Manage Manufacturers.  Create at least 1 Manufacturer.
11. Now from the Products menu, select Manage Products.  You can then begin adding products.  If you need to add a Recurring product, you need to first save the product and then select "Show Variants" and enter the Recurring Interval on the "Recurring" tab.  You can read more about Recurring products here: http://manual.aspdotnetstorefront.com/p-459-recurring-orders.aspx.  Unfortunately, the documentation and screenshots are a bit outdated, so this is how the Recurring screen should actually look like in the most recent release of ASPDNSF (v. 9.4 as of this writing):

That should be it!  You should now be up and running with your basic AspDotNetStoreFront web site!