Working with a Local Clone
This article explains how you can work with a local clone of your Umbraco Cloud project. The tutorial works with both Windows and Mac.
Last updated
This article explains how you can work with a local clone of your Umbraco Cloud project. The tutorial works with both Windows and Mac.
Last updated
We recommend using the following tools to work with a local clone of your Umbraco Cloud project:
Git needs to be installed on your computer to clone down the project and push your changes up to Cloud.
We recommend using one of the following git-clients if you are new to Git:
Microsoft Visual Studio or JetBrains Rider - for running the project on your local machine.
In the root of your local project, there is a README file containing information about the project structure and the build process on Umbraco Cloud.
To clone an Umbraco Cloud project, follow these steps:
Open the project you wish to clone in the Umbraco Cloud Portal.
Click on the arrow next to the Development environment.
Select Clone project.
Copy the clone URL to copy the Development environment's git repository endpoint.
Use your favorite Git client to clone down the project. In this guide, we will use Git Bash.
Type the following command in the Git Bash terminal:
The <Git clone URL> should be the URL you copied from the Cloud Development environment.
Press Enter.
Once the project has been cloned, you will get a folder with files for your Umbraco Cloud project. Now, you have a copy of your Umbraco Cloud Development environment that you can run locally.
To run your Umbraco Cloud project locally, you will need to install the latest .NET SDK (if you do not have this already).
With dotnet installed, run the following commands in a terminal application of your choice. You can also refer to the Readme file in the project folder.
Navigate to the newly created project folder.
Run the following commands:
Build and run the project:
The terminal output will show the application starting up and will include localhost URLs which you can use to browse to your local Umbraco site.
We recommend setting up a developer certificate and running the website under HTTPS. If you haven't configured one already, run the following command:
The first time the project is run locally, you will see the Restore from Umbraco Cloud screen. If the environment you have cloned already contains Umbraco Deploy metadata files (such as Document Types, Templates, etc), these are automatically extracted with the option to restore content from the Cloud environment into the local installation.
Click Restore to restore your site's content if any. Wait until this process is completed as it also creates the local SQLite database for your site.
When working locally, we recommend using Visual Studio but you can use any other development tool of your choice.
Once the project has been cloned down, you will get a folder with files for your Umbraco Cloud project.
Navigate to src/UmbracoProject. Here, you will find the files for your Umbraco installation.
Open the UmbracoProject.csproj file in Visual Studio.
Build and run your solution in Visual Studio.
You can create content, add media, and create your custom code. When you're ready to deploy your changes make sure to have a look at the deployments documentation.
If you have more than "a few" media items, see our recommendations for working with Media on Umbraco Cloud.
Working with Visual Studio, you will likely want a solution file, so you and your team can work with an Umbraco Cloud project and have the option to add additional projects.
If you want to add a solution file for your Cloud project, you can do it either:
Using the terminal of your choice, navigate to the root of the git repository of your Umbraco Cloud project and enter the following command:
Open the UmbracoProject.csproj project in Visual Studio.
Click on the solution:
Save the solution file using the Save as option:
Provide a File name to create the solution file in the folder that you specified.
When creating a solution file, we recommend placing it at the root of the git repository.
When creating new projects alongside the default Umbraco project, we recommend adding the projects to the src folder in the git repository.
If you want to add additional projects to your solution, you can do it either through the:
Run the following commands to add additional projects to your solution:
Open the UmbracoProject.csproj project in Visual studio.
Click on the solution:
Right-click the solution and choose Add -> New Project...
Add a class library using the latest .NET SDK to your project:
Once the Class library (.Core) has been added, you can see the project(s) that have been added in Solution Explorer.
To rename your Umbraco Cloud project files and folder, do the following:
Navigate to the .umbraco file at the root of the project and view the following:
The base property provides the folder location which contains the application and the csproj property is the name of the .csproj file.
Rename the UmbracoProject directory and .csproj file.
Update the .umbraco file with the new name and any C# code namespaces reflecting the name of your project.
Additionally, if you prefer to organize your code, you can add additional Class Library projects that are referenced by the Umbraco application .csproj file.
For example: Rename UmbracoProject.csproj to MyAwesomeProject.Web.csproj and have one or more additional class library projects such as MyAwesomeProject.Code.csproj
It's a good idea to update the namespace used in the Program.cs, Startup.cs and _ViewImports.cshtml files so the naming is consistent throughout your project structure. Once updated, you will need to clear out the bin and obj folders locally to avoid build errors. When you are done, commit the changes and push them to Cloud.
If you have already built and run the project locally using the original project file and folder, make an update in your local .git repository to reflect the change that has been made. When a Cloud project first runs, a git hook is created to trigger a schema update via Umbraco Deploy when changes are pulled from an upstream environment.
The file you'll need to update is post-merge within .git/hooks/ in your cloned environment files. It can be opened with a text editor. You can either delete the file so it will be recreated with the new path or update it. The default contents are shown below and can be updated to reflect the new path to the umbraco/Deploy folder.
Umbraco HQ offers a full-day training course covering best practices for developing with Umbraco Cloud. The course targets frontend and backend developers who currently work or plan to work with Umbraco Cloud.
Explore the Umbraco Cloud Developer Training Course to learn more about the topics covered and how it can enhance your Umbraco development skills.
