Prerequisites

Before developing plugins or deploying nopCommerce, ensure your environment meets the following requirements.

Development Environment

Required Software

Software	Minimum Version	Recommended
.NET SDK	9.0	Latest 9.0.x
Visual Studio	2022	Latest with ASP.NET workload
VS Code	Latest	With C# Dev Kit extension
SQL Server	2016	2019 or 2022
Git	2.x	Latest

Visual Studio Workloads

When installing Visual Studio, ensure these workloads are selected:

• ASP.NET and web development
• .NET desktop development (optional, for desktop tools)
• Data storage and processing (for SQL Server tools)

Alternative IDE

You can also use JetBrains Rider or VS Code with the C# Dev Kit extension for nopCommerce development.

Database Options

nopCommerce supports multiple database providers:

SQL Server (Recommended)

- SQL Server 2016 or later
- SQL Server Express (free, limited to 10GB)
- Azure SQL Database

MySQL

- MySQL 8.0 or later
- MariaDB 10.4 or later

PostgreSQL

- PostgreSQL 12 or later

Hardware Requirements

Development Machine

Component	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	8 GB	16 GB
CPU	4 cores	8 cores
Storage	20 GB SSD	50 GB NVMe SSD

Production Server

See the Server Requirements section in the Deployment guide for production specifications.

Source Code Access

Clone the Repository

# Clone nopCommerce source
git clone https://github.com/nopSolutions/nopCommerce.git

# Navigate to the directory
cd nopCommerce

# Switch to the latest stable branch
git checkout master

Project Structure Overview

nopCommerce/
├── src/
│   ├── Libraries/           # Core libraries
│   │   ├── Nop.Core/       # Core entities and interfaces
│   │   ├── Nop.Data/       # Data access layer
│   │   └── Nop.Services/   # Business logic services
│   ├── Plugins/            # Plugin projects
│   ├── Presentation/       # Web projects
│   │   ├── Nop.Web/        # Main web application
│   │   └── Nop.Web.Framework/
│   └── Tests/              # Unit and integration tests
├── build/                  # Build scripts
└── upgradescripts/         # Database upgrade scripts

Next Steps

Once your environment is set up:

1. Quick Start Guide - Get nopCommerce running locally
2. Plugin Development - Start building your first plugin
3. Architecture Overview - Understand the plugin system