Important

You are browsing documentation for version 5.1 of OroCommerce, supported until March 2027. Read the documentation for the latest LTS version to get up-to-date information.

See our Release Process documentation for more information on the currently supported and upcoming releases.

Custom Oro Application 

No two businesses are alike. This motto is part of Oro’s product philosophy, which is why flexibility is a fundamental principle driving its architecture. Whatever you plan to build, you can create a custom application with minimal functions, starting from the OroCommerce application as a baseline.

Application Repository and Installation 

Before you start a new project, set up a version control system. The easiest way is to fork application repository of OroCommerce on GitHub.

Once the code repository is ready, follow the installation instructions.

Note

A newly created application repository should be used instead of the https://github.com/oroinc/orocommerce-application.git

Once your application is up and running, use development mode to work on customizations. To warm up the application cache in development mode, run:

php bin/console cache:clear --env=dev

To access the application in development mode, add index_dev.php to the base URL (example: http://orocommerce.example.com/index_dev.php).

Application Custom Code 

Oro application structure is based on Symfony Standard Edition, and we highly recommend following Symfony Best Practices for any custom application you build on top of OroCommerce.

The root folder of your application contains an src folder. Use it as the working directory for your custom project, and put your custom code there.

Like in Symfony applications, all custom code in the Oro application is organized in bundles — modules that group application functionality (see Symfony Bundle System for best practices of module structure and design).

Note

Please note that the Oro application has several differences compared to Symfony Standard Edition.

To create a custom application, follow these typical steps:

  1. Create a bundle.

  2. Introduce new entity types that represent your business data structure and add related features.

  3. Customize existing functionality (menu, workflow, extend entities, etc.).

Application Deployment 

Oro applications are open source and can be deployed to on-premise environments. Deployment methods vary depending on organization requirements and infrastructure. You can design your own deployment process, but make sure you follow the recommendations below:

  1. Follow the advice outlined in the Symfony Application Deployment documentation.

  2. Lock all dependencies with composer.lock before taking the code to production.

  3. Warm up the application cache in production mode.

  4. Disable access to index_dev.php.

  5. Configure crontab and run web socket server.

Oro applications are scalable.

Note

As an alternative to on-premise deployment, you can deploy your application to OroCloud, provided you create it following the recommendations above. Get in touch with us for more information.