CrestApps provides a collection of open-source modules designed to enhance Orchard Core, a powerful application framework built on ASP.NET Core.
For detailed guides, tutorials, and API references, visit the CrestApps Orchard Core Documentation.
The documentation covers:
- Getting Started — Installation and setup
- AI Suite — AI modules, profiles, tools, and orchestration
- AI Providers — Configuring OpenAI, Azure, Ollama, and more
- Consuming AI Services — Programmatic usage via code
- MCP — Model Context Protocol client and server support
- Omnichannel — SMS, Email, and multi-channel communication
- Changelog — Release notes and migration guides
- Overview
- Project Structure
- Available Modules
- Getting Started
- Package Management
- Contributing
- License
Orchard Core offers a flexible and scalable foundation for building dynamic, data-driven websites and applications. CrestApps modules are developed to further improve this framework, focusing on:
- Modularity – Independent modules allow for seamless integration based on project requirements.
- Security – Designed following industry best practices to ensure application safety.
- Performance – Optimized for speed and efficiency to maximize Orchard Core's potential.
The CrestApps repository is organized for clarity and ease of use. You can find all modules in the src/Modules folder, with each structured for independent usage and configuration.
- Modules Folder:
Contains all CrestApps modules. Each module includes a
README.mdfile with setup and integration details.
src/
└── Modules/
├── CrestApps.OrchardCore.Users/
│ ├── README.md
│ ├── Manifest.cs
│ ├── ...
└── OtherModules/
├── README.md
├── ...
To get started with any module, refer to the documentation site for detailed setup instructions.
You can install individual modules into your web project as needed, or install the CrestApps.OrchardCore.Cms.Core.Targets package to include all modules at once.
Provides services for all AI modules and provide the interface for managing AI profiles and AI Deployments. See the AI Services documentation for more details.
Provides interface for interacting with AI chat models like ChatGPT and others. See the AI Chat documentation for more details.
Enables ad-hoc AI chat experiences with configurable parameters, document upload, and RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) support. Users can chat with AI models without predefined profiles and upload documents to chat against their own data. See the AI Chat Interactions documentation for more details.
Extension modules:
- AI Documents - Document processing foundation with features for Chat Interaction documents and AI Profile documents
- AI Documents (PDF) - PDF document support
- AI Documents (OpenXml) - Word, Excel, PowerPoint support
- AI Documents (Azure AI Search) - Azure AI Search provider for documents
- AI Documents (Elasticsearch) - Elasticsearch provider for documents
Provides a GitHub Copilot SDK-based orchestrator as an alternative to the default Progressive Tool Orchestrator. See the Copilot Integration documentation for more details.
Provides provider-agnostic Data Sources (RAG) management, knowledge base indexing, early RAG, and the DataSourceSearch tool. See the Data Sources documentation.
Provider modules:
Enhances the AI Module by providing AI Agents to perform tasks on your Orchard Core site. See the Orchard Core Agent documentation for more details.
Provides support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and contains multiple features:
- MCP Client — Client-side components to connect to remote MCP servers. See the MCP Client Integration documentation.
- MCP Server — Enables Orchard Core to act as an MCP server. See the MCP Server documentation.
Extends the AI Module by integrating Azure OpenAI services. See the Azure OpenAI documentation.
Extends the AI Module by integrating OpenAI-powered services. You can connect to any provider that adheres to OpenAI standard. See the OpenAI documentation for more details.
Extends the AI Module by integrating Azure AI Inference services. See the Azure AI Inference documentation.
Extends the AI Module by integrating any Ollama model. See the Ollama documentation.
The Omnichannel suite provides a unified communication and activity orchestration layer across channels (SMS, Email, Phone, and more), with a mini-CRM UI and optional AI-driven automation.
The foundation of all communication channels. Provides the core orchestration services and generic webhook entry points. See the Omnichannel documentation.
A mini-CRM that lets you manage contacts, subjects, campaigns, dispositions, activities, and activity batches, and drive next-activity behavior via Orchard Core Workflows. See the Omnichannel Management documentation.
Allows AI to automate chatting with customers/contacts using SMS. You define how the AI should handle conversations, and it acts as an agent communicating through your SMS provider. See the SMS documentation.
Integrates Azure Event Grid to receive communication events (e.g. from your SMS provider) and route them into Omnichannel. See the Event Grid documentation.
Enhances user management with customizable display names and avatars. See the Users documentation for details.
The SignalR module enables seamless integration of SignalR within Orchard Core. See the SignalR documentation.
Extends the Orchard Core Roles module with additional reusable components. See the Roles documentation for details.
Enables you to restrict content items based on user roles. See the Content Access Control documentation for details.
Provides additional resources to accelerate development. See the Resources documentation.
Provides a structured way to define and retrieve recipe steps. See the Recipes documentation.
Follow these steps to get started with CrestApps:
-
Clone the Repository:
git clone https://github.com/CrestApps/CrestApps.OrchardCore.git
-
Navigate to the Project Directory:
cd CrestApps.OrchardCore -
Build the Solution:
Ensure you have the required .NET SDK installed, then run:dotnet build
-
Launch the Application:
dotnet run
-
Enable Modules:
Access the Orchard Core Admin Dashboard to enable desired CrestApps modules.
This project is actively maintained and evolves alongside Orchard Core.
- If you're using Orchard Core versions from
2.1up to2.3, please use package version1.2.x. - For Orchard Core
3.0.0-preview-18908and later, please use version2.0.0-preview-0001or newer.
Note: In Orchard Core v3 multiple breaking changes were introduced to improve the framework. As a result, we had to divide development into two branches to maintain compatibility.
Stable releases are available on NuGet.org.
For the latest updates and preview packages, visit the Cloudsmith CrestApps OrchardCore repository.
- Open NuGet Package Manager Settings (under Tools).
- Add a new package source:
- Name:
CrestAppsPreview - URL:
https://nuget.cloudsmith.io/crestapps/crestapps-orchardcore/v3/index.json
- Name:
Alternatively, update your NuGet.config file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<packageSources>
<clear />
<add key="NuGet" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
<add key="CrestAppsPreview" value="https://nuget.cloudsmith.io/crestapps/crestapps-orchardcore/v3/index.json" />
</packageSources>
<disabledPackageSources />
</configuration>We welcome contributions from the community! To contribute:
- Fork the repository.
- Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
- Make your changes and commit them with clear messages.
- Push your changes to your fork.
- Submit a pull request to the main repository.
CrestApps is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.