Microsoft Commerce Server
I know that with the reletively recent release of Commerce Server 2009 (aka Mojave), my MicrosoftCommerceServerResources page is getting a bit dated. Because the 2007 product is fully present in the 2009 product, most of the resources and links below are still relevent. See MyBlog for content more relevent to the 2009 Release.
Contents
Online Documentation
Web Casts
This Mojave web cast from the PDC2008 provides a good overview of what is new with Commerce Server 2009, especially the concept of Operational Sequence Components and integretion with MOSS.
Commerce Server Blogs
Here are links to some Commerce Server blogs that I have found to be helpful:
Max Akbar's Blog has some of the best material on CS2007 available as of the time of this writing. If you are just getting started with Commerce Server I suggest you start with his Start with his Pre-training Resources
Ravi Kanth ( see also http://techblog.ravikanth.net/)
Microsoft Resources
Microsoft Commerce Server on TechNet - From here you can find:
- Commerce Server Downloads, MVP's, events and other resources.
Downloads: Bits, Installers, Documentation Downloads, etc.
Commerce Server 2007 Developer Edition - you'll likely need this to build out your development workstations, integration and QA environments
As of the time of this writing Commerce Server has 1 update and 2 service packs. You can find these here:
Service Pack 1 (see also this guys's experience with this )
Commerce Server has a "Starter Site" which is production quality sample application. There have been a couple of releases.
Commerce Server 2007 Starter Site - Release 2 Installation Guide and Readme
Starter Site Release 2 - unlike the 1st starter site, the help file is included in this single download
In addition to Commerce Server itself and the Starter Site, Microsoft also provides the Commerce Server 2007 Partner SDK. This SDK includes the source code and additional documentation for the business tools that are included in Commerce Server. These are useful if you need to extend the capabilities of these tools.
Installation
Before beginning the installation process you really should read the installation guides. While the installation and configuration processes are not complex, they are detailed and tedious. Miss one of the installation steps, especially those related to security, and your Commerce Server application will not run. You are likely installing on either a development work station or a server. The security requirements, and therefore complexity of the install/configuration for a development workstation, are much more relaxed than that of a server install. Make sure you use the right installation guide.
These documents are available from Microsoft here.
Notes for the Windows XP/ workstation install:
- Make sure you select "Project Creation Wizard" during the install before you apply the service packs.
- Make sure that you clear the "Launch the Commerce Server Configuration Wizard" checkbox so that you have the opportunity to apply service packs before running the configuration wizard and other post install steps.
- If you want to install the Business Applications make sure you do so before installing the service packs. They will not install from the original Commerce Server installer after you have performed the upgrade to service pack 2.
- I suggest that you just use the built in ASPNET local account to replace all of the typical CS2007 install server accounts (e.g. ) If you choose something other that the default ASPNET account as the replacement for all of the standard ones the you'll need to add the following entry to your machine.config file in order to force the W3P worker process to run using the credentials that are needed to access the various CS2007 resources such as the database:
<system.web>
<!--<processModel autoConfig="true"/>-->
<processModel enable="true"
userName="YourComputerNameHere\RuntimeUser"
password="YourPasswordHere"/ >
...See MSDN Library here for details.
If you do this you'll also need to give that user account access to the IIS metabase. You can do so with the following command:
aspnet_regiis.exe -ga RuntimeUser
One other thing you may run into if you attempt to install the Starter Site on XP is an empty catalog. This is a known issue and there is a hotfix for it, but you must request it from MS support.
The pipeline editor also may not run after installation of SP2 see this knowledgebase article for details and link to hotfix.
Setting up security in SQL is one of the most tedious and error prone steps. This /SQL Configuration Script will save you some time.
Common Post Installation Issues
Failure to Refresh any of the Site Cache's such as the catalog, etc. See this MS knowledge base article.
- *
Commerce Server 2009
Commerce Server Sub-systems
Profiles Sub-system
The profile sub-system is the system that is used to manage user/customer data. This ranges from their name and and address info, to credit card, preferences or any other data you'll need about your customers.
Check out this Microsoft Web Cast "Developing with the Profile System"
See this blog entry by my friend and former co-worker David Truxall for an explanation on how to extend the project system with additional properties with a 1 to N type of relationship.
/ProfileSystemDevelopmentResourceAttachments
Catalog Sub-system
Commerce Server is made up of a number of different sub-systems. The Catalog sub-system is one these. Understanding key concepts like catalogs, categories, product families and product variants is critical to understanding the catalog sub-system and Commerce Server itself. Read about them here.
Max Akbar has some suggestions on how to implement product bundles/packages where you want to sell a single SKU that is actually made up of multiple SKU's.
Order Sub-system and Pipelines
Pipelines are one of the most confusing concepts for Commerce Server newbies. Max Akbar wrote a blog series that de-mystifies much of what you'll need to know about Commerce Server pipelines. Read and reap benefits of his knowledge.
Max Akbar's - Pipeline Components Part I - is a good introduction to pipelines and thier purposes. Includes coverages of the Pipeline Editor, Pipeline Configuration Files (*.pcf), Pipeline Stages and Components, Pipeline Execution Objects (MtsPipeline, MtxTxPipeline, etc.)
Max Akbar's - Pipeline Components Part II - this covers the basics of creating a pipeline component in C#, registering and then adding the newly created component into a pipeline by using the Pipeline Editor.
Max Akbar's - Pipeline Components Part III - this entry goes into more details about implementing a custom pipeline component including the various required (IPipelineComponent) and optional (IPipelineComponentAdmin) COM interfaces.
Max Akbar's - Pipeline Components Part IV - Covers creating property pages for your pipeline components as well as pipeline component debugging. Don't miss the link (shown below) on how to run pipeline components from a console applicatoin.
- Here are some other links related to pipelines you may find useful
Also see Running Pipeline Components from a Console App from Nihit Kaul's World of Commerce and TestingNihit Kaul's World of Commerce and Testing
Also check out the XMLTracer pipeline component for troubleshooting
XMLTracer was initially developed as part of this article about Commerce Server 2002
Another good link in this article is How to use the Scriptor component
blog about shipping cost by weight and needed attributes.
Marketing Sub-sysytem
Start with this webcast
Tips
- Extended price is list price after discount as been applied.
- Troubleshoot discounts by turning on discount tracing in your pipeline
pipelineInfo["_trace_discounts"] = true;
// run the pipeline
string discountTrace = orderForm["_discounts_trace_info"] as string;
Unit Testing
Resources on this site
Credit Card Payment Legalease * http://www.pcico http://commercetarek.blogspot.com/2008/05/shipment-by-weight.htmlmplianceguide.org/
Related Concepts
Product Information Management or PIM
Related Products
IDeal A Day - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FIALvF1GpE
Related Technoloogies * Authorization Manager Commerce Server 2002 Stuff * Moving a commerce server database (2000/2002)
CategoryMicrosoftServerProduct CategoryMicrosoftCommerceServer