Max Akbar : Profile System

Support for SQL replication of the profiles and of the transactions database

Max Akbar — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:38:12 GMT

I wrote a blog a while ago that Commerce Server SP1 with SQL 2005 SP2 supported replication with Profiles and transaction database. Now I can confirm that this is a supported scenario here is the KB Article. I am disappointed that the KB article does not walk the user step by step and setting up your profiles and transactions database but at least you know it's supported scenario.

What about replication of other Databases?

Marketing, Product Catalog, Transaction Config and Inventory is supported by use of Import\export APIs and\or using Commerce Server Staging.

Why Use replication?

Multiple data centers for backup and redundancy.

How to fix profile definition in Commerce Server 2007: "Loading Editor" message

Max Akbar — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:39:28 GMT

If you have installed Commerce Server 2007 with default installation on Windows 2003 you may receive a message "Loading Editor" when navigating to Commerce Server Manager's Profile Definition. This is due to installing Windows Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration components.

To fix this see the following KB article:

Message when you use Commerce Server Manager to create a new profile definition in Commerce Server 2007: "Loading Editor"

Do you have your eye on it CS2007 SP1

Max Akbar — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:13:06 GMT

Commerce Server 2007 Service Pack 1 is due out end of June if all goes well :), keep your eye on it. There are two things note worthy:

Replication of Orders and Profiles Database

This was a design change request that was introduced right after the product went live so a lot of testing wen into it. The replication will allow to have more than one Data Centers acting as active active. If one data center goes down the other can pick up the load. Should be interesting to read all the details on how to do this.
Using Tabular functions for Catalogs SetJoin API

I am very proud of this as I had a hand in it :). I had my hand in lots of cookie jars when I was at Microsoft, still do ;). Originally the product only supported tables and views to be joined with the Product object. Some scenarios made it impossible to use the SetJoin API. Imagine if you had dynamic pricing scenario, you could write a function that runs a select statement based on parameters you passed it and the product API would then return you some results that you could then perform validations and selecting the correct price. What if you needed to search a table before the join occurred? Well now you can. I am very eager to see how this is implemented and how people will use.

And they say Microsoft doesn't listen to it's customers :). I am very proud to have been part of the product group developing such a great software. Make sure to read every little bit of what's new.

Upcomming Profile Webcast

Max Akbar — Wed, 09 May 2007 23:51:41 GMT

[This is for Friday May 11^th 8AM-9:30AM Pacific Daylight Time PDT]

Live From Redmond Series - Commerce Server 2007 Development Webcasts!

Hi there, we're launching a series of webcasts targeting Commerce Server 2007 developers. These sessions are developer presented and intended to provide you with a direct in-depth connection to the development team.

The first webcast is Profile System Development by David Hargis. Learn how to develop using Commerce Server 2007 Profile System. From creating, retrieving, writing, to extending the profile. The webcast will cover the following topics:

Profiles System Architecture
Profiles System Authorization Requirements
Profiles Concepts and Tasks
Site Terms Concepts and Tasks
Authentication Concepts and Tasks
Profile System initialization
Profile CRUD
Extending the Profiles System
Profiles Schema & Editor
Profiles caching & cache coherency approach

Click Here to Join Live Meeting

Subject: Live From Redmond - Commerce Server 2007 Profile System Development
Meeting URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join
Meeting ID: K9MW9S
Meeting Key: Z~B8S`xWZ
Role: Attendee
Audio Conferencing (Toll): +1 (203) 480-8000
Audio Conferencing (Toll-free): +1 (866) 500-6738
Participant Code: 898098
FIRST TIME USERS: To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is compatible with Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

For assistance, visit Live Meeting Help and Support:
http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidLiveMeeting?p1=7&p2=en_US&p3=LMInfo&p4=support

How to Control the Profile Cache

Max Akbar — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:33:45 GMT

I was Recently asked about, how do you control the Profile Cache? This post will answer this question.

Profile Cache

The ProfileService cache differs from other caches in Commerce Server because it does not use the ASP.NET component nor is it configurable in the web.config. Instead, it includes its own built-in cache of profile objects. This cache cannot be disabled.

You control when the Profiling System refreshes and how often. You can configure the ProfileService cache using the following properties in the Profiling System connection string:

PsObjectCacheSize [optional]. Allows applications to specify the size of the Profiles resource object cache. This cache stores ProfileObject objects instantiated by the CreateProfile and GetProfile methods. The default value for this attribute is 16384. Setting this value to 0 (zero) does not turn off caching. Instead, this value then reverts to the default value of 1024.
PsSchemaCacheSize [optional]. Allows applications to specify the size of the Profile resource definition (schema) cache in entries. The acceptable range of values is from one (1) to 1024. The default is 1024. This is not a hard limit. A warning will be posted to the eventlog if the number of entries exceeds 1024.
PsBackgroundThread [optional]. Allows applications to control the creation of a background thread to periodically clean up entries from the Profiles resource object cache. The acceptable values for this parameter are zero (0) or one (1). Zero turns off the background thread, one turns it on. By default, the background thread is on.
PsObjectAgeoutPeriod [optional]. Allows applications to specify the age-out period for the Profiles resource cache entries. The age-out period is the amount of time an unreferenced object can remain in the cache without being discarded. The default value for this attribute is five minutes.
Connection_Retry [optional]. Allows the applications to specify the number of retry attempts if the connection to the Profile definition store is lost due to a communication failure. The default value for this attribute is 10.
Connection_Retry_Delay [optional]. Allows the applications to specify the delay in seconds between retry attempts if the connection to the Profile definition store is lost due to a communication failure. The default value for this attribute is 30.

For more details see the following help file:

ProfileService Object
IProfileService2::Initialize Method
Using Profiles in a Web Farm Scenario.