A few questions have come up about how can you do negative discounts. (For the record, a negative discount would increase a price. e.g. - If you qualify, raise the price of Item X by 10%.)
The net is that Commerce Server doesn't really support this. The better ways to accomplish this are:
- Set all prices higher, and then have broad discounts for those that should receive the lower price (e.g. - 80% of customers might get the discount)
- Also affect this through pricing rules in targeted virtual catalogs/catalog sets (e.g. - if you qualify, you get the virtual catalog with the higher price versus the lower price)
Hope this helps.
As a few people have unfortunately discovered, those still running Site Server-era code on Commerce Server 2002 discovered that ShopperID cookie is set to expire on January 1, 2010. Whoops!
This can be worked around by manually setting an expiration date on the ShopperManager object. Or the code can be migrated to AuthManager and not have this problem (by far a better solution). Or better yet, upgrade to Commerce Server 2009 and ASP.NET Membership.
If you have run into this issue, please check http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2012742 as put together by the support team.
All internal testing has now completed - and we can gladly state that BizTalk Server 2009 works with Commerce Server, without issues or any special black magic required. This applies to both Commerce Server 2007 SP2 and Commerce Server 2009.
Hope this helps!
A question got asked to me today about how to migrate data from Commerce Server 2002. It was obvious from reading it, that at least one person doesn't know that there is a data migration tool.
It will take data from all versions prior, specifically:
- Commerce Server 2000
- Commerce Server 2002
- Commerce Server 2002 FP1
- Commerce Server 2007
and migrate it to Commerce Server 2009. What's the catch? Some of the old catalog entities that got dropped in lieu of Catalog Sets and Virtual Catalogs in CS2002 (when migrating from CS2000) will be flattened. Other than that, everything will migrate with full integrity - ASSUMING that there were no unsupported changes made to Commerce Server's schemas (e.g. - you did not edit SQL Server directly and went through the provided schema editing tools).
THe best practices are, of course:
- Backup your source data
- Don't run the migration on the live source - do it on a copy
But with that - you should be good to go! Hope this helps...
Recently, we have launched the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for Commerce Server 2009 Code Name "R2" - which is the next version of Commerce Server. This is highlighted in the team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/commerce/archive/2009/06/22/the-next-version-of-commerce-server-codename-r2-is-on-its-way.aspx - where you can get the full details.
If you sign up, you will get:
- One-on-One briefing
- Early access to next-generation bits
- Direct interaction with the product group
The obvious question is what's in it for me? If I sign-up to be on the bleeding edge - surely I'll have a bumpier road than if I went with a released version. Although that is true, you will also get at least 1-2, possibly more years less lifespan out of the solution.
Investments required in an eCommerce deployment, like Point-of-Sale (POS), are typically large and complex. The goal is to get as long of a runway as possible out of an investment. For POS, it is typically 7+ years, with 10 being idea. For eCommerce, it should be at least 5 years, with more being ideal. TAP helps you achieve just that. By deploying early, you will be live in production before the start of the 5-year standard support lifecycle clock starts. Deploying on a previous version can mean that you will get less than 5 years, some cases considerably so. Above the 5-year standard support lifecycle, Microsoft products enter what is known as extended support - see http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy. At that point, support options become considerably more limited - and potentially costly. So, a little up front bleeding edge roughness...can save a whole lot downstream if you want to use your deployment for a long time!
Something to consider! Hope this helps!
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…there used to be a solution offering called the Microsoft Solution for Internet Business (MSIB). The MSIB solution integrated Commerce Server 2000 and 2002, Content Management Server 2001 and 2001, and SharePoint 2001 into a single Internet-facing site for customer deployment.
This solution unfortunately became somewhat orphaned given Content Management Server being folded into SharePoint, and SharePoint itself going through major evolutions with the 2003 and 2007 generations – along with Commerce Server 2007. This was a hot topic some time back – I wrote two posts:
The sad part is, we have never come up with a great encore that offered full feature parity to migrate customers towards, until now…
The SharePoint Commerce Services feature of Commerce Server 2009 provides complete feature parity with the old MSIB feature-set. Details are as follows….
Integrated Site and Catalog Search
Here, customers can search the site and get results returned from both static content (visa vis SharePoint) and dynamic content (visa vis the Commerce Server Catalog).
Inline Catalog Editing
In this instance, through a visual popup implemented in Silverlight, properties of the catalog can be edited inline by navigating the site. Upon submission, changes will be persisted back to Commerce Server and caches refreshed.
Content Management
SharePoint brings complete content management capabilities to Commerce Server sites, including the abilities to:
- Have versioning with check-in/check-out
- Workflow/approvals on content changes
- The ability to make content, layout, and other look-and-feel changes through either the Web-based interface or SharePoint Designer
***
With these features in place, customers now have 1:1 feature migration – and then some – and can finally migrate away from MSIB to a modern platform. I wish it had not taken this long to get here, but as they say – better late than never!
Hope this helps!
A colleague asked me the other day – if I have a CS2007 site and
don’t feel like changing it (much) at the moment, what’s in it for me
to upgrade to Commerce Server 2009? A very good question indeed – I
thought…
First, Commerce Server 2009 does not break any
compatibility with Commerce Server 2007. So, code that runs on CS2007
will run on CS2009 – unmodified.
Second, Commerce Server 2009
includes a number of fixes over and above SP2 from Commerce Server
2007. So to get the most stable version of the CS2007 bits, one should
be running CS2009.
Third is support lifecycle; Microsoft’s
standard support policy is 5 Years of Standard Support and 5 Years of
Extended Support. Standard support began in 2006 for Commerce Server
2007, versus 2009 for the 2009 version. So you automatically get 3 more
years of support.
Fourth and finally is platform support –
CS2009 is tested with the latest and greatest – and will be evolved
throughout its support lifecycle.
With respect to some other questions:
- Performance
of the Core System (old) APIs will be about the same on '09 versus '07
- '09 does have more fixes as reported by customers rolled in than '07
SP2 though
- The new Commerce Foundation APIs when used in an
ASP.NET site will perform marginally better than the old Core System
APIs if used correctly; less so if used incorrectly
So – that’s it in a nutshell. Hope this helps!
New Links from Microsoft:
Some New Blogs to Follow:
If I've missed anyone or you want any changes, please let me know through a comment.
Hope this helps!
Life has been busy. Busy working on the next version of Commerce Server, that is. A few weeks back we posted the June CTP of CS2009 code name “R2”. This is the first CTP of the next version of Commerce Server, which will be available by 1st Quarter 2010. Some key changes in this CTP versus the released version of Commerce Server 2009 include:
- Commerce Server is now x64-only
- Setup is now integrated into a single install/configuration experience
- The Template Pack site is now the out-of-box default experience
- Products and categories can now be updated (as opposed to just queried) through the Commerce Foundation API
- Business Administration Toolbar and Cross-Sell/Up-Sell Manager are now included – as the start of delivering the product’s next-generation business user experience
- The Commerce Foundation can now be run as a service for full 3-tier deployments
For more details and to get this, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=dfaca6d6-6e1a-4067-8857-61ff1300bf6b&displaylang=en.
Enjoy!
Someone asked me for resources on how to harden a Commerce Server deployment. The best starting point is:
Hope this helps!
I was sent several questions about Virtual Catalogs over this last month. So here are the answers...
- Q: My understanding is that items and categories are including in a Virtual Catalog by creating INCLUSION RULES. Is there a limit to the number of INCLUSION RULES that I can create?
- A: No. Though, practically speaking, there is a limit of ~80 base catalogs to a virtual catalog. And understand that the more of these there are, the more work SQL is having to do to stitch it all together. The best advice - is be practical and use common sense.
- Q: At what point (# of items) do you think a VIRTUAL CATALOG should be MATERIALIZED?
- A: It is a good practice to always materialize virtual catalogs in production. This minimizes query overhead. And not materialize them in the environment being used for business users - to ensure that data is always up to date.
- Q: If I create a virtual catalog with 1,000 specific items (no variants or categories) do I need to rebuild the virtual every time I rebuild the base?
- A: Base catalogs don't get rebuilt. So the scenario described would not apply. If you are using a Virtual Catalog View (virtual on virtual), it would apply as the Base would change, needing a rebuild of the Virtual, which would in turn need a rebuild of the Virtual View. You need to rebuild whenever underlying data changes - and this is triggered automatically by the Catalog system.
Hope this helps!
I am super-excited to announce that today we have shipped:
The Template Pack provides a styled HTML skin over and above the "white label" default site shipped in Commerce Server 2009. It is meant to be easily redesigned to easily accommodate your own look-and-feel. It also includes a Mobile site, which has been optimized for both Windows Mobile and the iPhone.
The Inline Product Property Editor provides a Silverlight control that lets you edit catalog data within your site - a great asset for business users as you no longer have to fly blind when making standard, day-to-day catalog product changes.
Lastly, one of the most compelling features of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is Site Variations. It lets you completely localize your site in another language without having to recompile it. This white paper tells you how to do that with Commerce Server 2009, MOSS, and the SharePoint Commerce Services feature of CS2009.
Hope this helps - enjoy!
As of this week, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer is now available for free. You can download it from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/default.aspx. This will be a great tool for use in editing the pages in the Default Site in Commerce Server 2009 - or any other supporting file (e.g. - Resource File) or page created in SharePoint Commerce Services on top of Commerce Server 2009. Hope this help!
The question keeps coming up about whether or not there is a Commerce Server certification. As of right now, there is not - nor are there any definitive plans to offer this through the typical Microsoft Training and Certification channels now or in the future. Given the size of the customer base of Commerce Server relative to, say, Windows Server, it simply does not meet the typical models for certification. Hope this helps.
When we shipped Commerce Server 2007, we began supporting ASP.NET Authentication for SQL Authentication and ADFS for Windows Authentication. In fact, this became the preferred and directed method to handle site authentication for Commerce Server. The legacy ISAPI authentication filter was maintained for backward compatibility, but was marked as deprecated. This story did not change for Commerce Server 2009.
For the next version of Commerce Server, we are proposing to remove the legacy CS2000/CS2002 ISAPI Authorization filter entirely, effectively forcing you to use ASP.NET Authentication or ADFS. If this will cause you a problem, please leave us a comment.
