Introduction to Microsoft Commerce Server 2002 Mark D. Robinson Technical Lead Commerce Server Support Microsoft Corporation

2 Session Overview  Commerce Server 2002 overview  Key features of Commerce Server 2002  Commerce Server 2002 architecture  Product system catalog structure and schema  Types of catalogs in Commerce Server 2002  Virtual catalogs

3 Commerce Server 2002 Overview  Commerce Server 2002 is composed of five major systems: Business Analytics System Business Analytics System Profiling System Profiling System Product Catalog System Product Catalog System Targeting System Targeting System Business Processing Pipelines System Business Processing Pipelines System

4 Anatomy of Commerce Server Commerce Server Manager Solution Sites Product Catalog System Targeting System Profiling System SQL Server Commerce Server Data Warehouse SQL Server Catalogs Campaigns Orders LDAP ODBC SQL Server Profiles OtherApps Business Processing Pipelines System Business Analytics System Business Desk

5 Key Features  The ability to scale up to support the largest Internet commerce sites  Improved out-of-the-box operations and manageability  Feature and performance improvements  Support for multilingual and multicurrency implementations

6 Catalog System Design Goals  Need to be able to: Define rich catalog content for any type of products Define rich catalog content for any type of products Define customer/market specific catalogs Define customer/market specific catalogs Describe products in multiple languages Describe products in multiple languages Control who can change what Control who can change what Allow buyers to easily find relevant products Allow buyers to easily find relevant products Exchange catalogs with trading partners Exchange catalogs with trading partners

7 Business Desk Framework Business Desk Catalog modules Schema Design CatalogEditor Catalog Architecture Catalog COM API Layer SQL Server™ CatalogCollection Export/ Import Commerce Server Catalog XML, CSV Catalog DTS BusinessDW Commerce Server ASP Site Caches BizTalk ® Server Catalog Exchange Commerce Server ASP.NET Site Catalog.NET FW Classes

8 Catalog System Features  Business Desk administration interface Simple catalog design UI Simple catalog design UI User-definable product types User-definable product types Security Security  Sample catalogs – Adventure Works  Multiple search mechanisms  Import/Export/Merge of catalogs through XML XML-data schema for catalogs XML-data schema for catalogs Catalog exchange through BizTalk Server Catalog exchange through BizTalk Server  Export to business data warehouse for reporting  COM and.NET APIs

9 Catalog Structure Catalog Collection Catalog C Catalog B Catalog A Category 1 Category 2 Category 1a Category 1b Product X Variant3 Variant2 Variant1 Product Y Accessory

10 Product Definition  Template for a product describes a type of product  For example, Guitar has: Guitar has: Brand name Brand name Model number Model number Image Image Description Description Type Type Number of strings Number of strings Body type Body type Weight Weight List price List price And so on And so on

11 Products Can Have Variants  For example, Movie has: Title Title ID ID Description Description Director Director Stars Stars Synopsis Synopsis  And variant properties that change for different “versions” of the product: SKU SKU Format Format Price Price “Movie Title” MV131 … Director Name Actor, Actress … DVDVHSLD Instance of “Movie” Variants of MV131

12 Property Definitions  Can be one of the following types: Text/Multilingual TextFilename NumberDecimal CurrencyDate/time Multiple choice/Multilingual Multiple Choice  And can have the following attributes: Display on site, display name Display on site, display name Free-text searchable Free-text searchable Export to Business Data Warehouse Export to Business Data Warehouse Minimum, maximum length/value Minimum, maximum length/value Specification searchable Specification searchable Additional properties can be defined through API Additional properties can be defined through API

13 Catalog Schema Catalog Data Category Type ‘DEPT’ DEPT‘Jeans’ Properties Product Definitions Category Definitions Property‘name’ Property‘size’ Property‘color’ Product Type ‘PANTS’ Retro Closet PANTS’Designer’ Size: 36; Color: Green Size: 34; Color: Black Size: 34; Color: Green Size: 32; Color: Blue Size: 32; Color: Green

14 Virtual Catalogs  Powerful way to define customer or region specific pricing and/or product selection  Subset or aggregate content from “base” catalogs  Can be used to apply a currency exchange rate

15 Catalog Type Comparison  Commerce Server 2000 Base catalogs Base catalogs Custom catalogs Custom catalogs Catalog sets Catalog sets  Commerce Server 2002 Base catalogs Base catalogs Virtual catalogs Virtual catalogs Catalog sets Catalog sets Multilingual catalogs Multilingual catalogs

16 Creating a Virtual Catalog  When you create a virtual catalog you specify: The name of the catalog. The name of the catalog. The currency that will be used to price products (for example, USD). The currency that will be used to price products (for example, USD).  You can create up to 10,000 virtual catalogs.

17 Defining Virtual Catalogs  Virtual catalogs are defined by a set of rules.  Those rules are: Inclusion rules. Inclusion rules. Exclusion rules. Exclusion rules. Price rules. Price rules.

18 Managing Virtual Catalogs  You can easily manage virtual catalogs in the Business Desk.  You can configure security in the Business Desk.  System administrators can use the Product Catalog System APIs to manage virtual catalogs.

19 Performance  Virtual catalogs are by default implemented as SQL Server views.  Run-time performance of virtual catalogs is less than base catalogs.  To improve run-time performance of virtual catalogs, you can materialize them.  Materialize your virtual catalogs by using the MaterializeVC.vbs script provided with the product.

20 Tailspin Virtual catalog Motorcycle wheels Product P1 $ Truck wheels Product P2 $ Product P3 $ Virtual Catalog – Example 1  “Wingtip Toys” enters contract with “Tailspin Toys” to offer them motorcycle wheels at 20 percent off regular price. Motorcycle wheels Wingtip Product P1 $ Truck wheels Product P2 $ Product P3 $ Base catalog $ $ $ $ % -20%

21 Shoes Product P1 $50.00 Dresses Product P2 $ Product P3 $ Virtual Catalog – Example 2 Multicurrency scenario  “Fabrikam, Inc.” wants to offer its products priced in Canadian dollars to Canadian shoppers.  Create Clothes-CAN, Include Clothes, div prices by Shoes Clothes Product P1 $50.00 Dresses Product P2 $ Product P3 $ Product P1 $89.93 Product P2 $ Product P3 $ Clothes-CAN Virtual catalog Base catalog

22 Virtual Catalog – Example 3  “Fabrikam, Inc.” doesn’t sell certain products to France – needs to exclude those products.  Create ‘Clothes-FRN’ catalog, exclude category XYZ. Shoes Clothes Product P1 $50.00 XYZ Product P2 $ Product P3 $ Shoes Product P1 $50.00 Product P2 $ Clothes-FRN Virtual catalog Base catalog

23 Virtual Catalog – Example 4 Aggregation scenario  “Southridge Video” sells technical books from a number of publishers.  Create VC Southridge, Include Publisher1 catalog, Publisher2 catalog. Publisher1 Books Product P1 $89.93 Product P2 $24.82 Product P3 $60.79 Visual C#™.NET Visual Basic ®.NET Southridge Virtual catalog Base catalog Publisher2 Books Base catalog

24 Catalog Security Support  Commerce Server 2002 introduces the ability to secure certain catalog items within the Business Desk.  Leverages Business Desk security framework.  Supports control over which Business Desk users can edit: Each catalog. Each catalog. Categories within a catalog. Categories within a catalog. Particular properties. Particular properties.

25 Catalog XML Format  Published on  Provides a mechanism for getting data into and out of our catalog database  Represents both catalog schema and data  Suitable for mapping using BizTalk Server mapping tool

26 Catalog XML File Validation  Commerce Server 2002 provides the ability to validate catalog XML files.  Helps to identify bad catalog XML files and common mistakes in creating them.  New API: ValidateXML ValidateXML Returns a recordset of (up to 100) errors, or a success code. Returns a recordset of (up to 100) errors, or a success code.  Also exposed within the Business Desk: Validate only check box on XML import dialog. Validate only check box on XML import dialog. Displays errors within the Business Desk UI. Displays errors within the Business Desk UI.

27 Scale Points  Up to 5 million products per catalog database  Up to 10,000 product catalogs (total base + virtual)  Up to 10,000 virtual catalogs  Up to 10,000 rules/virtual catalog  Up to 1,000 properties per catalog

28 Virtual Catalog Summary  Virtual catalogs Implemented as SQL Server views Implemented as SQL Server views Can be subset of a base catalog Can be subset of a base catalog Can be created from multiple catalogs Can be created from multiple catalogs Can be associated with specific languages Can be associated with specific languages Can be associated with a specific currency Can be associated with a specific currency Support for up to 10,000 virtual catalogs Support for up to 10,000 virtual catalogs

29 Resources  Case studies Case studies White papers White papers  High availability planning High availability planning Developer information Developer information  Product documentation Product documentation Technical deployment guides Technical deployment guides Newsgroup pointers Newsgroup pointers  Product Ideas?

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