10 – 12 april 2005 riyadh, saudi arabia. microsoft commerce server 2002: introduction to virtual...

10 – 12 APRIL 2005 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia10 – 12 APRIL 2005 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Microsoft Commerce Server 2002: Introduction to Virtual Catalogs

Microsoft Commerce Server 2002: Introduction to Virtual Catalogs

Abdellatif TarhineMicrosoft Regional Director for North Africa

[email protected]

Session OverviewSession 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

Commerce Server 2006

Commerce Server 2002 OverviewCommerce Server 2002 Overview

Commerce Server 2002 is composed of five major systems:

Product Catalog System

Business Analytics System

Profiling System

Targeting System

Business Processing Pipelines System

Anatomy of Commerce ServerAnatomy of Commerce Server

Co

mm

erce Server M

anag

er

Solution Sites

Product Catalog System

Targeting System

Profiling System

SQLServer

Commerce ServerData Warehouse

SQL Server

CatalogsCampaigns

Orders

LDAPODBCSQL

Server

Profiles

OtherOtherAppsApps

Business Processing Pipelines System

Business Analytics SystemB

usi

nes

s D

esk

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Product Catalog System


Manage millions of products.

Create multilingual and multicurrency catalogs.

Apply multiple search mechanisms so users visiting your site can find what they need in your catalog.

Import, export, create, and manage online catalogs.



Example code for Changing Non-Multilingual Properties to Multilingual

<?xml version="1.0" ?> <UpgradeInfo> <PropertyName>Description</PropertyName>

</UpgradeInfo >

CS2002Upgrade –L –N "connection string to the catalog database" –X

"path of the XML file"

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Profiling System


Collect information you specify for any business-related item - EX: anonymous users, organization

Profile information is stored in the Profiles data store (Active Directory, SQL Server, or both)



Code to Connect to the Profiles Store

1. Create a SiteConfigReadOnly object and initialize it for the "Retail" site.

Dim oSiteConfigReadOnly Set oSiteConfigReadOnly = Server.CreateObject _ ("Commerce.SiteConfigReadOnly") oSiteConfigReadOnly.Initialize "Retail"

2. Retrieve the connection string to the Profile Store and release the SiteConfigReadOnly object.

Dim sBDSConnect sBDSConnect = oSiteConfigReadOnly.Fields("Biz Data Service") _ .Value.Fields("s_ProfileServiceConnectionString").Value

Set oSiteConfigReadOnly = Nothing

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Business Analytics System

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Business Analytics System

Analyze site effectiveness by running Commerce Server reports, or by creating your own custom reports.

Provide intelligent cross-sell capabilities, and dynamically recommend products to users as they navigate your site.

Divided into three main parts:

Data Warehouse

Predictor

Analysis Reporting

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Targeting System

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Targeting System

Personalize the buying experience with targeted merchandising.

Create and schedule campaigns for customers who compete within the same industry. The competing ads are never shown on the same page.

Charge your advertising customers based on the number of ad requests or clicks they want their ads to receive.

Charge your advertising customers based upon the page on which they want their ad to appear.

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Business Processing Pipelines System

Commerce Server 2002 Overview Business Processing Pipelines System

Tailor your order and merchandising processes to fit your requirements today, while being able to easily modify them over time, as your business grows and changes.

The Order Processing pipeline (OPP) provides the sequence of steps that are used to process purchases from your site

Commerce Server ToolsCommerce Server Tools

Commerce Server .NET Application Framework.

Solution Sites

Commerce Server Site Packager

Commerce Server Business Desk

Commerce Server Business DeskCommerce Server Business Desk

Business Desk hosts business management modules that you use to configure, manage, and analyze your sites.

Business Desk applications are provided in Solution Site packages.

Business Desk has two parts: the Business Desk application and the Business Desk client

Commerce Server Business DeskCommerce Server Business Desk

Key FeaturesKey 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

Catalog System Design GoalsCatalog System Design Goals

Need to be able to:

Define rich catalog content for any type of products

Define customer/market specific catalogs

Describe products in multiple languages

Control who can change what

Allow buyers to easily find relevant products

Exchange catalogs with trading partners

Business Desk Business Desk FrameworkFramework

Business Desk Business Desk Catalog modulesCatalog modules

Schema Schema DesignDesign

CatalogCatalogEditorEditor

Catalog Architecture

Catalog Catalog COM API COM API

LayerLayer

SQL ServerSQL Server™™

Catalog Catalog CollectionCollection

Export/Export/ImportImport

Commerce Server Commerce Server Catalog XML,Catalog XML,

CSV CSV

Catalog DTSCatalog DTS

Business Business DWDW

CommerceCommerceServer Server

ASP Site ASP Site CachesCaches

BizTalk® Server

CatalogCatalogExchangeExchange

CommerceCommerceServer Server

ASP.NET SiteASP.NET Site

Catalog Catalog .NET FW .NET FW ClassesClasses

Catalog System FeaturesCatalog System FeaturesBusiness Desk administration interface

Simple catalog design UI

User-definable product types

Security

Sample catalogs – Adventure Works

Multiple search mechanisms

Import/Export/Merge of catalogs through XML

XML-data schema for catalogs

Catalog exchange through BizTalk Server

Export to business data warehouse for reporting

COM and .NET APIs

Catalog StructureCatalog Structure

Catalog Catalog CollectionCollection

Catalog CCatalog CCatalog BCatalog BCatalog ACatalog A

Category 1Category 1 Category 2Category 2

Category 1aCategory 1a Category 1bCategory 1b

Product XProduct X

Variant3Variant3Variant2Variant2Variant1Variant1

Product YProduct YAccessoryAccessory

Product DefinitionProduct Definition

Template for a product describes a type of product

For example,Guitar has:

Brand name

Model number

Image

Description

Type

Number of strings

Body type

Weight

List price

And so on

Products Can Have VariantsProducts Can Have VariantsFor example, Movie has:

Title

ID

Description

Director

Stars

Synopsis

And variant properties that change for different “versions”of the product:

SKU

Format

Price

“Movie Title”

MV131

…

Director Name

Actor, Actress

…131001 131002 131003

DVD VHS LD

24.50 16.50 35.00

Instance of “Movie”Instance of “Movie”

Variants of MV131Variants of MV131

Property DefinitionsProperty DefinitionsCan be one of the following types:

Text/Multilingual Text Filename

Number Decimal

Currency Date/time

Multiple choice/Multilingual Multiple Choice

And can have the following attributes:

Display on site, display name

Free-text searchable

Export to Business Data Warehouse

Minimum, maximum length/value

Specification searchable

Additional properties can be defined through API

Catalog SchemaCatalog Schema

Catalog Schema

Catalog Data

Category TypeCategory Type‘DEPT’‘DEPT’

DEPTDEPT‘‘Jeans’Jeans’

Properties Product Definitions

CategoryDefinitions PropertyProperty

‘‘name’name’

PropertyProperty‘‘size’size’

PropertyProperty‘‘color’color’

Product TypeProduct Type‘PANTS’‘PANTS’

Retro ClosetRetro Closet

PANTSPANTS’’Designer’Designer’

Size: 36; Color: GreenSize: 36; Color: GreenSize: 34; Color: BlackSize: 34; Color: Black

Size: 34; Color: GreenSize: 34; Color: Green

Size: 32; Color: BlueSize: 32; Color: BlueSize: 32; Color: GreenSize: 32; Color: Green

Virtual Catalogs 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

Catalog Type ComparisonCatalog Type ComparisonCommerce Server 2000

Base catalogs

Custom catalogs

Catalog sets

Commerce Server 2002

Base catalogs

Virtual catalogs

Catalog sets

Multilingual catalogs

Creating a Virtual CatalogCreating a Virtual Catalog

When you create a virtual catalog you specify:

The name of the catalog.

The currency that will be used to price products (for example, USD).

You can create up to 10,000 virtual catalogs.

Defining Virtual CatalogsDefining Virtual Catalogs

Virtual catalogs are defined by a set of rules.

Those rules are:

Inclusion rules.

Exclusion rules.

Price rules.

Managing Virtual CatalogsManaging 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.

PerformancePerformance

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.

TailspinTailspin

Virtual catalog

MotorcycleMotorcyclewheelswheels

Product P1Product P1$150.00$150.00

TruckTruckwheelswheels



Virtual Catalog – Example 1Virtual Catalog – Example 1

“Wingtip Toys” enters contract with “Tailspin Toys” to offer them motorcycle wheels at 20 percent off regular price.

MotorcycleMotorcyclewheelswheels

WingtipWingtip


TruckTruckwheelswheels



Base Base catalogcatalog

$120.00$120.00 $100.00$100.00

-20%

-20%

ShoesShoes


DressesDresses



Virtual Catalog – Example 2Multicurrency scenarioVirtual Catalog – Example 2Multicurrency scenario

“Fabrikam, Inc.” wants to offer its products priced in Canadian dollars to Canadian shoppers.

Create Clothes-CAN, Include Clothes, div prices by 0.556.

ShoesShoes

ClothesClothes


DressesDresses






Clothes-CANClothes-CAN

Virtual catalog


Virtual Catalog – Example 3Virtual Catalog – Example 3“Fabrikam, Inc.” doesn’t sell certain products to France – needs to exclude those products.

Create ‘Clothes-FRN’ catalog, exclude category XYZ.

ShoesShoes

ClothesClothes


XYZXYZ



ShoesShoes



Clothes-FRNClothes-FRN

Virtual catalog


Virtual Catalog – Example 4Aggregation scenarioVirtual Catalog – Example 4Aggregation scenario

“Southridge Video” sells technical books from a number of publishers.

Create VC Southridge, Include Publisher1 catalog, Publisher2 catalog.

Publisher1 Publisher1 BooksBooks




Visual C#Visual C#™™ .NET .NET

Visual BasicVisual Basic®®

.NET.NET

SouthridgeSouthridge

Virtual catalog


Publisher2 Publisher2 BooksBooks


Catalog Security SupportCatalog 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.

Categories within a catalog.

Particular properties.

Catalog XML FormatCatalog XML Format

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

Catalog XML File ValidationCatalog XML File ValidationCommerce 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

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.

Displays errors within the Business Desk UI.

Scale PointsScale 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

Virtual Catalog SummaryVirtual Catalog Summary

Virtual catalogs

Implemented as SQL Server views

Can be subset of a base catalog

Can be created from multiple catalogs

Can be associated with specific languages

Can be associated with a specific currency

Support for up to 10,000 virtual catalogs

Commerce Server 2006Commerce Server 2006

Connect seamlessly to internal and partner applications and systems like SAP, MBS, JD Edwards, and others through Microsoft BizTalk Server adapters.

Manage and share business data through industry-standard Web SOAP XML protocols

Provide customers and partners with Web-based self service through access to order status and inventory availability

http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk


Exchange and aggregate product catalog information from across your business and from trading partners to present expanded product and service line offerings

Develop solutions more quickly with an integrated development environment through Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Integration with Visual Studio 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/


Automate the distribution and movement of data and sites across multiple environments with site staging and replication.

Take advantage of new deployment and configuration tools that simplify the implementation of secure commerce solutions.

Expand business visibility across your channels with SQL Server Reporting Services, which will be included in Commerce Server as the reporting interface.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reporting/default.asp

10 – 12 april 2005 riyadh, saudi arabia. microsoft commerce server 2002: introduction to virtual...

Documents

microsoft commerce server

commerce server reports

overview profiling system

xml file slide

saudi arabia slide

online catalogs

multicurrency catalogs

profiles store