Commerce Server Blog

Commerce server uses Cache all its subsystems information to make the application run faster. When you add, update, or delete information in any CS Business Application, you can refresh the site cache for the application so that the latest data is available. Through configuration (web.config), Site cache can be refreshed periodically or we can also refresh cache manually.

There are two ways to refresh Commerce server Cache

1. Through business management applications – In business management application, on task pane, click on refresh site cache.
2. Refresh Cache through browser. Open following URL in your browser
• http://<Web Server Machine Name>/OrdersWebService/SiteCacheRefresh.axd?CacheToRefresh=AllMarketingCaches
• http://<Web Server Machine Name>/OrdersWebService/SiteCacheRefresh.axd?CacheToRefresh=ProfileCache
• http://<Web Server Machine Name>/OrdersWebService/SiteCacheRefresh.axd?CacheToRefresh=CatalogCache

Commerce server 2009 is the first accelerator to CS2007 and comes with two editions. One is standard edition and another is enterprise editions. Here are some of the differences between two editions.

Commerce Server 2009 is licensed on a per-processor basis just the same as Commerce Server 2007 SP2. Commerce Server 2009 does not require licenses for any other previous versions of Commerce Server.  For existing users of Commerce Server 2007 Standard or Enterprise, you only need to install Commerce Server 2009.

Industry codes are nothing but taxonomy to our customers/advertisements. It will prevent us to associate a industry code to an advertisement. You may have a doubt how commerce server use them? Other business customers/partners will provide advertisements to us to promote their products/services. They want our user sees them and come to their site for purchase. Some times we show multiple advertisements with in a page and its up to our user to go with customer1 advertisement or customer 2 advertisement. So, Industry codes will help commerce server not to show two advertisements of same industry code in a single page. By default commerce server content selection framework will take this responsibility of not displaying two advertisements of same company in the same page. 

Commerce server industry codes are very tricky and I see following problems with these industry codes.

• By default commerce server provides some industry codes such as “clothing”, “automotive” etc. In automotive, we may get cars, trucks, two wheelers, three wheelers etc. Simply  tagging each customer/advertisement with automotive industry will not solve the problem. Even though four wheeler car manufacture “Maruthi” is not competitor of two wheeler bike manufacturer “TVS”. To overcome this problem, we have to create industry codes at the granular level and associate them to the customer/advertisement.
• The second problem I see is, association of multiple industry codes to a customer/advertisement. For example, a company can manufacture two wheeler scooters & four wheeler cars. I feel commerce server should provide this functionality.

How do you edit or add industry codes?

Open you marketing manager. Click on reference tables from the left hand menu. From the search results, either double click on “industry codes” or click on edit button at the left hand side as shown below.

You can add new industry codes by clicking on add button or you can remove by selecting the item from the grid and press remove  button.

Recently I have installed RSS reader and got OPML import file for share point, & other .NET technologies but I am not able to find any OPML import file for commerce server. I searched internet and found few commerce server blogs. Some of them are

http://blogs.msdn.com/commerce/
http://www.microsoftblog.co.in/commerceserver
http://www.maxakbar.com/blogs.aspx
http://www.software-smith.com/blog.htm
http://ziver.blogspot.com
http://trcsms.blogspot.com

http://gaelduhamel.spaces.live.com/ (English & French)

If you know any other blog which is not listed above, you can drop an email to me with blog details. My email is kanthATravikanthDOTnet (replace AT with @, DOT with .)

Microsoft CS product group is organizing two live sessions on commerce server 2009.

Session1: Microsoft® Commerce Server 2009: Trends, Sales Strategies, and Solutions (WCS03PAL)

In this session, the Commerce Server Product Unit will review key market trends and discuss how these trends are driving the vision and development of the product, including an overview of the Commerce Server roadmap. They will discuss the different decision-makers within an organization and how Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 will address their specific e-commerce objectives and illustrate how Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 can both save as well as make your customers money. 
Date: Tuesday February 24th 8am PST
Audience: Level 100

Session 2: The New Microsoft® Commerce Server 2009 Product Release (WCS04PAL)
In this technical session participant will get an in depth look into the new Commerce Server 2009 product release, available in Q3/FY09, and the improved capabilities to compress time to market for e-commerce sites. Learn how to use Commerce Server’s next-generation e-commerce API and web parts to rapidly develop high performance, rich multi-channel e-commerce user experiences. See improvements to the programming model, improved functionality for working with the desktop and devices, and integration of Commerce Server with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server and ASP.NET. We’ll also cover future product roadmap.
Date: Thursday February 26th 8am PST
Audience: Level 300

Note: These sessions are for partners only. You can register for this event at MS partner web site.