Publishing an extended site: advanced method

You can set up an extended site by publishing a series of store archives. Use this method if you want more control over the extended sites organization structure and stores as you set up the environment. In this method, you publish each organization component separately (storefront asset store, catalog asset store, hub), so that you can specify store names and parameters to use. In addition, this method results in only a single extended site store in your environment, rather than multiple sample extended sites stores for different business models. You must use this method if an extended sites composite store archive is already published in your environment. After you finish publishing an extended site, you can publish a storefront asset store, such as Aurora.

Before you begin

  1. Ensure that you have Site Administrator access.
  2. Ensure appropriate services and servers are running.
  3. Configure publish.
  4. Back up your WebSphere Commerce database so that you can restore your prepublished version if necessary.

About this task

When you complete this procedure, your environment includes:
  • A customer-facing extended site store that is based on either the Aurora starter store.
  • The associated catalog asset store, storefront asset store, and a hub store.
  • The overall organization structure, predefined user roles, and necessary access control policies.
Each storefront asset store can be associated with only one catalog asset store. If you want to create more catalog asset stores, you must also create more storefront asset stores to pair with them in your extended sites environment. For more information about the relationships between the components of an extended sites environment, see extended sites information model. For more information about the extended sites structure, see extended sites organization structure.
WebSphere Commerce provides the tools that are required for your site to create an extended sites organization structure with the appropriate store. To design and build this organization structure, use the following WebSphere Commerce tools:
  • Organization Administration Console: Use this tool to create organizations to own your asset stores.
  • Administration Console: Use this tool to publish the store archives.
  • WebSphere Commerce Accelerator: Use the Store Creation wizard in this tool to create your extended site stores.

Procedure

  1. Open the Administration Console, and then select the Site option.
  2. Publish the organization structure store archive to set up the high-level organization structure:
    1. From the Store Archives menu, select Publish.
    2. From the View list, select Extended sites.
    3. From the Store Archive list, select the check box beside the following store archive:

      ExtendedSitesOrganizationStructure.sar

    4. Click Next.
      The Parameters page displays.
    5. Click Next.
    6. Review the Summary page, and then click Finish.
    7. Click OK on the message that states the archive is submitted for publishing.

      The Publish Status page displays.

    8. Wait for the Publish Status column to change to Successful. Click Refresh to see an updated status.
  3. Publish the extended sites hub store archive:
    1. From the Store Archives menu, select Publish.
    2. From the View list, select Extended sites.
    3. From the Store Archive list, select the check box beside the following store archive:

      ExtendedSitesHub.sar

    4. Click Next.
    5. In the Parameters page, Organization field, select Extended Sites Organization (Root Organization).
    6. If required, change any additional parameter values.
    7. Click Next.
    8. Review the Summary page, and then click Finish.
    9. Click OK on the message that states the archive is submitted for publishing.

      The Publish Status page displays.

    10. Wait for the Publish Status column to change to Successful. Click Refresh to see an updated status.
  4. Create two additional extended sites organizations, one to own the catalog asset store and the other to own the storefront asset store.
    1. Open the Organization Administration Console.
    2. From the Access Management menu, select Create Organization.
    3. In the Short name field, type a unique name for organization that will own the catalog asset store, for example, MyCompanyCASOrganization.
    4. From the list under the Parent organization field, select Extended Sites Organization (Root Organization).
    5. Complete the remaining required fields, and then click OK.
    6. Repeat steps 4.b to 4.e to create an organization to own your storefront asset store. However, in the Short name field, type a different unique name, for example, MyCompanySASOrganization.
  5. Publish the catalog asset store archive. This asset store is used to contain catalog data assets for your extended site stores.
    1. From the Store Archives menu, select Publish.
    2. From the View list, select Extended sites.
    3. From the Store Archive list, select the check box beside ExtendedSitesCatalogAssetStore.sar.
    4. Click Next.
    5. In the Parameters page, complete the following fields:
      Field Description
      Store directory The directory in which the catalog images are placed. You can change the default name to make the directory easier to identify. For example, MyCompanyCAS.
      Store identifier You can change the default name to make the store easier to identify. For example, MyCompanyCAS.
      Organization Select the name of the organization you created in step 4.c, for example, MyCompanyCASOrganization.
      Inventory model Select the inventory model to use for your extended site store.
      Sample data Select None.
    6. Click Next.
    7. Review the Summary page, and then click Finish.
    8. Click OK on the message that states the archive is submitted for publishing.

      The Publish Status page displays.

    9. Wait for the Publish Status column to change to Successful. Click Refresh to see an updated status.
  6. Publish the storefront asset store archive. This asset store consists of web assets that are used on the storefront such as HTML pages, JSP files, style sheets, marketing and branding images, graphics, and other multimedia file types. For more information, see Publishing the Aurora starter store.
  7. Optional: Create an extended site store:
    1. Open WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.
    2. From the Store name list, select the Extended Sites Hub store; then click OK.
    3. From the Extended Sites menu, click New Store.
    4. In the General page, complete the fields for your extended site store; select Extended Sites Seller Organization for the Store Organization value. Click Next.
    5. In the Store Type page, select the storefront asset store that you created in step 6.
      For example, MyAuroraSAS. Click Next.
    6. In the Catalog page, select the catalog asset store that you created in step 5.
      For example, MyCompanyCAS. Click Next.
    7. In the Payments page, choose the payment options for the store; then click Next.
    8. Review the Summary page; then click Finish.
    9. When you see the message that the store creation completed successfully, bookmark the URL shown on the page.
  8. Optional: Publish sample storefront assets in your extended sites environment.
    Note: This step is required only if you want the storefront asset store to contain sample data, such as layouts, marketing activities, e-Marketing Spots, promotions, and so on. Otherwise, you can skip this step.
    1. Open the Administration Console, and then select the Site option.
    2. From the Store Archives menu, select Publish.
    3. From the Store Archive list, select SampleData.sar.
    4. Click Next.
    5. In the Parameters page, complete the following fields:
      Field Description
      Catalog store identifier Select the catalog asset store that you published in step 5.
      Marketing store identifier Select the storefront asset store that you published in step 6.
      Customer facing store identifier Select the extended site store that you created in step 7.
      Inventory model Select the inventory model to use for your extended site store.
    6. Click Next.
    7. Review the Summary page, and then click Finish.
    8. Click OK on the message that states the archive is submitted for publishing.

      The Publish Status page displays.

    9. Wait for the Publish Status column to change to Successful. Click Refresh to see an updated status.
  9. Open the store using Management Center.
    1. Open Management Center.
    2. Open the Store Management tool.
    3. In the explorer view filter, click Stores.
    4. Right-click the name of the extended site store that you created in step 7; then click Open store.
    5. To preview the store, right-click the name of the extended site store; then click Launch store.

      Alternatively, you can use the bookmark that you created in step 7.i.

What to do next

  1. Compile your JavaServer Page files. Compiling the JavaServer Pages (JSP) files in your site or store before launching it will significantly reduce the amount of time necessary to load each store page. As a result, use batch compiler to convert your store or site JSP files after publishing a store archive.
  2. To prevent unnecessary exceptions from displaying, delete the SendTransactionMsg job from the scheduled jobs. For more information, see Deleting a scheduled job.
  3. LinuxAIXWindowsTo enable caching in the starter stores, you must merge the cachespec.xml file from the following directory:
    WebSphere Commerce DeveloperNote: In the WebSphere Commerce development environment, caching is turned on by default.
    • WC_installdir/samples/dynacache/businessmodel

      with the cachespec.xml file in the following directory:

    • WC_eardir/Stores.war/WEB-INF

    Edit the existing cachespec.xml file in the WEB-INF directory with the changes in the first file, rather than replace it.

  4. If you are running your web server on a separate node than the WebSphere Commerce node, complete the following steps after publishing a store archive:
    1. Stop the web server.
    2. Copy store web assets from the following directory from the WebSphere Commerce machine to the web server machine in the same location: WC_eardir/Stores.war
    3. Start the web server.
  5. In a clustered environment, you must synchronize all cluster members after publishing any store archive. It might take some time for the newly published store assets to propagate to all of the nodes in the cluster after the store finishes publishing.
  6. If you have published a starter store in a workspace environment, complete these additional steps to deactivate and then reactivate all the sample web activities. This ensures that all web activities display correctly in e-Marketing Spots on the storefront:
    1. Open the Workspace Management tool.
    2. On the toolbar, click Work on approved content Work On Approved Content.
    3. Open the Marketing tool and select the name of the store you published.
    4. In the explorer view, click the Activities folder.
    5. Right-click any row in the Activities - List page, and then click Select All.
    6. On the toolbar, click Deactivate Deactivate.
    7. On the toolbar, click Activate Activate.

      Now, when you preview the store, all sample web activities display in e-Marketing Spots.