HCL Commerce Developer

Setting up an HCL Commerce development environment

This section describes how to set up an HCL Commerce development environment. The HCL Commerce development environment is a flexible collection of software, collectively known as HCL Commerce Developer, for developers or system administrators to develop and test stores and HCL Commerce application code.

To obtain the software for an HCL Commerce development environment, see Obtaining HCL Commerce Developer software.

The HCL Commerce development environment is made up of multiple pieces of software that can be used individually, or as a suite, to build, deploy, and test the various pieces that make up an HCL Commerce site. They can be installed on a single system, or on multiple systems, based on your organizational and individual needs.

Depending on the size of your organization, there are many ways to leverage HCL Commerce Developer software. In a large development organization, you can create a common central repository and testing environment so that you can set up and manage multiple identical or differing sets of development environments. If this option is not appropriate for your organization, you can instead install a wider breadth of HCL Commerce Developer software on an individual workstation or set of workstations.

The HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment is the foundation for the larger HCL Commerce Developer suite of software. It includes the combination of Rational Application Developer and the HCL Commerce toolkit. The HCL Commerce toolkit provides a workspace and test environment, and can be used in any combination of the following, based on your own development, migration, testing, or deployment requirements:
  • The development of all HCL Commerce integrations, and/or custom business logic. Use the HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment to integrate HCL Commerce with third party solutions, or to extend your Transaction server or Customization server business logic.
  • The creation, customization, or modification of Solr-based search and/or Aurora-based store solutions.
  • The migration of previous versions of WebSphere Commerce to HCL Commerce Version 9.1.
  • The integrated (end-to-end) testing of all aspects of your HCL Commerce site.
  • The building of your Docker containers, containing your fully customized e-commerce solution, for deployment to your production environment.
Before installing HCL Commerce Developer software, ensure that your HCL Commerce development environment meets the hardware and software requirements.

Development environment configurations

The following development environment configurations are suggested for developing HCL Commerce Version 9.1:
Note: These environment configurations are not exclusive software packages or configurations. These suggested configurations are not exclusive of one another, and are simply bundled and described based on the expected roles and system usage. Configurations can be layered atop one another on the same system, blended between multiple systems, or fully customized to match individual developer or organizational requirements.

HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment

The HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment configuration includes Rational Application Developer and the required plug-ins for Transaction server customization, and legacy development of HCL Commerce search and storefront solutions. This was previously referred to in older HCL Commerce releases as HCL Commerce Developer.
Attention:
  • Coexistence with other versions of the HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment is not supported. If you are migrating, install HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment on a separate machine from your old HCL Commerce development environment.
  • If you are upgrading an existing HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment, see HCL Commerce Developer update overview.
  • Upon installation, the HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment is configured for use with the newer Elasticsearch-based search solution. If you are intending to use your Developer Legacy environment to maintain or develop a Solr-based search solution, you must reconfigure your environment. For more information, see Configuring your HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment for use with the Solr-based search solution.

This software configuration includes:

  • Rational Application Developer

For more information on setting up HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment, see Setting up an HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment.

HCL Commerce Developer React Store environment

HCL Commerce Developer React Store environment configuration provides the necessary sample files and software that are required to develop a storefront based on the sample React store provided in HCL Commerce Version 9.1.

Use HCL Commerce Developer React Store environment in conjunction with a HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment to test storefront modifications, or more intensive storefront integration with HCL Commerce customizations.

This software configuration includes:

  • A pre-packaged Node environment with source code for a set of foundational components and framework customers, accompanying build tools, static assets for sample stores, and Node environment to build and start the React applications.
  • A pre-packaged web-server docker container containing minimized static files representing the React application. The web-server docker container assets are created from the build process of the Node environment.​​​

For more information on setting up a HCL Commerce Developer React Store environment, see Setting up the HCL Commerce Developer React Store environment.

HCL Commerce Developer Search environment

The HCL Commerce Developer Search environment configuration provides the necessary sample files and software that are required to develop customizations to the Elasticsearch search solution.

Use HCL Commerce Developer Search environment in conjunction with a HCL Commerce Developer Legacy environment environment to test search modifications, more intensive search customizations, or full integrations with other HCL Commerce customizations.

For more information on setting up a HCL Commerce Developer Search environment, see Setting up the HCL Commerce Developer Search environment.

HCL Commerce Developer Tooling environment

The HCL Commerce Developer Tooling environment configuration includes the source and build assets that are required to develop customizations to the Single Page Application (SPA) that provides the business user tools contained within the Management Center for HCL Commerce for HCL Commerce Version 9.1.

For more information on setting up a HCL Commerce Developer Tooling environment, see Setting up the HCL Commerce Developer Tooling environment.