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HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
Customizing
The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
Search
HCL Commerce comes with a powerful and fully integrated search function. The search functions in HCL Commerce provide an enriched customer experience, with features such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Since it is built on industry standards, HCL Commerce Search is highly flexible and extensible. Starter stores can use the search engine's most sophisticated features without requiring extra customization. Starting with Version 9.1, HCL Commerce Search with Elasticsearch microservices manage indexing and other crucial tasks, with no performance impact on the storefront or transaction server.
Solr-based solution
In keeping with HCL's commitment to current and open standards, HCL Commerce Search uses Apache Lucene as the basis of its Search framework. Lucene powers the Apache Solr search engine and the Elasticsearch search engine. The indexing pipeline is a more open, flexible and scalable and is tightly integrated with the data service. Using the underlying dataflow technology and architecture, you can easily customize the pipelines. This open-standards approach considerably eases the process of integrating Search with existing and third-party applications.
Search services and interactions
HCL Commerce Search includes several key services and interaction areas, including the search interface, programming model, and its interactions with other Commerce components.
Search index
The HCL Commerce Search index is built from temporary tables that read from a search index schema, and build structured and unstructured site content.
Search index schema
The HCL Commerce Search index process involves a search index schema, and is built from temporary tables.
Extension indexes
Extension indexes, set up as index subtypes in HCL Commerce Search, are used to keep data in a separate core for performance reasons.

Documentation
HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
- Getting started
  HCL Commerce has different advantages for business users, administrators and developers. HCL Commerce targets each of these roles with a tailored set of offerings so that each of your users can get maximum benefit.
- Installing and deploying
  Learn how to install and deploy HCL Commerce development environments and HCL Commerce production environments.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to HCL Commerce Version 9.1, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
- Operating
  Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using HCL Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
  Topics in the Administering category highlight tasks that are typically performed by the Site Administrator, to support daily operations of the HCL Commerce site.
- Customizing
  The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
  - Customizing Management Center for HCL Commerce
    HCL Commerce allows you to pull the GIT bundle of Management Center source code and start the application locally to customize the Management Center.
  - Managed asset deployment
    Managed assets are files that are uploaded by business users to be used for store marketing, or to supplement products. They are added to HCL Commerce through the Assets tool or the Marketing tool in Management Center. By default, managed assets are extracted and deployed through the HCL Commerce EAR. To maintain performance in a large-scale production environment, site administrators must switch to alternative extraction and deployment methods for managed assets.
  - HCL Commerce development environment
    HCL Commerce Developer is the development toolkit for customizing a HCL Commerce application.
  - Functional architecture
    Functional architecture provides both the set of patterns used to implement the business functionality and the frameworks in which these business functions execute.
  - Persistent object model
    HCL Commerce deals with a large amount of persistent data. There are numerous tables defined in the current database schema. Even with this extensive schema, however, you might need to extend or customize the database schema for your particular business needs.
  - Creating your custom store
    After you install and set up your programming environment, you can create your custom store and customize your storefront. You must ensure that the store server is properly configured, and that your store assets are moved to the Store server.
  - Presentation layer
    HCL Commerce uses Java Server Pages (JSP) to implement the view layer of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern. The view layer is in charge of retrieving data from the database through the use of data beans and formatting it to meet the display requirements. The view layers determines whether the request is sent to a browser or streamed out as XML. JSP files present a clean separation between data content and presentation.
  - Controller layer
    The Controller layer is the conductor of operations for a request. It controls the transaction scope and manages the session related information for the request. The controller first dispatches to a command and then calls the appropriate view processing logic to render the response.
  - Business logic layer
    The business logic layer is the business components that provide OAGIS services to return data or start business processes. The presentation layer uses these OAGIS services to display data, or to invoke a business process. The business logic provides data required by the presentation layer. The business logic layer exists because more than just fetching and updating data is required by an application; there is also additional business logic independent of the presentation layer.
  - Persistence layer
    The interaction between the business objects and persistence layer is isolated in an object called the Business Object Mediator. Business object document (BOD) commands interact with the Business Object Mediator to handle the interaction with the logical objects and how they are persisted.
  - Business model information model
    A business model, a representation of the business processes used throughout the site, provides a sample commerce solution which includes an organization structure, default user roles and access control policies, one or more starter stores, administration tools, and business processes that demonstrate best practices. A business model can be customized to support business requirements and scenarios. HCL Commerce provides sample business models that show some common commerce solutions. These business models are created by setting up an organization hierarchy structure, access control policies, stores, and contracts that help satisfy the necessary business requirements.
  - Business models
    Before starting to develop your site with HCL Commerce, you need to determine the business model supported by HCL Commerce that best represents the purpose of your site. Usually sites created with HCL Commerce will be implemented based on of one of these business models.
  - Store data information model
    Store data is the information that is loaded into the Transaction server database, which allows your store to function. The URL Registry Entries and View Registry Entries packages are included in the diagram, but they are not database assets. These entries are presentation configuration (that is, struts actions and forwards) that must be deployed. URL registry entries are shown in the diagram to illustrate the entire store data information model. To operate properly, a store must have the data in place to support all customer activities. For example, in order for a customer to make a purchase, your store must contain a catalog of goods for sale (catalog data), the data associated with processing orders (tax and shipping data), and the inventory to fulfill the request (inventory and fulfillment data).
  - Customizing HCL Commerce
    You can extend the HCL Commerce product to fit your business needs. This topic describes the prerequisite skills and required knowledge that you need to customize business logic. After you have the required knowledge, use HCL Commerce Developer to take tutorials that guide you step-by-step through various customization scenarios.
  - Run Engine command framework
    The Run Engine command framework provides predefined commands, that you can use to change environment parameters or container configurations. This framework is built into the HCL provided Docker images.
  - GraphQL for HCL Commerce
    The GraphQL markup language is available for any API. It is a server-side interpreter for processing queries using a data type system you design. With GraphQL, your data and code are independent of any database or storage system.
  - Representational State Transfer (REST) services
    HCL Commerce uses Representational State Transfer (REST) services to provide a framework that can be used to develop RESTful applications on several platforms. These platforms can include web, mobile, kiosks, and social applications.
  - Web services
  - Search
    HCL Commerce comes with a powerful and fully integrated search function. The search functions in HCL Commerce provide an enriched customer experience, with features such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Since it is built on industry standards, HCL Commerce Search is highly flexible and extensible. Starter stores can use the search engine's most sophisticated features without requiring extra customization. Starting with Version 9.1, HCL Commerce Search with Elasticsearch microservices manage indexing and other crucial tasks, with no performance impact on the storefront or transaction server.
    - Search terminology
      HCL Commerce Search uses a number of specialized terms. A concise list of the most commonly used terms is provided to get you started.
    - Migrating to Elasticsearch
      You have several options in migrating from the Solr search platform to the Version 9.1 Elasticsearch solution.
    - Elasticsearch-based solution
      The topics in this section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize the Elasticsearch-based search solution. You can extend the Ingest Service and Query Service to meet your business requirements.
    - Solr-based solution
      In keeping with HCL's commitment to current and open standards, HCL Commerce Search uses Apache Lucene as the basis of its Search framework. Lucene powers the Apache Solr search engine and the Elasticsearch search engine. The indexing pipeline is a more open, flexible and scalable and is tightly integrated with the data service. Using the underlying dataflow technology and architecture, you can easily customize the pipelines. This open-standards approach considerably eases the process of integrating Search with existing and third-party applications.
      - Search customization for server containers
        The product Search server runs in its own Linux-based container. The containers use Docker technology. All servers share workspaces in the Windows-based development environment, simplifying the development process. After you develop and test your code in the workspace, you can deploy it in new containers.
      - Search services and interactions
        HCL Commerce Search includes several key services and interaction areas, including the search interface, programming model, and its interactions with other Commerce components.
        Search interactions
        HCL Commerce Search includes several key service areas, including the server architecture and programming model.
        Search interface
        The search interface on the HCL Commerce Search server is made up of a set of search-related control parameters. These parameters are represented as an internal Java representation called the SearchCriteria object.
        Search profiles
        HCL Commerce Search uses search profiles to control the storefront search experience at a page-level. Search profiles group sets of search runtime parameters such as search index name, search index fields, expression providers, paging and sorting. The profile also controls search feature configurations such as text highlighting, facets, and spelling correction. Search profiles are defined in the HCL Commerce Search configuration file (wc-search.xml).
        Search-based navigation
        Search-based navigation enhances starter stores by performing searches against categories when you browse a storefront catalog. All immediate categories and products are returned in the results, and can also include subcategories to increase its scope.
        Apache Solr 7.3.1 integration
        The core of the HCL Commerce Search application is the powerful Apache Solr search engine. Before Version 9.0.0.5, HCL Commerce used Solr version 5.5.4. In versions 9.0.0.5+, Solr 7.3.1 is used. Several changes in Solr 7.3.1 affect your customizations and how you use Solr.
        Search index
        The HCL Commerce Search index is built from temporary tables that read from a search index schema, and build structured and unstructured site content.
        The indexing process
        The indexing process involves adding Documents to an IndexWriter. The searching process involves retrieving Documents from an index by using an IndexSearcher. Solr can index both structured and unstructured content.
        Search index schema
        The HCL Commerce Search index process involves a search index schema, and is built from temporary tables.
        Search index schema definition
        The HCL Commerce Search index schema definition contains information for processing data in HCL Commerce.
        Temporary table schema definition
        The HCL Commerce Search index is built from temporary tables. The temporary tables are structured to efficiently push data into the search index.
        Logical representation of indexed columns
        Multiple indexed columns can be defined for each catalog attribute in the WebSphere Commerce database. Depending on the usage, you can search against different columns. For example, for the Manufacturer Name attribute, two different fields are defined, mfName and mfName_ntk_cs. For faceting in the storefront, you can search against the non-tokenized field, mfName_ntk_cs, but for ranking purposes, you can search against the tokenized field, mfName.
        Extension indexes
        Extension indexes, set up as index subtypes in HCL Commerce Search, are used to keep data in a separate core for performance reasons.
        Structured content
        Structured content includes items in the product catalog and delivers search results based on items that are sold in your store.
        Unstructured and site content
        Unstructured site content includes documents that do not adhere to a specific data model, such as product attachments contained in various formats. For example, content such as user manuals and warranty information are considered unstructured content. Its elements, construction, and organization are typically unknown and can vary depending on its file type.
      - Search configuration
        HCL Commerce Search is configured using several files. These files contains properties that control certain search features, and can be extended to meet your business requirements.
      - Extension points and customization tasks
        HCL Commerce Search contains extension points that can be used for customization. If you are migrating from a previous version of the product, there are mandatory and optional areas to work with, depending on your existing customizations. In the following topics the available customization points are described, and you are given detailed instructions on customizing each.
      - Search relevancy and merchandising
        Search relevancy and merchandising is the process of controlling the search results that are returned to shoppers in the storefront, and the order in which they appear. There are several techniques that can be used to influence search relevancy, which lets you return products in the order that best suits your business needs.
- Tutorials
  HCL Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your HCL Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
  Topics in the Samples category highlight the various samples that are provided with HCL Commerce.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage HCL Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of HCL Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
  Topics in the Performance section describe the means by which to plan, implement, test, and re-visit the optimization of HCL Commerce site performance.
- Troubleshooting
  Topics in the Troubleshooting section highlight common issues that are encountered with HCL Commerce, and how they can be addressed or mitigated.
- Reference
  Topics in the Reference section contain all of the HCL Commerce reference documentation.

HCL Commerce Search extension indexes

Extension indexes, set up as index subtypes in HCL Commerce Search, are used to keep data in a separate core for performance reasons.

The following extension indexes are available by default:

Inventory: The inventory index, a separate index that contains index data, is an extension of the product index. For accurate inventory status, you can refresh the inventory index more frequently than the product index.

Price: The price index, a separate index that contains price data. Prices are indexed by using Index Load. It can populate a large amount of data into a separate extension index faster than the Catalog Entry index can index price data.

You can use the default extension indexes, or setup your own extension index that best match your site's requirements.