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Documentation
This Help Center provides documentation on all aspects of the HCL Commerce+ product, from installation and deployment to operating and customization.
Administering
The site administrator performs the tasks needed to support day to day operations of the Commerce+ site.
Extracting and loading data
Commerce+ provides utilities for preparing and loading data into a Commerce+ database. The loading utilities are flexible and you can continue to use these utilities when you customize the Commerce+ schema.
Data Load utility
The Data Load utility is an enhanced business object based loading utility. This utility provides an efficient solution for loading information into your HCL Commerce database. You can also customize the Data Load utility to load other types of data. The Data Load utility is the recommended loading utility.
Data Load utility best practices
When you use the Data Load utility, there are some general configuration recommendations to ensure that you take advantage of the full capability of data load. If you are loading catalog, price, member, or inventory-related data with the Data Load utility, review the component-related best practices.
Inventory
The following best practices are recommended when you use the Data Load utility to load inventory data.

Documentation
This Help Center provides documentation on all aspects of the HCL Commerce+ product, from installation and deployment to operating and customization.
- Overview
  Welcome to the HCL Commerce+ overview. Explore these feature overviews to learn how Commerce+ operates. Refer to the related links listed at the end of each topic to access expanded product documentation.
- Deploying
  This section provides details on deploying HCL Commerce+. It explains how to download the Docker images and Git bundles that comprise the product, how to create a minimal environment, and how to plan for a full deployment. It details supported software versions, patches, and configurations to ensure the platform performs well.
- Migrating
  The following topics show how to migrate an existing HCL Commerce Version 9.1 environment to Commerce+. The process consists of an initial migration of your database contents. This is followed by a code migration. Both are fully described.
- Operating
  The topics in this section focus on tasks that are performed by business users, marketers, and customer support representatives to connect with partners and attract and satisfy customers.
- Administering
  The site administrator performs the tasks needed to support day to day operations of the Commerce+ site.
  - Member groups
    A member group is a grouping of members - users, organizations, or other member groups - used for various business purposes. Two kinds of member groups exist: implicit and explicit. An implicit member group contains users that share common attributes and are therefore considered members of a specific member group. An implicit member group specifies criteria or attributes that users must satisfy in order to be considered members of that member group. You can also explicitly exclude certain users although they satisfy the criteria. An explicit member group contains explicitly assigned users, who may or may not share common attributes. A member group can be both implicit and explicit at the same time.
  - Inventory management
    Use the HCL Commerce+ Inventory to manage your inventory and access your Inventory Locations (ILs), where your inventory is physically stored and is delivered or shipped from.
  - Approvals
    Accurate, secure transactions require that a second individual approve some electronic marketplace actions before they proceed. This individual, called an approver, can accept or reject requests to perform a specific action. During the organization registration process, the organization administrator selects the business processes for which they want to enable approval. This is done by signing up for the appropriate approval member group during membership registration. The organization administrator also populates the approver member groups. Only users within these groups have the authority to accept or reject requests to perform those actions for which approval has been enabled.
  - System Administration
    Commerce Lab allows you to manage transport, messages, scheduler, Connectors, registries, and security policies.
  - Staging environment
    An Commerce+ staging environment is a runtime environment where business and technical users can update and manage store data and preview changes. The changes can then be propagated to the production environment.
  - Workspaces
    Workspaces provide a powerful and flexible way to manage and preview changes to your e-commerce website without affecting the live production environment.
  - Commerce+ database
    As a site administrator, maintain the Commerce+ database and ensure that any Commerce+ utilities and processes that load and retrieve data from the database is configured to connect to the database properly.
  - Extracting and loading data
    Commerce+ provides utilities for preparing and loading data into a Commerce+ database. The loading utilities are flexible and you can continue to use these utilities when you customize the Commerce+ schema.
    - Data Load utility
      The Data Load utility is an enhanced business object based loading utility. This utility provides an efficient solution for loading information into your HCL Commerce database. You can also customize the Data Load utility to load other types of data. The Data Load utility is the recommended loading utility.
      - Data Load utility architectural overview
        In order to work with the Data Load utility, you must first have an understanding of how it works.
      - Data Load input file format
        To run the Data Load utility, an input file is required. The input file must be a CSV or XML file. Your input file must follow a particular format for the Data Load to be able to load your file.
      - Business object mediators
        The data load business object mediator converts the business objects into physical objects. Two types of mediators that are provided with the Data Load utility are the component-based mediator and the table-based mediator. Several component-based mediators are available for catalog, inventory, and price components.
      - Data Load utility table-based mediator and builder
        Use the table object builder and table object mediator to load data directly into a table with the Data Load utility when a component-based business object mediator does not exist. You can use the TableObjectMediator and TableObjectBuilder to load your custom data directly into your target database tables. This mediator and builder can ensure that the data is loaded into the correct table and columns. You do not have to create a custom business object mediator and builder or extend an existing mediator or builder.
      - Data Load file difference preprocessing
        You can run a file difference preprocess for routine data loads to improve the Data Load utility performance for loading these files. Running a file difference can reduce the loading time that is required to load your routine updates to your Commerce+ database, reduce server usage time, and improve server performance.
      - Data Load utility best practices
        When you use the Data Load utility, there are some general configuration recommendations to ensure that you take advantage of the full capability of data load. If you are loading catalog, price, member, or inventory-related data with the Data Load utility, review the component-related best practices.
        General
        The following best practices are recommended when you use the Data Load utility to load data.
        Catalog
        The following best practices are recommended when you use the Data Load utility to load catalog data.
        Inventory
        The following best practices are recommended when you use the Data Load utility to load inventory data.
        Price
        The following best practices are recommended when you use the Data Load utility to load price data.
        Member
        The following best practices are recommended when you are using the Data Load utility to load member data.
      - Configuring and running the Data Load utility
        To configure and run the Data Load utility, create a file to load, define the data reader, load order, and environment configuration files. Then, enter the data load shell script command with modifying parameters from a command-line interface.
      - Samples: Data Load utility
        The samples that are provided with the Data Load utility demonstrate best-practice methods for loading data using common loading scenarios. Use the samples as a template for loading your own data to your store.
      - Initializing the attribute dictionary
        If your store does not have an attribute dictionary, set the initAttributeDictionary property to initialize the attribute dictionary and then use the data load utility to create the attribute dictionary in Commerce Lab.
      - Substituting data load attribute values with variables
        You can substitute the values of most attributes in the wc-dataload.xml data load order configuration file and wc-dataload-env.xml data load environment configuration files. By using variable substitutions, you can change the value of attributes without editing the configuration file. For example, you can substitute the value of the user ID attribute for a variable.
      - Loading data into workspaces using the Data Load utility
        The Data Load utility supports loading data into a workspace. By loading data into a workspace you can make and preview changes to managed assets, without affecting what is running on your site.
      - Loading values for single and multiple value attributes
        You can configure the loading process for Catalog Upload and the Data Load utility to load data separately for both single and multiple value descriptive attributes. By separating these load processes, you can ensure that the values for your single value and multiple value attributes are updated accurately.
      - Reuse attribute assigned values with the Data Load utility
        You can use the Data Load utility to reuse assigned values for attributes when the same value is needed for multiple catalog entries. By reusing attribute assigned values across catalog entries, you can reduce the number of duplicate values that are created in the database.
      - Loading customer segment members by email address
        You can create a customer segment that business users can manage in the Marketing tool by loading a list of email addresses.
      - Loading member group members by email address
        You can load members into member groups by resolving the unique ID for a member with only the member email address. By resolving the unique ID with the email address, you do not need to include the member logon ID or distinguished name in your input file.
      - Loading promotions with the Data Load utility
        You can configure the Data Load utility to load promotion data in an XML input file to create or change promotions in a store. By using the Data Load utility to load promotions, you can quickly create or change multiple promotions in a single operation.
      - Loading marketing objects with the Data Load utility
        You can configure the Data Load utility to load marketing data to create customer segments, e-Marketing Spots, activities, marketing content, and any associated assets. By using the Data Load utility to load this data, you can quickly create multiple marketing objects and types of objects in a single operation.
    - Data Extract utility
      The Data Extract utility is a command-line utility that you can use to extract data from the Commerce+ database into an output file.
  - Administering Search
    HCL Commerce+ Search provides the core search capability for Commerce+, enabling product indexing and retrieval for customer queries across the storefront. It supports guided navigation, landing pages, and dynamic merchandising, helping shoppers quickly find relevant products while giving merchandisers tools to influence search results.
  - Logging services
    Commerce+ maintains a detailed set of logs related to a variety of processes and functions. These logs are available upon request.
  - Business events
    Each time that a command triggers a business event, a record is added to the BUSEVENT database table to persist data from the event. Event listeners and external systems (such as the Marketing component, a back end order management system, or an external analytics system) can use this data to perform further processing.
  - Business Object thresholds
    Applying limits on business operations reduces the risk of system attacks where unbound conditions might result in system failures.
- Extending
  Using Commerce+'s xC programming model, you can use HCL-provided extension points to extend existing Commerce logic. You can implement these extensions with the xC Customization toolkit provided by HCL. Commerce+ also provides Packaged Business Capability integrations that extend the product's reach and functionality.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of 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 Commerce+ site performance.
- Troubleshooting
  Topics in the Troubleshooting section highlight common issues that are encountered with Commerce+, and how they can be addressed or mitigated.
- Reference
  Topics in the Reference section contain all of the Commerce+ reference documentation.

Data Load utility best practices for Inventory

The following best practices are recommended when you use the Data Load utility to load inventory data.

ATP inventory

Loading RA and RADETAIL dataThere are two options to initially load your RA and RADETAIL data:

Load the RA and RADETAIL data together in a single CSV file.
Load the RA and RADETAIL data separately. After you load your RA data, you then load your RADETAIL data.

The first option might cause your RA data to be loaded multiple times, slowing down performance. Here are some guidelines to assist you in making a choice:

If the data to be loaded is large, and there are many RADETAIL records under a RA record, it is better to use the second option. Using the second option avoids loading the RA data multiple times.
Otherwise, use the first option for better manageability.

Load your data to one store at a timeIf you want to load inventory data for multiple stores, it is better to load it per store.

Fulfillment center unique IDIf you know the fulfillment center unique ID, use it instead of the fulfillment center name. Performance is improved when the fulfillment center unique ID is used instead.

RA and receipt data creation timeIt is recommended to specify the creation time in your input file during the initial load of your RA data and receipt data. If you do not specify the creation time, the current system time is used.

Adoption of the FulfillmentPropertiesMediatorThe FulfillmentPropertiesMediator is designed to populate an ATP inventory that is related to the configuration data separately (without the catalog entry data). So, it is recommended to use this mediator if you want to update only inventory-related configuration.

RA.CREATETIME/RECEIPT.CREATETIME/RADETAIL.EXPECTEDDATEWhen you update the RA.CREATETIME, RECEIPT.CREATETIME, or RADETAIL.EXPECTEDDATE data, delete the record in the target first and then insert a new record with the wanted date. For example, to update RA.CREATETIME, two records of data are needed in the input file.

Example: Updating RA.CREATETIME
VendorName	CreateTime	OrderDate	ClosedDate	OpenIndicator	ExternalId	LastUpdate	Delete
J and J Company	2008-05-15 00:00:00.0	2008-04-15 00:00:00.0	2008-12-24 00:00:00.0	False	ATP-1301 Record 1	2009-01-12 00:00:00	1
J and J Company	2008-06-16 00:00:00.0	2008-04-15 00:00:00.0	2008-12-24 00:00:00.0	False	ATP-1301 Record 1	2009-01-12 00:00:00	0