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This Help Center provides documentation on all aspects of the HCL Commerce+ product, from installation and deployment to operating and customization.
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.
Customizing
The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize Commerce+.
Search
Commerce+ comes with a powerful and fully integrated search function. The search functions in Commerce+ provide an enriched customer experience, with features such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Since it is built on industry standards, Commerce Search is highly flexible and extensible. Starter stores can use the search engine's most sophisticated features without requiring extra customization. The Commerce Search 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, 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 configuration
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.
Search server
Most Commerce Search services run in the Search container. You can adapt the behavior of the Solr search engine and runtime processes to your business needs by editing customization files in your development workspace.
Solr configuration files
Solr configuration files control search indexes, cores, and interactions between the Solr core and Commerce+.

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.
- 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.
  - Customizing
    The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize Commerce+.
    - Search
      Commerce+ comes with a powerful and fully integrated search function. The search functions in Commerce+ provide an enriched customer experience, with features such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Since it is built on industry standards, Commerce Search is highly flexible and extensible. Starter stores can use the search engine's most sophisticated features without requiring extra customization. The Commerce Search Elasticsearch microservices manage indexing and other crucial tasks, with no performance impact on the storefront or transaction server.
      - Search terminology
        Commerce+ Search uses a number of specialized terms. A concise list of the most commonly used terms is provided to get you started.
      - 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 search-migration/tutorials/concepts/csdelasticsearch.html and Query Service to meet your business requirements.
      - Solr-based solution
        In keeping with HCL's commitment to current and open standards, 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.
        URI and Query Parameters Encoding
        When working with Commerce Search APIs, it is important to understand how URI paths and query parameters are encoded. Proper encoding ensures that requests are interpreted correctly by the server and that special characters are handled consistently across systems. Incorrect and inconsistent encoding can lead to unexpected search results, misinterpreted query parameters, or request errors, especially when working with accented characters.
        Search services and interactions
        Commerce Search includes several key services and interaction areas, including the search interface, programming model, and its interactions with other Commerce components.
        Search configuration
        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.
        Search server
        Most Commerce Search services run in the Search container. You can adapt the behavior of the Solr search engine and runtime processes to your business needs by editing customization files in your development workspace.
        wc-search.xml
        The Commerce Search configuration file (wc-search.xml) contains properties such as Server, Index, and Profiles that are related to configuring the Commerce Search application features. Use this file to manage search runtime parameters and storefront behavior. You can change the properties to suit your site's needs by creating a custom wc-search.xml file that contains the changed properties only.
        wc-component.xml
        The component configuration file (wc-component.xml) contains properties to configure the Search server.
        Solr configuration files
        Solr configuration files control search indexes, cores, and interactions between the Solr core and Commerce+.
        Solr schema file (schema.xml)
        The schema.xml file contains information about the Solr fields and how they are analyzed and filtered during searches. Different field types can contain different types of data. Solr uses the schema.xml file to determine how to build indexes from the input documents, and how to perform index and query time processing.
        Solr XML file (solr.xml)
        The solr.xml file specifies configuration options for each Solr core, including configuration options for multiple cores. The file also contains mappings for request URLs, and indicates which cores to load when the server starts.
        Solr configuration file (solrconfig.xml)
        The solrconfig.xml controls how Solr behaves by mapping requests to different handlers. One index can be represented as one core. If you want to use multiple indexes, for example, a book of recipes and a book of countries, these different indexes or books represent different cores. The solrconfig.xml contains most of the parameters for configuring Solr. It defines how search requests are managed, and how to manipulate data for the user.
        Extending the schema.xml file
        The schema.xml file defines the default index schema structure. The default index schema can be extended using a separate XML file. The most common customizations of the index schema is defining new index fields.
        Extending the solrconfig.xml file
        The solrconfig.xml file defines Solr properties with default values. The default file can be extended using the jvm.options file, by using XInclude, or by configuring the SRCHCONFEXT table. The most common customization of the Solr configuration file is defining new values for replication and caching.
        Extending the wc-data-config.xml file
        The wc-data-config.xml file defines the default indexing queries, and the corresponding field mapping between the database column names and the index field names.
        STORECONF table
        The STORECONF table contains properties to configure various Commerce Search application features.
        Extension points and customization tasks
        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.
    - Customizing with xC
      Commerce+ service includes access to an externalized customization server that runs your custom Connectors and any functional extensions you may write. The xC service uses an Open Liberty server on OpenJDK, with webapplications executed via Spring Boot 3.x for development.
  - Developing stores
    Commerce+ offers customizable features for storefronts using the Next.js framework. Commerce+ supports headless commerce to use any front end storefront.
- 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.

Solr configuration files

Solr configuration files control search indexes, cores, and interactions between the Solr core and Commerce+.

You cannot directly modify or extend Solr configuration files, such as the schema.xml, solrconfig.xml, or wc-data-config.xml files. Instead, you can work with customizable files to extend Solr configuration files:

The schema.xml file can be extended using the x-schema.xml file.
The solrconfig.xml file can be extended using the solrcore.properties file.
The wc-data-config.xml file can be extended using a combination of the solrcore.properties and x-data-config.xml files, depending on the scope of the customization.