Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1: What's in the box?

by Erwin Werkman

The new Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 has been out since January. You might think from the version number that Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 is a minor update to Sitecore Commerce Server (ScCpbCS) but then you are mistaken: Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 (which I will call ScC from now on) is a totally new product, build from the ground up.

ScCpbCS consists of these components:

  • Catalog
  • Inventory
  • Shopping cart
  • Promotions (discounts)
  • Profiles (user accounts)
  • Transactions (orders)

As you might imagine, building a commerce engine from scratch is a huge undertaking. So, the good people at Sitecore made some choices about which components to rewrite first. So ScC 8.2.1 contains the following rewrittten components:

  • Shopping Cart
  • Promotions
  • Transactions

As you can see, there are some things missing. But you don't have to worry, the other parts are still there, but serviced by the "old" ScCpbCS.

There are also new features:

  • There is a new pricing engine supporting multiple currencies and tiered pricing;
  • Support for gift cards;
  • Support for RMAs;
  • Lot's more;

I am trying to figure out how to use and configure this product and in the coming weeks I will document my findings on this blog. For the first blog we will have a look what is inside the box.

Installing

So if you install ScC 8.2.1 you are going to install two (or actually three) products:

  • Sitecore Commerce (the new product)
  • Commerce Server (version 11.4)
  • Sitecore Experience Platform

With all these products (and the accompanying Sitecore packages like Sitecore Commerce Connect and Sitecore Commerce Engine Connect) installation is a little complicated. Don't worry: installation will get easier over time as the old Commerce Server is phased out.

If you download the SC 8.2.1 package from dev.sitecore.net you get a 600MB zip. The zip contains almost everything you need to set up the demo reference storefront site. You just need to add an instance of Sitecore Experience Platform.

So, what is in there?

Root folder

The root folder contains the most important stuff:

CommerceServer-11.4.148.exe This is the "old" Commerce Server. It is only used for the catalog and inventory features and the profiles feature.
Sitecore.Commerce.SDK.1.0.2301.zip This is the "new" Sitecore Commerce Engine. This zip contains a .NET solution that you can deploy as an IIS website. Once deployed, you get a REST interface to the commerce engine. The Sitecore Experience Platform talks to Sitecore Commerce Engine and Commerce Server through Sitecore Commerce Connect.
Server2012_FeaturesRequired.txt This is a list of the Windows Server features that are required to be installed for Sitecore Commerce to run.

Database folder

Catalog\Catalog.xml Contains a sample product catalog for the Adventureworks Shop. You can use this as the basis for a shop.
Inventory\Inventory.xml Contains the inventory for the catalog.xml.
Profiles\Commerce.Storefront.ProfileDatabase.dacpac This is a backup of the profile database. It already contains the correct tables and schema for the profiles database used by the reference storefront.
Profiles\Profiles.xml Contains a default profile schema for the profiles feature of Commerce Server as used by the reference storefront.
Security\CommerceServer_Security.sql To be honest, I don't have a clue what this is for. Obviously something to do with security, but what and why is a mystery to me.
Security\SC_Security.sql This one is also a mystery to me.

Modules folder

Adventure Works Images.zip This zip contains the images for the Adventureworks Catalog.
Sitecore Commerce Connect 10.0.174.zip This is the Sitecore Commerce Connect package.
Sitecore.Commerce.Habitat.Images-1.0.0.zip This zip contains the images for the Habitat catalog.

Packages folder

This folder contains a number of packages for Sitecore XP.

Sitecore Commerce Server Connect.10.0.70.update This implements the connection between Sitecore Commerce Connect and Commerce Server.
Sitecore.Commerce.Engine.Connect.1.0.2301.update This implements the connection between Sitecore Commerce Connect and Commerce Engine.
Sitecore Commerce Business Tools Shared.1.0.100.update This is a base package with code that is used by the business tools next on this list.
Sitecore Commerce Merchandising Manager.10.0.294.update Use the merchandising manager to manage the product catalog and inventory.
Sitecore Commerce Customer and Order Manager.1.0.51.update Use this tool to manager customers and orders.
Sitecore Commerce Pricing and Promotion Manager.1.0.75.update This tool is used to manage pricing and promotion of the products in the catalog.
Sitecore.Reference.Storefront.Common.10.0.853.update
Sitecore.Reference.Storefront.Powered.by.SitecoreCommerce.10.0.853.update

This is a lot of "stuff". If you want to start experimenting with Sitecore Commerce the Reference Storefront is a great place to start. You can find installation instructions here http://commercesdn.sitecore.net/SitecoreCommerce/DeploymentGuide/en-us/index.html

Update: My colleague Jonne Kats wrote a
about all the stuff coming up in Sitecore Commerce 9 (now named Sitecore Experience Commerce 9). Interesting read!