Understanding Commerce Server Configuration

There are many types of configuration information within Commerce Server Core Systems. This topic provides a brief description of these different types of configuration information and provides links to other topics that provide more information.

Global and Site Resources in the Administration Database

Commerce Server Core Systems uses a SQL Server database known as the Administration database, or MSCS_Admin, to store information about global and site resources. Global resources provide functionality to multiple Commerce Server Core Systems Web sites, and site resources provide functionality to a particular Commerce Server Core Systems Web site. The user interface for management of both global and site resources is the Commerce Server Manager, and although it may be used by you and other developers when you are developing your Commerce Server Core Systems Web site, it will also be used extensively by the IT professionals who manage the Web site after it has gone into production.

For information about how to use Commerce Server Manager to manage your global and site resources that includes step-by-step instructions for various tasks, see Managing the Administration Database and Managing Commerce Resources.

To programmatically read the global and site resource information in the Administration database, use the managed code classes CommerceResource and CommerceResourceCollection in the Microsoft.CommerceServer.Runtime.Configuration namespace. For read/write permission to the global and site resource information, use the managed code classes SiteConfigFreeThreaded, SiteConfigReadOnlyFreeThreaded, GlobalConfigFreeThreaded, and GlobalConfig2FreeThreaded in the Microsoft.CommerceServer.Interop.Configuration namespace.

Web.config Files

There are several Web.config files associated with a Commerce Server Core Systems installation. These instances of the Web.config file can be divided into two categories. The first category is the set of Web.config files associated with the Commerce Server Core Systems Web services. The second category includes any Web.config files associated with the Web applications that you create. These two categories of Web.config files are described separately in this section.

Web Service Web.config Files

Each Web service for the following four Commerce Server Core Systems systems has its own Web.config file. These are listed with the XML element from the Web.config file that is specific to the individual Commerce Server Core Systems Web service and a typical location where the Web.config file can be found.

• Catalog System

  Relevant Commerce Server Core Systems element: catalogWebService

  Typical location: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\CatalogWebService\Web.config

  Note

  The Inventory System and the Catalog System are available through the Catalog Web Service.

• Marketing System

  Relevant Commerce Server Core Systems element: marketingWebService

  Typical location: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\MarketingWebService\Web.config

• Orders System

  Relevant Commerce Server Core Systems element: ordersWebService

  Typical location: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\OrdersWebService\Web.config

• Profiles System

  Relevant Commerce Server Core Systems element: profilesWebService

  Typical location: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ProfilesWebService\Web.config

Web Application Web.config Files

Web.config files provide configuration information to ASP.NET applications. This includes Commerce Server Core Systems Web applications. Web.config files for Commerce Server Core Systems Web applications include ASP.NET elements that specify configuration information for ASP.NET in addition to Commerce Server Core Systems elements that specify configuration information that is specific to Commerce Server Core Systems. The Commerce Server Core Systems elements describe, for example, which Commerce Server Core Systems modules to include, and detailed information that affects the behavior of functions within Commerce Server Core Systems.

The following list describes the elements of the Web.config file that affect Commerce Server Core Systems:

• configSections. Identifies the CommerceServer section group and the section handlers that parse the Commerce Server Core Systems –specific Web.config elements.

• CommerceServer. Contains detailed configuration elements for Commerce Server Core Systems systems (for example, the Catalog System) and functionality (for example, pipelines). The child elements of the CommerceServer element include the following:

  • application Element

  • authentication Element

  • authorization Element

  • caches Element

  • catalog Element

  • commerceEvent Element

  • contentSelection Element

  • expressions Element

  • messageManager Element

  • orders Element

  • pipelines Element

  • profiles Element

  The application element is required for all Commerce Server Core Systems Web applications. The remaining elements are required only when one or more Commerce Server Core Systems systems or components with which they are associated are in active use within your Web application.

• system.web. Contains ASP.NET elements that identify how to include Commerce Server Core Systems modules and assemblies in the ASP.NET application. For more information about the system.web element, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65823. The elements that contain Commerce Server Core Systems information include the following:

  • httpModules. Names the HTTP modules and Commerce Server Core Systems modules to enable in the application.

    Note

    The HTTP modules form the pipeline for processing a request. ASP.NET calls the modules in the order in which they are listed.

  • httpHandlers. Commerce Server Core Systems adds an HTTP handler to refresh its site cache.

  • compilation. The assemblies element within the compilation element identifies all the assemblies that the application uses. This includes the Commerce Server Core Systems assemblies.

• location. Defines the security for the module that refreshes the site cache.

PresentationInfo Files

The Orders and Profiles Web Services each include four XML files that provide display information in the appropriate language for the Commerce Server Core Systems installation. These files are known as PresentationInfo files. The Customer and Orders Manager application reads the PresentationInfo.xml files to determine how its user interface can correctly display custom orders and profiles properties and values. They are located in the corresponding Web service folder within the Inetpub\wwwroot folder. The files for each of these Web services are described separately in this section.

Orders Web Service PresentationInfo Files

The Orders Web Service includes the following four PresentationInfo files that provide display names in English, French, German, and Japanese, respectively. These display names are associated with the various properties of purchase orders, baskets, line items, payment types, and so on.

• en_OrdersPresentationInfo.xml

• fr_OrdersPresentationInfo.xml

• de_OrdersPresentationInfo.xml

• ja_OrdersPresentationInfo.xml

Profiles Web Service PresentationInfo Files

The Profiles Web Service includes the following four PresentationInfo files that provide display names and descriptions in English, French, German, and Japanese, respectively. These display names and descriptions are associated with the various properties of different types of profiles.

Important Note:
If you edit the PresentationInfo.xml files, do not remove the date_last_changed property. Otherwise, the Concurrent Editing Error dialog box will display incorrectly in Customer and Orders Manager.

• en_PresentationInfo.xml

• fr_PresentationInfo.xml

• de_PresentationInfo.xml

• ja_PresentationInfo.xml

For more information about how to modify the way profile properties are displayed in the Customer and Orders Manager, see Controlling How Profiles Are Displayed in the Customer and Orders Manager.

Orders System Configuration

The Orders System in Commerce Server Core Systems introduces two XML configuration files that reside in the root folder of the Orders Web Service (for example, c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\OrdersWebService) when it is unpacked. These files are as follows:

• OrderObjectMappings.xml. This file defines how the data that is stored within Orders System runtime objects map to the SQL Server tables and columns in which orders data is persisted.

• OrderPipelineMappings.xml. This file defines how the data that is stored within Orders System runtime objects map to entries in the dictionaries used by the Orders System pipelines.

For more information about these files and how they are used, see What Are the Orders Mapping Files?

Pipeline Configuration

The way in which a fully configured Commerce Server Core Systems pipeline is persisted consists of two aspects, as follows:

• The set of pipeline components that are executed in a particular order, within a series of pipeline stages, to perform the work for which the pipeline was created, are persisted in the form of a pipeline configuration file, with an extension of ".pcf". You create PCF files by using the Pipeline Editor. For more information about PCF files and how to create them using the Pipeline Editor, see How to Run a Commerce Server Pipeline and Using the Pipeline Editor, respectively.

• You can configure particular pipelines for use within Commerce Server Core Systems by including entries in the Web.config file for the Commerce Server Core Systems Web application within which the pipeline is executed. Within the Web.config file, add a pipeline element within the **pipelines **element for each pipeline defined for the Web application. The pipeline element defines a name for the pipeline, the path of its PCF file, information about whether the pipeline is transacted and whether pipeline logging is enabled, and so on. For more information about how to configure pipelines for your Web applications that use these Web.config elements, see How to Run a Commerce Server Pipeline and pipelines Element.

Authorization Manager Configuration

You use Authorization Manager to provide role-based access control for the Web service interfaces that are defined for the various Commerce Server Core Systems systems, persisted in the form of authorization store XML files in the root folder of each Web service. By extension, the authorization policies persisted in these files control access to the functionality of the various Commerce Server Core Systems systems by any application that accesses Commerce Server Core Systems through the Commerce Server Core Systems Web services. Such applications include the business management applications that are provided with Commerce Server Core Systems and any custom applications that you develop using the agent mode of the Commerce Server Core Systems management APIs.

When you unpack one or more of the Web services, these files are unpacked also. You may then use Authorization Manager to update the authorization policies stored within these files, as necessary, to provide your business users the access they require to perform their work.

For more information about how to use Authorization Manager to establish the policies that control access to Commerce Server Core Systems functionality, and about the authorization store XML files in which such policies are persisted, see Managing Authorization Policies and Understanding Commerce Server Authentication and Authorization, respectively.

CSApp.ini

When you unpack a Commerce Server Core Systems site, a small configuration file that is named CSApp.ini is created in the root folder of the Web applications that you have unpacked. This file contains information about the name of the application, the relative and absolute URLs of the application, its file system path, and so on.

Use of the CSApp.ini file is limited to the AuthManager component (accessed through the CommerceAuthenticationModule and AuthManager classes in the Microsoft.CommerceServer.Runtime namespace) and the AuthFilter ISAPI filter (siteauth.dll). If you are not using these deprecated components in your site, you should delete the CSApp.ini file and remove CommerceAuthenticationModule from the list of HttpModules in the Web.config file for your Web application.

For more information about the CSApp.ini file and the information it contains, see How Site Packager Works.

BizTalk Adapter Configuration

The BizTalk adapters that are provided with Commerce Server Core Systems, also known informally as the Commerce Server Core Systems adapters, have many configuration values associated with them. These configuration values include the general configuration values that are associated with receive locations and send ports within BizTalk Server, and the specific transport property configuration values that are associated with the different Commerce Server Core Systems adapters. For more information about the Commerce Server Core Systems adapters and how to configure their transport properties, see Developing with the BizTalk Adapters and Working with the BizTalk Adapters, respectively.

See Also

Other Resources

Development Concepts for Core Systems