WebSphere Commerce Server 7.0
Architecture:
Ø What is WCS
Ø Components of which WCS has been made up of.
Ø How does it integrate with other products
Ø Different system topologies and available IBM Websphere Commerce Editions
Ø Describe IBM Websphere Commerce component architecture.
Installation, Configuration and Migration:
Ø Describe hardware and software requirements for IBM Websphere Commerce 7.0
o Before installation, we need to make sure that the pre-requisites are checked.
Ø Install all Environments in both single and multi-tier Env.Installation is same but used for different functions.
o Development Environment: when they develop the code, they will test it on their env but they want it to be tested on the server Env. So, what an admin will do, it will deploy their code on Dev Env and provide them access so that they can test and validate the changes.
o Staging Environment: It’s used by business people. We have a Prod Env (its open on internet – clients will be directly accessing it). If we want to make some updates, then it will experience some downtime. Staging env reflects the prod Env. We will do the updates on Staging Environment.
Example: Company decided to make change a product price to 100$. I logged into site and saw the price to be 90$ but as soon as I add into cart it shows the price as 100$ which should not happen. So, we will make changes first to Staging Env and once everything looks good then we will push the changes to Prod.for e.g. you are working with huge retailer (like ebay.amazon). so there will be changes every minute/seconds. So, for that we need to have multiple environments.
o Authoring: It looks a bit like Staging but it’s much bigger.
Ø Create and configure IBM Websphere Commerce instances using IBM Websphere Commerce Manager and command line tools
o Instance is similar to Websphere App Server profiles but in addition to that DB schema, Webserver and installs application to profile.
Ø Perform migration to IBM Websphere Commerce v7.0 using migration tools.
Ø Verify and troubleshoot installation, configuration and migration tasks.
o Validate whether installation, config or migration is a success/not and how to troubleshoot the failures.
Ø Demonstrate how WCS supports globalization.
o For e.g. If a retailer is located globally, then WCS makes it enable to display the application in multiple languages depending on the preferred language of the user. It does support multiple languages and multiple currencies.
So as of now, we have installed an instance
Set up and Administer IBM Websphere Commerce Stores
Ø Compare and contrast the steps necessary to publish an online store using the Publish Wizard vs publish store utility
o We have different business requirement like B2B, B2C that’s why its kept as separate
Ø Apply the concepts of store archive (Archive of an online store) and describe which store models are available.
Ø Publish a store to support a business model and verify as functionality
Ø Manage organizational groups, users and roles
o We have a role of Administrator
o We have a role of Developers
o We have a role of business users :
§ Product manager – Add product, change/ price
§ Marketing Manager – like offers during festive seasons etc
§ Make changes to price, We do need to have a close check on the users who are assigned to this role as these are the people who are the ones take and implement business decisions to make company a profitable organization
Ø Configure email activity:
o Email msgs which we need to send and how to configure.
o WCS do have a communication with SMTP
§ For register: Welcome to our site etc
§ Tracking URL, shipping status, order submission etc
Ø Create and configure msgs types and transport methods.
Ø Configure scheduler jobs to support store features.
o At times, we need some tasks to run w/o any manual intervention
o We have to configure those schedulers
Ø Build, package, deploy and verify customer assets:
o In WCS, we don’t deploy EARs, it gets deployed as part of instance creation.
o We update specific module to which changes are made.
o We have an ANT module which makes jython and Python calls to do the needful.
o We can do manual deployment by going to WAS Console. We have a tool inbuilt in WCS which does the same.
Ø Websphere Commerce staging and data load utilities:
o How to configure staging
o How to propagate changes to Production Env.
Ø Demonstrate knowledge of workspace.
Ø Data load utilities:
o Add the product which we need to sell; in WCS it takes approx. 15 mins to do the same.
§ Product name
§ Brochure
§ Price
§ Promotions
§ Colour etc.
§ Short and Detailed description
§ Etc.
o For e.g., we have 1000 products so following above step is itself a task.
o To automate the above process, we have data load utilities functionality.
Ø Enable and Configure Social Commerce. Mobile Commerce.
o Friend likes a particular website; if you have a like onto a page, then your friends come and have a look at the website which in turn will increase business.
Ø Configure payment plugins and payment rules.
WCS is mainly responsible for order capture tool. I can come and place an order on the website. But as soon as order is placed we have other responsibilities as well like:
Ø Process
Ø Payment is done/not and once payment is done, may sure the shipping takes place from the warehouse which is closest
Ø Transport method
Ø Inventory management
Ø Order processing; we need to send tracking URL to the customer.
WCS talks to 3rd party tool for the above backend jobs to takes those. IBM has taken Sterling.
Smarter Commerce:
Ø IBM goes and says we have end-to-end management. Sterling gives these supporting tools which include transport management, inventory management, payment management, Order management System. Warehouse management system, processing management etc.
Maintaining and Monitor IBM Websphere Commerce:
Ø Install fixes, fix packs and feature packs
Ø Describe the logging service and identify the logs available in Websphere Commerce.
Ø Use of database Clean utility
o Database keeps on growing, size becomes sluggish. Queries will takes longer to execute which in turns slower the site
o We need to run DB Clean tool in WCS
Ø Configure and monitoring scheduler jobs for site-level activities
Ø Backup resources for DR.
Security and Auditing: I am using my credit card/debit card while payment on your website, so I need to make sure that your site is secure enough. We will be discussing WCS Security as well as WAS Security.
Ø Describe Websphere Commerce security and authentication Model.
Ø Demonstrate how to enable different levels of Websphere Application Server Security
Ø Configure and manage access control
o WCS is a very secure application. For e.g. login with my UID, and I have copied the URL and pasted on another browser then it doesn’t prompts for password and launches directly.
§ Who can open the page
§ Who can login to the page
§ When developer make the page they will be setting the policy of who can make the change then we will be incorporating that policies in order to enforce them
§ Etc.
Ø Configure Websphere Commerce security using LDAP, SSL and SSO
Ø Apply business auditing features
o We have defined different roles like for Product Manager – who can edit the price add product etc; we need to have a functionality to check who has made the change and provide us a report
o If instead of making price of a product as 100$ but mistakenly made 10$; we should have control of who made that change as it directly cost revenue loss to the company.
Ø Configure Websphere Commerce implementation to address PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).
Performance Standards:
Ø Apply recommended JVM Settings for Websphere Commerce suites:
o It doesn’t comes under Admin Level
o We have performance specialists to perform the same.
o But we will be discussing it as per troubleshooting level.
Ø Configure dynamic caching and use Cache monitor to administer it.
o Enabling dynamic cache is a must step to perform
Ø Monitor performance using Websphere Commerce Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI) module.
Ø Illustrate database performance tuning options.
o Not tuning the queries but it’s a Database performance tuning.
Ø Apply Websphere Application Server optimization techniques.
Ø Perform clustering for high availability and load-balancing.
Support and Troubleshooting:
Ø Perform troubleshooting of Websphere Commerce and its software requirements.
Ø Use logs and traces for problem determination
Ø Use data in Websphere Commerce database tables for troubleshooting
Ø Troubleshooting payment processing issues
Ø Use of IBM self-help tooling for support and troubleshooting
Ø Demonstrate understanding of IBM Software Support.