Discountable/Non -Discountable SKUs in ATG 10.2

Today I came to know the interested attribute (discountable) of SKU added in ATG 10.2. Oracle introduced this boolean attribute at SKU and Product level. The attribute value true means it is discountable. The false value means non-discountable. By default SKUs and Products are discountable.

Non-discountable items do act as qualifiers for the promotion but they will not receive the discount.

Example : There is an Order Level Promotion say Spend 100$ get 20% Off.

Case 1 : If Order contains only non-discountable SKUs. In this case customer won't get any discount.

Case 2 : If Order contain non-discountable SKUs worth 60$.And discountable SKUs worth 40$.Here customer will get only 8$ discount (20% off 40). Both (discountable and non discountable) SKUs will contribute the amount required to trigger the promotion.

Indexing As Part of a Deployment

You can configure your environment so that when you run a deployment in Content Administration, indexing is automatically started after the deployment is finished. To make this automatic triggering occur, add the following three components and their configuration to the localconfig layer for your Content Administration server.

1. /atg/commerce/endeca/index/CategoryToDimensionOutputConfig

      Specify the following property for this component.

      targetName=Production

     2.  /atg/commerce/search/ProductCatalogOutputConfig

      Specify the following property for this component.

      targetName=Production

   3.   /atg/search/SynchronizationInvoker

      Specify the following properties for this component.

      host=atg-production-server-host

      rmi=8860

Indexing hanged/stucked at CLEANING

After completion of catalog data import into BCC. I triggered the baseline indexing from dyn/admin (/atg/commerce/endeca/index/ProductCatalogSimpleIndexingAdmin). 

After initial steps it hanged at CLEANING step.

The solution to this issue is execute below query on production schema.

truncate table srch_update_queue

Associating a site with Catalog in ATG

Today while importing the catalog data in BCC. I faced one issue.After completion of data load into BCC I realized that site information is missing from catalog items (category,product and SKUs).

Here is the list of steps I followed from ATG documentation to resolve this issue.

Note : Before following these steps.Run a full deployment fololwoed by Catalog Update Service (This will also create project in BCC.You need to deploy the project). 

Steps to register/create a site and associate it with a catalog.

1. In the Business Control Center, expand Site Administration, then click Manage Site Assets.
2. Enter a name and optional description for the project and click Continue.
3. Create a new site and assign the existing application’s catalog as the default catalog for the new site. During this step, the site ID for the new site is assigned to the existing catalog. The same ID is also assigned to any of the catalog’s categories and sub-catalogs.
4. At this point, existing catalog folders will appear in Merchandising as unsited items. If you want to keep them, these folders also need a site ID. Follow the steps below to assign a site ID to your catalog folders:
   • In the Business Control Center, expand Merchandising, then click Manage Commerce Assets.
   • Enter a name and optional description for the project and click Continue.
   • Navigate to Site Catalogs, then to Unsited Items.
   • Click the split screen icon at the bottom left of the window.

     

     BCC Split Screen Icon

   • In the bottom portion of the split screen, navigate to Site Catalogs.
   • Drag a catalog folder from the top pane to the site you want it affiliated with in the bottom pane. The catalog folder is now affiliated with the site and has that site’s ID assigned to it.
5. Deploy the project. During deployment, the site ID you assigned to the catalog is propagated from the catalog down to its constituent products and SKUs (by the CatalogMaintenanceService, which runs automatically on deployment).

Configure Users and Groups in Endeca Workbench

Here are the steps to configure Users and Groups for Endeca Workbench.

1. Login into to Endeca Workbench as admin user.
2. On first drop down menu (application selection menu), select Administrative Tools.
3. Go to User Management section.
4. Here you will see two tabs.

                 1.  Users

                 2.  Group.

1. User Configuration.

To create user click on Add User link on Users tab.

Workbench Users Tab

Create User pop up will display.

Create User Pop Up

Enter the user details, here you can associate user with existing group.Then click on permissions tab select the permissions for user.

2. Group Configuration.

To create a group click on click on Group Tab on User Management page.

Now click on Add Groups button on this tab.

Workbench Group Tab

Create Group pop up will display.Enter the group details,click on permission tab to enter the permissions.Click on membership tab to select a sub group or user.

Group Detail Pop Up

Introduction to Endeca Tools and Framework

Oracle Endeca Tools and Frameworks enable the dynamic presentation of content across all channels.

Deployments That Use Oracle Endeca Experience Manager Require the Tools and Frameworks package for  Oracle Endeca Commerce with Experience Manager. Deployments That Do not include Experience Manager Require the Tools and Frameworks package for Oracle Endeca Commerce with Guided Search.

Both versions of the package include the Following:

• Oracle Endeca Workbench, a tools suite That enables merchandising Content Spotlighting, and search  Configuration for cross-channel applications.

• The Endeca Assembler, an API for controlling the presentation of commerce sites and collecting usage information across all channels.

• The Endeca Tools Service.

• The Endeca Deployment Template, A Collection of operational components That Provides a Starting Point  for Developing and deploying Endeca applications.

• The Discover Electronics Reference Application.

Introduction to Endeca Content Acquisition System (CAS)

The Endeca Content Acquisition System (CAS) is a set of Components That add, configure, and crawl data sources for use in an application.The Endeca Content Acquisition System crawls data sources, Converts documents and files to Endeca records, and stores them for Use in an Forge pipeline.Output of CAS is number of Record Store instances (one per data source).

Below are Important Points Related to CAS.

The Endeca CAS service is a servlet container That runs the CAS Server, the Component Instance.Manager, and any number of Record Store instances (one per data source).

The CAS Server is the component That Manages all file systems and CMS crawling operations.

The CAS Console Endeca Workbench is a Web-based application used to crawl various data sources including file systems and content management systems.

The CAS Server API allows users to write programs That Communicate With The CAS server.The Server API has a WSDL interface and a CAS Server Command-Line Utility.

The Dimension Value Id Manager is a CAS Component That Creates, stores dimension value identifiers.

The Endeca Web Crawler manages all Web crawl-related operations.

The Component Instance Manager Creates, lists, and deletes Record Store instances. The Component Instance Manager has a WSDL interface and overpriced a CIM Command-Line Utility.

The Endeca Record Store Provides persistent storage for generation of Records. The Record Store has a WSDL interface and Also a Record Store Command-line Utility.The CAS Server writes crawl output from each data source to a unique Record Store instance.

Endeca CMS connectors are available for use in the CAS Console Endeca Workbench or the CAS Server API. CMS Connectors Provide a means to access and crawl data sources in a wide variety of CMS types.