Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 - Commerce Server Catalog and inventory schema manager, Steps to define the schema.

Sitecore commerce team has rebuilt the Orders and Marketing engines, using Microsoft’s new .Net Core technology, to manage the Product Catalog first we have to define the schema in Commerce Server Catalog and inventory schema manage.

We can configure Category Definition, Product Definition and Property Definition.

Steps to setup a new property -

Step 1 - You can choose a few existing property type.

Step 2 - Add a new property and provide the required field.

Property has been created.

Step 3 - Add the display name in multiple languages.

Step 3  - Configure the product definition

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Step 4  - Configure the category definition and metadata.

these are the high level steps to configure the Sitecore commerce catalog metadata, Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 - Storefront Default language support and item level fallback.

Storefront is available in four languages.

1. English
2. Danish
3. German
4. Japanese

We can update the field value in Commerce server catalog and schema manager.

Example -

How to choose the right CMS and CXM?

Well, I am not going to write a definition of any tools or software, these can be easily found on Google and wiki. There are a lot of options available but the first user should do a homework, write down their actual needs, future plan and requirement and consider below inputs.

let's start now-
Key Agenda:- What type of categories available in the digital world and what all are the key consideration while choosing these platforms.

Ok, So let's cover the first point here.CMS is a very small entity in the digital world but it's the key entity, here are some high level of categories.
Free:- Totally free of cost.
There are some free CMS available in the market and that can be easily used to fulfill the requirements.Go for it if you are:-

1. A small company set up having 1-15 people.
2. Personal profile.
3. Personal Blogs.
4. Local store or business.
5. No global presence.
6. Limited editorial team.
7. Not required continuous engagement.
8. Security and performance are not a key consideration.
9. Not required international standard compliance.
10. Not required multilingual or digitalization.

Advantage of using free CMS or CXM

1. It’s generally free.
2. Limited free plugins.
3. Limited or Larger community to help.
4. Free basic themes and designs.
5. limited Security and standards followed.
6. Large Communities

Disadvantage of using free CMS or CXM

1. Free is not always free, there may be some hidden charges for the support.
2. Not authentic plugin or support.
3. Not made for large business or global presence.
4. No custom functionality.
5. Limited scope for customization.
6. Limited extendibility as a platform.
7. No digitalization.
8. You may be in trouble if not found the latest update or end up with the support and tool itself.
9. Risk of abandonment
10. No Guaranteed Support
11. Inconsistent Updates

Note- Some of the CMS and CXM looks like totally free but when going for a deep dive you will find a premium or executive version.

This is one of the fastest growing sectors, All big company has launched their platform and software as an Open source, A big example is Microsoft, they have recently announced visual studio 2017 as open source and launched core2.0

There are very good examples very big companies and community adopted free CMS and completely working for their success.

Above details are high level but these Free CMS and CXM now days using for big reasons.

If you are a good architecture team and can understand the big picture like headless architecture then this could be your good choice for the backend.

Freemium:- Totally free of cost but may have some hidden charges.

There are some free CMS available in the market and that can be easily used to fulfill the requirements but may require some cost for the plugin or support.

Go for it if you are:-

1. A Midsize company set up having 15-50 people.
2. A good presence in a country or growing globally.
3. Country-level store or business.
4. Limited global presence.
5. An advance editorial team of size 5-100.
6. Required continuous engagement at lower level
7. Security and performance are considerable but not the main focus.
8. Retention of existing customer.
9. Limited budget.

Advantage of using freemium CMS or CXM

1. It’s free but may charge for additional services, customization or support.
2. A lot of free and paid plugins
3. Limited or Larger community to help.
4. Free basic themes and designs.
5. Security is considerable like Vulnerable to malicious users.
6. Support for the key modules and features.
7. Limited support.
8. Increased Business Risk

Disadvantage of using freemium CMS or CXM

1. Free is not always free, there may be some hidden charges for the support.
2. Steep learning curve 
3. Not 100% completely tried & Tested
4. Not made for large business or global presence.
5. The code is only as good as the developer.
6. Limited support.
7. Not advance user-friendly as commercial versions.
8. Semi-restrictive Licenses

Premium:- Basic key features at minimum cost and list of advanced features to offer you.

Well-funded organizations are the backbone of these CMS and CXM, Authenticated and well-managed strategy and future planning for launch and up-gradation.

Go for it if you are:-

1. A Big company set up having more than 100 people.
2. A global presence and store or business.
3. An advance editorial team of size more than 10.
4. Required continuous engagement and customer focus.
5. Security and performance are the key consideration
6. Retention of existing customer is key consideration
7. A good amount of budget for current and future engagement.

Advantage of using premium CMS or CXM

1. Authentic and well tested.
2. Lot of features and latest updates
3. Larger community to help.
4. Security and performance are a top consideration.
5. Support for the key modules and features.
6. Advanced Flexibility.
7. Specialist Support Team and flexible help.
8. Involved by skillful and talented people. 
9. Highly reliable.

Disadvantage of using premium CMS or CXM

1. Average ROI.
2. Don’t come with tailored support.
3. Cost may be high

Executive:- A complete ownership, Stability, User Experience, and Tailored Support

Well-funded organizations are the backbone of these CMS and CXM, Authenticated and well-managed strategy and future planning for launch and up-gradation.

Go for it if you are:-

1. A Big global company.
2. Planned for a good investment on digitalization and a complete journey.
3. Required continuous engagement and customer focus.
4. A better customer experience.
5. Need some key features like Multisite, Multilingual etc.
6. Add-On Functionality like commerce, personalization, email campaign etc.
7. Vast modules and connector to integrate with all platforms.
8. Very user-friendly and easy to use.
9. integration with analytics and 360 views of the customer.
10. Automatic testing and premium content recommendation.
11. Competition with better customer engagement.
12. Increase your digital strategy.
13. Stable and full proof Scalability. 
14. A team of marketers to manage your solution, without additional development.

Advantage of using premium CMS or CXM

1. High ROI.
2. Authentic and well tested.
3. Lot of features and latest updates
4. Larger community to help
5. Security and performance are a top consideration.
6. Support for the key modules and features.
7. Advanced Flexibility.
8. Specialist Support Team and flexible help.
9. Involved by skillful and talented people. Ticket based system with SLA.
10. Highly reliable.
11. Measurable 

Disadvantage of using premium CMS or CXM

1. Expensive- It could be dangerous if not used correctly and may affect your budget
2. Required right talent to understand and execute the system.
3. Costs can quickly add up.

THE FINAL DECISION

When considering all the pros and cons, there are clear advantages of free, fermium, premium and executive.

In the end analysis, it depends on what you want, what is the goal of your business/personal and what is your strategy for ROI. However, it is always worth discussing it with an expert who can advise you, based on your need.

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 - Storefront best practices.

Here are a few recommendations that we should follow while working on storefront implementation.

1. Do Controller Renderings - Don't do View Renderings- View renderings require hardcoded paths to the view being required to be rendered by a controller. Instead, use Controller Renderings as both Storefronts have multi-shop support. That is, based on the given shop name, it will pick a difference storefront view root directory.
2. Use View Models Instead of Domain Objects -View Models should be passed into the view rendering process instead of native connector entities. These views should expose an independent view of the data that does not expose any native entity. This creates a clean separation between the connectors and the storefront and therefore allowing to share the implementation across multiple external commerce system. Views and its models should reside in the Common library and the initialization should be done in the Storefront.
3. JSON Responses Must Not Contain Domain Objects Same reason as the View Models section above.
4. Respect the Controller, Manager, Connect API Pattern This was mentioned earlier in the document and is worth mentioning it a second time. Respect the pattern, manager’s allow to isolate the business logic and can be easily shared. Controllers manage the request and formats the output, managers take care of the business logic and call the Connect API and return the response., Connect calls the external commerce system.