eCommerce Integration with Intershop

Deploying the necessary eCommerce packages provides the full functionality of the eCommerce framework, together with a reference implementation of eCommerce functionality as provided with Intershop implementation (including a demonstration catalog).

This catalog is available under the English (US) branch (/content/geometrixx-outdoors/en_US) of the Geometrixx Outdoors site.

This procedure will initialize the Intershop system with a Geometrixx organization to work with the AEM reference implementation.

• Perform a dbinit on adobe_init. Therefore add the cartridge to the dbinit section of the cartridgelist.properties, open an ANT build shell and type in
  
  dbinit -t=adobe_init -!
  
  
• Check the success by logging into the new Geometrixx organization.
  
  Login: admin
  Password: intershop7
  Organization: Geometrixx
  
  

To install AEM with an Intershop integration configuration (using the demonstration catalog, Geometrixx Outdoors), the basic steps are:

Configure the Intershop REST Client:

The integration framework provides the mechanisms and components for:

• connecting to an eCommerce system
• pulling data into AEM
• displaying data and collecting the shopper's responses
• returning transaction details

This means:

• shoppers can instantaneously register and shop
• price changes are immediately visible to shoppers
• products can be added as required

AEM and Intershop are loosely coupled, which enables the applications to operate independently from one another. Data transfers between the two systems occur in real time.

The following breakdown shows the applications’ responsibilities:

• AEM:
  • Requests:
    • Product Information from Intershop.
  • Provides:
    • User views for Product Information, Shopping Cart and Checkout.
    • Shopping cart and checkout information to Intershop.
    • Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
    • Community functionality (i.e. Facbook, Twitter).
    • Unstructured marketing interactions.
• Intershop:
  
  • Provides:
    • Product Information from the database.
    • Product variant management.
    • Product price management.
    • Promotion management.
  • Processes:
    • Shopping Carts.
    • Checkout.
    • Order Fulfillment.

The following components and pages can use eCommerce data:

• Landing page
  Rendered by AEM (Commerce Category).
  This provides primarily static information. For example, an introduction and overview with links to the underlying product pages.
  
• Product 
  Rendered by AEM (Commerce Product).
  Dynamic information about individual products. For example, price changes, special offers, and so on. Updates from live data are reflected instantly on the product detail pages.
  The product component can be added to any page where the parent page delivers the required metadata (i.e. the paths tocartPage and cartObject). In Geometrixx Outdoors this is supplied by UserInfo.jsp.
• myAccount
  Transaction data in Intershop is combined with personal information about the shopper. AEM uses some of this data as profile data. A form's action in AEM writes information back to Intershop.
• Checkout
  Checkout is implemented with standard AEM forms. This allows the marketing manager to customize the experience with marketing content.
  Intershop manages the checkout process with inputs from AEM forms.
• Shopping cart
  Intershop provides all relevant data. AEM renders this information using the appropriate components.

The integrated system provides the following roles to manage eCommerce data.

• Product Information Management (PIM) User maintains:
  
  • Product information.
  • Taxonomy, categorization, approval.
  • Interacts with digital asset management.
  • Pricing.
• Author / Marketing Manager maintains:
  • Marketing content for all channels.
  • Promotions.
  • Vouchers.
  • Campaigns.
• Surfer / Shopper:
  • Views your product information.
  • Places items into the shopping cart.
  • Checks out their orders.
  • Expects order fulfillment.

Product data is maintained in Intershop and made available through AEM.

Actual product information imported from Intershop or any other source is held in the CRX repository under:

    /etc/commerce/products

The following properties indicate that the products are linked with Intershop:

• commerceProvider
• cq:intershopCatalogId
• cq:intershopId

This data is synchronized as necessary.

The AEM Intershop integration supports product variants. For example, clothing items with different colors are supported.

Product data is maintained in Intershop, and can be linked to Product marketing data in AEM. AEM will retrieve highly volatile data such as price information, from the Commerce Engine for each page request.

The shopping cart provides the following capabilities:

• list the cart's items
• link to the item's product pages
• update the cart's quantities
• remove items in the cart

Price changes in Intershop and AEM are reflected as they occur.

The product catalog sections provide you with:

• an introduction (image and/or text) to the category; this can be used for banners and teasers to promote special offers
• links to products in the category
• links to the other categories

An AEM page (for example, using the Commerce Product template) can provide:

• general product information; text and images
  
• pricing

And allow the shopper to select:

• color and size variants
• quantity
  
• add to basket

When a shopper registers, the account details need to be pushed from AEM to Intershop. Sensitive data is held independently, but profiles are linked.

When a shopper registers, the account details need to be pushed from AEM to Intershop. Sensitive data is held independently, but profiles are linked.

After placing an order, shoppers often return to:

• Check their order’s status
• Remove products from the order
• Add products to the order

After receiving the order delivery, shoppers may want to view their order history.

Intershop manages order fulfillment and tracking. AEM displays order information through the Order History component, which shows all the relevant details. For example:

With Intershop, an anonymous customer can:

• View different products
• Add products to the cart

A registered customer can:

• Login to account
• View different products
• Add products to the cart
• Place an order
• Track previous orders

There are a variety of ways to import product and catalog data. The product and catalog data can be imported when initially setting up the environment, or after changes have been made in the Intershop data.

The parameters used by the importer can be configured for:

Intershop Product and Catalog Importer
(com.adobe.cq.commerce.intershop.impl.importer.IntershopImporter)

Note

When working with AEM there are several methods of managing the configuration settings for such services; see Configuring OSGi for full details. Also see the console for a full list of configurable parameters and their defaults.

Configure the Product Attributes to Load

The response parser can be configured to define the properties and attributes to be loaded for (variant) products.

The parameters used by the parser can be configured for:

Intershop JSON Parser
(com.adobe.cq.commerce.intershop.impl.IntershopJSONParser)

Note

When working with AEM there are several methods of managing the configuration settings for such services; see Configuring OSGi for full details. Also see the console for a full list of configurable parameters and their defaults.

Developing eCommerce with Intershop

Note

The eCommerce framework can be used with any eCommerce solution. Certain specifics and examples dealt with here will refer to the Intershop solution.

The integration framework includes an integration layer with an API. This allows you to:

• plug in an eCommerce system and pull product data into AEM
• build AEM components for commerce capabilities independent of the specific eCommerce engine

Note

API documentation is also available for download.

A number of out-of-the-box AEM components are provided to use the integration layer. Currently these are:

• a product display component
• a shopping cart
• check-out

Note

For more information about developing possibilities, see Developing for AEM native eCommerce.