B2C Blueprint Store

The Intershop Commerce Management comes with a B2C Blueprint Store including demo content that can be used as template to start personalizing the store individually. This store is accessible via web browser. All relevant B2C processes and features are included. The responsive design changes automatically the appearance of each site depending on screen sizes of the used devices. Branding Packages allow an easy customization of the stores design via CSS, JavaScript and individual images.

B2B Blueprint Store

The Intershop Commerce Management comes with a B2B Blueprint Store containing B2B-specific workflows and processes for business customers. The store includes demo content which can be used as template to start personalizing the store individually. This store is accessible via web browser. The Responsive Design changes automatically the appearance of each site depending on screen sizes of the used devices. Branding Packages allow an easy customization of the stores design via css, javascript and individual images.

PWA

The Intershop Commerce Management comes with a PWA that can be used as template to start projects based on RESTful API. The feature set is defined in a separate feature list and does not contain the complete feature set of the Blue Print Stores.

Additional catalog navigation for search engines and users is available in the storefront. The catalog browsing functionality allows users to easier navigate through all catalog categories.
In addition, the navigation is optimized for search engines and guarantees an optimum page ranking.

The meta tags in Intershop Commerce Management storefront pages improve the search engine ranking and guarantee that all relevant pages are indexed by the search engine.
The implemented tags indicate to the robot which pages to index, which pages not to index, which links to follow and which links not to follow. The usage of the related meta tags noindex and nofollow can be configured in the Intershop Commerce Management for products, categories and  CMS-pages.

Sitemap XML is a markup format that is used in site map files. Sitemap files inform search engine crawlers (like Google) about the pages that are present on a site, so the search engine can crawl your site accordingly. The Intershop Commerce Management feature "Product Data Feeds" can be used to create sitemaps. Upon sitemap creation, an XML sitemap index file is generated and points to the Google Sitemap XML files.

A compressed XML sitemap file contains not more than 50,000 URLs and is not larger than 10 MB when uncompressed. When the number of 50,000 URLs is exceeded, a new XML file is created.

If enabled, this feature includes links for given storefront pages to all available languages (localizations). Currently the system supports product pages, catalog pages, content pages and the Store Finder page.
This feature can be enabled/disabled on channel level.

For each affiliate partner and each affiliate partner program, the system maintains access statistics, which sales channel administrators can view in the business management tool. The statistics includes:

• Total revenue
• Total of orders
• Number of registered users
• Number of generated storefront hits (sessions)

Using the product data feed engine, it is possible to transmit all product data of your Web offerings to our Intershop Feed Engine or directly to various price and product search engines or affiliate networks via one central interface.

The selected products can be exported as an XML file. In addition, it is possible to configure an FTP upload to partner networks, e.g., price search engines. This allows online shops to generate additional traffic for your site.

Also, the feature supports the generation of an Enfinity XML and Sitemap XML file.

The process can be triggered manually in the business management tool or via an automated job at regular intervals.

Creating a data feed basically comprises editing a data feed configuration. The configuration stores all properties that the internal export processes need to successfully complete a product data feed task. Multiple configurations can be created, stored and executed, as required by the systems that consume the data later on. Properties stored by configurations include:

• General information, including name and ID as well as status (enabled/disable)
• Data feed target
• Schedule
• Product assignment

Product data feed targets determine whether product data feeds export data into a file or transfer data to a target system. If exporting data to a file, the feed target also determines the formatting of the XML data resulting from the export process. If transferring data to a target system, the feed target is used to select the actual target system. The following targets are available by default:

• Standard = standard product export, with the data formatted using Enfinity XML
• Standard Transformed = Enfinity XML standard product export with attribute mapping rules to be applied before writing the result file
• Sitemap XML = markup format for site map files to be evaluated by search engine crawlers
• Feed Dynamix Data Feed = markup format used by the Feed Dynamix feed engine
• Product RSS Feed = standardized RSS format export to be consumed by RSS aggregating applications
• <Target System> = only available if the current system has been configured as a (data replication) source system and is connected to a target system

There are two ways to add products to a product data feed: assignment by search and assignment by browse. Using assignment by browse, catalog managers browse through the catalog structures to select all products belonging to a catalog or sub-category or to select individual products belonging to a category.

The short link mechanism makes it possible to define short URLs that the system internally maps to complete the Intershop Commerce Management URLs (the target URL). Short links can be used to enable direct access to special storefront pages, such as pages containing special offers or products related to a certain topic. In fact, short links help to simplify the handling of long and complex URLs.

A short link import for CSV and XML format is available in the Intershop Commerce Management. The link import together with the URL export now supports URL migration scenarios. This way, you can "migrate" all existing URLs to new URLs. The import/export functionality and the HTTP redirect handling guarantee that all acquired search engine page ranks remain stable.

API for the handling of e-mail marketing activities, such as subscription to newsletters.

Full-Text Search

Customers can enter any search terms in the storefront. The administrator can configure the attributes that must be included in the search index.

Fault-tolerant Search

To ease the search processes, phonetic searches and automatic spelling correction are available.

Spell Checking

Search terms inserted by the customer in the storefront can be checked by configurable rules. In case of spelling errors, the system corrects the spelling and returns the results with the message "Did you mean …?"

Auto-Suggestions

The auto suggest/autocomplete functionality will produce possible search results based on the search phrase entered by the customer in real time. The channel administrator selects the attributes (e.g., product name, category name) to be included in the suggest search.

Synonym Search

Synonym definitions provide the ability for words to be associated in the system, allowing product name searches to use common language or jargon, yielding the appropriate results (e.g., "laptop" can be mapped to "notebook").

Searchandizing

Administrators can control the result set consideration of merchandising aspects (e.g., ranking of displayed products, search criteria weightings).

Search Redirects

Search redirects are intended to produce specific pages instead of actually performing the customer's search.

Exclude from Search

In order to display specific products only in specific contexts (e.g., landing page, which is not in the navigation tree), products can be excluded from keyword search index. The products do not appear in search results.

Search Criteria Weighting

Filter Navigation

Search attributes selected as filters allow for filtering the search results in the storefront, so that the customers can narrow or drill down the result set.

Filter Configuration

Filters are configurable, e.g., sorting of filters and filter values, filter value ranges, explicit sorting of filter values, mapping of filter values to text or image values, global or category scope.

Filter Groups

Filters can be combined in order to be displayed as "filter groups". The groups can be labeled for user display, e.g., certain fashion product attributes can be grouped as "Fashion Styles".

Breadcrumb

Breadcrumbs help customers to keep track of their location within the storefront.

Filtered Landing Pages

Catalog managers can assign preconfigured search filters to categories that can be used, for example, to dynamically populate categories with products applying a defined sorting and ranking (e.g., a "Clearance" category based on a product attribute "ready for sale").

User-defined Search Result Sorting

Customers can sort search result sets by various attributes, like name ascending, name descending, price descending. The channel administrator configures the sortable attributes, the direction and display labels.

Search Engine Configuration

The channel administrator configures the search engine connection in the channel preferences.

Intra Day Search Index Update

The system allows for the ad-hoc update of the search index for a given channel/locale in the editing environment without propagating the changes to the live system. Updates to the live environment are performed separately by specific data replication processes.

Storefront RESTful API

Get a list of products based on selected product attributes or categories.

Service Integration API

Simple Promotion Search

Advanced Promotion Search

Marketing managers of sales channels can search for promotions using the advanced search. The search options include, among others, target groups, promotion codes, promotion types, activation and discount rules. This helps to get a better overview of current and planned promotions.

Activation Period

Discount Rules

Discount rules determine the benefit offered to the members of the promotion's target group. Each discount rule specifies a condition and an action to be triggered in case the condition has been met. Managing discount rules involves creating, editing (if necessary) and deleting discount rules.

Condition Types

Discount Action

Multiple Promotion Handling

Marketing managers can configure the combinability of promotions, selecting one of the following options:

• Can be combined
• Cannot be combined
• Can be combined with specific promotion types (e.g., order percentage off, shipping value off)

Inclusions and exclusions by product attributes and
categories

Products and categories can be included or excluded from a promotion by configuration of the discount rule. Therefore the promotion manager can browse through or search for products and categories.

Promotion Code Deactivation

Quick possibility to deactivate a mass of defined promotion codes manually by multiple input fields.

Dynamic Up-Selling Messaging

Based on the minimum order value or the numbers of items in the cart an up-selling message can be displayed in context of a promotion.

Ad Hoc Publishing

In addition to the regular data replication a promotion can be published ad hoc to the target system manually.

Application-specific Promotions

Promotions can be associated to applications in order to offer different promotions in different storefronts.

Promotion Code Generation

Promotion codes can be created manually and with a configurable bulk operation (e.g., length, prefix, count of codes, list of character combinations to be excluded).

Reusable Promotion Codes

Reusable codes can be redeemed by any member of the target group. Upon creating reusable codes, marketing managers define the code, the expiration date and the number of reuses per code and/or per user.

Unique Promotion Codes

Unique promotion codes have a specific number of code instances. Unique codes can be transferable or non-transferable. Transferable codes can be redeemed by any user who is able to provide the promotion code. It is up to the online marketing manager to make sure the promotion code is distributed to the intended target audience of the promotion. With non-transferable codes, each code is bound to the user or user group for which it has been generated. Each user has to use the code generated for his account by the system. When defining a unique code, the channel administrator defines the maximum number of codes that can be generated. With respect to unique promotion code generation, two options are available:

• Manual Generation: The system generates the maximum number of codes immediately. The channel administrator can then distribute the codes to the members of the respective target group.
• Event-Based Generation: The generation of a code instance is triggered by a certain event, including registration and first order.

Import & Export

Unique Promotion Code
Export/Import

Marketing managers of sales channels can import and export promotion codes. Imports are mapped to existing promotion code groups. The supported export and import file type is CSV. The supported import modes include Initial and Delete.

Promotion Code Group Import / Export

Marketing managers of sales channels can import and export promotion code groups. The supported export and import file type is XML. The supported import modes include Initial, Replace, Update, Ignore, Delete and Omit.

Promotion Import / Export

Marketing managers of sales channels can import and export promotions. The supported export and import file type is XML which contains all appropriate configuration like single code, messaging, inclusion, discount rule and timing parameters associated with each promotion. The supported import modes include Initial, Replace, Update, Ignore, Delete and Omit.

Promotion Export Scheduling

Storefront RESTful API

Promotions

A promotion list (contains promotion identification numbers) can be requested by product and store level. Promotion details can be requested by promotion identification number which facilitates the external system ability to present products with promotions.

Hot Deal Products

Products can be marked as hot deals. They are presented to customers in a specific category.

Featured Products

Products can be marked as featured products. They are presented to customers on the homepage of the sales channel.

Recently Viewed Products

Recently Viewed Categories

The customers can return to recently viewed categories with one click. The administrator can configure how many categories will be displayed.

Recently Searched Terms

The customers return to recently searched terms with one click. The administrator can configure how many search terms will be displayed.

Back-in-Stock Notification Agent

A registered customer can activate the back-in-stock notification. The customer is informed automatically by email when the product is back in stock. In "my account" the customer can manage the notifications.

Multiple Recommendation
Engines

Product Recommendation
Data Feed

Recommendation data feeds can be considered a specific use case of product data feeds, intended to be sent to the configured recommendation engine (which, in turn, supplies the recommendation information to the Intershop Commerce Management storefront). Configuring recommendation data feeds includes defining the parameters "Currency" (to be included with the issued product data) and "Save Order Data" (specifies whether to include order data).

Product Recommendation
Feed Scheduling

Besides manual execution, recommendation data feed processes can also be triggered using a scheduled job.

Event Driven
Recommendation

Administrators can specify events (e.g., add to basket, view cart, view product) in the business management tool, which sends event data to any recommendation engines in parallel. Furthermore, one recommendation engine can be defined, which provides appropriate recommendations.

Layout Elements

Content managers assemble and structure pages intended to be presented to the customer based on various content assets like page variants, slots, includes, components.

Pages

A page can be conceived of as an "entry point" to the storefront. Pages must have assigned at least one and can have assigned multiple page variants. There are several implementations of pages, including:

• Product pages: are assigned to products, and only their associated page variants can be accessed and modified
• Category pages: are assigned to categories, and only their associated page variants can be accessed and modified
• System pages: constitute "functional" pages like basket, checkout or profile pages; are development artifacts, i.e., cannot be created or removed on run time
• Content pages: constitute "static" pages like FAQ, T&C or imprint pages; are run time artifacts, i.e., can be created or removed without development and deployment efforts

Pages Variants

A page variant constitutes the "container" object that holds the actual content and must be assigned to a page. Individual page variants can be subject to personalization, time control, etc.

Slots

Slots indicate areas of a page variant or a component into which content (i.e., components) is "filled". Depending on the slot definition, two types of content associations are possible:

• Implicit: dynamic content component assignments, i.e., based on implicit parameter and pipeline definitions, which involves developer and deployment effort
• Explicit: static content component assignments, i.e., based on user-defined, explicit associations

Components

The components provide the actual content displayed on the final page. Components are of a specific component type, which defines the structure (slots) and any parameters (e.g., a link to a product or an image) required for rendering the component.

Includes

Includes can be conceived of as an "entry point" for individual components. There are two types of includes:

• System-managed includes: are development artifacts and thus, their life cycle is completely managed by the system; on run time, users can only configure and assign components to them
• User-generated includes: constitute a means to define reusable sets of "display configurations" for business objects; can currently be created by catalog managers in the context of catalog categories and products to allow for defining specific "views"

Page Templates

Page templates constitute page variant "models". A page template is based on a variant type, thus defining the structure and rendering parameters for the page variants derived from the template. Page templates can be "pre-filled" with components (which cannot be modified in derived page variants) and can hold placeholders.

Component Templates

Component templates constitute component "models". A component template is based on a component type, thus defining the structure and rendering parameters for the components derived from the template. Component templates can be "pre-filled" with other components (which cannot be modified in derived components) and can, if allowed by the type, hold placeholders.

Placeholders

Placeholders define editable areas in page variants or components that are derived from templates. If provided by their corresponding types, page or component templates can "propagate" their slots to their derived page variants or components via placeholders.

Content Sharing

Page Management

Content editors use the Page Manager to get an overview of all pages, which allows them to create new pages as well as to easily access page editing functionality.

Page Search / Filtering

Content editors can search for the name or ID of pages of a specific type or with a specific label. If necessary, the search can be narrowed to find pages with specific attributes, parameters, or publishing periods using the advanced search.

Page Structure / Assignments

Content editors can view and modify the current site's logical page structure using the Page Manager's tree view.

Using the Page Variants tab of the page detail view, content editors can view and modify the page variant assignments of this page.

Page Details

Using the page detail view, content editors can access the following page details:

• Content: displays the configurable parameters and the content of the first assigned page variant
• Page Variants: lists all page variants assigned to this page
• Subpages: lists all assigned child pages
• Properties: displays general page settings like locale, name, ID, parent, type
• Labels: lists all labels assigned to the page

Page Variant Management

Content editors use the Page Variant Manager to get an overview of all page variants, which allows them to create new page variants as well as to easily access page variant editing functionality.

Page Variant Search / Filtering

Content editors can search for the name or content of page variants of a specific type. If necessary, the search can be narrowed to find page variants with specific attributes, parameters, slots, publishing periods or object assignments using the advanced search, for example, to find page variants with empty slots at a certain time.

Page Variant Assignments

Using the Assignments tab of the page variant detail view, content editors can view and modify the assignments of this page variant to pages.

Page Variant Details

Using the page variant detail view, content editors can access the following page variant details:

• Content: displays the configurable parameters and the content components assigned to the page variant
• Assignments: lists the assignments of this page variant to pages
• Properties: displays general page variant settings like locale, name, ID, template, publishing status and period
• Labels: lists all labels assigned to the page variant

Component Management

Content editors use the Component Manager to get an overview of all components, which allows them to create new components as well as to easily access component editing functionality.

Component Search / Filtering

Content editors can search for the name or content of components of a specific type. If necessary, the search can be narrowed to find components with specific attributes, parameters, slots, publishing periods or object assignments using the advanced search.

Component Assignments

Using the Assignments tab of the component detail view, content editors can view and modify the assignments of this component to page variants, components, includes, page templates or component templates.

Component Details

Using the component detail view, content editors can access the following component details:

• Content: displays the configurable parameters and the content components assigned to the component
• Assignments: lists the assignment of the component to page variants, components, includes, page templates or component templates
• Properties: displays general component settings like locale, name, ID, template, publishing status and period
• Labels: lists all labels assigned to the component

Include Management

Content editors use the Include Manager to get an overview of all includes, which allows them to easily include editing functionality.

Include Search / Filtering

Content editors can search for the name or ID of includes of a specific type or with a specific label. If necessary, the search can be narrowed to find includes with specific attributes, parameters, or publishing periods using the advanced search.

Include Assignments

Using the Components tab of the include detail view, content editors can view and modify the component assignments of this include.

Include Details

Using the include detail view, content editors can access the following include details:

• Content: displays the configurable parameters and the content of the first assigned component
• Components: lists all components assigned to this include
• Properties: displays general include settings like locale, name, ID, type
• Labels: lists all labels assigned to the include

Content Asset Import & Export

Content editors can either export the complete set of content assets or limit the export scope to a selected content asset type (pages, includes, page templates, component templates, page variants, components). In addition, it is possible to choose to export the content into either an XML file or an internally structured ZIP archive.

Audit information can optionally be added to export files. This information can be used to generate diff reports as a basis for conflict handling when merging content between different systems.

Completeness Check

The content editor can check the completeness of all manageable CMS objects regarding existence of mandatory configuration parameters. It is possible to create a report for a specific time frame that shows how many and which objects with missing mandatory parameters are active during this time.

Content Locking

Before editing content assets like pages, page variants, components, a content editor must explicitly lock the asset. This prevents conflicts due to parallel editing of the same content asset by different content editors.

Labeling

The system administrator can configure, search, review and export/save a report of user-based activities.

Label Searching

Labeled objects can be searched by the advanced search.

Product Image Management

Sales organization administrators can configure the product images that will be available for the possibly multiple product views in the storefront, like, for example, catalog list view, detail view or cart view. This includes image views (e.g., front, side, back), image types (e.g., S, M L, XL) and image sets (combinations of image views and image types). Image sets can then easily be applied to product classifications or used by accordingly set up content components.

Product Attachments

Administrators of channels can attach product-related content (for example a product specification) to their products. Those attachments can be uploaded and stored in a content folder.

Design View

Pages and components can easily be edited and managed directly from the storefront preview. The structure of components is defined by component types. Each component type has its own editing dialog to edit components directly from the storefront preview or in the business management tool.

Scheduled Page Changes

In order to support storefront design and content modifications, content editors can schedule the publishing and visibility of page variants in different contexts within the storefront.

Publishing Period

Content editors can set the publishing status (published or not) and define a publishing period for each page variant or component.

Visibility Period

Content editors can set the visibility period of page variants and components depending on a given context.

Time based preview

It is possible to preview the site with a date in the future. Categories, Product Pages will be previewed in context of date, time, currency, language, screen resolution, customer group and price list.

Product Overview

The Product Overview shows channel-specific product statistics and product status reports. It helps catalog managers to identify open tasks and facilitates the product management. The displayed information can be customized using the search framework.

Product Search

For text string searches, the Intershop Commerce Management supports common search expressions, irrespective of the search context or the search type, to trigger fuzzy, exact, wildcard, logical AND, logical OR and combined searches. Products can be searched by simple search or advanced search. Using the advanced search, catalog managers of channels can search for products by category, custom attributes, labels, general information like last modified date or author, etc. The advanced product search facilitates the management of large amounts of product data. The search can be restricted to products from selected catalogs or catalog categories. The search result can be sorted by various attributes such as "product price" or "product name." The classification search is a "special case" advanced search. It is intended to perform searches using specific classification attributes as search criteria.

Product History

All changes within a product repository are logged by the system and can be viewed within a product history. Changes are logged when a product is changed in the business management tool, during the product syndication and synchronization processes, or during a product batch process. The product history provides the following information about a product repository: (a) added products, (b) updated products, (c) deleted products. Detailed information is provided for an update operation, such as changed attributes and old and new values. Each product history entry includes the user and the modification date. Preferences are available to activate the product history feature and to configure the period of time changes are preserved in the product history. The history can be filtered by various criteria, such as user or date. Administrators of channels can access the product history for its own product repository as well as any of its source product repositories.

Product Online Status

Product status refers to the attributes online/offline and availability.

• Products can be set online or offline. A product set offline is not visible in the storefront any longer. The product status can be set to apply always, from a future point in time onwards, or during a limited time interval. Product status definitions can be used via advanced search.
• Availability indicates whether a product is in stock or not.

Product status attributes can be used as advanced search parameters.

Inventory Service

The Inventory Service retrieves the availability information of products to be displayed in the storefront. Using the managed service framework, a developer can easily connect to external services (e.g., warehouse).

Product Locking

Before editing a product, a product manager must explicitly lock the product. This prevents conflicts due to parallel editing of the same product by different product managers. Catalog managers can also disable product locking. This setting is recommended for small sites with only one catalog manager in order to streamline the product management processes.

This feature enables an user with the permission "Catalog & Product Manager" to track and change the approval status for product data. User with the permission "Product Approver" can approve products with changed fields.

The full mass data replication takes the approval status into account. Only approved products are replicated.

Display

The approval status is displayed on the product detail page, in the product search and in the widget "Product Approval Status".

The user can search for the status in the advanced product search and in the widget "Product Approval Status".

Approval Workflow

The status "Edit", "In Review" and "Approved" are available. The approval status can be changed for the respective product at the product detail page and with bulk actions starting from product search and labels for a selection of products.

Users with the permission "Catalog & Product Manager" can change the status from "Edit" to "In Review" and from "In Review" as well as "Approved" back to "Edit".

Users with the permission "Product Approver" can change the status from "In Review" to "Approved" and from "In Review" as well as "Approved" back to "Edit".

The user can enter a reason, if he changes the status back to "Edit" manually.

If the product data were changed manually without changing the approval status manually or if the product data were changed by the product import or with bulk actions, the approval status can be changed by a job back to "Edit". The job takes changes in the standard, custom and variation attributes into account.

Configuration

Labeling

Labels provide a convenient means to group objects, in order to perform certain operations on these objects. Labels facilitate the execution of recurring operations, or operations that need to be applied to a large set of objects. Once labels have been created, they can be assigned to products, catalogs and categories.

Label Searching

Labeled objects can be searched by the advanced search.

Product Label Action

For labels that have been assigned to one or more objects, business management tool operators can select various actions (depending on the object type) to be performed on these objects. Actions for labeled products include:

• Create, update or delete product custom attribute
• Update standard product attributes (product status, availability)
• Copy or delete products
• Assign products to catalog or classification categories
• Assign/unassign product or category links
• Export products
• Export or replicate products to live

Batch Processing

Mass-data actions for products can be processed in batch mode. A batch process can be applied on a list of products, e.g., a product search result or labeled products. Possible actions are:

• Create, update or delete product custom attribute
• Update standard product attributes (product status, availability)
• Copy or delete products
• Assign products to catalog or classification categories
• Assign/unassign product or category links
• Assign labels
• Export or replicate products to live

Product Recycle Bin

Products are automatically moved to a recycle bin if they are deleted from the product repository of a channel. Products in the recycle bin can be restored or finally purged. A preference is available to activate or deactivate the recycle bin.

Product Variations

Channels can have an unlimited number of product variations. A product variation represents a product that is offered in multiple different variants. In particular, the offered variants share most of their attribute values, but are different at some of their attributes. For instance, a t-shirt might vary on the attributes "Size" and "Color". Each variant of a product variation can have a specific product SKU, price or other attributes such as images and specifications. In the storefront, all variants of a product variation are shown in a list and can be filtered by customers.

Variation Types

Channels can create and manage variation types. A variation type represents a variable product attribute and defines the list of values. Variation types can be applied on a variation master to let the system automatically create variations for this master based on the defined values.

Product Combinations

Bundles

Channels can have an unlimited number of product bundles. A product bundle represents a group of products that is offered to customers with its own ID and price. The bundled products might be product bundles themselves (to build bundles of bundles).

Retail Sets

A retail set represents a group of related products. A retail set has similar characteristics as a usual product bundle, as a name, a description, and one or more category assignments. Depending on the storefront implementation, a retail set can be ordered with a single click, or the grouped products are to be ordered individually.

Warranty

Warranty Management

Channel administrators can activate or deactivate warranties for their channel.

Warranty Products

Warranties constitute special products with specific properties such as cannot be individually shipped or no inventory. Warranties are grouped in a dedicated system classification category, which propagates the corresponding properties to these products when establishing the assignment relation. As warranties are intended to be sold in combination with "real" products only, they feature specific pricing options, like fixed price, percentage and scaled price. Channel catalog managers combine products with warranty products using the specific "Warranty" product link. If configured accordingly, the available warranties are displayed on the storefront's product detail page.

Product Attributes

The Intershop Commerce Management supports two attribute types: standard attributes and custom attributes. Standard attributes apply to all products. Custom attributes can be used to define attributes specific to a certain product. Moreover, custom attributes are used to enable implicit product binding. Product attributes can be localized. Localizable attributes define attribute values relative to a locale.

Product Attribute Group

The system allows the management of a meta-model for product attributes. The meta-model can be used to define localized display names for product attributes and to group product attributes. It is possible to add an attribute to multiple attribute groups, and to define different attribute names in different attribute groups for the same product attribute. The attribute meta-model is specific for the product repository of a channel and can be used for standard product attributes as well as custom product attributes. Usage scenarios of the product attribute meta-model are the definition of order-required attributes, product syndication rules for attribute groups, or tailored attribute lists in storefronts.

Standard Product Attributes

Standard attributes apply to all products.

Custom Product Attributes

Custom attributes can be used to define attributes specific to a certain product. Moreover, custom attributes are used to enable implicit product binding. Product attributes can be localized. Localizable attributes define attribute values relative to a locale.

Product Binding

Product binding refers to the assignment of a product to a catalog category. Via product binding, products become part of a catalog. Product binding can be done either explicitly, i.e. manually when managing the product, or implicitly. Implicit product binding makes it possible to automate product-to-category assignments on the basis of a common, definable attribute-value pair.

Product Repositories

Each shop (sales channel) has its own, specific channel product repository.

Outbound Product Sharing

Via outbound product sharing, sales or partner organizations can distribute large numbers of master products to sales channels. The products are not copied to the target channels but remain in the parent organization's master repository. For every sharing relation, i.e., for every assigned channel, the parent organization defines the scope of products to be shared by search or browse operations.

Inbound Product Sharing

Using the inbound product sharing functionality, channels can decide whether to activate all or only a selected set of the shared master products.

Change Tracking

Shared products can be modified in the channel. Differences (added product data, updated product data) between source and shared products are automatically tracked by the system and can be derived if required.

Sharing by Manufacturer
Aliases / Categories

In the product sharing context, organizations can specify new manufacturer names intended to represent one or more actual manufacturers. These manufacturer aliases ease the handling of multiple manufacturers that, based on their offering, can be grouped, or manufacturers that appear with more than one spelling, for example. Aliases and categories can be used to share products.

Syndication by Search

There are two ways to derive products from other repositories: syndication by search and syndication by browse. Using syndication by search, catalog managers perform a simple or advanced search across all available repositories to find the intended products.

Syndication by Browse

There are two ways to derive products from other repositories: syndication by search and syndication by browse. Using syndication by browse, catalog managers browse through the catalog structures to select all products belonging to a catalog or sub-category or to select individual products belonging to a category.

Syndication with Mapping
Rules

Product syndication requires the mapping of attributes (standard product attributes, catalog assignments, prices, etc.) of the original source product into attributes of the derived product. Catalog managers can define specific rule sets that control the conditions such as how to handle ID, attributes, attribute groups, category, classifications, attachments, assignments, price and links.

Product Synchronization

Synchronization ensures that derived products remain synchronized with their source products in case the sources are updated. Catalog managers can define individually for each source repository whether synchronization should be triggered manually in the business management tool, or via an automated job at regular intervals.

Change Tracking

Differences (added products, updated products, deleted products) between source and derived products are automatically tracked by the system. Catalog managers can view the modifications of the source product repositories.

Import & Export

Products can be imported and exported. The following import and export formats are supported:

• Enfinity XML
• CSV  
• BMEcat
  

The support for other import and export formats can be added in custom projects.

Storefront RESTful API

Product data and attributes can be requested by different filters (e.g. by sub-category) via a RESTful API. Categories and navigation elements (e.g. top-level-navigation) also can be requested via a RESTful API.

Different search options like facets, auto completion and sorting are available. Reviews for a product can be requested and created and compare lists can be managed via a RESTful API.

Pricing

Administrators of channels can define list prices in multiple currencies for their products. The list price is a simple, fixed price independent of the order quantity or a scaled price that depends on the order quantity.

Customer-specific prices can be defined for selected business customers or customer segments. A customer-specific price can either be a fixed price or a scaled price.

Optionally, a cost price can be defined for a product, again separately for each available currency on the system. In addition to list prices, channel administrators can define special price lists for channel products.

Special price lists are used for the following main purposes:

• Define scaled prices
• Define customer-specific prices
• Define time-limited prices
• Define discount prices (as absolute value or percentage discount of list price)

The channel taxation policy defines if product prices in the channel are net or gross prices. Prices can be imported from an XML/CSV-file and exported to an XML-File.

Sale Prices

The sale price is displayed on the product detail page. It is based on configurable price types. Price types (e.g., last offered price) can be added easily to price lists by developers. This provides for a high flexibility of price display options in the storefront.

List Prices

Each product has a list price. The list price is a simple, fixed price independent of the ordered product quantity. A list price can be defined separately for each currency available on the system. The list price serves as main reference for calculating other product prices, such as scaled prices within price lists.

Cost Prices

Optionally, a cost price can be defined for a product, separately for each available currency on the system. Administrators of channels can use this price to represent the cost which arises when procuring the product from a supplier or parent organization. Using the cost price as a basis, various scenarios are possible in which the list price of a product is derived from its cost price by adding a fixed or percentage surcharge, or by granting a discount. For example, the list price of a product could be the cost price plus 10% on top, representing the desired margin.

Special Prices

In addition to list prices, channel administrators can define special price lists for channel products. Special price lists are used for the following main purposes:

• Define scaled prices
• Define customer segment-specific prices
• Define time-limited prices
• Define discount prices (as absolute value or percentage discount of list price)

Product Tax Classes

Administrators of channels can assign a tax class to each of their products. Those tax classes are defined in the central administration. The tax class is used during the product selection and the order process to calculate the tax amount.

Taxation Policy

The administrator can determine whether product prices and other prices are treated as gross prices or as net prices individually for the channel.

Tax Calculation

The taxation of an order is calculated based on the tax classes assigned to the products and the tax jurisdiction derived from the customers billing address. 

Sorting

Adjustable Catalog Sorting

Catalog managers of a sales channel can define the sort order of storefront catalogs in the business management tool. The sort order and direction can be set for each catalog individually.

Adjustable Category Sorting

Administrators of channels can define in which order sub categories are sorted within catalogs and categories. Sub categories can be positioned manually in catalogs and categories. Furthermore, a sorting attribute and a sorting direction can be specified for each individual catalog or category for all categories that are not positioned explicitly.

A preference allows the definition of a default category sorting attribute and a default sorting direction for the channel.

Adjustable Product Sorting

Administrators of channels can define in which order products are sorted within catalog categories and product bundles. Products can be positioned manually in categories and bundles. Furthermore, a sorting attribute and a sorting direction can be specified for each individual category for all products that are not positioned explicitly.

A preference allows the definition of a default category sorting attribute and a default sorting direction for the channel.

Product and Catalog Presentation

Catalog managers can set up a different layout and/or structure for each catalog category and/or product. Customer-specific assortments can be defined.

Individual Category
Presentation

Catalog managers can define one or more individual content views, i.e., pages and/or includes, for each catalog category.

Individual Product
Presentation

Catalog managers can define one or more individual content views, i.e., pages and/or includes, for each product.

Catalog Views

Catalog Views,

Customer-Specific Assortments

Catalogs

An administrator of a channel can set up one or more channel-specific product catalog structures. Product catalog structures can also be inherited from the sales organization that is operating the channel (a sales organization or a sales partner).

The customers of a channel can browse products by using the product catalog structures specifically defined for this channel or via the product catalog structures inherited from the sales organization operating this channel.

Local Catalogs

Local catalogs are channel catalogs, they are created and can be used only within their corresponding channel context.

System Classification Catalogs

Products can be assigned to categories in a given system classification catalog to define specific product types (e.g., warranty, gift wrap). The product type determines how the product will be handled within the Intershop Commerce Management.

Global Classification Catalogs

Classification catalogs have the same characteristics as ordinary product catalogs, but additionally provide functionality to pre-define the attributes of the products assigned to them (categories of classification catalogs represent "product types"). Central administrators can create, import and manage classification catalogs centrally. Classification catalogs created and set online globally for all sales organizations in Intershop Organization Management. The sales organizations propagate them to their channels. The supported import file type is XML. The software provides default support for different classification catalog standards (e.g. eCl@ss, UN/SPSC, ETIM 6.0).

Local Classification Catalogs

Catalog managers can create, import and manage several classification schemas and multiple versions of one classification type. Classifications support defining classification attributes to allow consistent attribute groups for all products within a classification category. In addition, catalog managers can use the classification search to identify products with incomplete attribute sets. Classifications can be managed on organization level, and can be shared to channels. The supported import file type is XML. The software provides default support for different classification catalog standards.

Catalog Online Status

Catalogs can be online or offline. An offline catalog is not visible to any users, except catalog administrators.

Categories

The shop manager can directly assign products to multiple product catalog categories.

Implicit Product Binding

Based on configurable attributes (e.g., color) products can be assigned to categories via batch job. The Dynamic Product Binding via Search Query Definition is able to assign products by adding multiple attribute-value-pairs to a category and is also used within other functionalities. It is available within the channels. The Dynamic Product Binding is already implemented within the channel and can be used to implicitly assign products to a category.

Explicit Product Binding

The shop manager can manually assign products to categories.

Catalog Sharing

Shared catalogs are master catalogs that are shared to one or more channels. These catalogs are then be accessed by the business partners that use these channels. Catalog sharing makes it possible to use pre-defined catalog structures across different channels.

Catalog Import & Export

Product catalogs and classification catalogs can be imported and exported. The following import and export formats are supported:

• Enfinity XML
• CSV  
• BMEcat

The support for other import and export formats can be added in custom projects.

PunchOut

Intershop Commerce Management provides the capability to integrate with procurement systems. Therefore the buying organizations can integrate the storefront of a channel as an external catalog into their procurement system.

Open Catalog Interface (OCI)

Product catalog structures and products of the customer of a channel can be exposed to external systems via OCI, by creating an OCI-user.
The OCI-user can browse the catalogs and add products to the shopping cart. The shopping cart can be transferred to the procurement system. The naming conventions for OCI version 4.0 and 5.0 are used for the transfer of the line items of the cart.
The following additional functions are implemented:

• Detailed information of a product or service
• Validation of a product
• Background search for products

A customer can configure individual return values for OCI fields. OCI field configurations can be set by the administrator of the customer in the storefront. String formatting functions and placeholders for standard attributes are available for this purpose.

Product catalog structures and products of the customer of a channel can be exposed to external systems via cXML, by creating an cXML-user for a customer. Intershop Commerce Management supports the following cXML protocol subset (cXML Version 1.2.049 and compatible):

• PunchoutSetupRequest in order to allow initiation of punchout sessions
• OrderRequest in order to allow the injection of orders from a procurement system

The following properties can be configured per customer:

• Unit of measurement definition
• Locale of returned product data

Shipping Configuration Management

An administrator of a sales channel can set up one or more channel-specific shipping methods. For each shipping method, a shipping cost amount can be defined. Furthermore, shipping can be defined as free if the order amount exceeds a specific threshold. Shipping methods can be enabled or disabled. During the order process, customers can select one of the enabled shipping methods. The actual shipping costs are calculated based on the selected shipping method and configured shipping rules.

Shipping Methods

Destination Regions

Freight Classes

The e-commerce manager can create, edit and manage freight classes and associated eligible shipping methods and destination regions. Freight classes are intended to be associated with products.

Shipping Rules

The e-commerce manager can create, edit and manage shipping rules to manage exceptions to the defined shipping configurations, for example, to restrict specific shipping methods to certain destination regions or to exclude individual products from being shipped to certain destination regions or to define specific surcharges.

Shipping Data Import & Export

The e-commerce manager can manage shipping configurations by importing and exporting shipping methods, destination regions, freight classes and shipping rules. The import/export procedures are based on XML files.

Ship Time Range

An administrator of a sales channel can set up common shipping time ranges for shipping preparation and delivery. It is used to show the expected day of delivery. Each time range can be overwritten by time ranges specifically defined for shipping methods.

Delivery Time per Product

A e-commerce manager can define the delivery time range per product. The estimation of the expected day of delivery considers this time range together with the shipping range of the shipping method or the common preferences.

Invoice

Customers can select invoice as the payment method during the checkout process.

Cash on Delivery

Customers can select cash on delivery as the payment method during the checkout process.

Gift Cards/Certificates

Customers can select gift certificate as payment method during the checkout process. 

Buy Gift Card/Certificate

Gift cards/certificates are a special type of product with a fixed price. The customer can buy the gift card/certificate and the code and pin displayed after submitting the order at the storefront. The customer also receives an e-mail with this code and pin numbers. The retailer sends a physical gift card/certificate to the customer.

Redeem Certificate

Redeem Gift Card

Any numbers of gift cards can be redeemed in the checkout at once. If doing so, the customer is prompted for the code and the PIN of the gift card. After the customer has specified a valid code and PIN, the gift card amount is credited for the current order. Gift cards can be combined with payment methods (e.g. invoice) without any restrictions.

Gift Card/Certificate Balance

The customer "My Account" section displays the gift card/certificate state and the amount left for each gift card.

Optional Payment Services

Sample Payment Implementations

Sample payment implementations ("redirect before checkout", "fast checkout" and "redirect for authorization") can be used for an easy integration of a new payment method.

Payment Method Management

Additional payment method plugins can be added as managed services. Sales channel administrators can select the payment methods that are available in the storefront for all customers. For each activated payment method, channel- and application-specific preferences can be defined.

Intershop Commerce Management

Intershop Commerce Management is available in:

• English
• German (Central System Administration, development tools and Setup available in English only)
• Other languages can be done via localization framework.

Reference Site / Demo Content

English

Multiple Locale Support

Locales represent specific geographical, political or cultural regions. Locales are associated with a language and a currency. Multiple locales can be used within an application.

Change Localized Strings

The localization manager can maintain the static texts to be displayed in the sales channel storefront for each locale in the business management tool.

Localization Framework

Standard Java resource bundle localization framework is used to localize text. Localization property files stored in cartridges contain keys with localized strings. ISML templates contain <ISTEXT>-tags to load localized strings at runtime. Tags can be extended by parameters to reduce development effort.

Multi-Byte Support

Multi-byte UTF-8 encodings can be used to localize all HTML-based Web interfaces and business data.

Localization Import & Export

The localization manager can export localization in different formats (e.g., XML) to the file system. The changed file can be uploaded and imported back to the channel.

Multiple Currency Support

Multiple currencies can be used to localize prices and pricing rules.

Locales and Currencies

The e-commerce manager can assign locales and currencies on an application level. This allows the visitor to see only pages and product data for the valid countries and languages.

Organization Profile

Sales organizations are associated with a general organization profile. The organization profile aggregates two types of information:

• General Information: This includes information like the name of the organization and the default currency and language used for the channels created by the sales organization. The default currency and language settings can be overwritten at the channel level.
• Address Information: Each organization has at least one address. This address cannot be deleted and is referred to as the organization's contact address. An unlimited number of additional addresses can be created as needed.

Shops (Sales Channels)

A sales organization administrator can create an unlimited number of shops using the sales channel functionality.

Shop Hierarchy (Partner Channels)

A sales organization administrator can create a hierarchical structure of business layers (e.g., country divisions, business divisions, business models) using the partner channel functionality. An administrator of a partner channel can activate and deactivate partner organizations. Subsequently users of a deactivated organization are not able to log into the system. An administrator of a partner channel manages sales partners which can be added, modified and deleted.

User Management

A sales organization can manage its internal users and their profiles, including login and contact data. Users are added, modified, deleted as well as activated or deactivated. Access privileges are granted to users, and users are assigned to departments of the sales organization. Users manage parts of their profile themselves.

Departments

A sales organization manages its internal department structure. Departments can be added, modified and deleted. Departments are arranged in a department hierarchy. Users are assigned to one or more departments.

The user can create an arbitrary number of dashboards (with unique dashboard names) and navigate to a dashboard from anywhere in the Intershop Commerce Management (dashboards are available over a dedicated menu item in the header of the Intershop Commerce Management).

Widgets can be added to a dashboard via the widget selection dialog. The widgets can be moved  and resized within the dashboard. The dashboard is divided into four columns, every widget can span 1 to 4 columns and an arbitrary number of rows. Widgets can be configured (configuration options depend on the widget type). The access to the widget content is restricted by permissions.

The development framework for widgets provides the possibility to add custom widgets in addition to the existing widget types. The framework provides functions to:

• Read and store configuration values
• Generate diagrams with a JavaScript chart library
• Automatically integrate into the widget library
• Support the rendering of an external URL in widgets
• Configure permissions for widgets

Data Aggregators

Business Intelligence Integration

Collected and aggregated data from the reporting repository can be used by Business Intelligence Systems for generating business and technical reports.

A/B-Test

We are using the term A/B-test synonymous with the term multivariate-test, because the Intershop Commerce Management supports test designs with multiple test groups.

A/B-tests are an easy and inexpensive way to test different versions of promotions or content assets (page variants and components) against each other. Thus it is possible to identify the best version and optimize conversion rates.

Customers, customer segments or affiliate partners can be selected as target group for the test. The target group can be split into an indefinite number of test groups.

Different versions of promotions and content assets can be assigned to each test group in order to be tested. To identify the best version, a report is created including test group specific data like conversion rates, number of ordered products, total order value, content asset clicks, content asset views, promotion applies etc.

Activation Rules

The A/B-test activation rules determine the activation period, which defines a specific start and end date. The A/B-test for promotions considers the parameters of the promotion (e.g., the activation period).

Target Group

The target group defines which customers are going to participate in the test. To define the target group, one or more customer segments, affiliate partners or partner programs can be selected. The members of the target group are then distributed proportionally over two or more test groups.

Test Groups

A/B-Test Statistics

While an A/B-test runs, the system keeps a detailed record of all target group members activities. Once the test has started, marketing managers can view the test results. Results are updated asynchronously via job. Test results can be viewed via a summary table showing the most important results at a glance including an indicator for the statistical relevance, or via detailed breakdowns of all different customer activities that the system tracks.

A/B-Test Preview

The marketing manager can control the different test objects in a storefront preview.

Business Tracking Framework

Based on events (view events e.g., view page, basket, product, category and action events, e.g., add to basket, place order etc.), reporting data can be provided to external reporting systems using the business tracking framework.

Storefront Tracking Tags

Pages in the Blueprint Store are tagged with meta data information to provide reporting data.

The Intershop Commerce Management supports the integration of different Web Analytics tools like Google Analytics and others via an interface to Google Tag Manager. Based on specifically prepared storefront pages, the user interaction can be traced and analyzed to generate reports. The integration is based on a so called data layer and supports the use cases specified by Google Enhanced Ecommerce - Universal Analytics. For using Google Tag Manager in the Intershop Commerce Management, a Google Tag Manager account is needed. The Google Tag Manager Managed Service must be configured and enabled.

Multiple Synchronized Datacenters

To ensure a high availability and security, the Intershop Commerce Management supports working with multiple datacenters. The datacenters are synchronized automatically. If one datacenter goes offline, existing customer sessions can be switched between multiple synchronized datacenters.

Application Server Management

Application servers can be started, stopped, and shut down.

Application Server Configuration

Application server settings, such as setting controlling fail-over, restart, session handling, logging, cookies usage, object caching, database connections, memory usage, CPU usage, can be configured in a central configuration file. Those settings can be overwritten individually for each application server.

Server Groups

Groups of application servers can be defined in a central configuration file. An application server can be assigned to one or more server groups.

Web Adapter Configuration

Web Adapter settings, such as settings controlling web caching, session handling, logging, SSL usage, load balancing, can be configured in a central configuration file.

Web Tier

The Web tier consists of Web servers. Each Web server is enhanced by a Web Adapter plugin (see below). Any number of Web servers (with Web Adapter plugins) can be operated in parallel in order to scale with the number to incoming requests.

Application Tier

The application tier consists of application servers. It processes the business and presentation logic of the Intershop Commerce Management. Any number of application servers can be operated in parallel in order to scale with the number to incoming requests.

Data Tier

The data tier consists of a relational database server storing the business objects.

Server Cluster

An Intershop Commerce Management cluster consists of a number of Web servers (with the Web Adapter plugins) and a number of application servers sharing a common database. Web servers and application servers can dynamically be added to or removed from a server cluster.

Server Groups

An Intershop Commerce Management cluster can be divided into logical sub-clusters, called server groups. Server groups can be assigned to applications, serving as dedicated resources for those applications.

Web Adapter

The Web Adapter is a plugin that runs as a native module within Web servers. It distributes incoming requests to application servers. The Web Adapter controls the session handling and load balancing, and it acts as a Web cache. The Web Adapter supports SSL connections.

Web Servers

Web server on a separate server machine: an appropriate sizing of the Web server according to its documentation is required.

Load Balancing

Web Adapter act as a software load balancer. Incoming requests are dispatched to application servers using a load balancing algorithm preferring the most responsive application server.

In addition to the software load balancing provided by the Web Adapter, hardware load balancers can be put in front of the Web tier.

Sessions

The Intershop Commerce Management provides a session mechanism to maintain state over a series of requests from the same user across a period of time. Sessions are represented by session IDs, either stored in URLs or as session cookies.

Session Failover

Initially, a session is assigned to an application server in order to optimize business object cache usage (session affinity). It is automatically reassigned in case the initial application server is not available.

Data Replication Process Types

Data replication supports the following process types:

• Replication (data is replicated, but not published on the target system)
• Publication (replicated data is published on the target system)
• Replication & publication (combination of replication and publication)
• Undo (published data is rolled back)

Mass Data Replication

Mass Data Replication allows the transfer of large amounts of data between physically separated Intershop Commerce Management systems, e.g., an editing and a live system. In a typical scenario, the data replication process is used to update content and business rules first in an editing system and then transfer this data to a live system and activate it there.

The central administrator is responsible for the execution and monitoring of data transfer processes. An administrator of the business units (organizations, channels) of the system sends data transfer requests to the central administrator. Such requests are provided as tasks in a task list and specify the requesting business unit and the data to be transferred.

Data replication includes processes to replicate and publish data and to rollback published data on a target system. All processes can be executed manually or based on a scheduler. A process monitor provides details about the status of running processes.

Full Data Replication

This configuration of data replication allows the very fast bulk replication of large amount of data. It replaces entire sets of data records on the target system. Changes on the target system are overwritten (compare to Differential Data Replication).

Differential Data Replication

With this configuration of data replication, changes on the target system are not overwritten. Instead, only the changes on the source system are transferred and synchronized with the changes on the target system (compare to Full Data Replication).

Business Object Replication

Business Object Replication allows a quick transfer of specific data (e.g., selected products, pricelists) to reduce the publishing time. The feature can be used for data corrections.

Replication Chains

Intershop Commerce Management clusters can simultaneously act as both source and target of replication processes. This allows the setup of data replication chains. For example, the first system in the chain might be a data editing system. The second system might be a test system that by itself is followed up by a live system.

Process Locking

Data replication process execution is controlled by the system locking facility. This facility locks resources used by a data replication process and prevents conflicting processes (such as schedules, imports or other replication processes) on those resources. Data replication processes not competing for resources can be executed in parallel.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

The Intershop Commerce Management and its Microservices are delivered with tools that can be used to build, assemble, upgrade, downgrade, deploy and un-deploy software components. These tools are designed to implement very flexible continuous delivery processes.

The source files of the software components (system components, respectively) are checked into a version control system like subversion or git. Each check-in process triggers an automatic process on a continuous integration server, like Jenkins, Hudson, Team City or Atlassian Bamboo, which checks out the system components, builds them, and runs different tests. The report of this process is delivered to the teams to provide feedback in case of problems. The built system components are published to an artifact repository. The subsequent assembly process combines a number of system components in a concrete version and publishes different assembly artifacts. The following steps in the delivery pipeline include automatic deployment to clusters with different purposes, execution of different tests like load tests, manual tests as well as pre-production tests. Finally, the new components are deployed to the production system.

The Intershop software and updates are provided via a public artifacts repository server. This enables a seamless integration of Intershop software components into the project environments, using the continuous delivery approach.

Deployment Process

The deployment process is independent of the operating system. The available operating systems are specified in the system requirements document.

The deployment process expects a published assembly located in an artifact repository. There are two types:

• Single Node Deployment installs and configures all host types on one host.
• Cluster Deployment consists of several sub-processes installing and configuring particular nodes of an Intershop cluster.

Support of Custom Cartridges

The build management is based on the standard tool Gradle. The entire process can easily be extended into customer projects. Custom cartridges can be built, configured in assemblies and deployed in the same way as the Intershop Commerce Management standard system.

Process Schedules

Processes (pipelines) can be scheduled for one-time or recurring execution. The execution state of those processes can be monitored. Scheduled processes can also be executed ad-hoc.

Job Execution Chain

System administrators can define chains of jobs or pipelines to be executed concurrently or sequentially. This extends the scheduled job execution functionality.

Command Line Interface

Process schedules can be triggered from the command line.

Web Service Interface

Process schedules can be triggered from a Web Service Interface.

Amazon Web Service

Intershop supports Amazon Web Services. To be able to run in the Amazon Web Service (AWS), Intershop supports Amazon's messaging services Simple Notification Service (SNS) and Simple Queue Service (SQS). Those messaging services are used instead of multicast which is used across the whole Intershop application, e.g., for cache invalidation and job handling.

Business Object Framework

Java Objects - Business objects are implemented as Java objects.

Persistence - Business objects can be made persistent in a relational database by object-relational mapping (ORM). The connections to the relational database are pooled to ensure reuse and better performance.

Business Object Caching - For better performance, persistent business objects are cached in the application servers to avoid access to the relational database.

Cache Synchronization - To prevent the use of outdated data, the caches of the application servers of a cluster can be synchronized.

Object Model-based Search - The search framework allows search queries to be based on the business object model and not on the underlying data model of the relational database (which is the result of the object-relational mapping (ORM)), making those queries more intuitive.
The business object model can be extended. This results in an automatic extension of the query encoder (see below).

Query Encoder - The query encoder translates search queries against the business object model into optimized SQL-queries against the relational database.

Search Result Paging - The search results can be paged. The number of items per page can be configured.

The system administrator decides where to read a configuration from. In the configuration.xml different scopes are defined, which are logically structured configuration groups (e.g., System, Startup, Instance, Cluster, Server, Domain) with dependencies. The current configuration values can be viewed in the Server Management.

Configuration Import & Export - The configuration can be exported in the Server Management via batch job "exportconfiguration".

The framework for configurable objects allows an easy creation of preferences and properties. The preferences can be grouped together in property groups which are the atomic sets of properties required for a single feature. Default values and fallback strategies as well as validation constraints can be defined for properties.

Auditing Framework

Using the auditing framework, system administrators can track all changes to business objects, e.g., product price changes or changes of order states. A specific configuration file allows for defining which business object changes should be tracked.

Logging Framework

The integrated logging framework of the Intershop Commerce Management produces detailed log information and can integrate third-party APIs (Tomcat, Java AWT, etc.) into its logging framework.

Java Server Pages (JSP) - The presentation logic is realized with Java Server Pages (JSP).

Intershop Markup Language (ISML) - Intershop Markup Language (ISML) is a server-side scripting language to simplify the implementation of the presentation logic. ISML templates are translated to JSP code in a compilation step. ISML tags and JSP code can be mixed.

Content Management - The new content management allows changes in the storefront without consideration of deployment cycles.

Web Adapter/Application Server/Solr

Intershops Microservices Stack consists of a JAX-RS Application sitting on top of an EclipseLink persistant layer.

HTML Web Interface

All user interfaces - except setup and development tools - are HTML-based Web interfaces.

Customization

All HTML-based Web interfaces, in particular the customer-facing storefronts, can be customized.

Audit Report

An audit report that summarizes the software usage can be generated. According to the End User License Agreement, this audit report must be passed to Intershop on request.

Transaction Report

A transaction report that summarizes the order volume and the number of orders of all customer and business channels within a specified time period can be generated. Intershop customers with a transaction-based pricing model must pass those transaction reports to Intershop as specified in the contract. Special terms and conditions apply.

Event Logging

System information is recorded in log files. The scope of recorded information can be configured. The following log scopes are available: FATAL, ERROR, WARN, SYSEVENT, DEBUG, JOB, PERFORMANCE, STAGING.

The entries for each log scope can be written into different log files. Log files are rolled over based on a configured size.

Request Logging

Requests received by Web Adapters are recorded in a log file. The log files contain detailed statistical information for each request, such as the response and the source of the request. The request logging is configurable during run-time.

Site Preferences

Using the System Management module, the system administrator can control global settings for the sites served by the Intershop Commerce Management System. The following general preferences can be controlled: server group assignment, HTTPS traffic, URL rewriting and online status.

Cache Preferences

On the Page Cache tab, system administrators control the page cache behavior of the site. In addition to the global page cache activation, this includes the following settings:

• The time that static content is kept
• Keyword-based cache invalidation and deletion
• Cache index-based cache invalidation and deletion
• Complete cache invalidation and deletion
• Cache pre-fetching

Application Settings

An overview of installed applications with status and used cartridge structure

File Browser

The system administrators have the possibility to browse through various shared directories from different servers of a cluster.

Cartridge

The status and configuration of cartridges can be monitored. Additionally, loaded pipelines and pipelets are displayed.

Database

Information about used drivers and the current connection pool status is provided.

Java Virtual Machine

Information about the usage of virtual machine resources, the amount of threads, and the configuration of virtual machines is provided.

Application Server

Information about the usage of resources and the configuration of a selected application server is provided.

Cluster

Information about the application servers and the Web Adapters in the cluster is provided.

Performance

Performance numbers about the runtime of pipelines, pipelets, and templates for the cluster and its components are provided.

Session

Information about new sessions is provided.

Progression Charts

The temporal progression of virtual machine memory usage, process memory usage, CPU usage, number of sessions, number of requests and average response time are presented as charts.

Appserver Health Monitoring

Java level thread dead locks, missing database and file system accessibility, as well as execution threads (request handler, job executor) for out of memory errors may lead to registered but not working application servers. Requests from customers to these application servers return an error page. The application server showing one of the problems mentioned above is now unregistered from the configuration service to prevent future requests to this server, and the errors will be written to the debug log.

Application servers are automatically restarted if they fail.

Installation Maintenance

Using the Installation Maintenance module of the Intershop System Management, the system administrator can collect vital information about the Intershop Commerce Management System and transfer it to Intershop Support.

• Managing Online Shops
• Organization Management User Guide
• System Management Online Help

• Managing Online Shops
• Organization Management User Guide
• System Management Online Help
• Cluster Management Online Help

RESTful API

Job Handling

Build

The build system is just one part of Intershop's whole Continuous Integration (CI) strategy. It is based on Gradle and also supports test and deployment and can be integrated into CI tools like Jenkins and Nexus.

Frameworks and tools to support test automation on all 3 levels of testing:

• User interfaces tests - based on HTML Unit, Selenium and PhantomJS
• Service/integration tests -These tests are based on the Intershop Cartridge API test framework. CAPI Tests are a special implementation of server-side testcases. These are executed in a full server environment. All resources accessible to normal business logic components are accessible to these test cases as well. In addition, it provides a generic test case that allows the execution of pipelines from within the test case. 
• Unit tests - These are test cases that are independent of a full server environment and can be executed in isolation. They do not have access to typical server functionality or pipelines. However, client side test cases are useful for testing utility functionality that is server independent. Client side tests are implemented using standard facilities of the JUnit 4 test framework and the Mockito mocking framework.

HTTPS

The storefront web interface can be secured by HTTPS. Alternatively, only the order checkout, the customer authentication and registration processes can be secured by HTTPS.

System Access Privileges

An access privilege represents a set of permissions, which control the access to administrative functionality. They can be assigned to users as well as to department roles of a sales organization.

CAPTCHA

Channel administrators can configure CAPTCHA usage on channel level. CAPTCHAS are available for the "Forgot password", "Registration", "Contact Us" and "Tell a friend" features.

Profanity Check

To keep storefronts clean from profane language, organization administrators can define words, relative to a locale, that are not allowed in the organization's storefronts. As a consequence, any use of these words in product reviews, gift card messages or other content that users can edit is then blocked. It is possible to maintain one global bad word list per locale, which is propagated to all channels, and a custom bad word list (per locale), which is only valid for the current organizational scope (organization or channel).

Business Management Tool Authentication

Users of a sales organization can log into the system by entering their credentials (login, password, sales organization). They are authenticated against the local user database or LDAP directories. The Java Authentication and Authorization (JAAS) standard is supported.

Disable Users

System administrators can configure the time period after which an inactive user is automatically disabled. Disabled users must be reactivated manually by organization managers in the business management tool.

Last Login Date

The date/time of each user's last login is stored in the database. Business Management Tool users can see the date of their last login in the Business Management Tool. User managers can see the last login date of each user within the user profile.

Password Handling

System administrators can configure the password validity period and the number of previous passwords not to be reused. In addition, they can define the password expression rules (number of characters, allowed and required characters). By default, passwords expire after 90 days, the four last passwords cannot be reused, and all alphanumeric characters are allowed.

Login & Session Handling

System administrators can configure the number of failed login attempts before the user account is locked and the time period after which a user cannot log in after being locked. In addition, system administrators can define an inactivity period after which a business management tool user is automatically logged out. By default, a user account is locked for 30 minutes after six failed login attempts, and sessions automatically time out after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Key Management

The system administrator can manage multiple encryption passwords and mark one of them as default. The feature allows the decryption of data using old passwords and to re-encrypt data with the currently active password. Furthermore, different encryption algorithms can be defined.

Payment Permissions

Organization managers can assign specific payment management roles to business management tool users:

• Payment Configurator, who activates and configures payment services
• Payment Manager, who performs payment transactions
• Payment Viewer, who can view payment transaction information

User Data Auditing

Every access to sensitive payment data is stored in an audit trail. Each time the user logs in the system, updates his or her password or the password of other users, creates a new user or deletes one or more users, changes role assignments, changes the status of orders or executes some payment actions (like Capture or Cancel), new entries are written to a dedicated log file. The messages explain the result of an executed action - success or error, as well as any additional data, if available.

Audit Log/Audit Report

An audit trail of business-relevant chronological records is created for user activities in the Intershop Commerce Management in the area of products, prices, promotions and content.

The system administrator can configure, search, review and export/save a report of user-based activities.