Introduction

The document describes the concept for site preview of catalog and catalog categories. The site preview started in the Intershop Commerce Management can be done for a selected date and with a configuration to show all categories.

Preview Configuration

Preview configuration parameters will be accessed using a provider: CatalogConfigurationProvider. This provider defines extension points for several attribute configurations.
The implementation of the provider maps configuration values from the preview user interface to "technical" attributes.

The extension implementation of the attribute configuration gets configuration values from the preview context.

• Date/Time
  • It determines whether the current date or a fixed date, specified by the user, is used for the preview.
  • Below the configuration panel used for the storefront preview for date/time configuration is shown.
• Make all categories visible
  • Selecting that checkbox allows the user to see all categories including offline and empty categories.

API

Description

The DefaultCatalogConfigurationProvider class provides default values for Java extensions methods. It checks if an extension implementation is available; if not, the default value is returned. The default values simulate the standard shop behavior.
The extension implementation is done in sld_preview and therefore only available if cartridge sld_preview is assigned to the application. This makes it easy to deactivate the preview functionality for a certain server (e.g., live system) by not assigning the sld_preview cartridge to a application.
For each parameter which influences the preview behavior there is a Java extension (xcs) and a Java extension implementation (sld_preview).

Class-Diagram

Further Documentation

• Storefront Preview Configuration Framework
• Concept - Extension Points
• Concept - Product Preview
• Cookbook - Product Preview