There has been some excellent activity by some heavy-weights in the Commerce Server world.  Sadly, I haven't been contributing very much on my blog, as I am desperately trying to complete my book.

It started with Søren Spelling Lund's two-part series (and maybe more?) on what it's like developing with Commerce Server 2007.

• Developing with Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Part 1: Secure By Default

In this post, Søren highlights the high-level of security that has gone into Commerce Server 2007, calling it "both a blessing and a curse."  He attributes this to the flexibility and granularity of the security system, in addition to the complexity that comes with it.  Commerce Server 2007 makes use of the Windows Authorization Manager for security.  See the following links for more information: Developing Applications Using Windows Authorization Manager, and Managing Authorization Policies.

Søren also highlights the Distributed Transaction Manager and use of MSDTC and System.Transaction in the .NET Framework 2.0.

• Developing with Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Part 2: Three-Way Data Access

Søren discusses three different data access systems for Commerce Server 2007, based on the subsystem with which you're working (i.e. the Profile system, the Catalog system, and the Order system).  Take a look at his post for the specifics.  I would also suggest you take a look at MSDN for some additional information on developing with Commerce Server 2007.

Not to be out-done by Søren, Max Akbar took some time out of his busy schedule to post a great article on caching and Commerce Server 2007.

• A Few Things You Didn't Know About Commerce Server's Catalog Cache

Max highlights a number of important topics, including: the Catalog cache, Web.Config settings, refreshing the cache, the cache size, the cache location, how to use your own caching.

As always, Max's post is a great blend of information and code snippets.

Last, but certainly not least, Tom Schultz contributed to the discussion of caching by highlighting a mixed-authentication solution for the SiteCacheRefresh HTTP handler.

• SiteCacheRefresh - Mixed Authentication Solution

Tom shows how the SiteCacheRefresh HTTP handler provides Commerce Server with caching capabilities.  He goes beyond this, however, when he points out that by default the ASP.NET site uses forms authentication.  Since the web site can support either forms or windows authentication, a mixed authentication model is required.  Tom shows you how to construct this by taking aspects of the Starter Site

All in all, great stuff!

04/13/2008 - Please see this post for information regarding this book.

It has been awhile since I last posted about the status of the book Professional Commerce Server 2007, so I thought I'd share some news and exciting developments.

First of all, I am very happy to announce that Tom Schultz has agreed to participate in writing the book and will author a number of chapters.  Tom is a senior consultant with the Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), and is particularly focused on e-commerce and the Commerce Server product.  Tom's extensive real world knowledge and expertise will bring tremendous value to this book, and I am really excited to work with him.

The book is on schedule and still targeted to hit the shelves in Q1, 2008.

Here is the table of contents for the book.  At this point there really won't be any major changes:

Part I: Getting Started

1    Technology Primer
2    First Steps
3    The Commerce Server Architecture

Part II - Commerce Server Overview

4    The Catalog System
5    The Inventory System
6    The Orders System
7    The Profiles System
8    The Marketing System
9    The Commerce Server Adapters for BizTalk Server 2006
10    Commerce Server Staging
11    The Data Warehouse Analytics System
12    The Business Processing Pipeline System

Part III: Developing with Commerce Server

13    Commerce Server 2007 Development
14    Developing with the Catalog System
15    Developing with the Inventory System
16    Developing with the Orders System
17    Developing with the Profile System
18    Developing with the Marketing System
19    Customizing the Business Management Applications
20    Modifying and Extending the Data Warehouse
21    Building and Customizing SQL Reporting Services
22    Advanced Topics with the Commerce Server Adapters
23    Operational Monitoring

Part IV: Commerce Server in Production

24    Production Architectures
25    Building Your Production Environments
26    Deploying Commerce Server

Appendix

A    APIs
B    FAQ and Answers
C    Tips and Tricks

Tom and I will continue to work diligently on finalizing the content of the book.  Our goal is to provide our peers (i.e. you!) with the knowledge required to successfully architect, implement, deploy, and support enterprise solutions using Commerce Server 2007.

Earlier today I learned about the new partnership between Microsoft and Cactus Commerce through some press releases, but finally some official announcements come from the Commerce Server product team.

Ryan Donovan has blogged on both the Commerce Server product roadmap and the new Commerce Server Information Desk (CSID) program: Official Announcements: Commerce Server Product Roadmap & Information Desk Program.  Here are some of the things I took away from the post:

• Technology
• Commerce Server "7" (codename) - next major version of Commerce Server, targeted for mid-2000
• Commerce Server 2007 accelerators - a la carte additions that you can add to your CS 2007 implementations
• Technology integration - MOSS 2007, Dynamics, Live services, and Silverlight (wow!)
• Vertical scenarios - Merchandise/retail, apparel, electronics, digital downloads, and hospitality
• Pricing, licensing, packaging, and naming are all TBD
• Resources and support
• Commerce Server Information Desk (CSID) program
• Aims "to provide top quality pre- and post-sales engagement support"
• Product-group managed program immediately available through csid@microsoft.com

I am very excited about both of these announcements.  It's exciting to hear that the product team is plugging away at the next version of Commerce Server, and I can't wait to get my hands on the accelerators!  I've wanted this for a long time now - true integration to other MS products as well as the ability to specifically target certain industries.

My guess is that these accelerates are/were the intellectual property (IP) of Cactus Commerce, and that this new partnership has allowed Microsoft to bundle them into the product.  Can anyone validate or invalidate this statement?

Ryan also posted an announcement on his personal MSDN blog: In-Depth: Commerce Server Product Roadmap & Information Desk Program Announcement.  Here are some of the additional nuggets I took away from his post:

• CS 2007 is now a year old! (time flies ...)
• Commerce Server "7" will be the seventh major version of MS's e-commerce platform
• Features
• Migration from CS 2007
• Commerce Foundation 3.0
• An all-managed foundation (finally!)
• A consistent programming model
• 2-tier and 3-tier/web-service support for runtime and management services
• Commerce-at-Your-Fingertips
• It's not just about the Web site
• Kiosks, mobility, and in-store integrations (wow!)
• Lifestyle Commerce
• Social networking (man, this would be SO handy right now ...)
• Personalization
• "... targeted marketing across all channels with predictive analytics to measure the results and make adjustments ..." (artificial intelligence?)
• "... long-term arrangement with Cactus Commerce ... as the new preferred joint development and go-to-market partner for Commerce Server."
• MS Partners and customers can leverage Cactus' experience and expertise
• Working along with the product group

Great stuff!  The features that will come in Commerce Server "7" look to be outstanding!

While I am happy to hear about Microsoft's joint venture with Cactus, I do have some questions regarding Cactus as the new "go-to-market" partner ...

• What does this actually mean to us (i.e. Microsoft partners)?  How exactly can we leverage their expertise?
• While I've never consider us to be in competition with Cactus (different markets), it does seem strange that we may compete against Cactus for solutions and services yet will rely on them for sales and delivery support.  How is this going to work?
•  Who's really at the helm?  Microsoft, or Cactus? (this is asked facetiously ... <grin>)

Again, it's all good stuff.  I think the partnership is really going to drive things forward.  It's a great time to be involved with Commerce Server!

Some really interesting news on the Commerce Server front today ...

Cactus Commerce Signs a Global Agreement With Microsoft Corp. for Electronic Commerce

"Cactus Commerce, a software and services company, today announced it has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corporation to drive product development, partner ecosystem development, marketing, services and support of the Commerce Server platform. The long-term strategic partnership reinforces both companies’ continued focus, investment and commitment to lead innovation for the e-commerce marketplace on a global scale. ..."

Microsoft Rebrandishes E-Commerce Chops With Commerce Server Plans

"There's been speculation that Microsoft is on the way out of the e-commerce game as the company has been largely silent about the future of its Commerce Server product. Speculate no longer. In a broad outline of Commerce Server's future on Wednesday, Microsoft is declaring its intention to stay in the game in a big way.

'To answer speculation, yes, we are going to continue Commerce Server as a standalone product and brand,' says Ryan Donovan, Microsoft's product unit manager for the Commerce Server and Web hosting product groups. ..."

I can't wait to see what this actually means for the Commerce Server product.  Exciting times!  Congratulations to Cactus Commerce -- I expect good things to come of this partnership with Microsoft!

It was a slower-than-normal week in the world of Commerce Server; that is, slow for everyone except Max.  The man is a Commerce Server animal!

The general slowness and lack of blog posts can probably be attributed to the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, CO., this past week.  Lots of activity.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend.  I've been swamped with BizTalk projects and dirty diapers.

Here's what I read regarding Commerce Server this past week ...

Blogs (posts you should read)

07/10/2007 - Max Akbar - Endeavor Commerce to unveil SmartCatalog TM for CRM 6.1 at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference - Max mentioned that Endeavor Commerce announced version 6.1 of their SmartCatalog for CRM application.  You can learn more and SmartCatalog, and all the great stuff they're doing at Endeavor Commerce, here.

07/11/2007 - Max Akbar - Microsoft Commerce Server Webcasts on TechNet - Max has put together two new webcasts: How to Configure Commerce Server 2007 and Schemas for Commerce Server 2007 BizTalk Adapters.  His first webcast shows specific instructions on how to configure Commerce Server applications, and the second provides detailed information how how to use the BizTalk schemas for the Commerce Server adapters.  Be sure and take a look at these two screen casts.  As with most everything Max does, these webcasts are great.

07/13/2007 - CS Team Blog [MSFT] - "Invalid Viewstate" With Load Balancers - Joe Wasson, a member of the Commerce Server product team, provides a solution to a problem that may occur when a client goes through the checkout process.  If you receive the error"Viewstate verification failed. Reason: Viewstate was invalid." during the checkout process, be sure and take a look at this post.

07/14/2007 - Max Akbar - Commerce Server 2007 SP1 Partner SDK - Max reminded us all that the Partner SDK has also been updated: Commerce Server 2007 SP1 Partner SDK.

07/14/2007 - Max Akbar - Catalog Web Service and SetJoin API Configuration - Max discovered a problem with the Set Join API documentation, with regards to the Catalog Web Server web.config file.  Along with the product group, Max was able to find a solution to the issue.

Forum / Newsgroup (answered questions that you might find useful to peruse)

07/09/2007 - CS2007 now fails - An additional tip on how to resolve the "DirectMailer already exists" problem that occurs when configuring a renamed Commerce Server computer.

07/09/2007 - Error while using the Site Connection - Jared Hodges provides two steps that must be taken to make sure that the management applications can connect to the orders service.  These both relate to whether or not your certificate is trusted.

07/10/2007 - Migrating profile data from CS2002 to CS2007 - Max provides two useful links describing how to migrate profile data from Commerce Server 2002 to Commerce Server 2007.

07/10/2007 - Unit Test failing for Starter Site - William was having problems with the BasketHelperTest and CatalogHelperTest for the starter site.  He resolved the problem by installing Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005.

07/10/2007 - HTTP 500 Error When Launching Business User Application - David Lott provides tips on how to configure Commerce Server 2007 on Windows Vista.

07/10/2007 - Product Relationships Question - Describes how to link the product definition data to the product relationships returned from the CatalogRelationshipsDataTable.

07/11/2007 - Error in Getting Profile - Some guidance on how to retrieve profile information.

07/11/2007 - How to determine is user authenticated in current session [sic] - Again, William answered his own question, and discovered the HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated property.

Have a great week!

I've been meaning to start posting an aggregation of notable Commerce Server blog and forum postings.  I've never found that Google or Technorati do a great job of searching or summarizing blog topic discussions, so I'll try to do my best to relate what's going on in the Commerce Server community.  Mostly, these posts come from people listed in my Commerce Server blogroll, as well as the Commerce Server forums.

Please let me know if I've missed any notable Commerce Server posts or announcements!

Blogs (posts you should read)

07/01/2007 - Ryan Donovan [MSFT] - The Best is Yet To Come - Ryan reflects on the long-term product roadmap for Commerce Server.

07/01/2007 - Max Akbar - Looking for Commerce Server Training? - Max announces the completion of his first video training tutorial.  This tutorial focuses on the Commerce Server Catalog System.  I  have had the opportunity to review this tutorial, and I can attest that it is great stuff!  Definitely worth the $$.

07/01/2007 - Jeff Lynch [MVP] - E-Commerce News: Commerce Server 2007 & BizTalk Server 2006 R2 - Jeff posts a summary of some news in the CS world, and explains that BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and Commerce Server 2006 play well together.

07/02/2007 - Nick Mayhew [MSFT] - Commerce Server SP1 available and introducing the Commerce Server team blog - A little behind the times <grin>, Nick announced SP1 and the CS team blog.

07/06/2007 - Ryan Donovan [MSFT] - http://blogs.msdn.com/rdonovan/archive/2007/07/06/speaking-in-denver-wpc-next-week.aspx - Ryan mentions that he'll be here in Denver to talk at the WPC (damn, I can't make it!) about Commerce Server.

07/06/2007 - CS Team Blog [MSFT] - http://blogs.msdn.com/commerce/archive/2007/07/06/commerce-server-worldwide-partner-conference-in-denver-next-week.aspx - The CS Team (via Ryan) discusses their presentation at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, CO.

Forum / Newsgroup (answered questions that you might find useful to peruse)

07/02/2007 - StarterSite HelperClasses Source Code [Urgent!!!] - I've seen this one a lot.  People cannot find the source code for the Commerce Components, and only see the assembly (CommerceComponents.dll).  The source code is available in the CommerceComponentsSource.zip file, which is part of the Starter Site zip.

07/02/2007 - Data warehouse - Resolution to the error "Trans-Ctlg DTS task provider wrapper : Cannot Init timezone object"

07/03/2007 - InventoryQuantityDelta and the out of stock mystery - An explanation as to why orders occasionally come through for a product that is out-of-stock.

07/05/2007 - 'Out of Memory Exception' using CatalogWebService for Inventory - Memory leak when using BizTalk 2006 and Commerce Server 2007 Catalog adapter to update inventory.  The leak is fixed with SP1, and can be resolved by restarting the Catalog Import Host COM+ service.

07/06/2007 - Password Strength - Decreasing the password strength required for a profile.

07/06/2007 - Failed to delete inventory skus / Execute permission denied on 'inv_ValidateSkuType' - A potential bug in the inventory system.