Sitecore Commerce powered by Commerce Server 8.1 and Commerce Server 11.3 Readme (February 1, 2016)

Release notes for Sitecore Commerce powered by Commerce Server 8.1 rev. 8.1 rev. 160205 and Commerce Server 11.3.507.0. Contains information on late breaking developments, known issues, and workarounds.

  1. Release History

    Some of the issues described in this document contain internal reference numbers listed in parentheses. You can use these reference numbers to communicate with Sitecore about a particular issue or feature.

    January 14th, 2015

    Sitecore Commerce powered by Commerce Server 8.1 rev. 160205 and Commerce Server 11.3.507.0 are released.

    Tested with Sitecore XP 8.1 rev. 151207 and Sitecore Sitecore Commerce Connect 8.1 rev. 160205

    Upgrading

    To upgrade from a previous release, review the Breaking Changes section in this document, and install the new versions of all packages.

    Highlights

    Commerce Server 11.3

    The focus of the 11.3 release was to make it much simpler to get up and running with a Commerce Server site and really reduce the steep learning curve that many people face. Additionally we wanted to make sure that Commerce Server is more fully able to leverage Azure and its services.

    Azure PaaS

    Commerce Server can now run entirely in Azure SQL (v12) and in Azure Cloud Services. Previous releases allowed you to run Commerce Server with a IaaS deployment in Azure, you can now setup a full PaaS deployment and take full advantage of additional Azure scaling services including high availability. Azure WebApps are not supported currently, but look out for them in a later release.

    In order to support a full Azure PaaS deployment there are a couple of notable changes that had to be made.
    1. The MSCS_CatalogScratch database, which was used to cache catalog queries, is no longer a separate database and has been merged in with the Product Catalog database. This was necessary because Azure SQL does not allow cross-database calls, and cross-database calls were heavily leveraged by the Product Catalog and MSCS_CatalogScratch databases.
    2. Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) is used by the Orders pipeline infrastructure to allow rollback when you are performing database actions across multiple databases, most notably updating counts in the Inventory database when placing an order. MSDTC is not supported in Azure, so we have provided a new switch that allows you to turn off Commerce Server’s MSDTC use when you are in Azure.

    Site setup and Management via PowerShell

    Previously, the only way to create Commerce Server sites and add resources was via PuP, and the only way to manage those resources was with Commerce Server Manager. You can now perform all of these tasks by using a new suite of PowerShell CmdLets. The CmdLets mean you are no longer reliant on PuP packages, and instead can create and delete resources and import and export data at will by usingPowerShell. The CmdLets will also perform some additional tasks that were not possible before, such as when you delete a resource, you can also delete its associated databases.

    Web Service and Web Deploy packages

    Web Services are no longer dependent on PuP packages for setup. You can now set up Commerce Server web services at any point using the new CmdLets or using a set of Visual Studio Web Deploy packages that can be found in the WebServices folder on the Commerce Server installation.

    NuGet Packages

    Inside the Commerce Server install folder there is a new NuGet folder that contains a number of NuGet packages. To use these packages you can set up a local repository in Visual Studio, or add the packages to a central NuGet repository you have in your organization. This folder contains some useful NuGet packages such as:

    • A package for each of the Commerce Server web services, in case you need to customize them.
    • A package that automatically imports the Commerce Server CmdLets into the Package Manage Console.

    Windows 10

    Commerce Server has been successfully tested against Windows 10. Windows 10 is only recommended as a developer environment, not as a runtime environment for production sites.

    Sitecore Commerce Server Connect

    Commerce Server Connect had shared goals with Commerce Server to make deployment simpler, and to ensure an Azure PaaS deployment was possible.

    Deployment

    One of the main ways to accomplish a better Commerce Server Connect deployment is to remove the amount of content that needs to be merged into the web.config. To accomplish this goal we have introduced the following:

    • The Commerce Server HttpModules have been replaced with Sitecore pipelines equivalents, so there are fewer HttpModules in the web.config. You can still add them in if needed.
    • The entire Commerce Server configuration section has been moved to \App_Config\CommerceServer.Core.config. Override this for your deployments, in the same way you would treat the \App_Config\ConnectionStrings.config file.

    Sitecore Azure

    Sitecore Commerce powered by Commerce Server is now fully compatible with Sitecore Azure. The benefits of a full PaaS deployment can now be applied to your Sitecore Commerce solution. There are no additional tools required to set up the Sitecore Azure experience. You can use the Commerce Server Configuration wizard and CmdLets to set up the site as you would expect.

    Enabling/Disabling Search indexes

    All search indexes have been broken out into separate configuration files so it is easier to enable and disable the indexes you that need based on your environment.

    Merchandising Manager

    Merchandising Manager Manager 8.1 rev. 8.1.543.0 is released.

    Multi-term search for product Ids and categories.

    There is now support for a comma separated list of search strings within the search box. For example, a search term of: "AW123, AW234” will return search results that include items matching those criteria.

    Two-way Relationship management.

    When creating a Relationship, you have the option to indicate whether the same Relationship should be made from the target item to the source item. For example, in relating Product B to Product A, you can automatically have Product A linked to Product B. A new icon is displayed on each relationship to provide an indicator for whether the Relationship exists in one or both directions.

    Workspace

    Workspace provide an area to store frequently changed products and/or categories, as a kind of "favorites" list. Workspace also provides a mechanism for “bulk editing” of products, product families, categories, and relationships. Based on your needs, it also allows for customization of list columns.

    General Improvements

    • Issue fixed in Item Picker tab counts, where in some instances it would display incorrect values
    • When changing an item in a Custom Catalog that requires the catalog to be rebuilt, a prompt is now presented allowing the choice to rebuild immediately.

    Compatibility

    This version of the module only runs on Sitecore XP 8.1 rev. 151207 or later.

  2. Resolved issues
    • Commerce Server Staging Expressional Job - Languages to Stage"All" Aborting. ( 439638)
    • Commerce Server workflow state change updates all languages. ( 440363, 440670)
    • Virtual Catalog rebuild failure due to col conflict between system table and custom catalog schema. ( 440541)
    • Non-serializable objects error when adding items to cart using SQL Session state. (439369) (Commerce Connect)
    • Products Deleted from Base Catalog due to deleting Commerce Navigation Item. ( 442139)
    • Commerce Server incremental staging job does not copy image references. ( 442554 )
    • Commerce Server 2007 to 11.2 migration error due to ctlg_UpgradeCatalogSchemaToVersion11 failure. ( 442600 )
    • CacheRefreshEvent throws exception when handling on CD servers having master database disabled, ( 442829, 442656 )
    • Commerce Server Staging Jobs - Email Not Sending. ( 443535 )
    • Profile Properties dialog in CS manager does not show for Global Resources. ( 453892 )
    • ExternalSettings field value contains formatting characters. ( 447972 )
    • Some default catalog schema property metadata have wrong Sitecore field properties. ( 449022 )
    • Unpup may fail on profile resource when SQL authentication is used. ( 450007 )
    • Sitecore.Commerce.Connect.CommerceServer.Catalog.CatalogFieldValidator cannot be serialized. ( 450321 )
    • Empty Product item List Price field causes exception in the Merchandising Manager. ( 450455, 450458, 450176 )
    • Upgrade wizard error on marketing resource when upgrade from CS07 to CS10/11. (428701)
    • Crash when use OrderContext.GetShipping methods outside HttpContext. (Old support system)
    • Catalog with many relationships import performance issue (Old support system)
    • Price display problem with the OS region format is non-English. (For example, Danish.) ( 435905 )
    • loggingEnabled set to true on basket pipeline definition causes exception. (439082)
    • 'TranslateShipmentToEntity' processor throws 'out of the range of valid values' exception if shipping method was changed. (442219) (Commerce Connect)
    • A Relationship List field table header contains a typo (spelt as "Relationsihp Name"). (447956)
    • Commerce Server staging project schedule deletion does not remove the windows schedule task entry. (451657)
    • CommerceCartLine should translate weakly typed properties to Baskets out of the box. (440018)
    • Commerce connect product synchronization extreme slow (452887) (Commerce Connect)
    • Deletion of Commerce Navigation item deletes catalog items (454302, 454729)
    • Properties whose names with space are skipped during virtual catalog import (454917)
    • large Catalog causes performance issue when publishing after IIS reset (454953,452734)
  3. Known issues

    There are no known issues at this time.

  4. Breaking Changes
    • MSCS_CatalogScratch no longer exists as a standalone database. The tables & views that were dynamically added to this database are now generated in the appropriate *_productcatalog database. When you install this build of Commerce Server, your existing MSCS_CatalogScratch database will be ignored and can be safely deleted. Commerce Server will regenerate the temporary tables and views in the *_productcatalog as they are required. The transition from MSCS_CatalogScratch to *_productcatalog requires no action on your part.
    • All search indexes have been broken out into separate configuration files, so it is easier to enable and disable the indexes that you need based on your environment. If you are installing into an existing SCpbCS environment then you should delete all existing \Website\App_Config\Include\CommerceServer\CommerceServer.ContentSearch.*.config files before installing the Sitecore Commerce Server Connect package.
    • Schema XML namespaces that previously used the prefix http://schemas.microsoft.com have been changed to http://schemas.commerceserver.net/2013/01. This includes those used by the Commerce Server Web Services. If you have existing data containing the namespace with Microsoft schema, you need change it by yourself. Here is an example of how to change the namespace in mktg_expression table inside “YourSiteName_marketing” database. You do not have to use exact same SQL statement in your own code.

      update mktg_expression set u_expr_body = cast(REPLACE(cast(u_expr_body as nvarchar(max)), 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/CommerceServer/2004/02/Expressions', 'http://schemas.commerceserver.net/2013/01/Expressions') as ntext)