Microsoft® Commerce Server 2000 Resource Kit

Author Microsoft Corporation Pages 624 Disk 1 Companion CD(s) Level Advanced Published 01/31/2001 ISBN 9780735611283 ISBN-10 0-7356-1128-9 Price(USD) $69.99 To see this book's discounted price, select a reseller below.	More Information About the Book Table of Contents Sample Chapter Index Related Series Related Books About the Author Support: Book & CD Rate this book

Chapter 9: Developer Notes

• Gift Certificate Feature
• Business Desk Modifications
• Site Resource Modifications
• Site Page Modifications
• Checkout Pipeline Modifications
• Profile Modifications
• Report Modifications
• Site Term Modifications
• Campaign Modifications
• Deployment Summary
• Profiling System Utilities
• Profiles Schema Mover
• Site Terms Viewer
• Profiling System: Operational Considerations
• Profile Definition Keys
• Profiling System Design Considerations
• Managing Pre-Existing Accounts in Active Directory Stores
• User Profile Import DTS Task
• Advertising Scoring and Selection
• Campaign Goals and Item Goals
• Initial Scoring
• Scoring (Targeting)
• Selection
• Troubleshooting Ad Scoring and Selection

Chapter 9 Developer Notes

Section	Describes
Gift Certificate Feature	How to add a Gift Certificate feature to the Retail Solution Site
Profiling System Utilities	Functionality and operation of two tools you can use to develop profiles: Profiles Schema Mover Site Terms Viewer
Profiling System: Operational Considerations	Guidelines for using the Profiling System
Advertising Scoring and Selection	How the advertising engine leverages the Content Selection Framework (CSF) to determine which advertisements to display on a Web site

Gift Certificate Feature

Contoso identified the data requirements listed in the following table for its gift certificates.

Data requirement	Value and type
Certificate identification	Eight-digit alphanumeric code (primary key) (string)
Purchaser information	Name and contact information (string)
Value of certificate	Currency value (currency)
Recipient	Name and contact information (string)
Current balance	Currency value (currency)
Date of purchase	Date (date)

Contoso's gift certificates can be used only for online shopping. The gift certificates issued by the online store can't be used to make purchases from their mail order catalog. The Contoso team did recognize, however, that when they issued an online gift certificate, they also had to adjust the revenue and liability accounts of their accounting system accordingly.

Contoso decided to add the new gift certificates feature to its online catalog. They set the minimum value for a gift certificate at $20, with value increments of $5 up to a maximum of $300. Each gift certificate contains a unique redemption code that customers use to make purchases. Contoso will mail (or e-mail if the purchaser provides an e-mail address for the recipient) the gift certificate, including the redemption code and instructions for using it to make a purchase, to the recipient.

When recipients log in to use their gift certificates, they can either register or shop as guests. To make purchases with their gift certificates, they simply select the Gift Certificate option on the Order Summary page. When they select this option, they are redirected to the Gift Certificate Redemption page and asked to enter the certificate redemption code. Customers can't use only part of a gift certificate's amount to make a purchase; they must use the full amount on their purchases.

The Contoso team made the implementation decisions listed in the following table for their gift certificate feature.

Requirement	Implementation decision
Site management	Add Commerce Server Business Desk modules to the Orders category.
Site administration	Create a new site resource to set the connection string for the gift certificates data source.
Profile information	Store contact information and account balance data in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in a table added to the Contoso_Commerce database.
Site implementation	Add two new pages: A page for buying a gift certificate. Similar to Contoso's shipping address form, but with additional boxes for the e-mail address and for entering a message to include with the gift certificate. A page for purchasing merchandise with a gift certificate. Enables customers to enter their gift certificate redemption codes.
Order processing	Add a new pipeline component to the Checkout pipeline.
Accounting updates	Create a Component Object Model (COM) object that communicates asynchronously with the accounting system, using Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000.
Management reports	Create the following dynamic and static reports: Gift Certificate Sales Report Gift Certificate Percentage Report (percentage of total online sales) Number of Gift Certificate Purchases (added to the Order Events report) Gift Certificate Buyers (static)
Targeting requirements	Display a gift certificate advertisement to previous gift certificate buyers. This is a house ad.

The modifications Contoso made to implement gift certificates on its site are described in the following sections.

Business Desk Modifications

Feature	Implementation
List and delete current gift certificates	List sheet
Create and edit gift certificates	Edit sheet
Update gift certificate caches	Refresh

To implement the necessary changes in their Business Desk, the development team followed the steps outlined in the "Building Business Desk Modules" section of Commerce Server 2000 Help. The following steps summarize what the development team did:

1. Add a new configuration file.

The team first added a new configuration file, named GiftCerts.xml, to the ContosoBD\config directory. The following excerpt from the file shows the action "View Certificates" and the ASP files associated with this new module:

<config xmlns="x-schema:bdmodule-schema.xml">

  <actions>

<action id='orders/cert_list.asp''helptopic=''cs_ft_certs_EXTN.htm''>

<name>Certificate List</name>

<tooltip>View Certificates</tooltip>

  <tasks>

    <task icon=''taskopen.gif'' id=''open''>

      <postto action=''orders/certstatus_view.asp''   formname=''selectform'' />

<name>&lt;U&gt;O&lt;/U&gt;pen</name>

<key>o</key>

<tooltip>Open Certificate</tooltip>

</task>

</tasks>

</action>

2. Add a module entry to the master configuration file.

Because the Contoso team decided to add the new modules to the Orders category, they had to add the following module entry to the moduleconfigs section of the master configuration file, Bizdesk.xml:

<moduleconfig id="GiftCerts.xml" category="orders" />

3. Implement list sheet, edit sheet, and refresh functions.

The team implemented the three functions in the following Active Server Pages (ASP) files:

• Cert_list.asp. This file implements a list sheet and is based on the Orderstatus_view.asp file included with Commerce Server.
• Cert_edit.asp. This file implements an edit sheet and is based on the Orderstatus_list.asp file included with Commerce Server.
• Refresh.asp. This file refreshes the cache provided by the Retail Solution Site and is included with Commerce Server.
4. Extend Business Desk Help.

The team created four new Help files to extend the Business Desk Help system delivered by Commerce Server. They also extended the index and table of contents of the Business Desk Help system to make it easier for business managers to find the new Help topics. They made the following additions to the Bizdesk.hhc and Bizdesk.hhk files, which are installed in the Business Desk\docs folder (for example, Retailbizdesk\docs):

• Added content to Business Desk Help.

The development team decided that the Help topics should appear in the "Orders" section of the Business Desk Help system, so they added their entries after the Object entry for the Orders topics. They also decided to follow the same organizational scheme employed in the Help system, so that their topic structure would appear consistent with the Help topics delivered by Commerce Server.

The following entries are a sub-set of the values they added to the Bizdesk.hhc file:

<LI>

<OBJECT type="text/sitemap">

<param name="Name" value="Workflow for Gift Certificate Management">

<param name="Local" value="htm/cs_bd_orders_xygh.htm">

</OBJECT>

<LI>

<OBJECT type="text/sitemap">

<param name="Name" value="About Certificates">

<param name="Local" value="htm/cs_bd_orders_iaaz.htm">

</OBJECT>

….

• Added index entries for new Help topics.

To make sure that new topics are referenced in the Business Desk Help index, they added the following entries to the Bizdesk.hhk file:

<LI> <OBJECT type="text/sitemap">

	<param name="Name" value="gift certificates">

	<param name="Name" value="Certificate Workflow">

	<param name="Local" value="htm/cs_bd_orders_xygh.htm">

	</OBJECT>

<OBJECT type="text/sitemap">

	<param name="Name" value="gift certificates">

	<param name="Name" value="About">

	<param name="Local" value="htm/cs_bd_orders_iaaz.htm">

	</OBJECT>

Site Resource Modifications

The only configuration information required for the Certificates resource is the connection string for the Certificates database. To add this resource, the development team created the SQL script CertificatesInit.sql, which they based on the SiteStatusInit.sql file included with the Commerce Server 2000 SDK. This SQL script makes the changes needed to include the Certificates resource in the Commerce Server Site Packager file (with a .pup extension) that the team used to move the finished site from the development environment to the test and production environments.

The following excerpt is from the CertificatesInit.sql script:

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT s_ClassName FROM SystemProps WHERE s_ClassName = ''Certificates'' )

insert into SystemProps (s_Name, s_ClassName, s_ResourceType, f_ResourceFlags, f_PupFlags, s_ProgIDSnapin)
 VALUES ('''',''Certificates'',''Certficates'',6,0,''Shoesnet.CertResource'')

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT s_PropertyName FROM ExtendedProps WHERE s_PropertyName = ''s_AppName'' )

insert into ExtendedProps VALUES (''Certificates'',''s_AppName'',0,1,0,''Contoso'',8200,'''',''s_AppName'')

Site Page Modifications

• The team added a Gift Certificate page on which customers can purchase new gift certificates.
• The marketing team created an advertisement for gift certificates to display to registered users who had previously purchased gift certificates. This advertisement was displayed on the home page.
• The link to the new Gift Certificate page appeared on the menu that is displayed on all pages, and the advertising banner included a click-through link to the Gift Certificate page.
• The team integrated purchases made with a gift certificate into the checkout process by including an option button on the Summary page.
• Gift certificates were added to the Contoso online catalog. These items included a not-taxable property that the tax component checked to calculate the tax for orders that include gift certificates.

Checkout Pipeline Modifications

Values read	Values written
certificate_code	Billing_amount
redemption_amount
billing_amount

COM Object Development The development team identified the following requirements for a new COM object they created:

• Create a unique identifier for each new online certificate.
• Update the online and back-end databases with new balance information when a gift certificate is created or used to make a purchase.

The development team implemented the new COM object with the following attributes:

• It creates the unique identifier by first generating a globally unique identifier (GUID) and using a hashing algorithm to develop a four-digit alphanumeric code to append to the first four characters of the recipient's last name.
• It updates the back-end system asynchronously by calling a Host Integration Server connector object and passing in the sales and gift certificate information.
• It uses COM+ queuing.
• It implements the "Both" threading model and aggregates the Free Threaded Marshaller object.

Profile Modifications

Report Modifications

After adding the new Analysis cube and XML framework, the development team used the Analysis – New Dynamic OLAP Report.sql script provided in the SDK\Samples\Business Analytics\Scripts directory to add the report definition to their Commerce Server Data Warehouse.

The team also created the SQL script for generating the static reports, based on the example in "Creating Custom Reports" in Commerce Server 2000 Help.

Site Term Modifications

Property	Values
Name	Certificate_Buyer
Display Name	Certificate Buyer
Term Names	No, Yes
Term Display Name	No, Yes

The development team mapped the new Certificate Buyer site term to one of the custom properties of the User object.

Campaign Modifications

Deployment Summary

Feature elements	Deployment tool	Replication tool
New site pages	Site Packager	Microsoft Application Center 2000
New Business Desk modules	Site Packager	Application Center
New pipeline component	Setup program	Setup program
New database	Site Packager	SQL Server replication
New COM component	COM+ application	Application Center

After the team finished testing the new gift certificate feature, they deployed the changes in their production environment by packaging the new version of the site using Site Packager. This new package included the site pages, Business Desk modules, and site data. They created a Microsoft Windows Installer file to set up the new GiftCert pipeline component on the servers in their Web farm. Because the COM+ object is implemented as a COM+ Queued Component, they added the object to a COM+ application. This made it possible to use the Application Center Deployment Wizard to deploy the object to all of the servers in the Web farm. (For more information about using the Application Center Deployment Wizard, see Chapter 15, "Deploying Content.")

Profiling System Utilities

Catalog

Business Object Profile

   Business Object Profile Attribute (to store Data Warehouse class name)

   Group

   Property

   Property Attribute

   Data Ref (to store linked Data Member name)

   Data Source

      Source Info (to store Data Source Partition settings such as default partition flag and connection string)

         Source Info Attribute

            Data Object

            Data Member

• Profile Definitions catalog
• Site Terms catalog

The nodes are provided by default in the Site Packager file for the Blank Solution Site. The Profile Definitions catalog stores the business object profile schemas, such as User Object, Address, and Organization, as well as the data source settings. The Site Terms catalog stores the site term definitions.

The Commerce Server 2000 Resource Kit CD contains the tools listed in the following table to help you develop profiles.

Tool	Description
Profiles Schema Mover	A compiled Microsoft Visual Basic application that enables you to define and configure the profile schema in one Commerce Server environment (such as your development environment), then migrate it to another (such as your test or production environment). You can also use this tool to change the data source connection strings for the target environment when you migrate the schema.
Site Terms Viewer	The Site Terms Viewer is a Visual Basic script that shows how to access site terms programmatically.

This section describes the architecture of these two tools and describes how to use the Profiles Schema Mover to import and export a profile schema.

Profiles Schema Mover

If you create a data object or a data member through Commerce Server Manager, the specific database table/column or LDAP class/attribute is visible only to the Profiling System. You must create the necessary database tables or LDAP classes to expose them before you migrate the data objects and members.

Installation

The Profiles Schema Mover tool is a stand-alone application (.exe file), and there are no additional resource files or dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that you need to install. To use it, copy the executable file to the server on which Commerce Server is installed.

The Profiles Schema Mover tool is written in Visual Basic and references the following type libraries:

• Microsoft Commerce 2000 Configuration Type Library
• Microsoft Commerce 2000 BizData Admin Type Library
• Microsoft XML, version 2.0
• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 Type Library
• Microsoft OLE DB Service Component 1.0 Type Library
• Active DS Type Library

Operation

You run the Profiles Schema Mover tool on the server on which Commerce Server is installed because it must interact directly with the run-time services and components that Commerce Server provides. You must run the Profiles Schema Mover tool in the environment in which the profile schema is located. If you want to copy the profile schema from one environment to another, you must first run the Profiles Schema Mover tool in the source environment to export the schema, and then run the tool in the destination environment to perform the import.

Figure 9.1 shows the user interface (UI) for the Profiles Schema Mover tool.

Click to view graphic

Figure 9.1 Profiles Schema dialog box

The following sections provide a detailed description of how to export and then import catalogs.

Exporting a Catalog

Clicking the Export Catalog button in the Profiles Schema dialog box shown in Figure 9.1 generates a single XML file describing the profile schema settings for the Commerce Server site selected in the Site Name box. The XML file generated follows the Commerce Server profiles XML schema format. To export a catalog, the tool does the following:

1. Obtains a list of sites.
2. Connects to the data store.
3. Obtains profile and data source names.
4. Obtains profile definitions.
5. Obtains the Site Terms catalog.
6. Saves the profile schema XML document.

Obtaining a List of Sites

The Site Name box in the Profiles Schema dialog box contains the names of sites found in the Administration database for the Commerce Server environment in which the Profiles Schema Mover tool is running. The tool obtains a list of sites by using the Commerce.GlobalConfig object to retrieve global configuration settings stored in the Administration database. The following code demonstrates how to retrieve the settings:

Dim oGlblCfg As New GlobalConfig

    	Dim rsSites As New Recordset

    	oGlblCfg.Initialize

    	Set rsSites = oGlblCfg.Sites

    	For Each Site In rsSites.Fields

       		SitesList.AddItem Site.Name

    	Next      

The tool uses the Commerce.SiteConfigReadOnly object to access the site configuration settings for the selected site. It calls the Initialize method of the Commerce.SiteConfigReadOnly object to load the configuration settings for the site and site resources from the Administration database and return them in the Fields property of the SiteConfigReadOnly object instance.

The tool then reads this property and retrieves the connection string from the Profiles data store (defined in the _BizDataStoreConnectionString property of the Profiles global resource in Commerce Server Manager).

Using the Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object to modify the profile schema is not supported; at this time the only supported approach for modifying the profile schema is to use the Profile Designer UI in either Commerce Server Manager or in Business Desk. The UI enforces the appropriate validation rules during the creation and modification of a profile schema. If you bypass these validation rules by using the Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object, your profile schema may be corrupted, preventing your site's Profiling System from working properly.

Connecting to the Data Store

After the Profiles Schema Mover has obtained a connection string to the Profiles data store, it calls the Connect method for the Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object, passing in the connection string to establish a connection to the data store. The following code demonstrates how to connect to the data store:

Public Function LoadBDAO(sSiteName As String) As BusinessDataAdmin

  Dim objSiteCFG As New SiteConfigReadOnly

  Dim objBDAO As New BusinessDataAdmin

  Dim sDSN As String

  objSiteCFG.Initialize gSiteName

  sDSN = objSiteCFG.Fields("Biz Data_
  Service").Value.Fields_
  ("s_BizDataStoreConnectionString").Value_

                            objBDAO.Connect sDSN

  Set LoadBDAO = objBDAO

End Function

The Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object interface exposes and describes the internal structure of the profile schema in XML format. The Microsoft Extensible Markup Language (MSXML) version 2.0 parser handles the XML Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation, though this can be changed to use the later version of the MSXML parser.

Obtaining Profile and Data Source Names

To export a profile schema from its data source, the Profiles Schema Mover tool first calls the GetCatalog method for the Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object. This method returns an XML DOM object that contains a list of catalogs, as well as a list of business object profiles and data sources belonging to each of the catalogs, as defined in the following profile schema for the site:

Set objBDAO = LoadBDAO(gSiteName)

Set CatalogsDoc = objBDAO.GetCatalogs

For example, if you use the Profile Schema Mover tool to export a schema for the Retail Solution Site, the following XML would be returned:

<Document xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:bizdata-profile-schema">

    <Catalog name="Profile Definitions" displayName="Profile Catalog"     description="Profile Definitions">

       <Profile name="Address" displayName="Address" description="Addresses"/>

       <Profile name="BlanketPOs" displayName="BlanketPOs" description="Blanket Purchase Orders"/>

       <Profile name="Organization" displayName="Organization" description="Organization Object"/>

       <Profile name="UserObject" displayName="User Object" description="User Object"/>

       <Profile name="TargetingContext" displayName="Targeting Context" description="CSF Targeting Context"/>

       <DataSource name="UPM_SQLSource" displayName="ProfileService_SQLSource" description="Source" sourceType="OLEDB-ANSI"/>

    </Catalog>

    <Catalog name="Site Terms" displayName="Site Terms">

       <Profile name="MSCommerce" displayName="Site Terms" description="Site Terms for Microsoft Commerce Server" isProfile="0"/>

    </Catalog>

</Document>

Obtaining Profile Definitions

The GetCatalog method returns only the Catalog node and its immediate child nodes, Profile and DataSource. To generate an XML document representing the entire definition of the profile schema, the tools adds the remaining child nodes (such as Group, Property, Attribute, Data Object, and Data Member) to the XML document. To do this, the Profiles Schema Mover tool iterates through each Profile node and retrieves all of its child nodes as well as the elements beneath the child nodes.

The tool obtains an XML DOM object representing each individual Profile node and its child nodes by calling the GetProfile method for the Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object, passing in the Profile name. The profile is passed in the <Catalog Name>.<Profile Name> format (for example, Profile Definitions.Address). After a complete structure is obtained, the tool replaces each Profile node represented as <Profile … /> in the XML DOM document obtained by the BDAO.GetCatalog method, as follows:

<Profile …>

	<Attribute …/>

	<Group …>

		<Property …>

			<DataRef …/>

			…

			<Attribute …/>

<Attribute …/>

			…

		</Property>

		<Property …>

			…

		</Property>

	</Group>

	<Group …>

		…

	</Group>

</Profile>

The Profiles Schema Mover tool performs the same operation on each DataSource node in the Profile Definitions catalog.

Obtaining the Site Terms Catalog

After the Profiles Schema Mover tool has obtained the catalog for each data source, it must process the Site Terms catalog to carry out the same operation on its Profile nodes. It uses the following code to do this:

' Process each catalog

Set Catalogs = CatalogsDoc.selectNodes("//Catalog")

  For Each Catalog In Catalogs    

  ' Get the catalog name

    CatalogName = Catalog.getAttribute("name")

  ' Get each profile and add it to the XML document

    sProfileXSL = "//Catalog[@name='" & CatalogName & "']/Profile"

    Set Profiles = CatalogsDoc.selectNodes(sProfileXSL)

      For Each Profile In Profiles

         ProfileName = CatalogName & "." & Profile.getAttribute("name")

           Set ProfileDoc = objBDAO.GetProfile(CStr(ProfileName))

           Set ProfileNode = ProfileDoc.selectSingleNode("//Profile")

           Set NewChild = Catalog.replaceChild(ProfileNode, Profile)

      Next

  ' Get each data source and add it to the XML document

    sDataSourceXSL = "//Catalog[@name='" & CatalogName & "']/DataSource"

    Set Datasources = CatalogsDoc.selectNodes(sDataSourceXSL)

      For Each DataSource In Datasources

        DataSourceName = CatalogName & "." _

        & DataSource.getAttribute("name")

        Set DataSourceDoc = objBDAO.GetDataSource(CStr(DataSourceName))

        Set DataSourceNode =   DataSourceDoc.selectSingleNode("//DataSource")

        Set NewChild = Catalog.replaceChild(DataSourceNode, DataSource)

      Next

  Next

Saving the Profile Schema XML Document

Finally, the Profiles Schema Mover tool calls the CatalogsDoc.Save method to save the profile schema XML document.

For this reason, the ExportCatalog method includes the primary partition setting for the site data source, but leaves out the settings for any other partitions from the profiles XML schema it generates. The Profiles Schema Mover tool implements its own logic (described in the previous "Obtaining the Site Terms Catalog" topic) to include the settings for all data source partitions and to export the complete "picture" of the site profile catalog in the generated profiles XML schema.

Importing a Catalog

When you click the Import Catalog button in the Profiles Schema dialog box shown previously in Figure 9.1, the selected profile schema settings for the Commerce Server site selected in the Site Name box are loaded. To import catalog code, the Profiles SchemaMover tool:

1. Loads and validates the XML document.
2. Selects a data source for the import.

Loading and Validating the XML Document

The Profiles Schema Mover tool parses the content of the selected file and loads it into the XML DOM object for processing. If the file loads properly, the tool next verifies that the loaded XML document is correctly formatted, by ensuring that the namespace Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) element of the loaded XML document is set to the following address: urn:scheams-microsoft-com:bizdata-profile-schema.

Before initiating the import process, you can use the Profiles Schema Mover tool to change the data source connection strings specified in the import profiles XML schema to match the configuration settings used in the target site environment. A data source connection string is specified in the connStr attribute of the SourceInfo element in the import profiles XML schema. In the partitioned data source environment, the SourceInfo element is created for each partition. The connection string attribute is also specified for each partition.

For example, you could represent the import profiles XML schema for a site with two SQL data sources and two partitions created on the first SQL data source, as follows:

<DataSource name="UPM_SQLSource" displayName="ProfileService_SQLSource"
 description="Source" sourceType="OLEDB-ANSI">

<SourceInfo name="SQLSource_Partition1" isDefault="1"
 connStr="Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data Source=CSITS;Initial Catalog=RETAIL_COMMERCE;User ID=SA;Password=;Extended
 Properties=;Network Library=DBMSSOCN" />

<SourceInfo name="UPM_SQLSource_Partition2"  connStr="Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Password="";Persist
 Security Info=True;User  ID=SA;Initial Catalog=RETAIL_COMMERCE2;Data Source=CSITS">

  <Attribute name="Username" displayName="" /> 

    	<Attribute name="Password" displayName="" /> 

</SourceInfo>

…

</DataSource>

  <DataSource name="UPM_SQLSource2"   displayName="ProfileService_SQLSource2" sourceType="OLEDB-ANSI">

…

</DataSource>

Selecting a Data Source for the Import

The Profiles Schema Mover tool iterates through each DataSource node in the import profiles XML schema, reads the connection string attribute (connStr) of each partition element under the DataSource node (SourceInfo), and then displays the results. Figure 9.2 shows how the Profiles Schema Mover tool displays the data sources.

Click to view graphic

Figure 9.2 Import Profiles Schema dialog box

You can select a specific data source partition in the tree view control to display the connection string currently specified in the import profiles XML schema. Click the Edit button to open a dialog box in which you can edit the connection string for the selected data source partition.

The Profiles Schema Mover tool determines the appropriate dialog box to display, based on the type of data source (OLEDB-ANSI SQL source or LDAP directory) you select. The following code sample illustrates how the tool determines which dialog box to display:

Dim oDataLinks As DataLinks, oConn As ADODB.Connection

Dim SourceInfo As IXMLDOMElement, Source As IXMLDOMElement

…

Set SourceInfo = gXMLDoc.selectSingleNode("//DataSource[@name='" &    sSourceName & "']/SourceInfo[@name='" &
 sSourceInfoName & "']")

  If Not SourceInfo Is Nothing Then

    sConnStr = SourceInfo.getAttribute("connStr")

    Set Source = SourceInfo.parentNode

    sSourceType = Source.getAttribute("sourceType")

      If StrComp("OLEDB-ANSI", sSourceType, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then

        Set oDataLinks = New DataLinks

        Set oConn = New ADODB.Connection

        oConn.ConnectionString = sConnStr

        oConn.Properties.Item("Persist Security Info").Value = True

        oDataLinks.hWnd = Me.hWnd

       'PROMPTAGAIN:

        If oDataLinks.PromptEdit(oConn) Then

        	oConn.Properties.Item("Persist Security Info").Value = True

        	sConnStr = oConn.ConnectionString

        	  If InStr(1,sConnStr,"Integrated Security", vbTextCompare) > 0 _             Then

              MsgBox "Windows NT Integrated security is not supported._ You_must use 
SQL Server authentication.  Use a specific_  user name and password.", vbCritical, "Profile schema"

               'GoTo PROMPTAGAIN:

            End If

          SourceInfo.setAttribute "connStr", sConnStr

         End If     

        ElseIf StrComp("LDAPv3", sSourceType, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then

         Set gXMLNode = SourceInfo DlgLDAP.Show 1, Me

        End If

      End If

  End If

After you have adjusted the data source connection strings in the import profiles XML schema to match the target Commerce Server site environment, you click the Import button in the Import Profiles Schema dialog box (Figure 9.2) to begin the import.

Once again, a programmatic manipulation of the site profile schema is done using the Commerce.BusinessDataAdmin object, and its ImportCatalog method is made available to update the profile schema by importing the XML document, as shown in the following code:

Dim objBDAO As New BusinessDataAdmin

…

Set objBDAO = LoadBDAO(gSiteName)

objBDAO.ImportCatalog gXMLFileName

Deployment Scenarios

The scenarios in this section describe how to migrate a profile schema from one site to another. Note that the term Commerce Server environment denotes one instance of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server on which Commerce Server is installed.

Migration Across Multiple Commerce Server Environments

In this scenario, two Commerce Server sites (Site A and Site B) are installed in two different Commerce Server environments. The Profiles Schema Mover tool is used to migrate the profile schema from Site A into the Profiles data source of Site B. The tool is installed in both Commerce Server environments. The installation in the environment of Site A is used to generate the profile XML schema file, and the installation in the environment of Site B is used to import the XML file into the Profiles data store of Site B. Figure 9.3 shows an example of migration across multiple Commerce Server environments.

Click to view graphic

Figure 9.3 Migration across multiple Commerce Server environments

This scenario represents a project environment in which a site's profile schema is maintained in the development environment and any schema changes made in the development environment are then migrated to the other environments, such as the test environment, staging environment, and production environment.

The Profiles Schema Mover tool is especially useful if you make a large number of changes to the profile schema, because it eliminates the time you would otherwise have to spend applying the same changes manually in the different environments, using Commerce Server Manager or Business Desk. The Profiles Schema Mover tool enables you to generate a single XML file that represents the entire profiles schema of the site, and then migrate the changes to multiple environments, without errors, by simply importing a XML file.

Migration Within a Single Commerce Server Environment

In this scenario, both Site A and Site B are installed in a single Commerce Server environment, thus sharing the same Administration database. This scenario is possible because each individual site in the Commerce Server environment has its own Profiles data store. Changing the profile schema for Site A does not impact the profile schema for Site B. In the Administration database, the global configuration data is maintained once and shared by both sites, but site configuration data, such as the connection string for the Profiles data store, is maintained separately for each site. Figure 9.4 shows migration within a single Commerce Server environment.

Click to view graphic

Figure 9.4 Migration within a single Commerce Server environment