Posts Tagged default site
New to Commerce Server 2009
Posted by Kelly in Commerce Server on April 16th, 2009
The Commerce Server Product Group released some new additions to the recently released Commerce Server 2009. Two of the updates are design focused and the other is a document describing how to localize your Commerce enabled SharePoint sites using site variations.
The first is a new template pack, that provides a much nicer look and feel to the out-of-the-box site experience. When CS2009 originally shipped, it contained what was known as the “Default Site”. This site certainly wasn’t the best looking, but all of the foundation eCommerce functionality was there and the expectation was that you’d need to add your own design elements to really make the site shine!
This new template pack provides what is now being called the “Contemporary Site” which still provides all of the foundation eCommerce functionality but looks far better out of the box. What this really means, is less time and effort to get that production-ready Commerce Server site up and running!
Not only does the template pack provide a new Contemporary Site, but also a new look and feel for the included mobile channel.
If you read my previous post on Redesigning the Default Site, you know that I certainly encountered some challenges when trying to apply my own design to the default site. I have yet to confirm whether or not some of these challenges have been addressed with this new release. Another point to mention is that the sub-pages (category, product) don’t contain the left-hand category navigation. I can’t speak to why this is, but know that you will likely want to make sure that you have left-hand category navigation throughout the site.
The other new addition is the Silverlight inline product editor. If you’re a site administrator or a merchandiser you may want to make a quick change to your product details, while in the context of your site – the inline product editor allows you to do this. Any changes made in your SharePoint site are reflected back in the Commerce Server catalog.
When browsing the site in the administrator mode (NTLM site), you’ll notice a link to edit product properties on the product detail page.
You are then presented with a Silverlight based Product Property Editor window, allowing you to make changes to the exposed product properties. Once the changes are made, clicking Apply updates the property value and the data is sent back to the catalog.
This is a huge improvement over the original Default Site. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Additional Resources
Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Template Pack (Contemporary Site)
Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Inline Product Property Editor
Localizing Your Commerce Server 2009 Site Using Site Variations
Redesigning the CS09 Default Site
Posted by Kelly in Commerce Server on April 7th, 2009
Recently, I had to make changes to Commerce Server 2009’s Default Site in SharePoint. If it were a perfect world, the absolute best way to do this would be to get the extensibility kit (if you have Commerce Server 2009 installed, you’ll find it here: \Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2007\Microsoft Commerce Server 2009\Sdk\Samples), load it up inside Visual Studio, make the necessary changes and redeploy the web parts into the site. But it is far from being a perfect world, and given some of my time constraints and the fact that the extensibility kit has a different signing key than the web parts deployed with the Default Site, I had to find another way to do this.
Certainly you have easy access to make changes to the stylesheets, master pages and page layouts in SharePoint, but the more difficult part is making changes to the layout of the webparts themselves. Maybe you want to move a field around, or apply a specific style to one of the buttons? These are certainly use cases for applying design to a web site.
The default address list web part is a good example. You may have had a graphic designer already build your page layouts complete with HTML, graphics and CSS. I suppose you could find the styles being used and modify the existing styles to match. I chose to layout the control based on the HTML I was given and apply my new styles. Here are some snippets of the code that I modified (ReadOnlyAddressDetail.ascx is called from within AddressList.ascx):
AddressList.ascx
<fieldset>
<asp:Button ID=”ButtonBack” runat=”server” OnClick=”ButtonBack_Click” CssClass=”myaccount-green5-11″ Height=”22″ />
<asp:Button ID=”ButtonAddNewAddress” runat=”server” OnClick=”ButtonAddNew_Click” Height=”22″ CssClass=”myaccount-green5-11″ />
</fieldset>
ReadOnlyAddressDetail.ascx
<ItemTemplate>
<div id=”tablecontent”>
<table style=”vertical-align:top” cellspacing=”5″ cellpadding=”5″>
<tr>
<td style=”vertical-align:top; width:250px” class=”tdmain”>
<asp:Literal ID=”ltlFirstName” runat=”server” Text=’<%# Microsoft.Security.Application.AntiXss.HtmlEncode(FirstName) %>’ />
<asp:Literal ID=”ltlLastName” runat=”server” Text=’<%# Microsoft.Security.Application.AntiXss.HtmlEncode(LastName) %>’ /><br /><br />
<asp:Label ID=”lblDefaultBilling” Visible=’<%# IsDefaultBillingAddress %>’ runat=”server” />
<asp:Label ID=”lblSeparator” Text=” | ” Visible=’<%# IsDefaultBillingAddress && IsDefaultShippingAddress %>’ runat=”server” />
<asp:Label ID=”lblDefaultShipping” Visible=’<%# IsDefaultShippingAddress %>’ runat=”server” />
</td>
You can find most of the controls you need in the SharePoint 12-hive (\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\CommerceServer). Note that some of the controls that are used in the Default Site are XSLT controls that require modification to the XSL that renders the content. These are not found in the 12-hive but rather a templates document library in SharePoint. The Cart control is a good example of this. All of the XSLT templates can be found by clicking “View All Site Content” from the Site Actions menu in the Default Site, and then opening the Commerce Server Templates document library.
This method certainly isn’t perfect, but there are changes and bug fixes still being made which will likely become available in R2. Keep in mind that this is one approach, and certainly the better method is to use the extensibility kit if you require a more custom design or specialized functionality.
Additonal Resources
SharePoint Commerce Services documentation
