Commerce Server is a scalable platform for developing, deploying, managing, and upgrading Web e-commerce applications. The Standard Edition is intended for medium deployments and is limited to two Web servers and a maximum of two CPUs per server.
Customers use their browser to access a Commerce Server Web application. Such Web applications typically involve purchasing or otherwise ordering products that are browsed online, placed in a basket, and ultimately acquired by going through a check-out process.
At the core of Commerce Server are five integrated management systems:
- Catalog (products, variations, virtual catalogs, virtual properties, multiple languages and currencies, full-text and property-based search)
- Inventory (searching, back-ordering, out-of-stock items)
- Marketing (content targeting, upselling and cross-selling capabilities, advertisements, email campaigns, discounts, and coupons)
- Orders (pipeline architecture, order splitting, multiple shopping carts)
- Profiles (personalization, user targeting, organizations, purchase orders)
A Commerce Server application can use any or all of these systems.
Licensing
Computers running Commerce Server in day-to-day operations require one production license for each processor. (For example, a four-processor server requires four Commerce Server licenses.)
For licenses in your organization's development or staging environments, you can obtain Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite with MSDN Premium. MSDN Premium provides the rights to design, develop, and test your Commerce Server applications.
No client licenses are required for Commerce Server.
Installing this product requires a licence key and installation media. Within 14 days of placing your order, instructions for obtaining the licence key will be sent to your organisation's registered e-mail address and free installation media will be delivered to your organisation's registered address.
- Under the Software Assurance program, customers acquire the right to install any new release of products covered in the agreement during the term of their coverage.
- Four Windows Smart Client Web services-enabled applications enable business users to directly maintain their data (including catalogs, customers, orders, and campaigns). These applications have replaced Business Desk and provide users with the familiar Windows look and feel.
- The Starter Site is a production-ready Commerce Server application that can be easily customized and deployed. The Starter Site also provides a blueprint with prescriptive guidance for development of custom applications.
- The Business Processing Pipeline System provides features for order handling, shipping method maintenance and multiple shipment handling, discount handling, currency handling, and efficient pipeline loading and running. (A pipeline is an extensible software framework that defines and links two or more stages of a business process, running them in sequence to complete a specific task.)
- Commerce Server 2007 features full integration with Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as well as integration with ASP.NET 2.0 Authentication and Profiles/Membership capabilities.
Minimum hardware requirements:
- Single 1.0-GHz (or higher) processor; dual 2.0-GHz recommended
- 1024 MB or more RAM
- 9.0 GB available hard-disk space
- CD or DVD drive
- 10 MBps or larger bandwidth network adaptor
Software:
- Windows Server 2003 SP1 or Windows Server 2003 R2
- To host the databases — SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server on a separate server
- Specific requirements depend on whether the server is installed in a development or production environment. For details, see the Installation and Configuration Guide for Microsoft Commerce Server 2007.
