• Illustration: What's in Commerce Server?

Microsoft has released the final beta of Commerce Server 2002, the latest version of the company's server application for building and maintaining e-commerce sites. Although most improvements are incremental, the new edition is significant because it's the first product in Microsoft’s .NET Enterprise Server line that uses the .NET Framework. In particular, developers can build Commerce Server sites on ASP.NET, a new technology for creating and running Web applications that offers significant advantages over Active Server Pages (ASP), and can use the Visual Studio .NET development tool to build these sites. However, the product still lacks integrated support for Passport and Microsoft's other planned services for Web sites.

Commerce Server Overview

Introduced in 2000 as the successor to Site Server Commerce Edition 3.0, Commerce Server is Microsoft's server application for designing, building, deploying, and maintaining e-commerce Web sites. Commerce Server extends the Internet Information Server (IIS) Web erver in Windows 2000 with specific capabilities that e-commerce sites need. It requires SQL Server to store and retrieve data.

At its core, Commerce Server includes a set of COM components that provide e-commerce functions such as product catalogs, order management, user tracking and personalization, targeted marketing, and data analysis. These components use SQL Server as a data store (the user profiling system can also use other databases) and can be accessed through a set of graphical management tools. In sample "Solution Sites" that ship with the application, these parts are arranged behind presentation layers consisting of ASP or ASP.NET pages. Developers can use these examples as templates for their own sites or can use code samples in the Commerce Server SDK to create more customized sites. (For an architectural overview and more detailed explanations of these features, see the illustration "What's in Commerce Server?".)

Adding .NET Support

The distinguishing feature of Commerce Server 2002 is its set of class libraries, which make it easier for developers to build e-commerce sites on ASP.NET. A plug-in to Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET) adds graphical tools and wizards that further ease the development process.

Supporting ASP.NET and VS.NET will shorten development time, improve Web site performance and scalability, and enable new features, such as the ability to track users without cookies. It also provides insight into how Microsoft (and third parties) can quickly add .NET support to existing applications while retaining backward compatibility.

(For detailed coverage of ASP.NET, VS.NET, and the .NET languages, see the Feb. 2002 Research Report, "The .NET Development Platform.")

How Commerce Server Supports ASP.NET

ASP.NET is the successor to ASP, Microsoft's technology for developing dynamic Web pages. The main goal of ASP.NET is to make it easier for developers to create complex Web applications.

With Commerce Server 2002, Microsoft has added a new ASP.NET sample site (the International Retail Solution Site) and ASP.NET code samples and has repackaged Commerce Server's core functions so they can be called from within any ASP.NET page or application.

Microsoft accomplished the latter feat by incorporating Commerce Server's core functions into a Commerce Server Base Class Library (BCL) that ships with the product. Just as the .NET Framework class libraries give ASP.NET applications access to basic functions, such as processing text and exchanging data with databases, the Commerce Server class libraries give ASP.NET applications access to Commerce Server functions, such as displaying catalog items or recognizing that an order has been placed.

The class libraries themselves were written in .NET languages and fully support the .NET development platform (e.g., they support XML and the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and developers can call them from any .NET-compliant language). However, most of the core Commerce Server functions exposed by these class libraries were not written from the ground up. Rather, 90% of these functions are COM components from Commerce Server 2000 to which Microsoft has added "run-time callable wrappers," software interfaces that enable ASP.NET pages to call these components.

Recognizing that many organizations might not want to move to ASP.NET right away, Microsoft left the COM interfaces of Commerce Server's components exposed and kept the ASP-based Retail Solution Site and Supplier Solution Site templates in place, along with all the old ASP-based sample code. Developers thus have the choice of using either model exclusively or creating e-commerce sites with a mix of both ASP and ASP.NET pages.

Benefits of ASP.NET Support

By supporting ASP.NET, Commerce Server 2002 delivers several important benefits to e-commerce sites.

First, ASP.NET developers can use a "code-behind" programming method that separates program logic from presentation, allowing developers and Web designers to work independently from each other and offering greater reuse of code.

Second, ASP.NET improves the way Web sites store state information— temporary information about users, such as items in a shopping cart. For example, ASP.NET can store state information in SQL Server, then make it available across several servers in a Web farm, which increases Commerce Server 2002's scalability and reliability. ASP.NET also enables "cookieless" state management, enabling Commerce Server 2002 sites to create profiles for users who refuse to accept cookies (these users are tracked with a string of symbols at the end of a URL).

ASP.NET also offers other advantages, such as the following:

• A Visual Basic-like development model that lets Windows developers leverage their skills to create e-commerce applications
• Memory leak and crash detection that will restart the application if it becomes unstable (the process is transparent to users).

Blueprint for Future Conversions

Commerce Server 2002 provides a likely blueprint for how Microsoft (and other companies) can build .NET support into existing products, particularly server applications such as Microsoft's SQL Server and Content Management Server, but possibly also desktop applications such as Office.

With this blueprint, a company does not rewrite its applications using a language such as C#, but instead wraps existing COM components in run-time callable wrappers, then exposes these components through application-specific class libraries.

For Microsoft, this plan achieves some important goals:

• It hastens the rollout of products like Commerce Server 2002 that support the .NET Framework and development platform, thereby presenting organizations with specific business reasons to migrate.
• It allows converted applications to work equally well in COM-only, .NET-only, and mixed environments, enabling customers to migrate gradually to .NET and reducing fears that .NET represents a major upheaval.
• It ensures that third parties won't take matters into their own hands by creating different "wrapped" versions of the COM components in existing Microsoft products. These differing versions could create conflicts similar to "DLL Hell"—one of the problems the .NET Framework was designed to eliminate.

However, there's one problem with this blueprint: although wrapped COM components can interact with the .NET Framework, they will still execute outside the control of the .NET Common Language Runtime, and therefore could still crash the application, leak memory, or open security holes through buffer overflows.

Developer Portal Supports VS.NET

Commerce Server 2002 also includes a Developer Portal, a plug-in for VS.NET that Microsoft believes will drastically reduce development time. With the Developer Portal, programmers can create Commerce Server pages with the same tool they use to create other .NET applications, then package these pages for rapid deployment.

The Developer Portal includes the following elements:

The Project Creation Wizard, a graphical tool that helps developers call Commerce Server functions from within VS.NET's integrated development environment (IDE). The wizard also allows developers to package applications into complete e-commerce sites using Commerce Server's Site Packager tool.

The Data Binding Expression Builder automatically generates the code necessary to associate forms on an ASP.NET page with Commerce Server-specific information stored in a database, such as a user's profile information. This would make it easier to create a single "Order" button that sent users to a page with the appropriate shipping options for their location, for example.

Schema Designers allow developers to manipulate Commerce Server's profile schemas, which define what user information is collected and how it is structured, and its catalog schemas, which define how catalog entries can be built and modified, from within the IDE.

Improvements to Core Functions

Apart from supporting the .NET development platform, Commerce Server 2002 adds many incremental improvements to its core systems.

More flexible catalog system. Commerce Server 2000 could only store up to 256 catalogs on a single SQL Server, and it was difficult to mix items from imported catalogs with those from internally generated catalogs. Commerce Server 2002 is far more flexible: items from any catalog—including imported catalogs—can be arranged in up to 10,000 "virtual" catalogs on the same SQL Server. This makes it easier for companies to create multiple catalogs with overlapping items (for example, a "Computing" and "Electronics" catalog) and to offer preferred customers custom catalogs with discounted prices.

Commerce Server 2002 removes some other limitations as well: for example, organizations can create custom catalogs from individual items, rather than entire categories, and users can search all catalogs by multiple categories (e.g., DVD players that cost less than US$200).

International support. Virtual catalogs let Commerce Server 2002 support separate catalogs for different currencies. In addition, baskets and orders can now store the preferred currency of the user, the supplier of each item, and the organization, making international accounting easier. New multilanguage profile and catalog schemas let sites change specific properties of catalog items (e.g., the name and description, but not the picture) based on a user's preferred language.

Expanded profiling system. Commerce Server 2002's profiling system will support up to 25 million users authenticated by SQL Server and 10 million users authenticated by Active Directory (AD). The last version supported 22 million and 2 million, respectively. AD authentication is particularly useful in business-to-business scenarios, as it gives employees at partner sites file-level and group permissions, and enables them to access the site using their Windows log-on rather than signing in again. The next version of AD in Windows .NET Server will support Passport user IDs, extending this feature to any individual with a Passport ID. (See "Passport Changing from Closed System to Trust Broker" on page 21 of the Dec. 2001 Update.)

Improved data analytics. Commerce Server 2002 supports new reporting attributes, such as sales by location, and allows organizations to create grouped reports with multiple attributes (e.g., users living in Wyoming who bought fur-lined hats after Jan. 1). A data warehouse wizard lets less-technical users run certain operations—such as importing product catalogs and log files into the warehouse for analysis—without having to create scripts with SQL Server's more complex Data Transformation Services (DTS) interface. (For background on DTS, see "SQL Server 7.0 Improves Web Integration, Data Exchange" on page 3 of the July 1998 Update.)

Organizations interested in data analysis should note that the Commerce Server 2002 Standard Edition retrieves only basic sales data and Web usage reports. Organizations that want custom reports, campaign reports, user profile reports, advertising reports, data mining, and other advanced functions will need the Enterprise Edition.

Granular Business Desk security. Commerce Server 2002's Business Desk has granular security settings so that certain tasks are restricted to certain users. For example, a sales assistant might be able to check the status of an order but not make changes to the catalog.

Further .NET Support Planned

The release version of the Commerce Server 2002 SDK will include sample code that shows how to use the Commerce Server class libraries to expose its core functions as XML Web services. For example, it might be useful for an organization to expose its e-commerce catalog to suppliers as an XML Web service so that suppliers can automatically update the site's catalog when their prices change.

However, the organization will still have to create code that translates between its XML schema (e.g., the schema used in its Commerce Server catalog) and those of its trading partners, something that integration products such as Microsoft's BizTalk Server can make easier. Businesses interested in e-commerce Web services scenarios will be encouraged to buy both Commerce Server and BizTalk Server as part of a larger Microsoft solution, such as the Microsoft Solution for Internet Business (see "Bundle Supports Business Web Sites") or the Microsoft Solution for Supplier Enablement (see "Integrated Solutions Push Server Software Sales" on page 10 of the Jan. 2002 Update).

In addition, Commerce Server 2002 has no integrated support for Passport, .NET Alerts, or any of the planned .NET My Services. Microsoft plans to explain at a later date how to incorporate .NET Alerts into a Commerce Server site, and the next version of the Passport SDK (expected in summer 2002) will have specific instructions and tools to help Commerce Server sites incorporate Passport Single Sign-In, Microsoft's authentication service. Future editions of the Commerce Server SDK will have example sites and code samples that show how to incorporate Passport Express Purchase or its successor, .NET Wallet.

Availability and Compatibility

Commerce Server 2002 is currently available in a free public beta. To run the beta, organizations need Windows 2000 Server, SQL Server 2000, and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher (required by Business Desk). Organizations also need the .NET Framework SDK to create ASP.NET pages and VS.NET to use the Developer Portal (VS.NET includes the .NET Framework SDK).

Sites can upgrade to Commerce Server 2002 from both Commerce Server 2000 and Site Server Commerce Edition 3.0, although the latter migration will be more complex because Site Server often requires more custom code.

Companies can use Commerce Server 2002 with Content Management Server (CMS) 2001, Microsoft's server application for creating and managing content on large, complex Web sites. (See "Microsoft to Acquire NCompass Labs" on page 3 of the July 2001 Update.) However, although CMS 2001 manages ASP.NET-based sites adequately, it does not support the creation of ASP.NET pages. Commerce Server 2002 will also work with Application Center 2000 for load balancing and with Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000, Microsoft's firewall and caching solution.

The final version of Commerce Server 2002 will be available by early April in two production editions, Standard and Enterprise, and an inexpensive Developer Edition for development only. Microsoft has not revealed exact pricing, but the Standard Edition will cost less than Commerce Server 2000 and is designed for mid-market organizations with a dedicated IT staff. It will have a maximum capacity of approximately 8,400 concurrent users, and its license will allow businesses to create only one e-commerce site, deployed across no more than two servers. Enterprise Edition will be more expensive than Commerce Server 2000 and is required for larger-scale sites and advanced data analytics.

Resources

The Commerce Server 2002 public beta is available at www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/evaluation/2002/. Organizations will be required to enter a valid e-mail address to receive the beta.

A technical overview, including upgrade notes is at www.microsoft.com/commerceserver/evaluation/2002/techoverview.asp.

Visual Studio .NET information and the download for MSDN subscribers is at msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/.

For background on Passport, see "A Closer Look at Passport" on page 12 of the Oct. 2001 Update.

For background on .NET My Services, see ".NET My Services Picture Getting Clearer" on page 26 of the Dec. 2001 Update.