Commerce Server 2002 Ships

Commerce Server 2002, the latest version of Microsoft’s server product for building and maintaining e-commerce Web sites, has shipped with sample sites and code examples that make it easier to integrate Microsoft’s Passport authentication service. Commerce Server 2002 will ship in two editions: Standard, which is cheaper than Commerce Server 2000 but lacks advanced data analytics and is suitable for only medium-traffic sites, and Enterprise, which costs three times as much as its predecessor.

Passport Sign-In Joins New Features

Commerce Server (CS) 2002 offers significant advances over its predecessor, including a more flexible catalog system, an expanded profiling system, better multilanguage and multicurrency support, and support for ASP.NET and the Visual Studio .NET development environment. (For details, see “Commerce Server 2002 Showcases .NET” on page 3 of the Mar. 2002 Update.)

CS 2002 also makes it easier for sites to incorporate Passport Single Sign-In, Microsoft’s service for authenticating Internet users. A sample e-commerce site featured in both editions offers administrators the option to download and install the Passport SDK and will automatically display the Sign In and Sign Out buttons necessary to implement Passport Single Sign-In. The Passport SDK must be downloaded separately because Microsoft expects it to be updated more frequently than Commerce Server and because the Passport SDK has different licensing conditions. In addition, the CS 2002 SDK (bundled with both editions) will include code examples showing how Passport user IDs can be integrated into the Commerce Server profiling system.