Business Data Staging Options

Article
01/18/2011

Much of the content displayed on a Commerce Server site is associated with specific types of business data, such as the catalogs, advertisements, discounts, site terms, and so on. When you stage business data, you can define a project that updates all the business data elements, or define multiple projects for each type of business data that you want to update.

The following sections summarize the options that are available when staging business data:

Staging Topology Options
Staging Modes
Catalog Staging
Scheduling Options

For information about options that are common to all staging projects, see the following topics:

Staging Topology Options

When you stage business data, you export data from a source database and import data to a destination database. The source database is associated with the source server and the destination database is associated with an endpoint server. If you are updating a Web farm, you only must specify one endpoint server in the Web farm as a destination server in your business data project. If you have multiple sites to be updated, you can specify multiple destination servers. CSS will automatically renew the site cache on each Web server in a Web farm if you have selected this option for the project.

Business data can be staged across the following network topologies:

Point to point.
Point to point through multiple way stations.
Point to multipoint through multiple way stations.

For information about these topologies, see Business Data Staging Topologies.

Staging Modes

Several update options are supported for staging business data. Descriptions for the staging modes are as follows:

Full. Stage all data associated with the site database for this data type.
Incremental. Stage only that data that has changed.
Expressional. Stage only that data that meets the criteria defined by one or more expressions. This option is only available for staging catalog data. For more information, see Catalog Staging Options.
Transactional. This option is only available for staging catalog data. For more information, see Catalog Staging Options.

Business data projects can contain one or all types - Catalog, Marketing, Orders, and Site Terms - of business data. The following table summarizes the types of business data that can be staged and the options supported with each. Data is staged in the sequence listed in the following table.

Business data	Staging modes	Options
Catalog	Full Incremental Expressional Transactional	Many options are supported for staging catalog data. Not all options are available with each staging mode. For an overview of these options, see Catalog Staging.
Marketing data: advertisements and discounts	Full (non-transactional)	Refresh cache
Marketing data: promotion codes	Full (non-transactional) Incremental
Orders configuration	Full (non-transactional)	Refresh cache
Site Terms	Full (non-transactional)	Refresh cache

Individual Commerce Server subsystems perform the export/import operations. If any subsystem encounters an error during the export/import operation, the error is logged and the replication is aborted. For example if catalog import fails, staging does not continue trying to import marketing data.

Staging should not interrupt site availability. By default, business data types are non-transactional. However, if the catalog transactional staging mode is specified for a business data project, the import operation will be performed under a transaction. This will cause the relevant catalog data to lock until the transaction commits or ends. During the transaction, concurrent reads of the affected data would be blocked. This could affect the availability of your site. Generally, for better performance, you should use the catalog incremental staging mode after you have completed a full catalog import.

Catalog Staging

When staging catalog data, you can decide which catalogs to update and also how to update them. You can select one or more catalogs as part of a single project. The options selected will be applied to all the catalogs selected. The following options are available for selecting the catalog data to be staged:

Catalogs to stage. Select the catalogs defined in the site catalog database that will be updated.
Generate Full Text Indexes. Select this option to update the free-text search index for the catalogs selected for update.
Stage Catalog Sets. Select this option to stage catalog sets.
Refresh cache. Select this option to renew the site cache on the endpoint destination servers.

The following sections summarize the additional options available for selecting catalog data to be staged:

Catalog Staging Options
Export Staging Expressions Options
Catalog Staging Options Supported By Staging Mode

Catalog Staging Options

When staging catalog data, you are provided with several options to specify exactly what data in the catalog is updated and how it is updated. The following options are available for selecting the catalog data to be staged:

Stage Virtual Catalogs as Virtual Catalogs. Select to stage the virtual catalogs as virtual catalogs. A virtual catalog is a catalog that references the product data in one or more base catalogs. Products are represented only in a single instance in the database, regardless of how many virtual catalogs they appear in.

Note

If you stage a virtual catalog, the base catalog or catalogs must exist on the destination server.
Materialize Virtual Catalogs. Select to materialize the virtual catalogs that will be updated. When you materialize a virtual catalog, the virtual catalog data is stored in tables. This improves the run-time performance of the virtual catalog. It has the performance of a base catalog for all search and browse operations.

Note

You should not edit materialized catalogs. If you must change a materialized catalog, un-materialize it and then change it as a virtual catalog.
Stage Dependent Catalogs. Select to stage base catalogs. Base catalogs are referenced to build virtual catalogs.

Properties to Stage. Specify the catalog properties to stage. The list of properties you can select from include those listed in this section and any custom properties you have defined for the catalog schema.

BaseCatalogName
Brand
Catalog Name
Category Name
Category Pricing
Color
Date of Introduction
Definition Name

Description
Display Name
Image_filename
Image_height
Image_width
Is Searchable
Last Modified
List Price

Name
Primary Parent Category
Product Id
Size
SKU
Type
Variant Code
VariantId

Languages to Stage. Select the language(s) in which you want to export the catalog data. The default is to stage all languages.
Stage Schema. Select to stage the catalog schema.
Catalog Staging Mode:
- Full. Stage all catalog data selected.
- Incremental. Stage only that catalog data that has changed.
- Expressional. Stage only that catalog data that meets the criteria defined by one or more expressions.
- Transactional. Stage data transactionally enabling reversion of data if an error occurs. This staging mode relies on the transactional catalog subsystem export/import functionality. It guaranties atomic update of the catalog. If an error occurs during staging export or import, the catalog subsystem reverts the content of the database to the previous data before staging export/import operations. Multiple catalogs can be configured in a single business data project. The transactions do not cover all the catalogs; instead they are defined per catalog. During staging, the catalog export/import operations can continue with the next catalog if the previous catalog export/import operation fails. Any errors encountered by any catalog export/import are then collected, logged and eventually stop the replication. This means that you can have some catalogs being replicated and some not replicated.
Note

The transactional catalog staging option should not be confused with transactional and rollback support of CSS servers. The former applies only to import/export of catalog data, the latter controls replication of Web content from server to server. If transactions are turned on at the CSS server level, the replication is performed in an atomic way. The rollback operation is not supported for business data projects.
Stage Schema. Select to stage the catalog schema.
Export Expressions. Select to build an expression that defines the parts of the catalog that you want to export. For more information about Export Expressions, see Export Staging Expressions Options.

The default selections for catalog staging are as follows:

Full catalog import.
Stage schema.
All properties selected.
All languages selected.
If virtual catalogs are selected to stage, Stage Virtual Catalogs as Virtual Catalogs and Stage Dependent Catalogs are selected.

Export Staging Expressions Options

When staging catalog data in the expression staging mode, you specify one or more expressions to specify exactly what products and categories are to be updated. The options available for defining the expressions are as follows:

None. Select this option to export no descendent objects.
Immediate Children. Select this option to export only immediate child descendent objects.
All Levels. Select this option to export all descendent objects.
Products and Categories Clause. Specify an SQL clause that specifies the products and categories that you want to stage.
Filter Descendants Clause. Specify an SQL clause that specifies the descendants of the items defined by the Products and Categories Clause that you want to stage.

Catalog Staging Options Supported By Staging Mode

The following table indicates which catalog staging options apply to the various staging modes.

Staging option	Full staging	Incremental staging	Expressional staging
Catalogs to stage	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Generate Full Text Indexes	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Stage Catalog Sets	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Refresh cache	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Stage Virtual Catalogs as Virtual Catalogs	Selectable if a virtual catalog is selected	Selectable if a virtual catalog is selected	Selectable if a virtual catalog is selected
Materialize Virtual Catalog	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Stage Dependent Catalogs	Selectable if a virtual catalog is selected	Selectable if a virtual catalog is selected	Selectable if a virtual catalog is selected
Properties to Stage (The default is to stage all properties)	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Languages to Stage (The default is to stage all languages)	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Full (catalog export/import)	Supported
Incremental (catalog export/import)		Supported	Supported
Expressional (catalog export/import)		Supported Uses expressional export based on last modified date.	Supported If selected, does not input last modified date in export expression.
Transactional (revert if an error occurs)	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Stage Schema	Selectable	Selectable	Selectable
Export Expressions (For information about these options, see Export Staging Expressions Options.)		Selectable Uses expressional export based on last modified date.	Selectable When you select it, does not input last modified date in export expression.

Scheduling Options

You can select to replicate business data manually or according to a set schedule.

Manual data replication. To replicate business data manually, select the project from the Commerce Server Staging console and issue the Start command. You can then repeat this procedure for every replication of that content.
Set schedule. To replicate business data according to a set schedule, you define a schedule for the project and issue the Start command. The data is replicated when the schedule specifies. Available schedules include daily, weekly, or one time only. You can add multiple schedules to a project.