What's New in Commerce Server 2009 R2?

Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 R2 provides an improved business management experience, enhanced cross-channel enablement, development and deployment flexibility, and easier integration of legacy systems. Here's what's new in Commerce Server 2009 R2:

  • SharePoint 2010 Support. Solution Storefront supports Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. To support Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Commerce Server 2009 R2 introduces several features: claims-based identity, multi-tier deployment, non-root site collections, and a single extensibility kit for both Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

  • Claims-Based Identity. Commerce Server 2009 R2 introduces claims-based identity. With claims-based identity, the authentication provider and the Web application or service being accessed by the user are separate entities. This approach to security supports the outsourcing of authentication, multiple authentication providers, federation of identities, and extensibility. In this security model, the authentication provider issues a secure token containing the claims about the authenticated user and his or her roles and permissions. Claims-aware Web applications or services make authorization decisions, such as providing access to features, services, or data, based on the claims received about the user. See Understanding Claims-Based Identity.

  • N-tier Deployment. Commerce Server 2009 R2 supports single (recommended for development or evaluation purposes only) and multi-tier (two- or three-tier) commerce deployments. Three-tier deployments have the presentation tier (SharePoint 2010 or ASP.NET Web application), the application tier (Commerce Server 2009 R2 Commerce Foundation), and the data tier (SQL Server databases) hosted on separate hardware with security boundaries in-between. Multi-tier deployments support rich Internet applications (RIAs) in both the internal and external zones. Sample configurations and deployment scripts are now packaged with Commerce Server 2009 R2 software. For more information, see Planning a Commerce Deployment and Deploying Commerce Solutions and Content.

  • RIA Support. Commerce Server 2009 R2 ** has several features to assist in supporting rich Internet applications (RIAs); these include a presentation tier Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) routing service, a Silverlight WCF client, and mitigations to security threats, such as cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and cross-site scripting (XSS). See Considerations for Secure Deployment of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).**

  • Cache Refresh. Commerce Server 2009 R2 temporarily stores, or caches, frequently used data. For those organizations who want to make updates to their live Web site, Commerce Server 2009 R2 introduces a polling mechanism to query for cache refresh requests as business users update the site. The cache refresh feature clears the stale caches, and subsequent data requests fill the cache with the latest information from the database. See Working with Cache Refresh (Pull or Polling Model).

  • Multiple Order Forms Support. The Commerce Foundation now supports the option to implement a BasketGroup that can contain multiple basket instances. Each basket instance within a BasketGroup maps to a distinct OrderForm. The BasketGroup entity therefore allows for the splitting of a shopping basket into multiple orders, providing support for different payment methods, multiple shipping addresses etc. For more information, see Commerce Foundation BasketGroup.

  • Name change for the Contemporary Site. The Contemporary Site is now called the Solution Storefront. This name will be used going forward in all documentation.

  • Developer Tools. This feature provides solution files and extensions to Microsoft Visual Studio and SharePoint Designer, allowing Commerce Server 2009 R2 developers to modify and extend the Solution Storefront and Commerce Foundation. For more information see Developing with Commerce Server 2009 R2.

  • Web Business Tools. The Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 R2 Web Business Tools allow authorized business users to perform business management tasks on the Web site. The Web Business Tools provide access to the Cross-Sell/Up-Sell Manager to create cross-sell and up-sell relationships for products and categories; the Catalog Item Manager to edit category, product, and variant information and create parent category relationships; Product Image Management tool to add, edit, and remove image references for a selected product or variant; and Cache Refresh tool to allow authorized users to refresh the catalog cache when updating a live site (Cache Refresh feature must be enabled).

    The Web Business Tools are available from the Silverlight-based Commerce Server Business Administration Ribbon on the out-of-the box Solution Storefront site. Commerce Server 2009 R2 allows developers to extend and integrate the Web Business Tools into their own application or custom Web site. For information about Web Business Tools application integration, see Silverlight Business Administration Tools Integration.

  • Non-Root Site Collections. Commerce Server 2009 R2 supports non-root site collections, meaning a single site collection at the root of the SharePoint 2010 Web application and multiple site collections that share the same host name under managed paths within the SharePoint 2010 Web application. This logical organization supports hosting many Web sites in a single SharePoint 2010 Web application, so all the Web sites share service providers, security rights, and other resources for easier site management and better site performance. For more information, see Non-Root Site Collections.

  • Programmability. Commerce Server 2009 R2 extends the Solution Storefront site SiteContext and Commerce Foundation CommerceRequestContext with a CommercePropertyCollection property bag. This new property bag allows additional properties to be passed to the Commerce Foundation CommerceRequestContext prior to making a commerce request to the Commerce Foundation. Use this feature to extend the targeting of advertisements and discounts or pass additional information to an operation sequence without the need to update existing Web parts, calling code, or operation sequences. For more information, see Commerce Foundation CommerceRequestContext.

  • Quick Install Guide. This release provides a simplified installation guide that contains instructions for installing and configuring Commerce Server 2009 R2 on a single computer for development and evaluation purposes. You can download the current Quick Installation Guide at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=212468.

  • Product version numbering change. Internal version numbering changes have occurred. This version of Commerce Server is now referred to as Commerce Server 9.0. All file paths reflect this version name.

  • Hardware and Software Requirements. For more information on hardware and software requirements, see Hardware and Software Requirements.

See Also

Other Resources

Overview of Commerce Server 2009 R2

SharePoint Commerce Services

Developing with Commerce Server 2009 R2

Developing with SharePoint Commerce Services