Overview of Migration Documentation
For information about migrating the Membership Directory, see Migrating the Membership Directory.
For more information about migration, see ''Migrating a Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition Site to Commerce Server 2000" in the Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 Resource Kit.
Pipelines
Commerce Server pipelines are compatible with Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition (SSCE) pipelines with respect to their application programming interface (API). Third-party pipeline components used with SSCE will work with Commerce Server 2000, with the following exceptions:
Currency has changed to a 64-bit value (in SSCE, currency was an 32-bit integer.)
Address/shipping information has been changed to handle multiple "Ship To" addresses.
If your third-party components interact with pipeline data at the Dictionary object level, these changes may not affect your site. However, if your third-party components interact with any pipeline data at the database level, where the data is actually stored, your components will be affected because the database layer has changed in Commerce Server.
Catalogs
There is a significant difference between Commerce Server and SSCE catalogs. The SSCE wizard only generated a basic catalog called an online store. In contrast, catalogs created in Commerce Server are more complex and offer greater flexibility. Most customer deployments of SSCE use custom catalog solutions, which preclude development of a generic tool for migration to the Commerce Server Product Catalog System.
Before you migrate your online store or a custom catalog solution to a Commerce Server catalog, you must create a catalog for Commerce Server. In order to create a catalog for Commerce Server, you must create a catalog schema. After you create a catalog schema you create a catalog and populate it with products.
You can use the following strategies to migrate your online store or custom catalog to a Commerce Server catalog:
Create an XML file containing your catalog data and import it into the Commerce Server Product Catalog System. The XML file must be in a format that the Product Catalog System is capable of importing. An XML catalog file must contain the schema definition as well as the catalog data.
Another technique for determining the precise XML format for the catalog data to be imported is to construct the desired catalog schema and populate it with several sample products. Then export this catalog as XML and study the resulting XML file. The data from your online store or custom catalog solution must conform to this format.
For more information about the XML format expected by the Product Catalog System, see Catalog XML Structures.
For more information about importing the XML file once you have constructed it, see Importing an XML Catalog File.
Create a comma-separated values (CSV) file containing your catalog data and import it into the Commerce Server Product Catalog System. The CSV file must be in a format that the Product Catalog System is capable of importing, and that is compatible with the schema you have defined for your Commerce Server catalog.
For more information about the CSV format expected by the Product Catalog System, see Catalog XML Structures.
For more information about the CSV format expected by the Product Catalog System, and about importing the CSV file once you have constructed it, see Importing a CSV Catalog File.
Create a utility script that reads the catalog structure and data from your online store or your custom catalog solution, and then use the Commerce Server catalog objects to create a Commerce Server catalog with the desired schema and populate the catalog with product data. A sample script for this scenario can be found on the Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 Resource Kit CD-ROM.
For more information about the Commerce Server catalog objects, see Product Catalog Objects.