What's New for Developers in Commerce Server 2007
For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.
Commerce Server 2007 includes the following brand new and revamped features that are of particular interest to developers:
BizTalk Adapters. Commerce Server 2007 includes four BizTalk adapters, also known informally as the Commerce Server adapters, which you can use to integrate with other application by using BizTalk Server 2006 as an intermediary. These four adapters provide integration with the following four Commerce Server systems: Orders, Catalog, Inventory, and Profiles.
Each adapter provides functionality that allows interactions to be initiated in different ways. Receive adapters allow you to export data from Commerce Server to other applications according to a schedule. For example, export new orders to a warehouse line-of-business (LOB) application every 10 minutes. On the other hand, send adapters provide a way for another application to initiate an interaction with Commerce Server according to its own needs. For example, that same warehouse LOB application might update the status of an order within the Commerce Server Orders system to indicate that the order has been shipped.
For more information about developing with the BizTalk adapters, Developing with the BizTalk Adapters.
Inventory System. Commerce Server 2007 includes a brand new Inventory System that can be used in conjunction with the Catalog System and the Orders System to provide your users with information about whether particular items are in-stock or back-ordered, and so on.
For more information about the new Inventory System, see Developing with the Inventory System.
Web Services. Commerce Server 2007 includes Web service interfaces for the major Commerce Server systems, allowing the functionality of these systems to be accessed over a network using HTTP. The Catalog System and the Inventory System can be accessed using the Catalog Web Service, which they share. The Marketing System can be accessed using the Marketing Web Service. The Orders System can be accessed using the Orders Web Service. Finally, the Profiles System can be accessed using the Profiles Web Service. These Web services provide a wide variety of methods for manipulating the data in each of their respective systems. If you have unpacked the Web service applications and then you enter the following URLs in your browser, you will see a summary of these methods on the Web service home page:
http://hostname/CatalogWebService/CatalogWebService.asmx
http://hostname/MarketingWebService/MarketingWebService.asmx
http://hostname/OrdersWebService/OrdersWebService.asmx
http://hostname/ProfilesWebService/ProfilesWebService.asmx
For more information about using the Commerce Server Web services and their alternatives, see Understanding the Different Types of Commerce Server APIs.
Agents or Agent APIs. Commerce Server 2007 includes agent APIs that use the Web services described above to make over-the-network access to the major Commerce Server systems available using a programming model that is very similar to using the local, in-process APIs provided by these Commerce Server systems. Agent API calls are generally easier to use than the equivalent Web service call (or calls).
For more information about using the Commerce Server agent APIs and their alternatives, see Understanding the Different Types of Commerce Server APIs.
All New Orders Object Model. Commerce Server 2007 includes an all new object model for the Orders System. This new object model allows the Orders System to be extended in two different ways. First, by using the familiar concept of inheritance, wherein you derive a new class from an existing Orders class, adding to or modifying existing behavior. Second, you can add new properties to an existing Orders class by using the weakly typed property indexer that each Orders class provides.
For more information, see Extending the Orders Runtime.
Commerce Server Staging (CSS). Although primarily used by your IT professional colleagues, CSS is new in Commerce Server 2007. CSS helps you stage your Web site assets, such as Web content, business data, or the IIS Metabase, between different computers and environments. You can develop scripts to automate CSS and include pre-deployment and post-deployment scripts to perform custom tasks.
For more information, see Commerce Server Staging.
See Also
Other Resources
Developing with the BizTalk Adapters
Developing with the Inventory System