The following are the steps to add multilingual display names for property definitions

1. Add the desired langauges to the property definitions
2. Set the display names for the desired property.

While the above steps can be performed from the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager, you can programatically achieve this as follows:

/// <summary> /// Language support for property definitions /// </summary> /// <param name="catalogContext"></param> internal void AddLanguagesToPropertyDefinitions(CatalogContext               catalogContext) {       // Add the languages to the Property definitions       catalogContext.AddLanguageToPropertyDefinitions("en-US");       catalogContext.AddLanguageToPropertyDefinitions("fr-FR");                         // Get the langauges added to the Property definitions       foreach(string language in       catalogContext.GetPropertyDefinitionLanguages())       {             Console.WriteLine(language);       }                         // To set the displaynames for properties        // Get the CatalogProperty object       CatalogProperty property = catalogContext.GetProperty("Name");             // For a language X, you can get/set the display name in the       // DisplayName_X property       property["DisplayName_en-US"] = "Name";       property["DisplayName_fr-FR"] = "Nom";             // Save the displaynames       property.Save();         // Get the English display names       string displayNameEn = null;         // Ensure that the property exists and it has a value       if ( property.HasProperty("DisplayName_en-US") &&            !property.IsPropertyNull("DisplayName_en-US"))       {           displayNameEn = (string)property["DisplayName_en-US"];       }         // Remove the language       catalogContext.RemoveLanguageFromPropertyDefinitions("fr-FR");                   }

1. Property Definitions
2. Catalog  Definitions
3. Inventory Catalog
4. Inventory Skus
5. Product and Categories

All the above entities except 5 can be extended as follows

1. Create a property. For eg if you want to associate a VendorId with a catalog, create a property named VendorId of datatype string.
2. Add the property to the appropriate entity
3. Once the entity has been added to the entity you can access its value using the indexer or the corresponding dataset. For eg. string vendorId  = (string)productCatalog["VendorId"];
4. You can also enumerate the list of properties added to a particular entity
5. Note that multilingual properties cannot be added to the first four entities
6. If your site contains an inventory resource then the properties defined in the catalog system can be used to extend the Inventory Catalog and Inventry Skus entities

      The above operations can be performed from the Catalog and Inventory Schema manager. This is how you can perform the above tasks programatically.

      Assume that you want to add a VendorId property to track vendors for your product catalogs

/// <summary> /// Extends the ProductCatalog Entity /// </summary> /// <param name="catalogContext"></param> internal void ExtendCatalogEntity(CatalogContext catalogContext) {       // Create the property       CatalogProperty property = catalogContext.CreateProperty("VendorId",       CatalogDataType.String, 25);         // Add the property  to the ExtensibleEntityType.ProductCatalog entity       catalogContext.AddPropertyToEntity(ExtensibleEntityType.ProductCatalog,       "VendorId");       // Get the properties added to the ExtensibleEntityType.ProductCatalog entity       CatalogPropertiesDataSet extendedProperties =       catalogContext.GetEntityProperties(ExtensibleEntityType.ProductCatalog);       // Iterate through all the extended properties       foreach(CatalogPropertiesDataSet.CatalogProperty extendedProperty in                extendedProperties.CatalogProperties)       {             string propertyName = extendedProperty.PropertyName;       }       // Now assign a value to the VendorId       ProductCatalog productCatalog = catalogContext.GetCatalog("My Catalog");       productCatalog["VendorId"] = "My Vendor";       // You can also use the Information property to do the same thing       // productCatalog.Information.Catalogs[0]["VendorId"] = "My Vendor";        // save the changes       productCatalog.Save();         string vendorId = null;       // Access the value of the "VendorId" property       // Validate that "VendorId" property has been added to the ProductCatalog       // entity and its value is not null       if ( productCatalog.HasProperty("VendorId")       && !productCatalog.IsPropertyNull("VendorId"))       {          vendorId = (string)productCatalog["VendorId"];          // vendorId = (string)productCatalog.Information.Catalogs[0]["VendorId"];       }       // Remove the property from the ProductCatalog entity       catalogContext.RemovePropertyFromEntity(ExtensibleEntityType.ProductCatalog,       "VendorId");                         }

In a similar manner you can extend the other entities. Use

1. ExtensibleEntityType.PropertyDefinition for Property Definitions
2. ExtensibleEntityType.ProductCatalog for Catalog  Definitions
3. ExtensibleEntityType.InventoryCatalog for Inventory Catalog
4. ExtensibleEntityType.InventorySku for Inventory Skus

A sample implementation of the credential prompter whcih prompts the user for the login name and password can be done as follows:

You can then instantiate the CatalogServiceAgent as

Securing the Catalog web service

First let's talk about securing the catalog web service. Securing the catalog web service involves securing the web methods to ensure that unauthorized users cannot successfully invoke these methods. Instead of reinventing the wheel and introduce another authorization model for users to learn we decided to use the Windows Authorization Manager. There are several articles on Authorization manager on msdn. You can also check out the Authorization Manager Team Blog for overviews, case studies etc.

The catalog system provides various levels of authorization which can be defined by assigning the users to the different roles. Users can be Administrators, catalog editors, language translators etc. You can also create your own user model and still enforce the catalog authorization in the web service. The authorization model also allows you to control which users can view which catalogs and edit which properties. For eg you can disable certain users from editing specific product properties like list price, description etc.

The catalog system supports only the XML store which means that the authorization information is defined in an xml file. The name of the xml file is specified in the catalogWebService element in the web.config via the authorizationPolicyPath attribute. When you unpup the catalog webservice a default xml file named CatalogAuthorizationStore.xml is installed in the web service directory (typically <Drive>:\Inetpub\wwwroot\CatalogWebService). You can use the authorizationPolicyPath attribute to specify a different authorization store. If the specified path is not an absolute path then the path is relative to the catalog web service's directory.

After you install the catalog web service you need to perform the following steps to get the catalog webservice up and running.

1. Application pool: Verify that the catalog web service has been assigned to the desired Application pool. Verify the properties of the application pool especially the Identity. The identity of the application pool is the name of the account under which an application pool's worker process runs.

2. Once the identity of the catalog web service's application pool has ben configured ensure that this account has write access on the catalog authorization store. You can do this by right clicking the CatalogAuthorizationStore.xml, click properties, select the Security tab, add the catalog web service’s account and check the Allow Write checkbox. The catalog system offers catalog level security which means that you can control which users can access which catalogs. This has been implemented by means of scopes in the authorization store. Since the catalogs are dynamically created in the catalog system it becomes necessary to create a new scope in the authorization store every time a catalog is created. Creating the catalog scope needs write permissions on the xml file. This is why you need to ensure that the account running the catalog web service has Write permissions on the catalog authorization store. If this is not done then the catalog web service will throw a configuration exception at startup and none of the methods can be invoked.

3. The final step is to add the user accounts to the appropriate roles. This can be done by the Authorization Manager MMC. To do this

1. Start->Run->Azman.msc
2. Right click Authorization Manager
3. Click Open Authorization Store
4. Select the CatalogAuthorizationStore.xml
5. Expand CatalogAuthorizationStore->CatalogAndInventorySystem->Role Assignments
6. To add a user to a role, right click the role and select "Assign Windows Users or groups" and add the users to the appropriate roles.

Note that adding the user the Administrator role will allow the user to perform any operation in the catalog system.

4. As I mentioned previously we dynamically create scopes for each catalog, language and property in the catalog system to provide a finely grained authorization mode. This means that every time you create a new catalog you need to follow the above steps to ensure that appropriate users have access to this catalog. The only difference is that you need to expand the node named "CatalogScope_<Catalog Name>"->Role Assignments and add the users to the CatalogEditor role.

5. If you are unable to access the catalog web service due to the following exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: File or assembly name 0x1gew0n.dll, or one of its dependencies, was not found. File name: "0x1gew0n.dll" at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Boolean isStringized, Evidence assemblySecurity, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark) --- LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/WINDOWS/TEMP/6hg1.dll. The resolution for this issue is to grant write permissions on the temp directory mentioned in the above URL (C:/WINDOWS/TEMP) to the catalog web service account.

The next post will be about the various operations, tasks and roles and how you can create your own tasks and roles to enforce an authorization model which is driven by your business needs. It will also discuss how to define permissions for the various user scenarios.

Other useful links:

• Product Documentation
• Product Review
• Readme
• Installation Guide

Additional information on general availability and pricing can be found here.

"Providing an increased number of search features/conditions is something we are looking forward to, in the upcoming releases. This should allow you to specify more complex search phrases."

Commerce Server 2007 now allows you to specify complex search phrases which allow you to customize your searches to the finest level of granularity. If the default freetext search behavior as described in the above link does not work for you, you can now  use the new AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase property on the CatalogSearch object. An example of using this property to implement Thesaurus support is provided in this link. Note that when you set this property you should also set the UseAdvancedFreeTextSearch to true. This is to avoid ambiguity on whether the value specified for AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase or FreeTextSearchPhrase  property should be used to perform the search.

Here are some additional search scenarios for which you can use this new property.

• You can perform wild card searches by appending * to the search phrase. For eg to return all the products containing search terms beginning with "Commerce". When passing a compound phrase you need to enclose the phrase in quotes.

• To perform exact searches you should enclose the phrase in quotes. For eg to return rows that contain the exact phrase "Commerce Server 2007"

          catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase  = "\"Commerce Server 2007\"";

• To return all the products containing the phrases "Commerce Server" and "Sql Server"

        catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase=" \"Commerce Server 2007\" AND \"Sql Server\" ";

• To return all the products containing the phrases "Commerce Server" OR "Sql Server"

         catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase=" \"Commerce Server 2007\"  OR  \"Sql Server\" ";

• To return all products beginning with Commerce Or Sql server

       catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase=" Commerce*  OR \"Sql Server\" ";

•  You can also perform proximity searches using the NEAR keyword. For eg to return all products containing the word 2007 near "Commerce Server"

         catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase="2007 NEAR \"Commerce Server\"";

•  You can perform inflectional searches using the INFLECTIONAL keyword. For eg to return all products with forms of dry like drying, dried etc

      catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase="FORMSOF (Inflectional,dry)";

•       To return all products containing Commerce or Sql Server and not ASP

     catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase="(\"commerce \" OR \"sql server\") and not ASP\"";  

The above are just some of the scenarios. To truly understand what else you can do take a look at this link. Determine the clause which best reflects your search criteria and pass it to the AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase as in the above example. 

For a complete code sample and additional filtering using other criteria like "list price < $100 AND IsActive=1"  see this post.

If you are using Sql Server 2005 as your Commerce Server database server then you can take advantage of this cool feature when performing catalog searches. 

As an example, suppose  that you have a Books catalog. Assume that Description is a fulltext searchable property in this catalog and that this catalog has various C# books. When performing a search on your site users might search for C# or "C Sharp". You can use the Thesaurus feature to allow searches for "C Sharp" to return C# books.

The first step is to edit the tsENU.xml file located in the SQL_Server_install_path\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\FTDATA\ directory and add the following element to it

         <expansion>
                     _{C sharp}
                     _C#
          </expansion>   

 After you edit the xml file you will have to restart the "SQL Server FullText Search (MSSQLSERVER)"  service for the changes to take effect.

The following code sample demonstrates how to perform the catalog search to allow searches for "C Sharp" to return books containing C#:

CatalogSearch catalogSearch = catalogContext.GetCatalogSearch();

catalogSearch.SearchOptions = new CatalogSearchOptions();

// Set appropriate search options

catalogSearch.UseAdvancedFreeTextSearch = true;

catalogSearch.AdvancedFreeTextSearchPhrase = "FORMSOF(THESAURUS, \"C Sharp\")";

int totalRecords;

CatalogItemsDataSet searchResults = catalogSearch.Search(out totalRecords);

// Iterate through the search results

foreach(CatalogItemsDataSet.CatalogItem searchResult in searchResults.CatalogItems)

      Console.WriteLine(searchResult.CategoryName);

What are catalogsets anyway?

   Catalogsets provide a way to group together a similar set of product catalogs.You can use catalog sets to decide the appropriate list of catalogs to be displayed to your site users based on their profile.  For eg you can create a catalogset containing a list of preferred product catalogs. The catalog set can then be associated to profile of runtime users and when a user browses your site you can then select the list of catalogs the user can browse.This allows you to show a different list of catalogs for anonymous users, registered users or privileged users. See this post for more information and the various fallbacks.

   A new feature in Commerce Server 2007 is the ability to create dynamic catalog sets. A catalog set can now be

• Static, which contains a static list of catalogs.
• Dynamic, which allows you to associate an expression with the catalog set. The catalog set will now contain  the list of catalogs which match the expression. A good usage of this feature would be to define a catalog set for active product catalogs. For eg "Active catalogset" can be a dynamic catalogset which has the expression "StartDate> 01/01/2006" and "EndDate<12/31/2006" associated with it. This catalog set will now contain all the catalogs which have a start and end dates that fall in the specified range.

By default the catalog system creates two default catalog sets

1. Anonymous User Default CatalogSet, is a catalog set for anonymous users
2. Registered User Default CatalogSet, is a catalog set for registered users

As I previously mentioned you can associate catalogsets to a users profile and use the users profile and the catalog sets to display the list of catalogs for that user. The newly added dynamic catalogset feature can be used here to provide a better user experience, increased flexibility and less maintainence. Once you define your expression you dont have to worry about the contents of the catalog set. 

New in Commerce Server 2007 is the ability to import and export catalog sets from and to xml files. We have also added Azman security to control which users can view and edit the catalogsets.