WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

Deciding whether to migrate list price data

If your existing store maintains list prices, you should consider migration. By migrating your list price data, you move the data to different database tables. This allows you to use the Management Center Catalog Filter and Pricing tool to access and manage the data so that list prices are managed as a price list. You can then use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool to export, upload, and edit your list price list. You can also use the list price list in price rules.

The list price data is the only candidate for migration. Price lists that contain offer prices are already in the correct database tables for the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool.

About list price data

Not all stores use list prices. Here is a description to help you determine if your store uses list price data:
  • List prices are the only price data stored in the LISTPRICE database table. All other price data is stored in the "OFFER" tables (OFFER, OFFERPRICE, OFFERDESC).
  • List prices are intended for catalog display purposes only, for example, as the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price). The list price is not intended to be used as the actual price customers must pay.
  • In the Catalogs tool, the list price is displayed in the List price field shown in the following screen capture:
    List price in the Catalogs tool

Deciding whether migration is required

If your existing store does not use list prices, you do not need to migrate.

If your existing store does use list prices, you must migrate your data if you want to use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center to:

  • Maintain the list price list (for example, edit, export, and upload).
  • Use price rules to display prices from the list price list on the storefront. The price rule can also dynamically adjust the list price, for example, mark it up by a percentage.

Migration is required because the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool cannot access prices in the LISTPRICE database table; the tool can only access price lists in the "OFFER" tables (OFFER, OFFERPRICE, OFFERDESC).

If you choose not to migrate, you can continue to use existing methods to manage your list prices.

List price migration utility

WebSphere Commerce provides a list price migration utility. This utility is a script that extracts pricing data from the LISTPRICE table and moves the data to a new list price list stored in these existing tables: OFFER, OFFERPRICE, and OFFERDESC. The following diagram illustrates where list price data is stored before and after migration:
Migration utility
In addition to migrating list price data, the migration utility also creates a new price rule for list price for the store. The purpose of the price rule is to display the migrated list price prices on the storefront.

The following table summarizes what the migration utility does for different types of stores:

Type of store Utility migrates list price data? Utility creates new list price rule in Management Center?
Single store (not an extended site store) Yes Yes
Extended site store Yes (if the extended site store has its own list price data) Yes (if the extended site store has its own list price data)
Storefront asset store Not applicable - storefront asset stores do not have price lists; catalog asset stores do. Yes
Catalog asset store Yes Not applicable - catalog asset stores do not have price rules; storefront asset stores do.

After migrating from using the list price in the Catalog component to the Offer component, the search index can no longer include the list price that is managed by the Price component. To display the list price in the storefront after migrating to the Offer list price, you must use the Computed price mode, where prices are calculated at runtime. For more information, see Search configuration properties in the STORECONF table.