Publishing a store archive by using the Publish wizard

Use the Publish wizard to create stores and store-related components.

Before you begin

  1. Ensure that you have Site Administrator access.
  2. Ensure appropriate services and servers are running.
  3. Configure publish.
  4. Back up your WebSphere Commerce database so that you can restore your prepublished version if necessary.

About this task

Important:
  1. If you change the web application Context path, you must ensure that it matches the path defined in the WebSphere Commerce Server.
  2. When you open a store from Administration Console, you are logged in to the store with the same user name and password that you used to log in to Administration Console. If you change your password in the store, you are also changing it for Administration Console. Instead, to test the features in the store, including changing your password, save the site address, close all browser windows, then log on to the store again.

Procedure

  1. Open the Administration Console, selecting the Site option.
  2. From the Store Archives menu, select Publish. The Store Archives page displays listing the store archives available for publish. By default, the page displaying composite store archives displays.
  3. From the View list, select the type of composite store archive you want to publish:
  4. From the list, select the store archive that you want to publish.
  5. Click Next. The Parameters page displays. Depending on the store archive you selected, different parameters display.
    • If you are publishing a starter store archive for the first time, accept the default values in the parameter fields.

      If you are publishing a starter store archive that is not a composite store archive, or if you want to publish a second store of the same type of a previously published store archive, see Publishing multiple store archives of one type per instance.

  6. Click Next. The Summary page displays, listing the store archive and parameters selected, and the location to which the store archive is published.
  7. After reviewing the summary information, click Finish. A confirmation dialog displays with the number of the publishing job. Note the job number for future reference.
  8. Restart the server.
  9. To view your store, open a web browser to one of the following web addresses:
    • http://host_name/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreView?storeId=storeId
    • http://host_name/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/yourStoreName
    Where yourStoreName is the STORE_IDENTIFIER value that you specified in your custom parameters.
    Note:
    • Ensure that yourStoreName contains all lowercase letters.
    • If the STORE_IDENTIFIER contains space characters, then replace the space characters with a hyphen (-).

What to do next

  1. Compile your JavaServer Page files. Compiling the JavaServer Pages (JSP) files in your site or store before launching it will significantly reduce the amount of time necessary to load each store page. As a result, use batch compiler to convert your store or site JSP files after publishing a store archive.
  2. To prevent unnecessary exceptions from displaying, delete the SendTransactionMsg job from the scheduled jobs. For more information, see Deleting a scheduled job.
  3. LinuxAIXWindowsTo enable caching in the starter stores, you must merge the cachespec.xml file from the following directory:
    WebSphere Commerce DeveloperNote: In the WebSphere Commerce development environment, caching is turned on by default.
    • WC_installdir/samples/dynacache/businessmodel

      with the cachespec.xml file in the following directory:

    • WC_eardir/Stores.war/WEB-INF

    Edit the existing cachespec.xml file in the WEB-INF directory with the changes in the first file, rather than replace it.

  4. If you are running your web server on a separate node than the WebSphere Commerce node, complete the following steps after publishing a store archive:
    1. Stop the web server.
    2. Copy store web assets from the following directory from the WebSphere Commerce machine to the web server machine in the same location: WC_eardir/Stores.war
    3. Start the web server.
  5. In a clustered environment, you must synchronize all cluster members after publishing any store archive. It might take some time for the newly published store assets to propagate to all of the nodes in the cluster after the store finishes publishing.
  6. If you have published a starter store in a workspace environment, complete these additional steps to deactivate and then reactivate all the sample web activities. This ensures that all web activities display correctly in e-Marketing Spots on the storefront:
    1. Open the Workspace Management tool.
    2. On the toolbar, click Work on approved content Work On Approved Content.
    3. Open the Marketing tool and select the name of the store you published.
    4. In the explorer view, click the Activities folder.
    5. Right-click any row in the Activities - List page, and then click Select All.
    6. On the toolbar, click Deactivate Deactivate.
    7. On the toolbar, click Activate Activate.

      Now, when you preview the store, all sample web activities display in e-Marketing Spots.