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HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
Installing and deploying
Learn how to install and deploy HCL Commerce development environments and HCL Commerce production environments.
Deploying custom changes
With HCL Commerce Version 9.0, you can customize HCL Commerce Docker image with the source code, configurations, and the Docker container start-up logic. Learn how to build Docker images with your customized code and deploy the images (and other changes) to your Docker containers.
Packaging customized code for deployment
The HCL Commerce Build tool (WCB tool) is the tool that you use to build your customizations into input packages. These packages can be used to build new container images and deploy to your runtime environments. If a CI/CD pipeline is implemented, you do not need to concern yourself with deployment.
Building packages
Use the HCL Commerce Build tool to build packages for deployment.
Customizing the build tool
Although the HCL Commerce Build tool supports a wide range of configuration by default through samples and configurations, a HCL Commerce customization project may have very specific needs that are not easily supported. To tailor to such needs, the HCL Commerce Build tool provides extension points which can be leveraged to develop customized build processes. This section provides customization guidelines and instructions.
Custom Ant tasks
The HCL Commerce Build tool, in both the build and the deployment processes, uses custom Ant tasks.

Documentation
HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
- Getting started
  HCL Commerce has different advantages for business users, administrators and developers. HCL Commerce targets each of these roles with a tailored set of offerings so that each of your users can get maximum benefit.
- Installing and deploying
  Learn how to install and deploy HCL Commerce development environments and HCL Commerce production environments.
  - HCL Commerce assemblies
    HCL Commerce consists of two offerings, HCL Commerce Professional, and HCL Commerce Enterprise. Each version of each edition of HCL Commerce is an offering. HCL Commerce Developer is a separate offering that is used by developers of the platform. It can be used to develop for the corresponding version of both HCL Commerce Professional and HCL Commerce Enterprise. Each offering is logically divided into subpackages called electronic assemblies, or eAssemblies. An eAssembly is a group of software that is devoted to a particular platform or environment. Each eAssembly contains the individual product images for that environment, called parts. Which parts you need depends on your usage and configuration choices.
  - Downloading software
    To set up an HCL Commerce production, development, or test environment, you require the associated product software images.
  - Supported software levels, fixes, and settings
    The following table provides a list of generally available (GA) software levels, fixes, and settings for the latest HCL Commerce Version 9.0 release.
  - Setting up HCL Commerce environments
    Learn how to set up development, testing, and production environments, and how to update the production environment through deploying custom changes and applying maintenance.
  - Deploying custom changes
    With HCL Commerce Version 9.0, you can customize HCL Commerce Docker image with the source code, configurations, and the Docker container start-up logic. Learn how to build Docker images with your customized code and deploy the images (and other changes) to your Docker containers.
    - Packaging customized code for deployment
      The HCL Commerce Build tool (WCB tool) is the tool that you use to build your customizations into input packages. These packages can be used to build new container images and deploy to your runtime environments. If a CI/CD pipeline is implemented, you do not need to concern yourself with deployment.
      - Configuring and building packages
        The HCL Commerce Build tool is highly configurable, to suit your current server environment, repository structure, and target environments.
      - Build tool prerequisites
        Before you begin, you must ensure that all prerequisites for the HCL Commerce Build tool are met. In addition, you must learn about the current build, development, and deployment processes that are used in your project. Learning about the current processes helps in planning the adoption of the HCL Commerce Build tool.
      - Build tool file location and structure
        In the HCL Commerce development environment, the HCL Commerce Build tool (WCB tool) is found in the WCDE_installdir/wcbd/ directory. In the HCL Commerce runtime environment, the HCL Commerce Build tool is found in the Utility server Docker container at /opt/WebSphere/CommerceServer90/wcbd.
      - Build tool repository structure
        The HCL Commerce Build tool is configured by default to use a specific reference repository structure. Use this repository structure because the default repository structure reduces configuration effort of the build process, and provides an intuitive structure that mirrors the HCL Commerce Developer workspace. If you are unable to use the default repository structure, the build process can be configured to adapt to your own repository structure.
      - Setting up source extraction Ant script
        The HCL Commerce Build tool requires you to provide a custom source extraction Ant build file. This file is run as part of the build process.
      - Custom package repository structure
        The HCL Commerce Build tool (WCB tool) can build applications for all four server types: the Transaction server, Store server, Search server, and Customization server. An example shows how you can build your own extensions using the HCL Commerce Build tool.
      - Building packages
        Use the HCL Commerce Build tool to build packages for deployment.
        Configuring packaging settings
        Before using the HCL Commerce Build tool, you must edit scripts and properties files to set important information such as file paths to software installations and module lists to be built.
        Customizing the build tool
        Although the HCL Commerce Build tool supports a wide range of configuration by default through samples and configurations, a HCL Commerce customization project may have very specific needs that are not easily supported. To tailor to such needs, the HCL Commerce Build tool provides extension points which can be leveraged to develop customized build processes. This section provides customization guidelines and instructions.
        Customizing the packaging process
        Advanced users can customize the build process by using the Apache Ant scripting language.
        Custom Ant tasks
        The HCL Commerce Build tool, in both the build and the deployment processes, uses custom Ant tasks.
        ContainsInFileSet condition
        Checks whether a file is in the given file sets.
        DecodeLoadProperties task
        Decodes and loads the properties from a file that has been processed by the encodeProperties task. If the properties file contains properties that have not been encoded, they are loaded with values defined as-is.
        Dos2Unix task
        Converts newline characters of a file or a set of files from CRLF (DOS format) to CR (UNIX format). The conversion is done in binary so that it also works on files of different encoding.
        EchoNL task
        Echoes national language (NL) message of the user locale, in the International Components for Unicode (ICU) format, which is identified by a given key from a resource bundle accessible from the class loader.
        EditPropertiesFile task
        Edits the properties in a properties file.
        EncodeProperties task
        Encodes and saves the properties in a properties file. This task is safe to run on the same properties file multiple times, as properties that have previously been encoded are not re-encoded. If a property value needs to be changed, replace the encoded value with the new value in plain text and rerun this task.
        FailNL task
        Fails an Ant build with a national language (NL) message of the user locale, in the International Components for Unicode (ICU) format, which is identified by a given key from a resource bundle accessible from the class loader.
        NumberCompare condition
        Compares two numbers of subclass of java.lang.Number.
        PrintStackTrace task
        Sets the stack trace of a java.lang.Throwable object to a property. This task is intended to be used in conjunction with the tryCatch task provided by Ant-Contrib.
        SetSystemProperty task
        Sets a system property.
        StringLengthCompare condition
        Compares the length of a string with a set length.
        ToURI task
        Constructs the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for a file and sets it to a property.
        ValidateProperty task
        Validates the value of a property on whether it is set, whether the value is empty, or against a list of possible values, and fails the Ant build when validation fails.
    - Building a custom Docker image from a deployable package
      You can build custom Docker images that include your custom code or custom configurations, and then share and deploy the new images.
    - Deploying custom database assets to an environment
      If you customize or change your HCL Commerce database, you must package and deploy the changed assets. Deploying your database assets can involve various schema changes and access control policies. In addition, if you have many changed assets, use the HCL Commerce loading utilities to load those changes.
  - Updating HCL Commerce overview
    Learn about HCL Commerce release types, and learn how to update your custom HCL Commerce site deployments.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to HCL Commerce Version 9, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
- Operating
  Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using HCL Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
  Topics in the Administering category highlight tasks that are typically performed by the Site Administrator, to support daily operations of the HCL Commerce site.
- Customizing
  The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
- Tutorials
  HCL Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your HCL Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
  Topics in the Samples category highlight the various samples that are provided with HCL Commerce.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage HCL Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of HCL Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
  Topics in the Performance section describe the means by which to plan, implement, test, and re-visit the optimization of HCL Commerce site performance.
- Troubleshooting
  Topics in the Troubleshooting section highlight common issues that are encountered with HCL Commerce, and how they can be addressed or mitigated.
- Reference
  Topics in the Reference section contain all of the HCL Commerce reference documentation.

Custom Ant tasks

The HCL Commerce Build tool, in both the build and the deployment processes, uses custom Ant tasks.