Home
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.
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.
Management Center for HCL Commerce
The Management Center for HCL Commerce, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).
Catalogs tool
Use the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage catalogs, categories, catalog entries, merchandising associations, product attributes, and attachments in your store. The Catalogs tool lets business users create, and manage online catalogs. Catalogs provide a way of organizing the products that you want to sell. You define catalog data in groups of categories and products. Catalog data contains descriptions and pricing information for products and services.
Managing attributes
The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store, including assigning or changing product attributes.
Using the attribute dictionary
Before you create products in your store, create attributes. Attributes are characteristics of a product such as size or color. There are two types of attributes, attributes with predefined values, and attributes with assigned values.

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.
- 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.
  - Management Center for HCL Commerce
    The Management Center for HCL Commerce, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).
    - Management Center keyboard shortcuts
      Use the Management Center keyboard shortcuts to access user interface functions or complete tasks, using a single key or combination of keys.
    - Working in extended site stores in Management Center
      If your company operates an extended site, you can perform certain tasks directly from your extended site store within Management Center.
    - Manage content externally for use in Management Center
      If content management capabilities other than the functionality that is provided by default with HCL Commerce is required, HCL Commerce can be integrated with IBM Web Content Manager. If HCL Commerce is integrated with IBM Web Content Manager, you can use content from IBM Web Content Manager content libraries with Management Center objects.
    - Management Center user interface
      The Management Center user interface provides a usable, intuitive, and efficient way to complete your business tasks.
    - Using the Management Center
      The starting point for all Management Center tasks is to open the tooling. Afterward, you can use several methods to complete a task: by selecting menu options, by clicking toolbar buttons, by right-clicking and selecting menus, or by keyboard shortcuts.
    - Catalogs tool
      Use the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage catalogs, categories, catalog entries, merchandising associations, product attributes, and attachments in your store. The Catalogs tool lets business users create, and manage online catalogs. Catalogs provide a way of organizing the products that you want to sell. You define catalog data in groups of categories and products. Catalog data contains descriptions and pricing information for products and services.
      - Working with catalogs
        The Category Manager or Product Manager manages the catalog hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting catalogs for stores. There are two types of catalogs: master catalogs and sales catalogs.
      - Managing Catalog Upload
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can use the Catalog Upload feature in the Catalogs tool to upload sales catalogs, categories, catalog entries (products, SKUs, bundles, and kits), attributes, asset references, and more into Management Center.
      - Managing categories
        The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories. The category hierarchy organizes products or services offered by the store.
      - Managing catalog entries
        The Category Manager manages catalog entries in the store including, products, bundles, kits, and SKUs.
      - Managing products
        The Category Manager or Product Manager manages products, including adding or changing products in the catalog hierarchy.
      - Managing product variants
        The Category Manager manages product variants, including adding or changing attributes to variants.
      - Managing SKUs
        The Product Manager is responsible for determining the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store.
      - Managing kits
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can organize kits in the catalog hierarchy, and create and change kits to determine the best way to sell them in the store.
      - Managing bundles
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can organize bundles in the catalog hierarchy, and create and change bundles to determine the best way to sell them in the store.
      - Managing attributes
        The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store, including assigning or changing product attributes.
        Attributes
        As a Category Manager or Product Manager, you can use Management Center to manage individual attributes within catalog entries or to manage attributes within the attribute dictionary. The attribute dictionary contains two types of attributes: attributes with predefined values and attributes with assigned values. You can reuse the attributes that are contained in the attribute dictionary across multiple catalog entries. You can assign attributes to catalog entries for use as defining attributes or descriptive attributes.
        Options for managing attributes
        The attribute dictionary in Management Center provides a flexible, alternative method for managing attributes within a store catalog. Before you begin to use the attribute dictionary in Management Center, review the available options for managing attributes.
        Using the attribute dictionary
        Before you create products in your store, create attributes. Attributes are characteristics of a product such as size or color. There are two types of attributes, attributes with predefined values, and attributes with assigned values.
        Attribute dictionary
        An attribute dictionary is a set of attributes and attribute values that can be reused by multiple products. Changing an attribute in the attribute dictionary changes the attribute for all products the attribute is applied to in the store catalog. By adding attributes to the attribute dictionary, you simplify the process for keeping attribute names and values consistent across your site. Maintaining consistency with your attribute names and values improves store search results and product comparisons.
        Best practices for using the attribute dictionary
        Review the following best practices for using the attribute dictionary to learn ways to simplify managing attributes and reduce any impact to site performance:
        Adding attributes to the attribute dictionary
        You can use the catalog upload feature in the Catalogs tool to add attributes with assigned values or predefined values to the Management Center attribute dictionary.
        Organizing attribute dictionary attributes with folders
        As a Category Manager or Product Manager, you can create, change, and delete folders in Management Center to make managing your attribute dictionary attributes easier. You can add attributes to folders and create subfolders to simplify organizing your attributes and navigating to locate attributes.
        Defining product-specific swatch images
        For certain attributes like Color, you might want a product to have its own unique swatch images. If so, you can create attachments that contain your product-specific swatch images and associate the attachments with the product. As a result, the product-specific swatch images are used on storefront product pages instead of the generic swatch images for the attribute.
        Ribbon ads (image overlays) for catalog entry thumbnails
        A ribbon ad is an image overlay that is displayed over the thumbnail image of catalog entries and contains text that describes shared characteristics of the catalog entries to draw the attention of shoppers.
        Adding a ribbon ad (image overlay) to catalog entry thumbnails
        To draw attention to certain catalog entries on the storefront, you can display a ribbon ad over the thumbnail image. To do so, you must create an attribute in the attribute dictionary to represent the ribbon ad. Then, you can assign the attribute to one or more catalog entries.
        Changing attributes in the attribute dictionary
        When you change an attribute, the attribute is updated for all catalog entries that it is assigned to. When you change defining attributes, any updates to the properties or predefined values are automatically reflected within all catalog entries that use the attribute.
        Deleting attributes and predefined values from the attribute dictionary
        You can delete attributes and attribute predefined values from the attribute dictionary if conditions change. For example, if the manufacturer no longer makes a product in various sizes and the product is now available only in one size fits all.
        Listing attributes in the attribute dictionary
        You can view all of the attributes that are contained within an attribute dictionary by opening the Attribute Dictionary-Attributes list view. Use the Attribute Dictionary-Attributes list view to display a list of the attributes and view details for a specified attribute, such as the description or data type of the attribute.
        Using catalog entry attributes
        You can manage attributes within individual catalog entries.
        Task flow: Using attribute dictionary attributes in promotions
        You can create promotions that use attributes from the Management Center attribute dictionary. This task flow guides you step-by-step through the process of creating and activating an attribute-based promotion and creating a web activity to advertise this promotion.
        Task flow: Using attribute dictionary attributes to create price rules
        You can create price rules that use attribute-based catalog filters. This task flow guides you step-by-step through the process of creating an attribute-based catalog filter and then creating a catalog condition to create attribute-based price rules.
      - Managing facets
        Facets group similar items and attributes together in the left sidebar of your store to target meaningful product results. The facets are displayed with the number of products that are contained in each facet, and are clickable to filter search results. The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display facets in the online store, including assigning or changing product attribute and category facets.
      - Managing merchandising associations
        Product Managers, can find, list, create, and change merchandising associations (such as up-sells or cross-sells).
      - Managing catalog assets
        A catalog asset is a URL that is associated to a category or catalog entry. For example, the URL can be a link to a more detailed product image, or a PDF document that is related to the product. The usage type of the catalog asset determines the store page on which the asset is displayed, and the location on the page.
      - Managing search term associations
        The Product Manager is responsible for creating and managing search term associations. Search term associations include synonyms and search term replacements, and linking search terms with landing pages.
      - Managing site search statistics
        By reviewing site search statistics, you learn what customers are intending to find on your web site when they enter keywords in the search field. You can then make targeted improvements to optimize your site search, improve your site navigation, and ultimately increase conversions. Management Center provides site search statistics in two reports: the Top Search Hits report and the Top Search Misses report.
      - Managing content versioning
        Category Managers and Product Managers can manage versions of business objects to: rollback changes, make seasonal changes, or track the history of a business object.
      - Improving search results on your site
        HCL Commerce provides several tools that you can use to improve search results from search engines, and search results on your storefront.
      - Default and hidden fields
        Not all fields in the Catalogs tool views are displayed by default. This page lists all of the database fields that can be displayed in a properties view in the Catalogs tool, and if they are displayed by default.
      - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        Find answers to some frequently asked questions about using certain features of the Catalogs tool and completing tasks.
      - Troubleshooting
        If you encounter issues while you are using the Catalogs tool, review this troubleshooting topic to solve common problems.
    - Marketing tool
      Use the Marketing tool in Management Center to create and manage marketing campaigns and other store content, excluding catalog content. You can use the extensive precision marketing features in the tool to deliver targeted marketing messages to customers.
    - Promotions tool
      Use the Promotions tool in Management Center to create and manage promotions that support the marketing campaigns for your site.
    - Attachments tool
      As a Product Manager, Marketing Manager, or Category Manager, you can use the Attachments tool to manage URLs that point to marketing image files, catalog image files, PDF documents, and multimedia files that you use in marketing campaigns.
    - Catalog Filter and Pricing tool
      Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center to create and manage catalog filters, price lists, and price rules. Sellers, Sales Managers, and Account Representatives can use the tool's flexible features to implement catalog filtering and pricing strategies that meet the site's business needs over time.
    - Installments tool
      Use the Installments tool in Management Center to create and manage installment rules that support the payment methods for your site.
    - Commerce Composer tool
      Create pages and build layouts for your store directly in Management Center without involving IT by using the Commerce Composer tool. Take advantage of the tool's page design and management functions to improve your productivity and give you more control over the customer experience.
    - Store Management tool
      As a Seller, Site Administrator, or Channel Manager, you can use the Store Management tool in Management Center to manage your stores. The Store Management tool in Management Center replaces all of the store management features in HCL Commerce Accelerator, except store creation and the ability to suspend and resume stores.
    - Workspace Management tool
      The Workspace Management tool is a graphical user interface tool that is used to manage workspaces and workspace-related activities. It provides a single view across all workspaces and all tasks in the workspaces where managers can see how work is progressing.
    - Previewing a store
      Preview your store to ensure that changes made in Management Center show up in your store as expected. You can use store preview in production, authoring, and staging environments.You can use store preview within the authoring instances for any of your environments. Do not use store preview within the live instance of your HCL Commerce on Cloud environments.
    - Management Center frequently asked questions (FAQ)
      Find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Management Center.
    - Management Center Troubleshooting
      If you encounter issues with the Management Center that are not related to any specific tool, review this troubleshooting topic to solve common problems.
  - HCL Commerce Accelerator
    Use the HCL Commerce Accelerator to maintain online stores.
  - HCL Customer Service for HCL Commerce JSP stores
    HCL Customer Service for HCL Commerce provides customer service enhancements that enable a customer service representative (CSR) to resolve common issues and capture orders. These capabilities are built into the HCL Commerce Aurora storefront and enable a CSR to complete key tasks on behalf of a guest and registered customers for both B2B and B2C stores. Customer Service for HCL Commerce is offered for both Professional and Enterprise editions.
- 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.

Using the attribute dictionary

Before you create products in your store, create attributes. Attributes are characteristics of a product such as size or color. There are two types of attributes, attributes with predefined values, and attributes with assigned values.

Attributes are shared across products. If you assign an attribute to a product, and then change the attribute, the attribute is also changed in all the products that it references. Both types of attributes are creating by using the attribute dictionary.

Note: The Classic Attribute model was deprecated and replaced by the Attribute Dictionary model in Version 7 FEP2. If your site still uses the Classic Attribute model, migrate to the Attribute Dictionary model to avoid issues and feature gaps. For additional Attribute Dictionary migration information, see Migrating attribute data to the attribute dictionary in the Version 7 documentation.