How to Publish a Share Point Online Store

7/22/2019 How to Publish a Share Point Online Store

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How to: Publish a SharePoint online

storeFurther reading

How to create a SharePoint online store How to deploy a StoreFront How to Setup and Configure Commerce Data Exchange: Retail-time Service How to create and configure a retail channel navigation hierarchy Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Developers [AX 2012] SDK Download

Prerequisites A SharePoint online store is created in AX. Refer to How to create a SharePoint online store. A SharePoint store front is deployed. Refer to How to deploy a StoreFront. Ask your IT administrator for the following information. We will use them in this how-to tutorial

o SharePoint catalog site collection URLo SharePoint publishing site collection URLo CRT (Commerce Runtime) database name and server name

A Commerce Data Exchange: Real-time Service profile is created. Refer to How to Setup andConfigure Commerce Data Exchange: Retail-time Service.

A navigation category hierarchy is crated. Refer to How to create and configure a retail channelnavigation hierarchy.

Why do we need to publish a SharePoint online store?Retail operation manager creates and configures an online store using AX Retail. When the online store

is ready to push to the online store front, the manager needs to do an explicit action to publish the

online store from AX to SharePoint. Therefore, the manager can keep the draft store in AX and only

make it available online by channel publishing.

Behind the scene, when an online store is published, the channel data is replicated to the CRT database

by Synch Service, from where the data is then replicated to the SharePoint store front by a SharePoint

job.

You can track the state of publishing by checking the Publishing statusfield of the online store. The

publishing status has two states:

DraftThe online store is still under edit, and it has not been published yet. The channel data stays in

AX at this moment.
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In progressThe user has clicked the Publishbutton to trigger the publishing process. The channel data

is waiting to be replicated to the SharePoint store front.

PublishedThe channel data has been replicated to SharePoint store front. The online store has been

published successfully. The retail operation manager can edit the channel and revert it to draft for the

next publishing.

FailedThe channel has failed to publish. The Publishing status messageshould provide more details

of the failure. The retail operation manager can edit the channel and revert it to draft for the next

publishing.

Online store setup checklistIt is a fairly long process to prepare a SharePoint online store and publish it. The Online store setup

checklistis available to guide the users to go through the process step by step. You can open the

checklist by clicking on Retail > Setup > Online store setup checklist.

The checklist contains the steps for both channel publishing and catalog publishing. By comparison, this

tutorial will only describe channel publishing in details.

The rest of the tutorial contains two how-to:

How to: publish a SharePoint online store for the first time How to: modify one SharePoint online store and republish it

How to: Publish a SharePoint online store for the first timeIn order to publish an online store, you need to finish the prerequisites. After that, you should have an

online store created which has never been published.


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1. Create a Commerce Data Exchange: Synch Service profilefor AOS (AOS Object Server) if youdont have one yet. This profile tells Commerce Data Exchangethe location of the Synch Service

on the AX server which handles reading and writing data from/to AX server.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel integration > Commerce DataExchange: Synch Service profiles.

b. Click Newbutton, and specify the Service nameand the Server name of the AX server.

c. Click Test connectionto verify the settings.d. Click Close.

2. Create anAOS profileif you dont have one yet. This profile tells Commerce Data Exchangethelocation of AX server which is the data source of the channel publishing.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel integration >AOS profiles.b. Click Newbutton, and specify the fields. Select the Synch Service profile for AOS in the

Commerce Data Exchange: Synch Servicefield.


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3. Create a Commerce Data Exchange: Synch Service profilefor CRT (Commerce Runtime) server.This profile tells Commerce Data Exchangethe location of the Synch Service on the CRT server

which handles reading and writing from/to the CRT server. Note: If your AX server and CRTserver are the same, you only need one Commerce Data Exchange: Synch Service profile.

a. Follow the similar steps of creating a Commerce Data Exchange: Synch Service profilefor AOS. Set the field values based on the CRT server.

4. Create a database profile for the CRT database. This profile tells Commerce Data Exchange thelocation of CRT database which is the data target of the channel publishing.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel integration >Database profiles.b. Click Newbutton, and specify the fields.

i. Name: the name of profileii. Server name: the CRT server nameiii. Database name: the CRT database name e.g. AxRetailSP.iv. Encrypt database connection: recommend to enablev. Commerce Data Exchange: Synch Service: the Synch Service profile for CRT

server.


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5. Create a channel profile if you dont have one already. This profile describes the endpoints ofthe SharePoint server. The SharePoint publishing job replicates data from CRT database to

SharePoint sites based on this profile.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel integration >Channel profiles.b. Click Newbutton, and specify the Nameand select Profile typeSharePoint online

store.

c. Add two Profile propertiesi. Publishing site collection URL

ii. Catalog site collection URL


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d. Click Validate profileto verify the settings.e. Click Close.

6. A distribution location is created automatically for each retail channel (including online stores).We still need to configure the distribution location of the online store based on the profiles we

just created.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Distribution locations.b. Select the distribution location for your channel (e.g. OOB Store Front), and specify the

fields:

i. Description: the description of the distribution location.ii. Channel: the channel of the distribution location.iii. Database profile: the CRT database that the online store will replicate data

from/to.

Note: Do not point two channels to one database profile. One CRT database only

supports one online store in this version.

iv. Channel profile: the profile of SharePoint store front that the online store willpublish to.

v. Retail channel schema: the schema type of the CRT database, in this case, 2012R2 Online Channel

vi. Send data: indictor of whether AX should send data to the distribution location.vii. Receive data: indictor of whether AX should receive data from the distribution

location.

viii. Continuous data transfer schedule: the data synchronization job that will keeprun regardless of Send dataand Receive dataflags.


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c. Click Functions > Test connectionto verify the settings.d. Click Close.

7. Edit the channel to add the navigation hierarchy to the channel. The navigation categoryhierarchy defines the product category hierarchy on the SharePoint store front.

a. Go to Retail > Common > Retail channels > Online stores.b. Select your online store and click Edit.c. Under Generalsection, set the Category hierarchyfield to your navigation category

hierarchy.

d. Stay on this form for publishing the channel in the next.8. Publish the channel. This step will populate the channel data into publishing tables which will be

replicated to the CRT database.a. Click Publishbutton, and select Yesfor the publishing confirmation. Publishing may take

a moment.


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b. The Publishing statusshould change to In progress.

c. Click Close.9. So far the channel has been triggered for publishing. The channel data is waiting to be replicated

to the CRT database and then to the SharePoint server. We need to synchronize the initial data

set (including the channel data) to the CRT database.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Distribution locations.b. Select the distribution location for your channel (e.g. OOB Store Front).c. Click Functions > Deploy initial dataset. Note: Deploy initial dataset if only necessary

for the first time publishing of a channel.


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d. Select A-0001_OC from the distribution schedule, and click OK. This step may take afew minutes.

e. Click Closeto close the distribution location list.f. Commerce Data Exchangewill automatically replicate the channel data from AX server

to the CRT database.


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10. If the SharePoint store front is deployed properly, its retail publishing job will automaticallyreplicate the channel data from the CRT database to SharePoint. Once its done, the Publishing

statuswill change to either Published or Failed.

a. If the channel is publishedCongratulations! now you can see the navigation categoryhierarchy on the SharePoint store front. You can continue to create and publish a

catalog (i.e. products) to the channel.

b. If the channel publishing failedPlease examine the Publishing status messagefield ofthe channel, fix the problem, and republish the channel. Note: you can edit the channeland revert the publishing status to Draft, and publish it again.

How to: Modify one SharePoint online store and republish itWhen one channel is published for the first time, its target CRT database is empty. Therefore, we need

to run Deploy initial datasetto replicate all the existing settings and channel data to the CRT database.

However, Deploy initial datasetis time consuming. Once the channel is published successfully, all the

following publishing just need to replicate the delta (the data created/updated/deleted since last

publishing). This tutorial describes how to republish an online store using A jobs.

1. Create or configure a distribution location list. Distribution location represents the target of thedata replication using Commerce Data Exchange. A distribution location list groups multiple

distribution locations. The distribution locations in the same list can be associated to the same

distribution schedules.

a. Go to Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Distribution location list.b. Click Newto create a new distribution location list for online stores if you dont already

have one, e.g. Default include list (Online Channel).


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c. ClickAddto add the distribution location of your online store into the list.

d. In the future, if you have a second online store, and you want to Commerce DataExchange executed on the same schedule for all the online stores. You can add the

distribution location of the second online store to this list.

e. Click Close.2. Configure the distribution schedules. The distribution schedule is executed to replicate data

between AX server and a list (or lists) of distribution locations. Different distribution schedules

are responsible for different data. For example, the schedule A-1000_OC replicates the

currency data for online channels.a. Go to Retail > Periodic > Data distribution > Distribution schedule.b. Select any distribution schedule of online stores e.g. A-1000_OC, and add your

distribution location list (e.g. Default include list (Online Channel)) to the distribution

schedule.


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c. Repeat the same step for all distribution schedules of online stores (i.e. all _OCschedules).

d. Click Close.3. Edit and republish the online store. Suppose youve modified the navigation category hierarchy

for the online store. In order to make the new hierarchy available on the SharePoint store front,

you need edit and republish the online store.

a. Go to Retail > Common > Retail channels > Online stores.b. Select your online store and click Edit. Click Yesto change the Publishing statusback to

Draft.

c. You can make additional changes to the channel before publishing. When the channel isready for publishing, continue with the next step.

d. Click Publishbutton, and select Yesfor the publishing confirmation. Publishing may takea moment.

e. The Publishing statusshould change to In progress.


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f. Click Close.4. Execute Commerce Data Exchange. So far the channel has been triggered for publishing. The

channel data is waiting to be replicated to the CRT database and then to the SharePoint server.

a. Go to Retail > Periodic > Data distribution > Create actions.b. Click OKto generate actions for data replication.c. Go to Retail > Periodic > Data distribution >Distribution scheduled. Select schedule A-1075_OC. Note, the schedule is associated with the distribution list

which contains the distribution location of your online store, e.g. Default include list

(Online Channel).

e. Click Run directlyand then Yesf. Commerce Data Exchangewill automatically replicate the channel data from AX server

to the CRT database.

g. If youve also modified data other than channel data, you need to run correspondingdistribution schedules. For example, you need to run A-1040_OC tosynchronize

pricing data for online stores.

5. If the SharePoint store front is deployed properly, its retail publishing job will automaticallyreplicate the channel data from the CRT database to SharePoint. Once its done, the Publishing

statuswill change to either Published or Failed.


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a. If the channel is publishedCongratulations! now you can see the navigation categoryhierarchy on the SharePoint store front. You can continue to create and publish a

catalog (i.e. products) to the channel.

b. If the channel publishing failedPlease examine the Publishing status messagefield ofthe channel, fix the problem, and republish the channel. Note: you can edit the channel

and revert the publishing status to Draft, and publish it again.

Documents

How to Publish a Share Point Online Store