What’s New
In June 2018, Skava released version 7.5 of its Commerce platform. In this release, Stores has been set up as a separate microservice; and accordingly, Admins no longer need to select a store to access Inventory, User, Promotions, and Order Management Service (OMS) microservices.
See below for the current Admin User Guide for Stores updated for the 7.5 Skava Commerce release.
| For details about the technical implementation of the Stores microservice, please see Stores Microservice Overview under the Skava Commerce 7.5 section of this portal. |
Introduction
The Stores microservice allows an admin user to map the relationships of all microservices (i.e. Product Information Management (PIM), Promotion, Inventory, Order Management System (OMS), etc.) to the Store and define store details including store name, store ID, store locales, default locale, store status, and store type. This is central to the complete suite of Skava Commerce microservice-based solutions.
An administrator can flexibly configure the complete Skava Commerce solution to meet specific business objectives, by utilizing Store administration. Similar to other Skava microservices, the Stores microservice provides both user and administrative services. User services are typically used in the transactional and operational information flows whereas administrative services are used in the creation and management of stores.
The Stores microservice within Skava Commerce is unique in that all microservices within Skava Commerce or any combination of microservices MUST include the Skava Store. For example, even if the client only requires Skava’s Loyalty microservice, the Skava Store must be first configured with the appropriate Loyalty instance and then that specific Loyalty instance becomes available through that specific Store.
Store Summary
The term Store is a central concept for all commerce so it is a very intuitive concept for Skava Commerce users.
Stores provides a single, comprehensive definition or view of all Skava’s microservices that are actively engaged in the entire customer journey from the storefront (Skava Studio and Skava Content) to order placement (Skava Cart-Checkout ), to order notifications (Skava Marketing Campaigns Guide), to order fulfillment and customer service (Skava Customers (User)) and Skava OMS ).
Stores provides quick and easy access to store-level operational functions such as clear cache as well as the ability to deactivate a Store, if necessary.
Stores is a microservice through which a Store Admin or Manager can create and manage online stores. A Store Manager or Admin with valid privileges can associate other microservice entities to a store, such that data required for a storefront will be inferred.
This document covers:
- Creating an Online Store
- Managing Stores
- Clearing Cache
Intended Users
This document is intended for the Business Admin or Store Manager to manage stores and associated microservices.
Key Terms
| Term | Definition |
| Business | This refers to the business(es) owned and managed by a Skava Commerce client.
For example, a worldwide retailer running stores across the United States, Europe and Australia could have three (3) different businesses created under one Skava Commerce instance. |
| Business Admin | This refers to a business admin having full control over the business for which s/he is an administrator. The role has a complete set of privileges under the business such that s/he can invite new users to the business, create/update services, stores, roles, and customize roles. |
| Default Locale | This refers to the default locale being used when a locale is not specified in the API request. |
| Instance | This refers to a full deployment of Skava Commerce platform that is used to host one or more businesses. |
| Instance Admin | This refers to a super user who has access to all the features of the admin tool at any level. |
| Locale | This refers to a set of parameters that defines end-users’ language, region, currency, and date format. i.e. en_US refers to English language, USA region, USD currency, and MM/DD/YYYY format. A set of possible locales is provided at the time of the deployment of the Instance. When a Store service is instantiated, a set of allowed locales for that store AND a default locale are identified by the administrator. |
| Store | This refers to an instance of the Store microservice. |
| Storefront | This refers to a customer-facing website that presents products, content, and promotions across multiple channels. |
Accessing the Commerce Console
Once the Skava Commerce platform has been deployed and configured for a client, users, with appropriate privileges, are able to login to and use the Commerce Console.
To Access the Skava Commerce Console in a Web Browser:
1. Navigate to the Client’s Skava Commerce Log In screen (https://<domain>/mcadmin/v2/login.jsp)
2. Enter a valid Email address and Password
3. Click 
to login or 
to reset your password.
Creating an Online Store
A Business Manager or user with valid privileges can create and manage an instance of the Stores microservice.
To Create an Online Store:
1. Click on the Business name under which a Store is to be created and the Business home page displays (i.e. Skava).
2. Click 
and the Create Store page displays.
3. Complete the Create Store form with the following information (*required).
| Form Field | Description |
| Store ID | This is auto-generated and not editable. |
| Start Date* | This specifies duration for which the created service will be valid, including the start date. |
| End Date* | This specifies duration for which the created service will be valid, including the end date. |
| Store Name* | This is where you enter the desired store name. |
| Time Zone* | This is where you select a time zone from the Time Zone drop-down. |
| Store type* | This is where it defaults to Online, which is the only supported store type. |
| Locale* | This is where you select a locale from the Locale drop-down. |
| Store Status | This defaults to active. To make it inactive, click  |
| Customize Link | This specifies the storefront URL in the Customize Link field. |
4. Under the Microservices section, select the required microservices to be associated with the Store from the drop-down list.
| Note: Only one Service Instance per microservice can be selected for a Store. |
5. Under Storefront Services section, select the required services for Content and Studio and click Apply.
| A single Store can have multiple instances of Content and Studio. |
6. Admins can add additional properties from the ADVANCED tab.
- Additional properties can be added only by users with valid privileges.
- Admins can turn off adding additional properties by clicking
.
7. Enter a Property name and a Property value and click ADD.
| Admins can add multiple properties under the ADVANCED section. |
8. Click SAVE AND CREATE to create the new Store.
The newly created Store will display under the Business name on the Business home page.
Managing Stores
Admins can perform the following tasks from the Stores page:
- Editing a Store
- Launching a Store
- Exporting a Store
- Importing a Store
- Clearing Cache
Editing a Store
Once a store is created, Admins can edit the Store’s basic information as well as its associated microservices.
To Edit a Store:
1. Click on the name of the Store to be edited on the Business Instance page and the Store page for the selected Store will display.
2. Make the required modifications and click SAVE AND UPDATE to save.
| Note: Store ID and Store Type cannot be modified. |
Launching a Store
To Launch a Store’s Storefront (site) from the Stores page:
1. Click the desired Store name on the Business Instance page to launch the Store Instance page for the Store.
The Store Information page will display:
2. Click 
in the header to the right of the Store name.
3. Click Launch Site from the menu to be redirected to the Store URL specified under the Customize Links field.
Exporting a Store
A store manager or user with valid privileges can export a particular store’s details to an Excel file.
To Export Store Details:
1. Click the desired Store name on the Business Instance page to launch the Store Instance page for the Store.
The Store Information page will display:
2. Click in the header to the right of the Store name.
3. Click Export Store from the menu and the details of the Store will be exported to an Excel file.
Importing a Store
A store manager or user with valid privileges can import and create stores in bulk via a XLS, XLSX, or CSV file.
To Import Store Details:
1. Click the desired Store name on the Business Instance page to launch the Store Instance page for the Store.
The Store Information page will display:
2. Click in the header to the right of the Store name.
3. Click Import Store from the menu and the Import Stores page will display.
4. Drag and drop the Excel file onto the upload screen or browse your computer drive to select and upload the file.
Download a sample template by clicking DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE at the top right hand side of the upload screen.
|
5. Click START IMPORT to import store details.
Clearing Cache
A Store manager or user with valid privileges can clear the cached information of all associated service offerings from a store level. The purpose of cache clear is to clear cached information so that updates available in the associated services are reflected in the storefront.
| Only when the current cache clear is completed for a Store, can any user initiate another cache clear operation for the same Store. |
To Clear Cache:
1. Click the desired Store name on the Business Instance page to launch the Store Instance page for the Store.
The Store Information page will display:
2. Click in the header to the right of the Store name.
3. Click Clear Cache in the menu and the clear cache dialog box will display.
4. Click START CLEAR CACHE or click CANCEL to abort the cache clear.
Revision History
2020-03-30 | AM – Minor copyedit.
2019-06-23 | PLK – Content uploaded.
2019-06-15 | PLK – Page created.
