How to change url to Commerce Server Catalog service

Question

Summary

Sitecore Commerce 8.2.1 uses a Commerce Server Catalog service to store information about products. This service can be accessed using the Catalog Manager tool, the Merchandising Manager SPEAK application, or the Sitecore Content tree, under /sitecore/Commerce/Catalog Management/Catalogs.

According to the Deployment Guide section Default Commerce Engine service settings it should be possible to change the URL where this catalog is kept. (I was setting up a second instance, and wanted the new catalog to not interfere with an earlier one.) After changing the URL and following the deployment steps, a new catalog was created, but it was not referenced by Sitecore or the Commerce Engine.

Details

• In an earlier attempt to set up Commerce Server, I had created a Commerce Server site called CFSolutionStorefrontSite. My aim with this attempt was to set up a site called storefront2.
• The Deployment Guide indicates making the following changes to change a Commerce Server catalog site:

  The Commerce Authoring service references the Commerce Server Catalog web service, whose default address is http://localhost:1004/CFSolutionStorefrontSite_CatalogWebService/CatalogWebService.asmx. If you need to change the hostname or port for your deployment, you must change the references to the Commerce Server Catalog web service in the following files: CommerceAuthoring\wwwroot\bootstrap\Global.json CommerceAuthoring\wwwroot\data\Environments\PlugIn.Habitat.CommerceAuthoring-1.0.0.json Default Commerce Engine service settings

• Accordingly, I changed this URL http://localhost:1004/CFSolutionStorefrontSite_CatalogWebService/CatalogWebService.asmx to this http://localhost:1004/storefront2_CatalogWebService/CatalogWebService.asmx in the documented JSON locatins.
• After making these changes, and following the Deployment Guide process, I found that a Commerce Sever site was created (e.g. SQL Server tables with names like Storefront2_productcatalog were created, and I could open the catalog by setting Commerce Server Catalog Manager to the new URL.
• On closer inspection, I found that the Reference Storefront was using products from catalog Habitat_Master, and this catalog was only available in the original CFSolutionStorefrontSite. I confirmed that Sitecore and CommerceEngine were pointing to this site by changing a product description using Catalog Manager, and seeing that change using the CommmerceEngine APIs (using Postman) and in the Content Editor.
• I have confirmed that the settings in Plugint.Habitat.CommerceAuthoring.1.0.01.json have been persisted to the SitecoreCommerce_Global Entities table. I was not able to locate where the Global.json values are persisted, so assume they are kept in memory.
• Both sites appear in Commerce Server Manager, and I see no difference to how they are configured there.

Question

What changes are required to point the CommerceEngine to a new Commerce Server site? The documented URL changes are insufficient.

Update

I noticed that the Sitename is a setting in both of the Json files listed above, as is a reference to the SQL database where the catalog is stored:

I changed all catalog related Sitename entries in the two JSON files indicated above (PlugIn.Habitat.CommerceAuthoring-1.0.0.json, Global.json), and reran the Bootstrap step. This resulted in the Habitat_Master catalog getting created at the desired URL, but Sitecore still points to the original location.

Answer 1

Also, make sure to update the Commerce Site name in the CommerceServer.Core.config in your Sitecore Website/App_Config folder.

<application **siteName="<CommerceSiteName>"** debugLevel="Production" />

Best, Hetal