Create an authoring server

Use the following instructions along with the WebSphere Commerce Installation Guide to create an authoring server.

To create an authoring server in your WebSphere Commerce development environment, follow the instructions in Enabling Workspaces in the WebSphere Commerce development environment.

The authoring server should be run on a separate system or machine partition from your production server.

To create an authoring server:

1. Install WebSphere Commerce and its supporting software using the custom installation option of the WebSphere Commerce installation wizard.

2. Perform one of the following tasks:

   • If you have a production server available:

     1. Ensure that you can connect from the WebSphere Commerce authoring server node to the production database.

     2. (DB2) Catalog the remote production database so that is accessible from your authoring server.

     3. Ensure that you have the following information about your production server available:

        • Database name

          (DB2) The database name must be the database name as cataloged on the authoring server.

        • Database user name (user ID)

        • Database user password

        • (Oracle) Fully qualified database server host name

        • (Oracle) Database server port

        You will also be asked to provide a name for the JDBC data source created for the production database.

        This information will be used to create a data source used by the quick publish function in workspaces.

   • If you do not have a production server available, ensure that you record the database information entered on the Database and Schema pages of the instance creation wizard. You will need this information in order to complete the Staging page of the Instance Creation wizard.

     When you have a production server available, you can update the authoring server with the production server information by following the instructions in Updating the quick publish target.

3. Create a new WebSphere Commerce instance:

   1. Start the WebSphere Commerce Instance Creation wizard.

   2. Complete the pages of the wizard.

   3. On the Staging page of the wizard, ensure that you select Use staging server and Enable workspaces. If you do not select these check boxes, the resulting WebSphere Commerce instance will be a production WebSphere Commerce instance. For information on how to complete the other fields on the Staging page, click Help.

   When the instance creation process is complete, you will have an empty authoring server instance.

4. If you entered valid production server information when creating your authoring server instance:

   1. Open the WebSphere Commerce configuration file in a text editor.

   2. Find the ManagedFileUpdateEARConfiguration tag.

      The ManagedFileUpdateEARConfiguration tag resembles the following text:

      <ManagedFileUpdateEARConfiguration display="false">
         <ContentManagedFileEARUpdate Implementation="com.ibm.commerce.filepublish.util.ContentManagedFileEARUpdateImpl" />
         <ContentManagedFileHandler Implementation="com.ibm.commerce.filepublish.util.ContentManagedFileHandlerImpl" />
         <ProductionServerInformation applicationName="wcs_demo" />
         <ModuleInformation moduleName="Stores.war" />
         <EvaluationCriteria minNumOfFilesForUpdate="10"
                             minSecFromLastUpload="3600" />
      </ManagedFileUpdateEARConfiguration>
      

   3. Update the ProductionServerInformation and ModuleInformation tags:

      ProductionserverInformation

      Specify the WebSphere Commerce application name on the production server in the applicationName parameter. The WebSphere Commerce application name is WC_enterprise_application.

      ModuleInformation

      Specify the module name for your store in the moduleName parameter. The usual name for the stores module name is Stores.war. This name is unlike to change unless you have extensive customization.

   4. Save your changes.

   5. Propagate your changes to the WebSphere Commerce configuration file.

5. Configure the authoring database and the production database for use with the staging utilities.

6. Synchronize the new, empty authoring server instance with your production server.

7. (Optional) Enable e-mail notification in workspaces.

   Enabling e-mail notification in workspaces allows WebSphere Commerce to sent e-mail automatically in the following situations:

   • Workspace Content Contributors will receive e-mail notification when a task they are assigned is part of a task group that has been activated.

   • Task Group Approvers will receive e-mail notification when a task group for which they are an approver is ready for approval.

   • Workspace Content Contributors will receive e-mail notification if a task group approval request is rejected and their assigned tasks are re-activated.

8. Create users and assign the users Workspace Manager, Workspace Content Contributor or Task Group Approver roles.

9. Stop and restart the authoring server instance.

Related concepts

Workspaces
Workspaces roles

Related tasks

Enabling Workspaces in the WebSphere Commerce development environment
Enabling e-mail notification for workspaces
Synchronizing an authoring server with a production server
Configure databases for use with the staging utilities
Updating the quick publish target
Create a user
Start and stopping WebSphere Commerce