Operate > IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce > Use the Management Center > Preview a store


Store preview

Overview

Store preview allows you to ensure that content changes made in Management Center show up in the store as expected. You can use preview in production , authoring, and staging environments. For example, the marketing team decides to promote a line of leather coats. You create an e-Marketing Spot for the new coats in the Management Center. Using preview, you can ensure that the e-Marketing Spot displays the ad in the store as you expect, with the correct fonts, images, and text.

Here is an example of the store preview showing the Madisons store:

The following options are available when previewing the site:


Choose the first page displayed in the preview

You can choose which store page loads first when you launch preview. By default, the home page URL of the store that you are working with in Management Center is entered in the store preview options page:

You can change this by specifying the URL of the first page that to see. For example, if the changed content is the image that appears on a product display page, you can enter the URL for the store's product display page as a preview option. The page that is displayed when you launch the preview is this URL.


Select the store address: Expanding the store address list displays the first ten store addresses with their corresponding store aliases.


Search for the store address: If the store address list does not contain the expected store address and alias, you can search for it by selecting Search to display the search dialog. You can search for a store name, and then from the search results, select whether to preview the regular store or the mobile store:

The Preview Mobile Store option is automatically disabled if the selected store does not contain a corresponding mobile store.


Mobile store previews

The mobile store is displayed immediately following the regular store, if one is available in the store list:

If the store address or name is too long to display in the window, a tooltip displays the full text of the address or name when hovering over the item.

The store address directs to the mStoreView when a mobile store preview is selected.

After selecting a mobile store, you can preview it by clicking Launch Store Preview. The mobile store preview is displayed:


View the store at a virtual date and time

You can set the date and time to a point in the future for the store preview. This option helps you ensure that time-sensitive content, such as a promotion, contract, or a price change, is displayed only when expected. For example, a one-day promotion should be displayed only between the hours of midnight and 11:59 pm. You can use preview to ensure that the promotion is displayed only between these times. The current system time is the default setting.


Choose whether time elapses in the preview

Time in the preview does not change as real time elapses

The preview begins at the date and time you specify and does not elapse. For example, if the preview begins on July 3, 2006 at 1:30 p.m., and five minutes elapses, the time reflected in the preview remains at 1:30 p.m.

Time in the preview elapses as real time elapses

The preview begins at the date and time you specify, and elapses. For example, if the preview begins on July 3, 2006 at 1:30 p.m., and five minutes elapses, the time reflected in the preview is 1:35 p.m.


Set Product Recommendation inventory results

A store developer can enable a Web activity inventory filter so that catalog entry recommendations in e-Marketing Spots display only if the inventory level for the catalog entry is above a configured amount. For example, if a developer sets the inventory level to 100, only catalog entries with at least 100 units in stock are displayed to customers. This filter is off by default.

To help with testing the catalog entry recommendations within preview, you can set options to control how preview treats the inventory filter if it is enabled for the store. The following settings are available:

Use inventory levels in the database

This option determines whether to display the catalog entry recommendation in the store preview based on the inventory levels in the server's database. For example, if the inventory filter is enabled and set to 100, and if the server's database has only 99 of catalog entry X in stock, then a recommendation for catalog entry X will not display in store preview.

Set all inventory filter results to true

This option displays the catalog entry recommendation regardless of the inventory levels.

Set all inventory filter results to false

This option does not display any catalog entry recommendations regardless of the inventory levels.


View the store as a specific user

After you specify the preview options above, you can preview the store. When previewing the store, initially you are a guest user. You can log onto the store as a specific user and view what the store looks like to that user. This can be useful, for example, to test marketing campaigns targeted at specific customers, such as females over 40 years of age. You can ensure that the campaign is displayed to these customers only. You can also test prices under different contracts by logging in as two customers that belong to different contracts or accounts.

Within preview, you can create a new registered user by following the store's registration process. This user will exists in the database after you close the preview. For more information see Operational and transactional data.


Handle operational and transactional data

While previewing the site, you can perform actions that modify operational and transactional data, for example, registering new users, placing orders, and using coupons. When operational and transactional data is modified, the information is recorded in the database, just as when a real user performs these actions.

For example, new users will still exist in the database after you exit from preview, and you can log in as these users in the store inside or outside of a preview session. Another example is if you redeem coupons within preview, the redemption counts toward any defined redemption limit.

If you collect analytical information from this data, the actions during preview might affect the analytics.

To prevent operational and transactional data from being changed, you can restrict certain commands from running within a store preview.


Handle operational and transactional data on an authoring server

When you preview the site on an authoring server, operational and transactional data on the authoring server is treated differently, depending on the context of the preview.

When you previewing the site from the production-ready data, operational and transactional data is treated the same as described earlier. The store preview reflects the state of the store in the production-ready data. You cannot see changes made to managed assets in workspaces.

When you preview the site from a workspace, the store preview reflects changes made to managed assets in workspaces. For order activities, the store preview reflects only order activities in the workspace. Any order activities in the production-ready data will not be seen in the previewed store. Activities in the store preview that are related to member data related activities, such as the creation of new user and organization, occur directly in the production-ready data because member data is not a managed asset.


Restrict commands in preview

You can prevent commands from running within preview. For more information see Commands and view restrictions in preview.

Restrict commands in preview to prevent them from affecting the production server data. An order that is completed in preview affects the production data and it might also affect inventory levels and cause fulfillment centers to be notified of a transaction. Coupons might be redeemed and even payment authentication might be invoked on a production server.


Preview restrictions when previewing from a workspace

When previewing a store from within a workspace, attempting to process an order in the previewed store might cause errors that prevent you from completing the order.


Related tasks

Set up filters to control whether to display marketing information in an e-Marketing Spot

Preview a store


+

Search Tips   |   Advanced Search