Previewing a store

To preview a store:

  1. Open the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.

  2. Select Store > Preview.

  3. On the Store Preview Options page, enter the following options:

    1. What store URL do you want to preview?
      Enter the store URL of the first page that you want to see in the preview. For example, enter a product display URL. By default, this field contains the URL of the store home page.

    2. Date and time options

      1. What is the start date and time inside the preview?

        • Choose Current date and time to use your system's date and time in the preview
          Choose Specify start date and time to enter a specific date and time. For example, you can enter a date two months in the future to test if an e-promotion displays on that date as expected.

      2. Does time elapse in the preview?

        • Choose Time in the preview does not elapse as real time elapses to maintain the same date and time in the preview. For example, if the preview starts on July 6, 2006 at 11:15 a.m. and five minutes elapse, the date and time in the preview remains July 6, 2006 at 11:15 a.m.

        • Choose Time in the preview elapses as real time elapses. to allow time to elapse in the preview. For example, if the preview starts on July 6, 2006 at 11:15 a.m. and five minutes elapse, the date and time in the preview is July 6, 2006 at 11:20 a.m.

    3. Product recommendations
      Within a web activity, you can choose to display product recommendations depending on the number of units of a product in your inventory. Within store preview, you can set options to facilitate testing the product recommendations. In the examples below, assume the product recommendation displays if there are more than 100 units in inventory. Choose one of the following options:

      • Use inventory levels in the database (default)
        If the database says that there are more than 100 units, the product recommendation displays, otherwise it does not display.

      • Set all inventory filter results to true
        The store preview behaves as if there are more than 100 units in inventory and the product recommendation displays. The data in the database is not a factor in this decision.

      • Set all inventory filter results to false Preview behaves as if there are less than 100 units in inventory and the product recommendation does not display. The data in the database is not a factor in this decision.

  4. Click OK. The preview store opens in a separate window.

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 concepts

Related reference