This chapter covers the following topics:
The Site Administration Application is a complete online store-building application. In Oracle iStore, stores are called sites. The Site Administration Application enables you to create and maintain any number of sites which you then publish to customers in the web application known as the Customer Application.
You can create as many sites as you wish, all within a single instance, and targeted, if desired, at different user communities. Business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business partner sites can be created.
For complete information, see the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Main features of the site-building application include:
Site Management: The easy-to-use Site Administration Application is a complete site creation and maintenance application. Each site can have its own parameters and targeted customers. Integrated support is provided for Oracle Partner Management and Oracle iSupport application users as well.
Site Naming: You decide both the internal names and the display names of your sites. In the Customer Application site selection page, the display names are presented for customer selection. Each display name corresponds to an Oracle iStore customer responsibility, which is in turn mapped to a default operating unit. Oracle iStore can either automatically alphabetize this display list, or you can set the display order yourself.
Site Duplication: At any time, you can select a site and copy it. Duplicating a site means all associated parameters, catalog, and content also are available to the copied site.
Site Languages: Each site can support any language supported by the Oracle E-Business Suite. In addition to the base language, sites can support multiple other languages. The languages then are presented in the Customer Application Site Selection Page as hyperlinks next to the site names. Users simply select the appropriate language to enter the site in the language of their choice.
Site Currencies and Price Lists: Any number of installed currencies and implemented price lists can be associated with a site, allowing you to sell your products in any country, and to provide product prices to different user segments. Separate price lists can be assigned, per site, for guest users, B2B users, B2C users, and partner users. Oracle iStore also supports multiple-currency price and site-specific price lists, and several options are available for setting up pricing qualifiers and modifiers.
Shipping Methods: Each site can have its own shipping methods. Additional capabilities can be made available through integration with Oracle Shipping Execution.
Payment Types: You can provide any type of payment option to your customers, which can then be processed in other Oracle applications. Each site can have its own set of payment types. You can also provide automatic online authorization of credit cards in your online sites.
Payment Thresholds: The payment threshold feature allows you to set order amount thresholds for specific payment types. With this feature, orders over a certain amount offer specific payment type choices for the customer.
User Security: Oracle iStore features built-in security rules which tie each site uniquely to one or more customer responsibilities. You can decide whether to allow guest user access, or to restrict browsing only to registered users.
User Management: In the Customer Application, organizations registered in your sites can create and manage business users, utilizing the powerful storage capabilities of the Oracle Trading Community Architecture (TCA) model. Implementers can set up different segments of users and grant them specific roles and responsibilities. Automatic registration and application access is supported out-of-the-box.
Site Groups: Oracle iStore allows administrators to organize sites into groups. The sites then display by group in the Site Selection Page and in the seeded group bins which can be mapped on catalog pages in the Customer Application. Three groups are seeded, the names of which are extensible lookups -- Stores, Support, and Partners.
Access Restrictions: You can set up access restrictions by organization; this allows you to restrict access to only users from a certain organization or organizations; or you can restrict users from certain organizations from accessing your sites.
Check Product Availability: For each site, you can provide customers with the ability to check product availability from the shopping cart.
Customer Data Capture: Oracle iStore's Lead Import functionality allows you to capture and re-use information from expired shopping carts and orders, and to potentially use them in Oracle Sales applications. Integration with Oracle Marketing's Event Capture means you can also capture some of the customers' browsing habits in your sites.
Visitor Tracking: Integration with Oracle Web Analytics provides metrics, by site, about visitor activities in your Oracle iStore or third-party sites.
Global eCommerce Support: Oracle iStore supports a global product catalog and infrastructure, allowing you to launch and maintain an international online presence.
The iStore Administrator uses the Sites menu in the Site Administration Application to perform site creation and maintenance tasks.
The Oracle iStore Administrator is the user who creates and manages the sites in the Site Administration Application. The site administrator also has access to the notification messages and other advanced features, the catalog, products listings, and the content management features of the sites.
Simply by selecting the Preview button in the application, site administrators can see how the sites will look to customers in the Customer Application. In Preview mode, all sites -- regardless of Published or Unpublished status -- can be previewed.
See the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide for complete details.
Oracle iStore's Display Template Mappings Import/Export functionality allows you to export or import template mappings using XML files. The functionality is implemented as two concurrent programs:
iStore Template Mapping Import Concurrent Program
iStore Template Mapping Export Concurrent Program
See the "Advanced Display" chapter in the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide for complete details.
Oracle iStore utilizes JavaServer Pages™ (JSP™), which combine Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to call dynamic data and HTML to present static data. A robust PL/SQL layer interfaces with the Oracle database to provide consistent and accurate data storage and retrieval.
In the Customer Application, each web page is made up of an overall JSP (for example the seeded Site Home Page, ibeCZzpHome.jsp) that calls other JSPs to display the various areas of the page. Oracle iStore uses templates and other components to present the Customer Application.
For complete information, see the "Implementing Content" chapter in the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
The bulk of the Customer Application display is presented through the hundreds of Display Templates that are seeded in Oracle iStore. Display Templates are of various types, depending upon which areas of the Customer Application they are meant to display. For example, some templates display the shopping cart pages, some display the catalog pages, and other templates display the order tracking pages. Each template used in the online sites links to a JSP which provides the actual display content. By mapping your own JSPs to the seeded templates, you can provide your own customized content in the sites.
For complete information, see the "Implementing the Catalog" and "Advanced Display" chapters in the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Using sections and their products organized into a hierarchal structure, your product catalog is presented through a powerful section and product catalog building tool. Display Templates for sections and products are presented in the Site Administration Application in WYSIWYG fashion, allowing you to easily select how your sections and products actually display to customers.
Oracle iStore's Display Template functionality allows you to map bins with specific JSP content into the top, bottom, and sides of the site selection, catalog, shopping cart, and registration pages. Section page bins can be configured in two ways -- using fixed layout, where every catalog section page shows the mapped bins in the same location on every page, or using configurable layout, where bins can be placed on the page of a specific section and in a specific location.
For complete information, see the "Implementing the Catalog" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Oracle iStore features flexible and reusable content tools. To present product images and HTML content in your specialty sites, you map seeded content components to seeded or new media objects, which are in turn linked to the content files (e.g., .gif, .htm) which you supply.
To present messages, you utilize hundreds of seeded text messages, some of which are also reusable media objects.
See the "Implementing Messages and Prompts" and "Implementing Content" chapters of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide, for details.
Integration with Oracle Content Manager can provide tools to create content items and use content versioning, approvals, and a translation interface from within the Site Administration Application. This integration is described in the "Integrating Oracle iStore with Oracle Content Manager" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Oracle iStore comes with an extensive content management system which features reusable content placeholders known as content components and logical media objects which map to source files. The seeded Display Templates contain programmatic access names used to call the seeded content components and media objects. Using content components and media objects, you can provide a wide variety of reusable content in the specialty sites.
Oracle iStore's Content Repository in the Site Administration Application utilizes the file system and database for storage. Advanced content integration is available through Oracle Content Manager as well.
For complete information, see the "Implementing Content" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
The Content Repository in the Site Administration Application allows you to view and upload the source files used in your site pages. The Content Repository page lists the source files in your Content Repository, and allows you to preview the files. It also allows access to other pages where you can upload and update source files.
In the Content Repository page you can:
View all source files that have been uploaded to the Content Repository
Delete source files from the Content Repository
Search for source files within the Content Repository
Access the Upload/Update Source File pages, where you can upload source files for the repository
For complete information, see the "Implementing Content" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Oracle iStore's content components and media objects are reusable content placeholders in the seeded JSPs that allow you to define content for the Customer Application beyond that provided by section or product description information. This content can be image or HTML files that you associate with a section or product in order to provide your customers with additional information. It also can be text messages used to prompt or guide the user.
For complete information, see the "Implementing Content" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Integration with Oracle Content Manager can provide even more content management functionality, including:
Content creation
Content versioning
Content approval system and related workflows
Content translation capabilities
Association of content items to Oracle iStore site products, sections, and media objects
Oracle Content Manager provides content management building blocks and manages unstructured data through create, approval, publish, and release lifecycles. Oracle Content Manager features a central repository that manages folders, versions, and translations, and enables an organization to collaboratively work on content with associated workflows.
Oracle Content Manager gives users a system with the essential tools required to create and manage any type of content, in the way that best suits their business needs. This powerful tool enables companies to produce consistent content that can be shared across internal and external customers.
Following the integration of Oracle Content Manager, the subtabs within the Site Administration UI's Content tab change to those provided by the integration.
For complete information, see the "Integrating Oracle iStore with Oracle Content Manager" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Oracle iStore contains a complete catalog management system that allows you to present your products from Oracle Inventory in a hierarchal fashion that in part determines the browsing experience in the Customer Application.
For complete information, see the "Implementing the Catalog" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Oracle iStore's section hierarchy allows you organize your sites into logical sections connected in parent-child relationships, and to re-use these sections, their product associations, and their content in multiple sites.
In combination with the Display Templates, your site sections --- connected in a hierarchal fashion --- help determine the browsing path for the customer in your Customer Application specialty sites. All driven from the main Root section, together the sections, subsections, and products in your sites form a tree-like structure with which you present your product catalog. Once you create a section, you can use it in any number of sites. You also can choose to exclude certain sections from sites.
Using the Sections pages, you can:
Create and manage sections
Duplicate existing sections, including all products and content
Set Display Templates at the section level -- Display Templates determine the layout of the page which displays the section in the Customer Application
Assign products to sections -- either automatically or manually
Assign or exclude sections to/from site(s)
Preview sections in the context of the specialty site(s) in which they will appear
Use the search utility to search for sections
The majority of section creation and maintenance tasks are performed using the Sections pages accessible within the Catalog tab in the Site Administration Application.
For complete information, see the "Implementing the Catalog" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
In a typical implementation, Oracle Inventory is the repository of all products sold through the Oracle iStore Customer Application. In the Site Administration Application, site administrators can view and perform limited maintenance on products, assign products to site sections, associate content with products, and determine how the products display.
Oracle iStore ships with the capability to maintain a flexible product catalog, utilizing Oracle Inventory on the ERP side. As a part of maintaining the items (product) database, this includes the ability in the Site Administration Application to:
View item details, such as name, number, and description
Change item description information
Set the Web Publish Inventory flag, which is identical functionally to the Published/Unpublished iStore flag
Assign price lists that contain the products to sites
Search for products
Use the Product Autoplacement concurrent program to automatically populate and replace products in specified sections
Set Display Templates at the product level -- Display Templates determine the layout of the page which displays the product in the Customer Application
For complete information, see the "Implementing the Catalog" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.
Optional integration with other Oracle applications can provide additional product functionality, including:
Oracle Marketing's Products module to provide wider product management capabilities, including:
Product creation
Product template creation and maintenance
Product maintenance, including updating Inventory and Order Management product attributes
Product assignment to Inventory organizations
Product assignment to Inventory categories
Price list maintenance, including changing item prices and Units of Measure (UOMs)
Oracle Bills of Material (BOM) definitions, including specifying item sequence, item, and quantity. Note that only standard bundling is supported.
Oracle Bills of Material to set up configurable items, model bundles, and items with standard warranties for sale in your sites.
Oracle Configurator to enable --- in the Oracle iStore Customer Application --- customer-configured products, guided selling, solution-based modeling, and limited shopping cart validations.
Oracle Service Contracts to enable the sale of serviceable items and their related services (e.g., extended warranties) in the Customer Application.
ATP Information --- Oracle iStore ships with the ability to check the Oracle Inventory ATP columns; the flag is enabled during site creation. You also can integrate with Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning for global ATP.
The majority of product maintenance tasks are performed using the Products pages accessible within the Catalog tab in the Site Administration Application.
Oracle iStore supports the following types of products:
Standard items
Configured items
Model bundles
Telecommunications service items
Service items
Oracle iStore supplies a variety of data that feeds the metrics in several e-commerce business intelligence and operational reports. The operational reports are presented in Oracle Discoverer Viewer and the e-commerce intelligence reports in Oracle Web Analytics, which leverages both the Oracle Business Intelligence (BIS) and Oracle Web Analytics reporting. Together, these reports provide a rich collection of valuable data about your sites, your customers, and their ordering activity.
Oracle Web Analytics reports present the following data:
Web visitor trends, including such metrics as visit duration, opt-outs, and page views
Web visitors converted to customers
Web product interest, including number of product and product category views
Web customer acquisitions and activity, including top ordering customers and customer activity by customer classification
Web campaign analyses, featuring direct integration with Oracle Marketing and Oracle Interaction History
Web page interest reporting on Oracle iStore and external site page views, page view duration and the like
Top selling web products
Number of carts created over time, and the number and amounts of carts converted to orders
Operational reports present the following data:
Product assignment and published/unpublished status reports
Section assignment and published/unpublished status reports
Following are the operational reports:
Unassigned Products Report
Assigned Products Report
Products by Site Report
Products Excluded by Site Report
Sections With Site Assignment Report
Sections Without Site Assignment Report
Sections With Site Exclusion Report
Empty Sections Report
For complete information, see the "Implementing Reports" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide, and the Oracle Web Analytics Implementation and Administration Guide.
Oracle iStore provides more than 20 different notification events in which there are predefined e-mail messages. The notification e-mail messages are sent to users based on various events, including:
User registration
Login assistance requested
Orders placed, cancelled, or returned
Shared shopping cart actions
Sales assistance requested
Contracts actions
Notifications can be triggered by a site user (e.g., registration) or by the application itself (e.g., when an update message is scheduled for delivery). The e-mail messages include attributes (also called tokens) that are dynamically replaced with user-specific values -- such as the user's name -- when an e-mail is sent.
Notification events and messages are stored in Oracle Workflow data tables.
You can choose to use only the seeded messages for notifications. You can also create new messages using Oracle Workflow Builder.
After you have the messages that you need, you can use the default configurations of ALL users, ALL sites, and ALL organization, or you can select messages for notification events based on site, organization, or user type combinations, using the Oracle iStore Site Administration Application.
See the "Integrating Oracle iStore with Oracle Workflow" chapter of the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide for additional information.
Several concurrent programs populate database tables with information required for data refresh, including:
Reporting: The reporting concurrent program allows the historical order summary and top orders reports to be delivered via e-mail, and loads reporting data into tables where it can be accessed by Oracle iStore reports.
Customer Application Product Search: This series of concurrent programs populates search tables for the product search in the Customer Application.
Express Checkout: The Express Checkout concurrent program allows automatic submission of express checkout orders.
Lead Import: The lead import concurrent program sends customer data from Oracle iStore into tables that can be accessed by the Oracle Sales applications.
Product Autoplacement: This concurrent program automatically populates specific site sections with products from specific Inventory categories.
Section Duplication and Cascade Layout Mappings: These concurrent programs are provided to duplicate sections containing large numbers of child sections, and to duplicate and cascade the layout mappings of a parent section to its child sections.
Template Mappings Import/Export: These concurrent programs allows you to export, edit parameters offline, and import the site-language mappings of your Customer Application templates.
For more information, see the "Concurrent Programs" chapter in the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide.