Customize with SCA Tools

If your SCA version is Kilimanjaro or earlier, or the requirements of your customization cannot be met using the Extensibility API, you can use the SCA tools to develop your customization. But, before proceeding with the SCA tools, be sure to verify that your project requires it.

When you customize with the SCA tools, be sure to follow best practices such as extending JavaScript and JavaScript configuration files, overriding template, language, and other resource files, and organizing the source code for custom modules as recommended. For more information see Best Practices for Customizing SCA.

To start using the SCA tools, review the following topics:

What Resources Do I Need?
Next Steps

What Resources Do I Need?

The resources and skills you need to customize Commerce websites with the SCA tools are described in the following table.

Requirement	Description
Skills	You must have experience working with JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS. The level of experience required depends on the types of changes you want to make. The core functionality of SCA can be augmented or modified, but advanced JavaScript programming skills, including knowledge of Backbone.js and jQuery, are required.
Knowledge	Before you start to develop SCA customizations, be sure to learn more about: Technologies like Model View Controller (MVC) and Asynchronous Module Definitions (AMD) described in SCA Framework Technologies SCA modules, including Application, Framework, Feature, and Utility modules described in SCA Module Architecture Frontend and backend models and services described in SCA Models, Collections, and Services Requirements for custom modules described in Services and Backend Models in Custom Modules
SCA Tools	To use the SCA tools, you need to have the following resources installed in your local environment: Node.js JavaScript runtime environment and all of its components, including the Node Package Manager (NPM) Gulp.js JavaScript toolkit See Set Up SCA Developer Tools for more information.
Supported Scripts, Languages, and APIs	You can use standard web development scripts and languages when customizing SCA sites, including HTML, CSS, Sass, Handlebars.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, and AJAX. Available APIs include: The Commerce API, which provides access to shopping objects and methods. For example, with Commerce API methods, you can access customers and orders within your shopping sessions. For more information, see Commerce API. If you have configured item search settings for your site, you can use the Items Search API to build facet filtering and keyword search on item data. For more information, see Item Search API. SuiteScript is NetSuite’s proprietary scripting language that provides custom objects and methods you can use with JavaScript. The SuiteScript API plays an important role in SCA site cutomizations because it enables you to access data stored in NetSuite records. You can also use SuiteScript to store data in NetSuite. To learn more, see SuiteScript Overview.
Supported Browsers	For more information, see Supported Browsers for Commerce Websites.
Additional Resources	The SuiteCommerce Developers Portal provides supplemental resources you can explore after setting up the SCA tools and mastering the basics of SCA customization.

Requirement

Description

Skills

You must have experience working with JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS. The level of experience required depends on the types of changes you want to make. The core functionality of SCA can be augmented or modified, but advanced JavaScript programming skills, including knowledge of Backbone.js and jQuery, are required.

Knowledge

Before you start to develop SCA customizations, be sure to learn more about:

Technologies like Model View Controller (MVC) and Asynchronous Module Definitions (AMD) described in SCA Framework Technologies
SCA modules, including Application, Framework, Feature, and Utility modules described in SCA Module Architecture
Frontend and backend models and services described in SCA Models, Collections, and Services
Requirements for custom modules described in Services and Backend Models in Custom Modules

SCA Tools

To use the SCA tools, you need to have the following resources installed in your local environment:

Node.js JavaScript runtime environment and all of its components, including the Node Package Manager (NPM)
Gulp.js JavaScript toolkit

See Set Up SCA Developer Tools for more information.

Supported Scripts, Languages, and APIs

You can use standard web development scripts and languages when customizing SCA sites, including HTML, CSS, Sass, Handlebars.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, and AJAX.

Available APIs include:

The Commerce API, which provides access to shopping objects and methods. For example, with Commerce API methods, you can access customers and orders within your shopping sessions. For more information, see Commerce API.
If you have configured item search settings for your site, you can use the Items Search API to build facet filtering and keyword search on item data. For more information, see Item Search API.
SuiteScript is NetSuite’s proprietary scripting language that provides custom objects and methods you can use with JavaScript. The SuiteScript API plays an important role in SCA site cutomizations because it enables you to access data stored in NetSuite records. You can also use SuiteScript to store data in NetSuite. To learn more, see SuiteScript Overview.

Supported Browsers

For more information, see Supported Browsers for Commerce Websites.

Additional Resources

The SuiteCommerce Developers Portal provides supplemental resources you can explore after setting up the SCA tools and mastering the basics of SCA customization.

Next Steps

To start developing with the SCA developer tools, complete the following tasks listed in this table.

Note:

Remember, you should use the SCA developer tools only if you are customizing a site that implements the Kilimanjaro release of SCA or earlier, or if you need to access objects not available using the Extensibility API.

Step/Task	For detailed instructions, see
Set up the developer environment by installing Node.js and Gulp.js	Install Node.js Install Gulp.js
Download and install SCA developer tools	Download SCA Source Files Install Additional Files in the Source Directory
Understand best practices for customizing SCA	Best Practices for Customizing SCA
Customize by extending or overriding SCA source files	Example SCA Customizations
Understand how SCA source files are organized and compiled	SCA Build Process
Test your SCA customization locally	Test SCA Customizations on a Local Server
Deploy local source files to an SSP application in NetSuite and then deploy the SSP application to your site	Deploy SCA Customizations to NetSuite

Step/Task

For detailed instructions, see

Set up the developer environment by installing Node.js and Gulp.js

Download and install SCA developer tools

Understand best practices for customizing SCA

Best Practices for Customizing SCA

Customize by extending or overriding SCA source files

Example SCA Customizations

Understand how SCA source files are organized and compiled

SCA Build Process

Test your SCA customization locally

Test SCA Customizations on a Local Server

Deploy local source files to an SSP application in NetSuite and then deploy the SSP application to your site

Deploy SCA Customizations to NetSuite

What Resources Do I Need?

Next Steps

Related Topics