Application Roles

Oracle Retail Xstore Office

Oracle Retail Xstore Office provides an interface for creating deployments. The Configuration Manager and Data Management features are used to create configuration and data changes, and can also be used to upload files of supported types to be included in deployments. Functionality for automatically creating deployments for files that are placed in a location on the file system using header information to determine the target group and target application date is also provided.

Whenever a deployment is created, Oracle Retail Xstore Office is responsible for saving the deployment details in the form of a manifest and uploading any deployment files to the Apache file server. Once a deployment is created, its status can be monitored in real-time using Oracle Retail Xstore Office's Deployment Viewer feature.

Xcenter (a part of Oracle Retail Xstore Office)

Xcenter assumes two critical roles in the deployment process: responsibility for communicating deployments to stores, and responsibility for accepting status-related feedback pertaining to those deployments.

When a store queries for any available deployments, Xcenter assembles a package that includes deployment manifests for deployments that haven't yet been acknowledged as having been received, and connectivity details for the Apache server that is hosting the files related to those deployments.

It also receives and stores status feedback from the store systems when the manifest for a deployment has been received successfully, when a deployment has been downloaded, and when a deployment has been applied.

Oracle Retail Xstore Point of Service

The downloaded deployments from Oracle Retail Xenvironment are applied to Oracle Retail Xstore Point of Service.

Oracle Retail Xenvironment

Oracle Retail Xenvironment is responsible for querying Xcenter for new deployments and then downloading and applying deployments. It is responsible for forwarding the details of the deployment to the Oracle Retail Xenvironment lead, retaining the details pertaining to it, downloading any necessary deployment files, and properly applying those files. It also reports the status of each of those steps back to Xcenter so that the status of each deployment can be tracked in real-time from Oracle Retail Xstore Office.

Apache (httpd)

Apache is an HTTP server that hosts deployed files so they can be retrieved for application on store systems. When a deployment is initiated from Oracle Retail Xstore Office, files are uploaded to it and stored for later retrieval by Oracle Retail Xenvironment.

DataLoader

DataLoader is responsible for applying any Configuration Manager changes that impact the database, and any other DataLoader download files that have been deployed to stores. It translates data changes from delimited text to database table data.

Note:

When you make changes in Data Manager and deploy them, they automatically update the Xcenter database. There is no DataLoader file created and no DataLoader processing necessary. The Xcenter database is updated directly. If anything fails, it can be found in the Xcenter or Oracle Retail Xstore Office log file.

Overview: How Files Are Managed

Oracle Retail Xstore Office's file management capabilities can be used to transfer files to and from the store and corporate environments. Xcenter file management transfers only files required by the Oracle Retail Xstore Suite.

The file management capabilities in Xcenter leverage the Apache Web Server for file downloading and posting.

File Download to Stores

Figure A-1 File Download to Stores

Multiple incoming channels are used to target file deliveries to stores: file uploads and configuration changes made through the Oracle Retail Xstore Office UI and files dropped by external systems.
Oracle Retail Xenvironment retrieves deployments during closing and on a scheduled interval throughout the day. A back office menu option within Oracle Retail Xstore Point of Service can also be used to check for updates.
Feedback on deployments is published to Xcenter and can be reviewed in Oracle Retail Xstore Office.

File Upload from Stores

Figure A-2 File Upload from Stores

Oracle Retail Xenvironment collects logs from in-store systems (pospoll.zip) and uploads to Xcenter.
The files are left in a configurable directory location.
A customer-specific script can be written to retrieve files from Xcenter in order to move files to their next destination. That process is not provided as part of the Oracle Retail Xstore Suite.

Overview: About The Deployment Manifest

The deployment manifest is an XML-encoded representation of the deployment file and contains instructions Oracle Retail Xenvironment uses for handling the deployment files. The manifest contains no configuration information itself, and is simply a set of instructions to be used by Oracle Retail Xenvironment.

Sample Deployment Manifest

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deploymentManifest xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/ XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="DeploymentManifest.xsd">
<deployment-id>12345</deployment-id>
<deployment-manifest-version>1</deployment-manifest- version>
<updates>
<update>
<relative-url>/path-to-file</relative-url>
<type>APPUPD</type>
<download-priority>IMMEDIATE</download-priority>
<apply-priority>STORE_CLOSE</apply-priority>
<file-hash>asdadadasdasd</file-hash>
</update>
<update>
<relative-url>/path2</relative-url>
<type>DEBITBIN</type>
<download-priority>IMMEDIATE</download-priority>
<apply-priority>IMMEDIATE</apply-priority>
<file-hash>hashhashhash</file-hash>
</update>
</updates>
</deploymentManifest>

deployment-id - The numeric deployment ID from Xcenter. May be included twice:

Once on the manifest (generated by Oracle Retail Xstore Office)
And once - [OPTIONAL] - on each update

deployment-manifest-version - The version of the deployment manifest.

updates

relative-url - The relative path to download the update from. The path is relative to the URL specified in configuration.
type - Enumeration values include: CONFIG, APPUPD, DATA, COMPRESSED_DATA, CIP, and DEBITBIN.
download-priority - STORE_CLOSE = Download during the close, IMMEDIATE = Download immediately.
apply-priority - STORE_CLOSE = Wait until the store close to apply, IMMEDIATE = apply immediately
file-hash - The MD5 hash of the file being downloaded.

If Oracle Retail Xenvironment receives configs/manifests on a nonlead, they will be forwarded to the lead.
If Oracle Retail Xenvironment receives a manifest during the close.
Oracle Retail Xenvironment will not attempt to process IMMEDIATE deployments while a close is in progress. They will be processed after the close has completed.
The manifest data will be saved to disk.
The IMMEDIATE deployments will be processed sometime after the close has completed.
The STORE_CLOSE deployments will be processed during that close if the manifest is sent before that point in the close, otherwise they will wait until the next close.
A RSS feed named immediate is used for the immediate deployments.