CODEWITHSUNDEEP
serverpreviewstagingatg
Starving Techie
Starving Techie

Reputation: 53

Significance of ATG staging site, DS configuration and preview server

Am a newbie to ATG. Got a question. Please read through my understanding below and find the my questions at last. Correct me if my understanding is wrong as well.

A typical staging enabled ATG will look like below (at basic level) as per my understanding so far in ATG learning,

Asset management server - Stores/Manages internal users(BCC/CA/Merchandising/ACC users), versioning commerce assets & other versioned repositories

Staging server - Unversioned/non-versioned commerce items and other repositories

Production server - Unversioned/non-versioned commerce items & other repositories and Stores/Manages External users(customer)-"core schema"

In this, the external(customers) profiles are stored only in production site.

As staging site is basically termed as replica of production site, Should the Store(customer facing) application to be deployed in staging server as well? If so, how does it will point production core schema?

Keeping this on one side, I have also heared 'preview feature/server'? Isn't this staging? what is the difference?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 879

Answers (1)

radimpe
radimpe

Reputation: 3215

Using the 'Asset Management Server' you are able to create or update assets in the scope of a single project. These changes can only be viewed within the context of the project in which they are edited and as such you are able to 'preview' them on the `Asset Management Server'. This also only renders the asset in a popup and does not give you access to the navigation of the site around the asset.

Assume you want to be able to 'preview' your changes in the context of other projects but don't yet want to make this go live. In this instance you will create a 'Staging server' and through your project workflow publish your changes to the 'Staging server' for 'review'. Now you are able to see your changes (ie. 'preview') along with other projects that have also been published to the 'Staging server' without exposing this to your external customers. This is particularly useful when you are also using Endeca in the scope of an Oracle Commerce solution.

Once you are happy with your project(s) in the 'Staging server' you would typically then approve and deploy to your 'Production server'.

Your 'Staging server' will need its own Core and Switching Schemas. It will also require a code deployment, similar to what you deploy onto your 'Production Server'. You will need to configure additional Data Sources within your application container and add new components, pointing at these data sources in your environment layer. For example you will need a new JTDataSource_staging.properties, to be added into the 'Asset Management Server' environment. You will also need to add pointers in your repositories to access the new environment, for example ProductCatalog_staging.properties.

So overall your 'Staging server' is a copy of your 'Production server' but with access to your published projects prior to them being made accessible to your external customers.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions