Catalog Staging in Layman terms? SM30 - COMV_PCAT_REPL

[Former Member]

In CRM 5.0 with SP11 product catalog staging becomes available. Can someone describe with this would be advantageous in layman terms?

In COMV_PCAT_REPL we had to switch back to setting A (old functionality) as it seems there were a bunch on new notes to apply after going to SP11. I'm having a hard time justifying if it is worth the effort to be able to use staging and determine the value. We have about 10K sellable products and only 1 catalogue.

For us, new products were not replicating (being found in ISA) when using B, C, or D despite COMM_PCAT_IMS_INIT running successfully with no errors.

Note 1157686 - Issues with product catalogs after applying SP11

Note 1093505 - Product Catalog Staging: New Staging Functionality

Note 1096415 - Product Catalog Staging for E-Commerce 5.0

[nelson_raj2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Glenn,

As per the industry definition of "staging" in e-commerce applications, we understand that it is a temporary area where the data resides before being published live.

In SAP terms, they have mentioned that it enables version at the Product Catalog Variant level, as against the existing version available at the Product Catalog Area and Product Catalog item level.

Version simply means you have an active / inactive status that you can set to your areas, items and now, variants through which you are able to control what elements are published immediately and what elements are kept for delayed publishing. This is controlled by publishing the Active Product Catalog variant with its active contents only to the TREX Master and not to the slaves. Here, business users concerned with the Quality assurance of the elements may check the content before it is published to be viewed by customers. This is a standard practice in the ecommerce industry which is introduced now in SAP CRM Internet Sales.

This as you have apprehended is not worth the effort. A simpler solution would be to maintain two different TREX systems. You can then control the publication of the catalog contents by specifying the appropriate Search Server Relation at the time of replication.

In essence, SAP too has proposed the same solution where the other TREX systems are slaves, however, in my opinion this would be an easier alternative.

I hope you have some clarity on the issue now. Let me know if you require any more information.

Thanks & Regards,

Nelson S. Raj.