Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1 Readme

This Readme contains important, late-breaking information about Microsoft® Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1 (FP1).

Note  The Commerce Server Design-Time API Reference documentation is available as a separate help file located in the <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Commerce Server 2002\FP1\SDK folder, in the CS2002_AgentAPI.chm file.

This Readme contains:

Known Issues

The following are known issues in this release of Microsoft® Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1:

Users cannot edit products with negative list prices in a virtual catalog

Catalog Manager does not support saving a product with a list price of less than zero. Therefore, if a pricing rule results in a negative list price for a product in a virtual catalog, users will be unable to edit those products.

Discount Manager does not support inter-expression dependencies

The Discount Migration Tool (DiscountMigrationTool.exe) expands discount eligibility requirement expressions that depend on other expressions into a single expression. Commerce Server 2002 FP1 does this since the Discount Manager application does not support inter-expression dependencies. Not all expression dependencies can be correctly expandable in a way that the user interface can correctly display them. In most cases, the DiscountMigrationTool will flag this as an error during the migration of the expressions, and then disable the discounts that depend on the expression. However, in the case of an "is-false" operator that you use to refer to another expression result, the expression will be migrated, but it will not display correctly in the Discount Manager user interface.

Intermittent "Underlying Connection Was Closed" error

When you call an ASP.NET Web service from an ASP.NET application, you may intermittently receive the following error message:

"The underlying connection was closed. An unexpected error occurred on send."

Solution

For information about a hotfix package that addresses this error, see "Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 821156: ASP.NET 1.1 June 2003 Hotfix Rollup Package" at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=27665

Note  This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, it is recommended that you wait for the release of .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 that addresses this issue.

Unhandled exception occurs when applying an order level discount in MSIB

The disc_id column in the discount cache in Microsoft Solution for Internet Business (MSIB) does not exist in Commerce Server 2002 FP1. This is because disc_id is a join key and may not be the same as the campaign item ID of the discount. In Commerce Server 2002 FP1 the code takes the campaign item ID of the discount from the orderlevel_discounts_applied list and performs a lookup using the disc_id column of the cache.

A NullReferenceException occurs in the MSIB 2.x site code because the following line of code does not handle the case when a lookup fails:

(RetailExtensions\Components\OrderManagement\TransactionContext.cs:1097)

Solution

Change the following code in MSIB (versions 2.1 and 2.5):

RetailExtensions\components\OrderManagement\TransactionContext.cs:571

From:

private const string ContentItemDiscountID = "disc_id";

To:

private const string ContentItemDiscountID = "item_id";

Commerce Server 2002 FP1 Marketing Resource Limitations

Following is a list of tradeoffs or limitations you will incur if you choose to add-on the new Microsoft® Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1 (FP1) Marketing resource.

Note  Commerce Server Business Desk will continue to support ads, direct mail, and List Manager. Commerce Server Manager will continue to support the existing Campaigns resource.

  1. Discounts may be disabled when you migrate them from Commerce Server 2002 into the Marketing resource using the DiscountMigrationTool.exe. This is because of the following:
  2. A migrated campaign may appear in a Campaign report under two customers if the campaign has both advertisements and discounts.

    For example, the ads in a campaign called "Fall Sales" appear under a customer called "Advertiser ABC" and its discounts appear under a customer called "Default". Note that "Fall Sales" will appear twice—once under "Advertiser ABC" and again under "Default".

    After you migrate, the Business Desk discount is disabled and you can only create discounts in the new Discount Manager. When you create a new discount under a campaign it will be associated with the "Default" customer.

    Note  Customer is referred to as Advertiser in Campaign Reports.

  3. Campaigns, ads, and direct mail are supported as combined campaigns through Commerce Server Business Desk and the existing Campaigns resource. Discounts are supported through the Discount Manager and new Marketing resource.

    If you create a new campaign, you must create the campaign for your ads and direct mail in Business Desk. You must create the campaign for discounts in the Discount Manager.

  4. The Discount Manager in Commerce Server 2002 FP1 supports the default customer only. This single customer limitation does not exist in Business Desk.
  5. You cannot unpack the FP1 Pup package on a computer that does not have Commerce Server 2002 FP1 installed. The site will not recognize the new Marketing resource.
  6. The Marketing resource does not support staging. Ads and direct mail are not staged. You must still use the Business Desk to publish ads and direct mail.
  7. The Marketing resource does not support click-required discounts.
  8. Content Selection Framework (CSF) support for advertised discount display (to facilitate click-required discounts) is no longer supported.

Post-Installation Requirements

After you install Microsoft® Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1 (FP1), you must perform the following steps to use the new Commerce Server 2002 FP1 features:

Note  For detailed instructions about each step, see the "Post-Installation Requirements" topic in the "Installing Commerce Server 2002 Feature Pack 1" Installation Guide at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=24905.

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