Microsoft Commerce Server

Microsoft Commerce Server is a Microsoft product for building e-commerce. It uses Microsoft.Net technology.

The latest release of the product is Commerce Server 2009. It was launched at the National Retail Federation (NRF) in New York in January 2009, with its official launch at the MIX09 event in Las Vegas in March 2009.

With its inaugural release in 2000, Commerce Server replaced Microsoft Site Server, expanding on the functionality of it and establishing a focus on e-commerce functionality (rather than concerning itself with document management or content metadata). It helps create e-commerce solutions and Web sites with high-performance, familiar tools that simplify setup, management, and administration tasks.

Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 provides a comprehensive solution for many business scenarios, including:

• Business-to-consumer (B2C) sales of tangible or digital goods or online service delivery.
• Business-to-business (B2B) scenarios, such as e-procurement and trading communities.
• B2X scenarios, combining Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B).
• Self service portals using catalogs, profiles, or content targeting for personalized information delivery.

System Components

Commerce Server 2009, which became available on Microsoft's price list on April 1, 2009, introduced multi-channel awareness into the product, a new default site (running in Microsoft's SharePoint product) - including 30 new web parts and controls, and WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editing experiences for business people and site designers.

These features were introduced through the new Commerce Foundation - a new abstraction layer which unifies calling patterns of the core systems (see below) and allows for different presentation and business logic to be easily added and represented as 'selling channels'; and SharePoint Commerce Services which includes integration with Microsoft SharePoint - a new default site with 30 new web parts and controls pre-assembled. The default site can be skinned through the new page templating technology, allowing for individual pages to be easily changed by selecting a different template.

The product still retains its core systems of Catalog, Inventory, Orders, Profiles, and Marketing (discussed below).

Orders & Inventory

The Orders & Inventory system is responsible for tracking orders made by customers. The server can link with external systems that track inventory for a business so that inventory information is kept up-to-date and communicate with the appropriate parties when inventory runs low to indicate that it's time for new stock to be ordered. Business users are able to determine what "low" is through a management tool which lets them set inventory thresholds and get reports on product sales according to whatever metrics are desired, using Microsoft SQL Server Analytics.

Catalog

A company's products are intended to be described in the Catalog system. The products, the categories they belong to ,and relationships with other products are tracked by Commerce Server . A configurable metadata system enable the server to address any kind of merchant scenario.

Marketing

Managing promotions on a website can become a task unto itself, but the server addresses this web-trend by distilling the index operations associated with online advertising into a finite collection of functions. These let the business user manage ads and set rules that determine the conditions under which specific ads appear.

Profile

Almost every commercial website today makes an effort to personalize the content for an individual shopper. Its Profile system can do everything from tracking a shopper's product preferences, to tailoring the website presentation for the individual user.

Other Components

The server comes bundled with Data Warehouse Analytics, which offer sophisticated reporting functionality, dependent on the availability of Microsoft SQL Server Analytics module, in addition to the Commerce Server Staging (CSS) system. The Staging functionality automates the deployment of both dynamic and active content across a network infrastructure and can accommodate a wide variety of network configurations. (Some have remarked that the speed of CSS deployments is perhaps the most note-worthy aspect of this component.). Commerce Server also comes with BizTalk adaptors, which allow for integration with Microsoft BizTalk for enterprise data manipulation.

Related Technologies

The product requires the presence of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or later. Commerce Server also can leverage a number of other Microsoft server products, including BizTalk Server 2006 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).

The product relies on components that are themselves dependent on the presence of the .NET Framework 3.5 and Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM). Recommended deployments are confined to Windows Server 2003 or higher.

Future Development

The Commerce Server Product Unit has planned to have periodic releases of the product over the next 5 years. The next planned release of Commerce Server is targeted for the 2010 time frame.

Versions for Windows

• 2000 - Commerce Server 2000
• 2002 - Commerce Server 2002
  • Service Pack 1
  • Service Pack 2 (2003)
  • Service Pack 3 (2004)
  • Service Pack 4 (2006)
• 2007 - Commerce Server 2007
  • Service Pack 1 (2008)
  • Service Pack 2 (2008)
• 2009 - Commerce Server 2009

External links

• Official Site
• TechNet Site
• Technical Overview
• MSDN Site
• Commerce Team Blog
• Microsoft Commerce Server Subject Matter Experts Group
• Commerce Server Developer Wiki

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RGV Reveals about the entry of two great music directors in the telugu film industry.

8 October 2009

Cycle I

When I was hanging out around Annapurna Studios trying to get a break, I used to attend the music composing sessions of “Collector Gari Abbayi”. In the course of those sessions whenever its music director Chakravarti and the director B.Gopal used to go for lunch I used to chat

up with the music director’s assistant and once in a while he used to sing tunes which he himself composed. I was very impressed with many of his tunes and one day I described to him a scene from “SHIVA” the way I was intending to shoot it and I asked him about what kind of music he thinks should be there in that scene and he replied that there should not be any music in that scene. I was mighty impressed with the answer especially as it came from a musician and I committed to him that if ever I get a break I will sign him as my music director.

Finally when I got the break I suddenly had this opportunity to get Ilayaraja. So with a lot of guilt I told that assistant that I won’t be taking him for the film as I am getting Ilayaraja. He was obviously very disappointed but said that he understood the situation and wished me all the best. But because of the time I spent with that assistant and the association I developed, the guilt was killing me and the moment “SHIVA” became a big hit I went back to him and signed him for my second film. That assistant’s name was Keeravani (also known as M.M.Kreem) and the film I signed him on for was “Kshana Kshanam” which I think along with “Rangeela” are my best musical

films till date.

A keyboard player used to be working for Keeravani and I used to interact with him a lot especially when he was doing the background soundtracks and I always believed that he can be a very good music director if he ever tries which he used to deny saying that he is technically not a composer. Much later when I had a problem with R.D.Burman during “Drohi” (Antham) and I could not get Keeravani as he was busy, I forced that keyboard player to do one song in that film.

Both the song and the film didn’t work but later on when a film with megastar Chiranjeevi came up I told Chiranjeevi that the “Drohi” song didn’t work but I really believe that the keyboard player is very good, Chiranjeevi said that if he was good enough for me he was good enough for him. The keyboard player was ecstatic and after a great fanfare launch the Chiranjeevi film got shelved due to various reasons which I can’t tell now and the poor keyboard player was devastated. But on the strength of the impression Chiranjeevi developed on the keyboard player due to a song he recorded for my shelved film he gave him another film called “Choodalini Undi” which firmly set the keyboard player well on the way to be one of the top music composers in the Telugu film industry. The keyboard players name is Mani Sharma.

Cycle II

When my first film “SHIVA” was ready for background score there was a musicians Union strike in Chennai and so Ilayaraja and me shifted to Mumbai to get the score done. A musical team chosen by Ilayaraja in Mumbai saw the film and one particular violin player from a group of violin players walked up to me and said that this film will create a sensation. Technically that was the first ever compliment I have ever received from an outsider in my career. After that me and that violin player used to chat once in a while through out the period while the background was going on.

A few years later I signed R.D.Burman for “Drohi” and I went to Mumbai for recording a song. Those days I used to operate from Hyderabad and kept flying up and down to Mumbai. I again bumped into the same violin player in the violin group. After telling me how happy he was for “SHIVA’s” success which he predicted, he brought a guy and introduced him as his closest friend and told me that he is a lyric writer. That guy gave me a visiting card. I put the card in my pocket and in the evening returned to Hyderabad and completely forgot all about it.

Like I told you earlier, as I fell out with R.D.Burman due to various reasons which I can’t tell now, I had to record a song with a new music director Mani Sharma in Chennai.

As I was leaving for Chennai in the evening, my mom brought in a bunch of visiting cards collected over a time to ask me if she can throw them away. I quickly glanced through them and I just kind of registered the card which the lyric writer gave me before telling her to throw all the cards away.

By the time I landed in Chennai I got news that Javed Akhtar who was supposed to come with the lyric to Chennai is not coming as he got stuck in some work. I got cheesed off and I told my guys in Mumbai to send some lyric writer or the other in the night itself as I didn’t want to cancel the recording. I was told that none were available. As I was getting flustered I suddenly remembered the visiting cards my mother showed. So I called up my mom and asked her about it and she said that she already threw it in the dustbin. She searched for it in the bin and luckily found it and gave me the number. I immediately got that lyric writer flown to Chennai and he wrote the song for “Drohi” composed by Mani Sharma and the recording was done.

Both “Drohi” and the song bombed but because of that association my relationship with that lyric writer continued and whenever I was in Mumbai, me, the violin player and the lyric writer used to meet up once in a while and at that time I was just beginning to work on the idea of “Rangeela”. When I mentioned the story to both of them, they got very excited and the violin player composed a tune for which the lyric writer wrote a song. I was very impressed with both and committed to both of them that they will be doing the music for “Rangeela”. They were thrilled to bits.

A few days later Maniratnam made me hear the songs of “Roja” at his home on Chennai and I was simply blown away with the orchestral brilliance of A.R.Rahman. I got too greedy and at any cost wanted to get that sound in my film and went back on my commitment to the violin player and signed Rahman instead, which understandingly left the violin player in a very angry and a heartbroken state. The lyric writer pleaded with me not to do that to his friend and I said it is just a professional decision in the best interest of the film.

I spoke to Rahman about the lyric writer and told him that his first song didn’t work but I do believe that he is very good. Rahman said, “If he is good enough for you he is good enough for me”.

Thus that lyric writer named Mehboob came into “Rangeela” minus the violin player and the first song he wrote was “Tanha Tanha”. I played that song to Maniratnam and he was mighty impressed with the fact that he hasn’t heard a song since a long time which didn’t have the words dil, deewana and sanam and signed on Mehboob for “Bombay”.

With the super success of both “Bombay” and “Rangeela” Mehboob got a very big name and credibility and using that he recommended his closest friend the violin player to Sanjay Leela Bhansali who was looking for a new music director for “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” and thus was born Ismail Darbar.

After the tremendous musical success of “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” which also timed with a couple of Rahman albums not doing well including my own “Daud” Ismail Darbar was the new musical genius on the block. I called Ismail Darbar up to congratulate him and he didn’t pick up my calls.

Later on Ismail gave an interview where he said that now that he is a success, everybody is calling him including Ramgopal Varma. That was obviously his revenge on the heartache I gave him by dumping him from “Rangeela”.

Both the close friends Ismail and Mehboob who were responsible for each other’s careers broke up after “Devdas” due to various differences which they didn’t tell anyone and both went on a decline in their respective careers and now after years sometimes when they try to call me to patch up and bury the hatchet I don’t pick up both their calls as I moved on to a new set of people and I don’t have neither the time nor the inclination to dwell on old time relationships.

Anyway the point of this whole article is that I am just so f**king fascinated with how the cycle of fortune keeps on throwing people in and out of dustbins.

PS: I just signed Mani Sharma for Rakta Charitra and am planning on to take Mehboob as the lyric writer.