Elastic Path 7.5.x Release Notes

`7.5.1`

Release Highlights

Catalog Syndication

With the catalog syndication framework, Elastic Path provides the capability to share catalog data across the commerce ecosystem to deliver unified commerce experiences to shoppers.

Multiple consumption models provide system integrators a flexible integration toolkit, with capabilities including real-time synchronization, polled updates, and periodic batch feeds.

This release includes a new back-end syndication API, a new syndication event channel, and support for developing and running plug-ins for batch catalog feeds. For more information about catalog syndication, see the Catalog Syndication overview section.

Sorting on Search and Category Pages

The ability to sort navigation and search results helps shoppers to discover the right products. The results are reordered according to the sort attribute, such as relevance, price low-high or high-low, or average customer rating. Business users can configure these attributes using business user tooling. With this feature, sellers can improve conversions and streamline buying experience for buyers. For more information about sorting, see the Sorting Attributes section.

Announcements and Notices

Deprecated Features

The following feature is deprecated in this release:

The standalone demo package in the extensions/packager/standalone-demo/ module

note

Elastic Path recommends Elastic Path CloudOps to deploy demo and POC (Proof Of Concept) environments in AWS or Azure.

Removed Features

The following feature is removed in this release:

Source code for the devops/pusher-package/ module

note

Elastic Path discontinued support for deployments using bash scripts in the devops/pusher-package/ in 7.5.0. Elastic Path recommends using Docker and Kubernetes functionality in Elastic Path CloudOps for custom deployments.

System Requirements and Compatibility

Elastic Path Commerce 7.5.1 is compatible with the following Elastic Path releases:

Elastic Path Component	Versions	Locations	git branch or file name
Elastic Path CloudOps for AWS(Amazon Web Service)	CloudOps for AWS compatibility matrix	code.elasticpath.com	release/3.N.x where N is the minor version number
Elastic Path CloudOps for Azure	CloudOps for Azure compatibility matrix	code.elasticpath.com	release/1.N.x where N is the minor version number

New in This Release

Core Commerce

Added support for Wiremock for mocking integrations with external services when running acceptance tests

With the new http-mock-server module, you can create simple and advanced mocks. For more information about using this module, see the extensions/http-mock-server/README.md file.
Replaced the selling context evaluation using Groovy shell with selling context evaluation using Java operator strategy classes

This results in an improvement in performance of the selling context evaluations that are used for promotions and price list determination for evaluations that miss the cache.

Elastic Path removed the cache for condition evaluations to reflect the changes immediately.

Added custom Spring Namespace handlers for creating and extending lists in Spring

For example, you can create an extensible list as in the following:

<extensibleList:create id="shoppingItemDtoValidatorListParent" overridableId="shoppingItemDtoValidatorList" valueType="com.elasticpath.service.shoppingcart.validation.ShoppingItemDtoValidator">
    <ref bean="productSkuDelegateFromShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
    <ref bean="quantityShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
    <ref bean="cartItemModifierShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
    <ref bean="bundleStructureShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
    <ref bean="bundleMaxSelectionRulesShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
    <ref bean="inventoryShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
</extensibleList:create>

You can also create an extensible list that can be modified, in the extension project, as in the following example:

<extensibleList:modify overridableId="shoppingItemDtoValidatorList" parent="shoppingItemDtoValidatorListParent">
    <addToList>
            <ref bean="customValidator"/>
    </addToList>
    <removeFromList>
            <ref bean="inventoryShoppingItemDtoValidator"/>
    </removeFromList>
</extensibleList:modify>

Cortex

Set the default setting for the format query parameter in Cortex Studio to format=standardlinks,zoom.nodatalinks to make the Cortex API responses smaller and more readable

Note: This settings does not change the default functionality of Cortex API.
Added the ability for users to override shopping context evaluation date through a new Cortex trait called SHOPPING_CONTEXT_DATE_OVERRIDE

You can test promotions and price lists that are active in the future or past

Note: This trait only functions if the COMMERCE/SYSTEM/API/enableTrustedTraits setting is set to true

New Cortex Resources

Navigation

offersearches.sort-attribute-selector- Provides the ability to select the sort order of navigation results returned in offersearches.offer-search-result
Offer Search

offersearches.sort-attribute-selector- Provides the ability to select the sort order of offer search results returned in offersearches.offer-search-result

Upgrade Notes

The upgrading Elastic Path guide provides general instructions on upgrading Elastic Path projects. The upgrade instructions specific to the 7.5.1 release are listed in the following sections:

Database Changes

The following database tables are added for catalog syndication:

TCATALOGPROJECTIONS: Contains the latest version of each catalog projection
TCATALOGHISTORY: Contains previous versions of catalog projections

For catalog syndication, Elastic path uses Spring Batch to manage execution of scheduled and on-request jobs. Spring Batch creates the following tables:

BATCH_JOB_INSTANCE
BATCH_JOB_EXECUTION
BATCH_JOB_EXECUTION_CONTEXT
BATCH_JOB_EXECUTION_PARAMS
BATCH_STEP_EXECUTION
BATCH_STEP_EXECUTION_CONTEXT

Sorting of search and navigation results adds the following database tables:

TSORTATTRIBUTE
TSORTLOCALIZEDNAME

Catalog Syndication

The catalog syndication framework generates Java Message Service (JMS) events when you add, update, or delete catalog objects. ActiveMQ must be running when Data Population and Import/Export are executed.

Ensure that you upgrade to a compatible CloudOps version when you upgrade.

Database Transaction Isolation Level

The configuration for transaction isolation level is removed from jpa-persistence.xml, and a run time check is added that returns an IllegalStateException with the following message:

The database transaction isolation must be READ_COMMITTED if an incorrect isolation level is detected.

Ensure that you do the following when you upgrade:

Configure all databases with a transaction level of READ_COMMITTED

By default, CloudOps configures databases correctly. However, manually created databases might have incorrect transaction levels

XA Transaction Manager

Catalog Syndication uses the Atomokos Transactions Essentials JTA/XA transaction manager to ensure consistency between catalog database changes and corresponding JMS events. This involves the following updates:

Adding new XA JNDI resources to Tomcat context.xml files
Adding new parameters to Data Population, Import/Export and Data Sync CLI configuration files
Updating Spring configuration to reference the XA data sources

Ensure that you do the following when you upgrade:

Update any manually created configuration files

CloudOps updates all necessary configuration changes automatically

Bug Fixes

Core Commerce
- Resolved the issue where the tax calculation cache was not being used correctly during checkout, resulting in unnecessary tax calculation calls. This fix improves performance during checkout
- Resolved the issue where the Drools classloader used for promotion evaluations was not initialized correctly, resulting in ClassNotFound errors when attempting to extend promotions functionality in Elastic Path
- Resolved the issue where a large number of unnecessary database calls were being made to set transaction isolation level to READ_COMMITTE
- Both products and SKUs have an enable date and disable date. For single-SKU products, the SKU enable or disable dates are invisible in Commerce Manager and must be ignored by all validations. The implementation included these dates when determining if you can add a single-SKU product to cart, which resulted in some edge-case bugs
Cortex
- Resolved the issue where an anonymous customer without an email address gets the Coupon is not valid error when applying a valid limited use coupon. The new and appropriate error message is Email address is required for <coupon-code> coupon, where the <coupon-code> code is the coupon that the customer enters
- Resolved an issue to log all NullPointerExceptions in Cortex logs
Commerce Manger
- Resolved multiple issue with user interface styling, labels, and icons

`7.5.0`

Release Highlights

Featured Products

Featured products enable merchandisers to promote products on a category page by highlighting new or trending products in a category. Merchandisers can set the order in which the products appear in the category page by changing the settings in the featured products section in Elastic Path Commerce Manager.

Faceted Navigation

Faceted navigation enables shoppers to refine products on the category pages using the facet values based on the product attributes, such as price ranges, length, height, or other attributes. For example, in the men’s shirts category page, a shopper can view only the blue shirts in small size by selecting the facet values Blue, in Color facet and Small in Size facet. For more information about selecting facet values, see the Multiple Facet Selection section.

Facets in the Storefront

With the facets and facet values in the storefront, shoppers can refine products in a page to view the exact items matching the buying criteria.

Offer and Batch Offer Lookup

With offer lookup, you can look for a specific offer by the offer code. With batch offer lookup, you can retrieve multiple offers in one query using multiple offer codes.

Localized Attribute Names

You can now localize the customer, category, product, and SKU attribute names.

Automatic Dependent Items

The dependent item product association supports defining items that are automatically added to the cart when the related item is added to the cart.

Data Sync Webapp

The Data Sync Webapp enables immediate publication of change sets from an Elastic Path author environment to live environments.

Bulk Order and Quick Order

With the bulk order form, shoppers can place an order without navigating to the product details pages and can add multiple quantities of a product to the cart. In a B2B commerce site where shoppers purchase in bulk, shoppers can add SKU codes and the quantity in a text field for multiple items and complete the purchase with single add to cart action.

With the quick order feature, B2B shoppers can purchase different products without visiting every product page by reordering the products from previous purchases. Shoppers can reorder individual line item or complete order from an order that exists in the order history without visiting various product pages in the order again.

Large Cart Performance

Retrieval of carts with a large number of items is significantly faster.

Format Query Parameter

Added a new query parameter, format=zoom.nodatalinks, to reduce the size of responses in a zoom query. This query parameter returns only the entity and the action links in the zoomed resources. An action link accepts POST requests, such as, addtodefaultcartaction.

Elastic Path Commerce Manager User Interface Update

A new Elastic Path Commerce Manager theme is introduced by adding RWT(RAP Widget Toolkit)/RAP(Remote Application Platform) user interface styling and labels. The icons in the older Elastic Path Commerce Manger interface is updated with new icons to match the theme.

Announcements and Notices

Removed Features

Support for the following features is discontinued in this release:

Microsoft SQL Server - Elastic Path CloudOps uses Amazon Aurora RDS(Relational Database Service) and Azure database for MySQL. A customer can also use Oracle if the deployments are managed by the customer
Deployment using bash scripts in the devops/pusher-package/ module - Elastic Path recommends using Docker and Kubernetes functionality from Elastic Path CloudOps for custom deployments
Oracle JVM(Java Virtual Machine) - Oracle has discontinued public security updates for Java 8. Elastic Path development and deployments now use Zulu JDK

System Requirements and Compatibility

Elastic Path Commerce 7.5.0 is compatible with the following Elastic Path releases:

Elastic Path Component	Versions	Locations	git branch or file name
Elastic Path CloudOps for AWS(Amazon Web Service)	CloudOps for AWS compatibility matrix	code.elasticpath.com	release/3.N.x where N is the minor version number
Elastic Path CloudOps for Azure	CloudOps for Azure compatibility matrix	code.elasticpath.com	release/1.N.x where N is the minor version number
Elastic Path Commerce Demo Package	7.5.0	Support Portal	`EP-Commerce-Demo-7.5.0.zip`
Elastic Path Commerce for Adobe	1.7	Support Portal	Internal release available upon request

New in This Release

New Cortex Resources

Navigation

offersearches.offer-search-result- Represents an offer in the navigation returned by the offersearches.offer-search-result resource. The result consists of a list of offers
offersearchresult- Returns offers as a result for a navigation query
offersearches.featured-offers - Represents an offer in the navigation returned by the offersearches.featured-offers resource. The result consists of a list of offers

Lookups

offers.offer-lookup-form - Returns an offer for the query submitted using offers.offer-lookup-form
offers.batch-offers-lookup-form - Returns a list of offers that are returned for the query submitted using offers.batch-offers-lookup-form

Bulk add to cart

carts.add-items-to-cart-form- Provides support for bulk order and quick order. For more information, see the quick order and bulk order sections.

Core Commerce

Removed the COMMERCE/SYSTEM/userIdMode system setting. The user ID is now an identifier that is unique within a store. Anonymous customers get a random generated user_id and have no email address. The placeholder email address public@ep-cortex.com is removed and CP_EMAIL is now an optional attribute

Cortex

The error message key profile.email.already.exists no longer exists. The error message key profile.userid.already.exists is returned if an existing user ID is used to create a user account

Upgrade Notes

The upgrading Elastic Path guide provides general instructions on upgrading Elastic Path projects. The upgrade instructions specific to the 7.5 release are listed in the following sections:

New Java 8 Distribution

Elastic Path development and CloudOps deployments are now based on Zulu Open JDK(Java Development Kit). When upgrading, switch all developer environments to use Zulu JDK.

Data Sync Webapp

The Data Sync Webapp provides event-driven publication of change sets from an Elastic Path author environment to a live environment. The change set publication is initiated by the CHANGE_SET_PUBLISHED event message.

Elastic Path CloudOps products now deploy the Data Sync Webapp instead of deploying the command line Data Sync Tool. For more information, see the Data Sync Webapp section.

Database Changes

The release includes database changes that are incompatible with zero-downtime deployments. During an upgrade the following database migrations take place:

User ID Changes
- All anonymous customers in the system with the userIdMode=1 setting are updated to have the GUID of the customer as the new user ID
- The CP_EMAIL attribute for a customer is deleted if the value of the attribute is public@ep-cortex.com
Localized Attribute Changes
- The values from the TATTRIBUTE.NAME column are copied to the TLOCALIZEDPROPERTIES table, and the TATTRIBUTE.NAME column is removed
Cart Performance Changes
- The CHILD_ITEM_CART_UID and ITEM_TYPE columns are added to the TCARTITEM table and populated with values

Components and Security Upgrades

Library	Old version	New version
Java	Oracle 8u144	Zulu 8u202
Jackson	2.9.6	2.9.8
Apache ActiveMQ	5.11.1	5.15.8
Spring Framework	4.3.16	4.3.19
Spring Framework Security OAuth2	2.3.3	2.3.5
Apache POI	3.0.1	4.0.1
Apache Batik	1.6.0. v201011041432	1.11
Hibernate	5.2.4	5.4.3
Tomcat	9.0.10	9.0.16
OWASP(Open Web Application Security Project) ESAPI(Enterprise Security API)	2.0.1	2.1.0.1
Glassfish jaxb codemodel	2.3.0	2.3.2
Apache Commons-lang3	3.8	3.8.1
Groovy http-builder	0.5.2	0.7.1
Javassist	3.23.1-GA	3.24.1-GA
Json Web Token	0.10.5	0.10.6
Jmock	2.8.4	2.9.0
Mockito	2.22.0	2.25.0
Apache Camel	2.21.1	2.23.1
Spring Framework Security	4.2.6 Release	4.2.11 Release
OSGi(Open Service Gateway Initiative) Resource Locator	1.0.2	1.0.3
RxJava	2.2.2	2.2.7

Bug Fixes

Core Commerce

Resolved the issue with the response returned when a shopper accesses another shoppers address. The response returned is 403 Forbidden instead of 404 Not Found
Resolved an issue with the form resources, such as add-to-cart-form, to include a Cache-Control:private, no-transform, max-age=600 header in all get requests. The forms are cached on the client side, which reduces the network traffic

Cortex

Resolved the issue of excessive log messages for authentication failures on Link and Advise operations by lowering the log level from WARN to DEBUG as the operations are passive
Resolved a bug to enable linking a legacy resource to a Helix Link Point resource