The publish utility in WebSphere Commerce enables you to create a functional running store or site on the WebSphere Commerce Server by publishing one of the sample store archives provided with WebSphere Commerce, or a store archive of your own creation. In order to publish a store archive you must have Site Administrator authority.
Store archive files are also used to
package and deliver organization structures, predefined user roles, and access
control policies necessary to create the environment for your store or site, as
well as collections of assets used to create a catalog or storefront.
Note that publishing these types of store archive files does not create a fully
functional running store, but instead creates organization structures and other
information in the database.
For a list of the sample store archives available with WebSphere Commerce, see Sample store archives.
Although the primary method of publishing a store archive is through the Administration Console, you can also publish a store archive using the command line.
When you use either the publish utility in the Administration Console or the command line publish, publish calls the Loader package to load most of the data assets in the store archive to the WebSphere Commerce Server. The publish utility also unpacks the Web assets to the appropriate location in the file system.
For more detailed information on how the publish process works, including what utilities are used, where files are published, and known limitations, see the WebSphere Commerce Store Development Guide, chapter "Publishing a complete store."
Important:
- Only one store archive at a time can be published. Concurrent publishing is not supported and may cause the publish of both store archives to fail.
It is not recommended that you publish more than one type of composite store archive or organization structure store archive in the same instance (for example, do not publish a ConsumerDirect.sar and BusinessIndirectReseller.sar in the same instance), or that you publish the same composite store archive or organization structure store archive more than once, as doing so may overwrite data previously published. For more information, see Publishing a store archive from the Administration Console - Advanced Options.
- Store archives can only be published to a single clone.
WebSphere Commerce Studio includes a version of WebSphere Commerce that is configured to run within the WebSphere Studio development environment. You can also use the publish utility to create a store in the development environment.