StAdHk

comp.sys
TCP/IP
directory server
World Wide Web
ww
Personal
IStore
Proxy
merchant system
HTML
http://www
Internet
server
security
news
URL
HTML
mail
Inter
navigator
community system
electronic commerce
JavaScript
Proxy
Mozilla
certificate
Publishing
Publishing
Chat
encryption
secure sockets layer
SSL
Site Administrator’s
Handbook
Merchant System
Version 1.5

Netscape Communications Corporation ("Netscape") and its licensors retain all ownership rights to the software
programs offered by Netscape (referred to herein as "Netscape Software") and related documentation. Use of the
Netscape Software is governed by the license agreement accompanying such Netscape Software. The Netscape
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Netscape Software with other programs may be obtained from Netscape upon request. Netscape Software and its
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Your right to copy Netscape Software and this documentation is limited by copyright law. Making unauthorized
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THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. IN NO EVENT SHALL NETSCAPE BE
LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF USE OR DATA, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, OR FOR
INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, ARISING FROM ANY ERROR IN THIS
DOCUMENTATION. Netscape may revise this documentation from time to time without notice.
Copyright © 1996 Netscape Communications Corporation. All rights reserved.
Netscape Communications, the Netscape Communications logo, Netscape, and Netscape News Server are trademarks
of Netscape Communications Corporation. The Netscape Software includes software developed by Rich Salz, and
security software from RSA Data Security, Inc. Copyright © 1994, 1995 RSA Data Security, Inc. All rights reserved.
Portions of the application include technology used under licenses from Verity, Inc. and are copyrighted. Portions
copyright © 1996 TAXWARE International, Inc. Other product or brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks
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View, California 94043. You may not export the Software except in compliance with applicable export controls. In
particular, if the Software is identified as not for export, then you may not export the Software outside the United
States except in very limited circumstances. See the end user license agreement accompanying the Software for more
details.
The Team:
Engineering: David Gurevich, Leo Alvarez, Hsi-wei Chao, Choong Chew, Radha Kulkarni, Carl Lee, Jawahar
Malhotra, Peter Tsui, Slava Vaynman, Per Thomsen
Marketing: Jack Corsello
Publications: Nick Pierotti; contributors- Amy Kuettner, Mary Hamel, Kim Manton
Quality Assurance: Jerome Fong, Peter Konopka, Fred Vu
Technical Support: Dan Yang, Fanny Wu
Consultants: Peter Caiazzi, Jay Raman
Version 1.5 Part Number: 151-02621-00
Printed in USA
97 96 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Netscape Communications Corporation 501 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View, CA 94043
Recycled and Recyclable Paper

Contents iii
Contents
About This Book..............................................................................................11
Before You Begin .................................................................................................12
Suggested Supplementary Reading .................................................................12
Audience and Roles..............................................................................................12
Organization..........................................................................................................13
Conventions ..........................................................................................................16
Chapter 1 Introducing the Merchant System......................................19
What is the Merchant System?..............................................................................20
Merchant System Components.............................................................................22
The Merchant Server (MS)..............................................................................22
The Staging Server (SS)....................................................................................22
The Transaction Server (TX)............................................................................22
Merchant Enabling Device (MED)...................................................................23
Merchant and Staging Servers..............................................................................25
Product Display................................................................................................25
Loading service.................................................................................................25
Additional Customer-Related Features............................................................26
Customer Shopping Basket .............................................................................26
Pricing...............................................................................................................27
Discounts and Coupons...................................................................................27
Product Search Module....................................................................................27
Features Unique to the Staging Server ................................................................28
The Transaction Server.........................................................................................29
Sales Tax Calculation .......................................................................................29
Secure Mail .......................................................................................................29
Secure Transactions..........................................................................................30
Order Processing..............................................................................................30
Audit Administration ........................................................................................31

iv Site Administrator’s Handbook
Credit Card Services......................................................................................... 31
Shipping Models.............................................................................................. 32
Rounding Policy............................................................................................... 32
Merchant Enabling Device (MED)....................................................................... 33
Administration Flow ........................................................................................ 34
Chapter 2 Planning and Configuring Your Site................................. 39
Overview of Mall Planning and Design.............................................................. 40
Determining Mall Structure.................................................................................. 42
Determining the Role Structure ...................................................................... 42
Determining the Directory Structure .............................................................. 44
Determining the Feature Set ........................................................................... 46
Determining Mall Policy.................................................................................. 47
Establishing Prices and Pricing Policy............................................................ 47
Designing the Mall Interface................................................................................ 50
Designing the Checkout Interface .................................................................. 50
Configuration Overview....................................................................................... 51
The Merchant Server Configuration Files....................................................... 51
Summary of Configuration Procedures .......................................................... 52
Planning Your Site ............................................................................................... 53
Determining the Mall and Merchant Top Directories.................................... 53
Determining the Server Configurations.......................................................... 54
Gathering the Configuration Information....................................................... 54
Backing Up the Configuration Files.................................................................... 55
Entering the Merchant Server Parameter Values ................................................ 55
Using the ShowParam Program ...................................................................... 57
Entering the Staging Server Parameter Values.................................................... 60
Entering the Transaction Server Parameter Values ............................................ 61
Chapter 3 Gathering the Mall Setup Information............................. 65
Gathering Setup Information............................................................................... 66
Gathering Basic Mall and Merchant Information........................................... 66
Setting Product Selection Levels (Optional)................................................... 70
Getting the Name:Value Pair File Data from Merchants ............................... 71
Gathering Product Update Data (Optional)................................................... 72

Contents v
Product Selection Levels..................................................................................72
Product Information ........................................................................................72
Chapter 4 Setting Up Your Mall ...............................................................73
Before You Begin.................................................................................................74
Setting Up the Mall...............................................................................................75
Loading the Mall and Merchant Information ......................................................79
Loading Basic Mall Information ......................................................................79
Loading Basic Merchant Information..............................................................79
Stocking the Storefront.........................................................................................80
Using the Name:Value Pair file.......................................................................81
Transfering Product Files onto the Server......................................................81
Loading Storefront Data ..................................................................................81
Database Info Related to the Transaction Server...........................................83
HTML Page Generation ...................................................................................83
Product Search Module ...................................................................................84
Discounts and Coupons ..................................................................................90
Before Going Live............................................................................................91
Staged Mall Testing and Approval..................................................................91
Going “Live” from a Staged Server......................................................................92
Running the Staging Server Extraction Utility (ssextr)...................................93
Loading the New Storefront Data File............................................................95
Updating Taxware data ...................................................................................96
Chapter 5 Configuring the Merchant Nexus Interface....................99
Overview.............................................................................................................100
The Basic Merchant Information Form......................................................... 100
Entering Your Taxware Tax Data...................................................................... 101
Taxware Auditing........................................................................................... 105
Tax Information by State............................................................................... 107
Taxation by Local Jurisdictions ..................................................................... 110
Deleting the Merchant from the Nexus........................................................ 112
TAXWARE Database Files ............................................................................. 113

vi Site Administrator’s Handbook
Chapter 6 Setting Up Secure Mail.......................................................... 115
Secure Mail Overview........................................................................................ 116
Before you Set up the Secure Mail System .................................................. 116
Preparing for Secure Mail .................................................................................. 117
Providing Certificate Information ...................................................................... 118
Steps to Set Up Secure Mail............................................................................... 121
Secure Mail Set Up Example.............................................................................. 124
Using the certreq program................................................................................. 126
Viewing Certificates....................................................................................... 128
Using the decrypt Program................................................................................ 129
Chapter 7 Setting Up Order Delivery................................................... 131
Order Delivery Overview .................................................................................. 132
What are Orders ............................................................................................ 132
Order Processing ........................................................................................... 132
Secure Mail and Order Processing................................................................ 134
Email Mechanisms for Acknowledgments ........................................................ 136
Configuring for Order Delivery......................................................................... 137
Configure system.ini for Order Delivery ...................................................... 138
Configure your Email Mechanism ................................................................ 140
Changing Email Mechanisms ........................................................................ 142
Starting and Stopping the tdd Daemon ............................................................ 142
Starting tdd..................................................................................................... 142
Stopping tdd .................................................................................................. 142
Chapter 8 Setting Up Audit File Delivery ........................................... 143
Audit File Delivery Overview............................................................................ 144
What are Audit Files...................................................................................... 144
Audit File Processing..................................................................................... 144
Secure Mail and Audit File Processing ......................................................... 145
Email Mechanisms for Acknowledgments ........................................................ 147
Configuring for Audit File Delivery................................................................... 148
Configure system.ini for Audit File Delivery................................................ 149
Configure your Email Mechanism ................................................................ 150
Changing Email Mechanisms ........................................................................ 152

Contents vii
Starting and Stopping the Add Daemon ........................................................... 152
Starting add .................................................................................................... 152
Stopping add.................................................................................................. 152
Chapter 9 Configuring for Credit Card
Processing.......................................................................................................155
Overview.............................................................................................................156
The Bank Card Gateway and the Leased Line............................................. 156
Establishing a Credit Card Business Agreement .......................................... 160
Configuring The Transaction Server for Credit Card Processing ................ 161
Configuring the Bank Card Gateway for the Internet (ccpd).......................... 164
The ccpd (Credit Card Processor Daemon) Configuration ......................... 164
Starting and Stopping the Credit Card Processing Daemon........................ 165
Configuring for Leased Line operations (fdd) .................................................. 167
The Credit Card Gateway Configuration...................................................... 167
Setting Up the Credit Card Database Tables..................................................... 173
CREDIT_CARD............................................................................................... 174
CREDIT_CARD_SERVICE............................................................................... 175
MERCHANT_CC_ASGT.................................................................................. 176
BATCH............................................................................................................178
ORDER_HEADER........................................................................................... 179
Credit Card Operations ...................................................................................... 181
Activating the Credit Card Processor ............................................................ 182
Opening and Closing the Credit Card Batch................................................ 183
Opening Batch Numbers............................................................................... 184
Closing Batch Numbers................................................................................. 185
Using Credit Card Manager During the Business Day................................. 186
Viewing Order Information........................................................................... 188
Capturing Authorized Transactions in an Open Batch................................ 192
Specifying Credit Card Retry Attack Detection ............................................ 193
Encrypting Database Passwords ................................................................... 194
Encrypting/Decrypting Credit Card Numbers................................................... 197
Implementing the Seed ................................................................................. 197

viii Site Administrator’s Handbook
Credit Card Query Tool ..................................................................................... 199
How to Access and Use the Credit Card Search Tool................................. 199
Processing Credit Card Refunds ........................................................................ 202
Chapter 10 Setting Up Merchant Shipping Models ........................ 205
Overview of Shipping Models........................................................................... 206
Selecting a Shipping Model ............................................................................... 207
Selecting the Model ....................................................................................... 207
Per-Product Shipping Model......................................................................... 207
Order Subtotal Model.................................................................................... 209
Weight Range Model ..................................................................................... 210
Appendix A System Configuration
Planning Packets.......................................................................................... 215
How to Use the System Configuration Planning Packets ................................ 216
Merchant Server Configuration Planning Packet.............................................. 217
Merchant Server Configuration Worksheets................................................. 217
Sample Merchant Server Configuration........................................................ 221
Transaction Server Configuration Packet.......................................................... 222
Transaction Server Configuration Worksheets............................................. 223
Sample Transaction Server Configuration .................................................... 233
Staging Server Configuration Packet ................................................................. 241
Staging Server Configuration Worksheets................................................... 241
Sample Staging Server Configuration ........................................................... 244
Appendix B Basic Mall Information
Worksheet....................................................................................................... 247
How to Complete the Worksheet...................................................................... 248
Basic Mall Information Worksheet ............................................................... 248
Appendix C Basic Merchant Information
Worksheet....................................................................................................... 251
How to Complete the Worksheet...................................................................... 252
Basic Merchant Information Worksheet....................................................... 253

Contents ix
Appendix D Troubleshooting and Error
Messages ..........................................................................................................259
A Typical HTML Error Page............................................................................... 260
Format Example............................................................................................. 260
General Error Codes and Messages................................................................... 262
Error Handling.................................................................................................... 263
User Errors ..................................................................................................... 263
Configuration Errors ...................................................................................... 264
Database Operation Errors............................................................................ 264
Credit Verification Errors............................................................................... 266
Credit Card Troubleshooting for Merchants ..................................................... 266
Credit Card Troubleshooting for Acquirers....................................................... 267
Merchant Troubleshooting Steps....................................................................... 267
Resolving CCPD Error Messages................................................................... 268
Verifying the CCPD Configuration................................................................ 275
Resolving CCPD Error Messages................................................................... 276
Using the Card Processor ping Utility .......................................................... 277
Using telnet and traceroute........................................................................... 277
Checking the CCPD Log File......................................................................... 280
Customer Support............................................................................................... 281
Appendix E Using the HTML DB Forms Interface........................... 283
The HTML DB Forms Interface ......................................................................... 283
Setting up the Basic Mall Information using DB Forms .............................. 288
Setting up the Basic Merchant Information using DB Forms...................... 289
Appendix F Country Codes...................................................................... 291
Glossary ...........................................................................................................323

x Site Administrator’s Handbook

About This Book 11
AboutThis Book
his handbook describes the administration and operation tasks
for the Merchant System Version 1.5 from Netscape Communica-
tions Corporation. It also provides a description of the function-
ality and structure underlying the system.
This Preface explains the following:
• Audience for whom the handbook is intended and the assumed knowledge
base
• Recommended supplementary reading list
• Organization of and instructions for using this handbook
• A listing and description of conventions used in this handbook
T

Before You Begin
12 Merchant System:Site Administrator’s Handbook
Before You Begin
This Handbook is written with the assumption that you understand the basics
of a relational database system and the operating system on which you are
running this software.
It is not necessary to be an expert concerning the technical intricacies of HTML
or the World Wide Web, but it is helpful to understand the basic concepts of
both.
Suggested Supplementary Reading
The following documents may be helpful as supplements to this handbook:
• Your operating system manuals, particularly any pertaining to system
security
• The ﬁrst chapter of the Oracle7 Server Concepts Manual, provided by
Oracle Corporation
• The MOSES Group documents obtainable from the Uniforum organization
or through Oracle Corporation
• The Merchant System Product Designer’s Handbook (if you plan to
customize any of the Merchant System interfaces)
• The Merchant Guide
Audience and Roles
This handbook is written for Merchant System site administrators and site
operators. Administrators are responsible for the planning and setup of the
Merchant System, which involves security-sensitive tasks. Operators are respon-
sible for the daily operation and maintenance of the system. Some tasks also
can be performed by Merchants, usually those tasks specific to storefront
content and appearance, and product display. These roles may or may not be
distinct, depending on the particular Merchant System scenario at your site. The
instructions below advise as to how to use this handbook, and which infor-
mation is relevant to each role.

About This Book 13
Organization
Organization
This handbook is structured as follows:
Part I: Concepts and Planning
Part I contains an overview of the Merchant System. This includes a description
of its various features and components, as well as details concerning system
architecture and functionality. Part I also contains information for planning and
customizing the system components before setting up the Mall.
Chapter 1: Introducing the Merchant System
This chapter provides a conceptual overview of the Merchant System. This
includes a description of the various features and components of the system,
and how they interact. A diagram illustrating the Merchant System operational
flow is also included. This chapter is recommended for site administrators and
operators, as well as merchants who will be creating their own storefront and
product display pages.
Chapter 2: Planning and Configuring Your Site
This chapter explains the steps involved for configuring the various compo-
nents of the Merchant System. It also defines the information which you will
need to gather beforehand.
Part II: The Front Office — Setting Up Mall Services
Part II provides detailed instructions for planning, designing, and creating the
“Front Office” services for your Mall. This entails the design and implemen-
tation of the global Mall features, as well as individual storefronts, product
displays, and Mall service interfaces.

Organization
Chapter 3: Gathering the Mall Setup Information
This chapter provides a guide to planning the structure and design of your Mall.
This chapter is designed to be used in conjunction with Appendix B— Mall
Planning Packets and Appendix C — Merchant Planning Packets.
Chapter 4: Setting Up Your Mall
This chapter provides a detailed step-by-step guide to Mall setup procedures. It
also includes instructions for backing up and reloading the Mall.
Part III: The Back Office — Setting Up Transaction
Services
Part III provides detailed information and instructions for setting up the Back
Office transaction services for your Mall. This includes Merchant Nexus Config-
uration, Setup of Secure Mail, Order Processing, Audit Delivery, Credit Card
Processing, and Shipping Setup.
Chapter 5: Configuring the Merchant Nexus
This chapter describes the TAXWARE Tax Entry System and provides a step-by-
step guide to setting up and loading the merchant tax information.
Chapter 6: Configuring Secure Mail
This chapter describes methods for keeping transactions secure over the
internet.
Chapter 7: Transporting Order Data to Merchants
This chapter describes the procedures for delivering Purchase Orders to
Merchants. It also includes a more detailed description of the transport
mechanism and the use of encryption in data that is sent via email.
Chapter 8: Transporting Audit Files to Merchants
This chapter describes how to send AVP audit reports to merchants, transferring
tax data between servers, and receiving data at the merchant sites.

About This Book 15
Organization
Chapter 9: Configuring for Credit Card Processing
This chapter describes the set up of Credit Card Services on the Transaction
Server:
Chapter 10: Setting up Merchant Shipping Models
This chapter provides a description of available shipping methods and instruc-
tions for setting up merchant shipping data on your Transaction Server.
Appendices
Appendix A: System Configuration Planning Packets
The System Configuration Planning Packets provide worksheets and sample
configuration files for planning and customizing your site.
Appendix B: Basic Mall Information Worksheet
This appendix contains a worksheet for gathering and entering Basic Mall Infor-
mation. The worksheet is designed to be used with Chapter 3—Gathering the
Mall Setup Information and Chapter 4—Setting Up Your Mall.
Appendix C: Basic Merchant Information Worksheet
This appendix contains a worksheet for gathering and entering Basic Merchant
Information. The worksheet is designed to be used with Chapter 3—Gathering
the Mall Setup Information and Chapter 4—Setting Up Your Mall.
Appendix D: Troubleshooting and Error Messages
This includes a number of sections on troubleshooting the Merchant System, as
well as a list of all Merchant System error messages, categorized according to
the system component which generates them. An explanation and suggested
action for problem resolution are also provided for each message.
Appendix E: Error Using the HTML DB Forms Interface
This describes the HTML interface that is used to enter Basic Mall and Basic
Merchant information.

Conventions
Appendix F: Country Codes
This describes the country codes to use in configuring the Merchant System.
Glossary
The glossary describes the various terms and concepts of the Merchant system.
Conventions
The following table describes the various formatting conventions and provides
examples of each.
Format Description Example
Boldface Command names, input
you must enter
ssextr then invokes the
ssld program.
Italics Document titles, part and
chapter headings, and
filenames
Preface
fixed-width font Screen prompts, program
output, and sample file
contents
User name:
fixed-width
font, bold
Commands and screen
input
User name: muser
NOTE: “NOTE:” calls your atten-
tion to important informa-
tion. Read any text
following it carefully.
NOTE: Credit Card infor-
mation must be loaded
through the HTML Forms
Interface.

Part 1, Concepts and Planning 17
1Concepts and Planning

18 MerchantSystem: Site Administrator’s Handbook

Chapter 1, Introducing the Merchant System 19
C h a p t e r
1Introducing the Merchant System
his chapter introduces you to the Netscape Merchant System. It provides
a basic overview of the Merchant System features and components for a
Site Administrator, and how these features and components interact.
• What is the Merchant System?
• Merchant System Components
• Merchant and Staging Servers
• Features Unique to the Staging Server
• Transaction Server
• Merchant Enabling Device
T

What is the Merchant System?
20 Merchant System: Site Administrator’s Handbook
The Merchant System enables merchants to take advantage of the vast
resources of the Internet as a worldwide marketing and merchandising
network. It provides a ready-made, economical means for even small, newly
established businesses to market their products on a global scale.
Marketplace providers in turn can offer their merchant clients powerful and
efficient business management services, automating many of the burdensome
tasks of day-to-day operations. The Merchant System not only frees merchant
resources such as time, money, and effort, it provides an arena for greater
creativity and effectiveness in product marketing.
Here are some of the ways the Merchant System can increase your competitive
edge in the world marketplace.
• The Merchant System supports a variety of scenarios.
The Merchant System can support a variety of marketplace scenarios. One
popular scenario is the CyberMall model, housing numerous independent
storefronts and service providers under one “virtual roof.” Another common
scenario is the large single-vendor department store model, containing an
array of associated branches, departments, and/or services. Each CyberMall
or department store can manage hundreds of storefronts and thousands of
products.
• Convenience, service, and security for your customers.
The Merchant System offers your customers one-to-one, secure service.
Consumers can browse at their convenience through online merchandise
displays, selecting and purchasing items over a secure network. Credit card
and other transaction information is protected by several data encryption
utilities. Automated checkout is fast and efficient – no more long frustrating
lines at the checkout stand.
And there are other advantages to Merchant System online shopping. The
ease of “cyber-shopping” offers the convenience of mail order without the
delay – or the risks.
• Merchant System’s automated services give you the competitive edge.
The Merchant System can be open and ready for business 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, 365 days a year. Your products and services are
displayed in multimedia storefronts featuring full color photographs. This
not only engages the customer more actively, it makes your product

offering more exciting, appealing, and accessible. The customizable search
capability makes it easy for the consumer to locate your products, quickly
and efficiently.
Online marketing is also cost-effective. Expensive customer order lines, toll-
free 800 numbers, printing and production bills, mailing list charges, catalog
distribution costs — are all a thing of the past.
The Merchant System saves you time and money and gives you the compet-
itive edge:
• Merchant System Order Processing services can significantly reduce your
turnaround time and virtually eliminate your paperwork.
• Merchant System Tax Options. You can decide which of three tax options to
use for sales tax calculation: A flat tax calculation, use of tax tables, or use
of the TAXWARE Tax Model.
• Merchant System Credit Card services. You can specify which credit cards
you will accept, and according to which restrictions. Credit card transactions
— including verification, capture, and fulfillment — are fully automated and
secure. Credit card and other transaction data are protected by several
encryption security systems.
• You can instantly update your merchandise displays at any time, changing
your product descriptions, pricing, or other details.
• You can add or discontinue products, or even offer special sales, coupons,
and discounts.
• Using customized store display templates, you can design your own store-
fronts to reflect the image, style, and “culture” of your company. You can
use your own icons, logos, letterhead, and other identity elements from
your business.

Merchant System Components
The basic Merchant System architecture consists of three servers, a MED
(Merchant Enabling Device) and one or more databases:
The Merchant Server (MS)
Consumers connect to this server to use the shopping services of the Merchant
System. The Merchant Server home page presents the browsing and purchasing
options to the customer, along with links to product display pages. Customers
can search across the store or Mall for specific products, or for a range of linked
related products. The Merchant Server Database stores data for merchant
product display pages etc.
The Staging Server (SS)
The Staging Server is an optional pre-production environment for loading,
verifying, and testing the Merchant System data. If you choose to use this
feature, either you or the merchant can load all storefront and product data
(text, pages, graphics, product attributes, prices, etc.) initially on the Staging
Server, examine the pages for accuracy and artistic content, and then approve
the changes for automated transfer to the Merchant Server.
The Transaction Server (TX)
The Transaction Server handles all purchasing and checkout operations for the
Merchant System. The TX also provides an interface with remote credit card
services and manages credit card authorization, capture, and fulfillment. The TX
supplies billing, fiduciary, and accounting information to an external billing
system. The Transaction Server stores information related to Order and Audit
reports and receipts, manages Shipping Model assignment, Credit Card configu-
ration and Security information, and performs sales tax calculations.

Merchant Enabling Device (MED)
The MED consists of programs and a directory structure that accomodate the
following Merchant System features and activities:
• Purchase Order receipt
• Tax Audit File receipt (optional)
Typically, you will load the MED into your machine using standard UNIX
commands.
The following diagram illustrates the basic architecture of the Merchant System.

Figure 1.1 The Merchant System
Client
Merchant
Initial Product Load
Updates
Flow of Shopping Flow of Purchasing
Delivery
Order and Audit File
Interface to Database
Database
Netscape Server
Database
Discontinue Products
Staging Server (SS)
Netscape Server
Database
Merchant Server (MS)
Netscape Server
Transaction Server (TX)
(MED)

Merchant and Staging Servers
Both the Merchant and Staging Servers provide the following services:
Product Display
The product display pages, based on the HTML templates and merchant data,
enable merchants to present their products and services in an exceptionally
high-quality multimedia format. This includes full-color graphics and photo-
graphs. Merchants can customize the templates to reflect their company identity
(for example, utilizing company logos, page layouts, forms, etc.). For more
information see The Product Designer’s Handbook.
The HTML Page Generation feature dynamically creates HTML product pages
and forms based upon customizable templates provided with the system.
Product display pages are automatically updated as data is altered.
Loading service
The loading program ssld accepts Name:Value Pair files (see next paragraph)
containing the merchant and product data, updates the database with product
information, and places the HTML product display pages linked to this data in
the appropriate directories.
The Name:Value Pair file is a transaction file that consists of an ordered
sequence of merchandise transactions. The Name:Value pair file is the medium
used to update or load your information into the Merchant Server databases
and Staging Server which you maintain. Each transaction in the Name:Value
pair file, for example, adds a single product to the database which is reflected
in your store display. For more information on name:value pair files, see
“Getting the Name:Value Pair File Data from Merchants” on page 71

Additional Customer-Related Features
The Merchant System also provides a set of features for the customer who
shops at the mall.
Customer Shopping Basket
The Shopping Basket keeps a tally of the products selected by the customer for
purchase. It is local to the client on the customer’s machine (i.e. a browser).
The MS updates the Shopping Basket as the customer adds and removes items
in the Shopping Basket. The MS also provides a review of the contents, along
with a description of each item selected. The Shopping Basket is Mall-wide in
scope.
The Shopping Basket is time-stamped and emptied at selected intervals. The
default is twelve hours after the Customer adds the first item to the Shopping
Basket. The length of this interval is stated on the Review Shopping Basket
screen.
The shopping basket is also emptied when a credit card transaction is rejected.
The contents of the Shopping Basket include the unique Stock Keeping Unit
(SKU) number for each product and quantity requested. There is a unique SKU
number for each product offered by the Mall. This uniqueness is preserved
across Merchants, as in normal retail business practice.
The contents of the Shopping Basket are encrypted during its existence. This
encrypted data can be read only by the Transaction Server and Merchant
Server.
Instant Buy
Instant Buy enables one button shopping by means of a Buy Now button as
part of the customer interface. The customer can simply click on the Buy Now
button, which brings up the Checkout page. All items collected in the Shopping
Basket up to that point are automatically purchased at that time.
The Buy Now button is a default in the bud.mle template for each product. If
the merchants want to disable this feature, they must change the bud.mle
template for that product by removing the template for the Buy Now button.

For instructions on how to configure the template, refer to the Product
Designer’s Handbook.
Pricing
As customers place products in their Shopping Baskets, the price of each
product is entered in the Shopping Basket. When the Customer checks out of
the Merchant System, the contents of the Shopping Basket are forwarded to the
Transaction Server for processing.
The Merchant System supports the use of both product and SKU-level pricing,
as well as sales prices for both product and SKU-level prices.
The action taken when the prices are not equal depends on the merchant price
policy defined in the database.
Discounts and Coupons
This feature allows customers to add discount coupons to their shopping
baskets and allows merchants to provide coupon information to the customers
through a coupon bud page. Customers add coupons to their shopping basket
from the product bud page. If the product has an associated coupon, customers
can enter the coupon name in a window that is displayed on the product bud
page. (Note that coupon names can be advertised, for example, in a newspaper
or on the Internet. )
Product Search Module
Product search provides a configurable search engine used for locating store-
fronts and products on the Mall. The Product Search feature allows customers
to enter keywords in a product search page and find products of their interest
in the mall. This feature also enables "canned" search where customers can
search for "Related products" in the mall. For information on the the Product
Search module and its components, see “Product Search Module” on page 84

Features Unique to the Staging Server
Features Unique to the Staging Server
The Staging Server provides the additional following services:
• Staging service:
The staging service provides an intermediate arena for reviewing and
updating the Mall setup data before implementing the Mall on the Merchant
Server.
The Staging Server
and services are
optional components
of the Merchant
System. Staging is
not required, but is
advised.
• Extractor service:
The ssextr program extracts the approved data from the Staging Server and
transfers it to the Merchant Server to create the online Mall.

The Transaction Server
The Transaction Server provides the following services:
Sales Tax Calculation
There are three mall-wide ways to calculate your sales tax:
You must determine
whether you are
going to use
TAXWARE’s Sales
Tax Calculation
Services. Your other
options are to use
either flat tax
calculation or a tax
table.
• The TAXWARE Tax Model where Tax calculations are completely
automated with the TAXWARE Tax service (TAXWARE is for use in the
USA only).
Since sales tax processing is frequently beyond the time and resources of
many merchants, the Merchant System provides the TAXWARE Tax Service
module. This automates the tax processing tasks, calculating merchant tax
information on a state-by-state basis. Optionally, TAXWARE can generate a
detailed audit report for each merchant and automatically deliver it to the
appropriate merchant site. The Merchant System provides retrieval,
encryption, and electronic mail delivery of sales tax audit reports.
The Netscape Merchant System includes the TAXWARE Tax Calculation
module from TAXWARE, Inc. (Refer to your TAXWARE documentation
accompanying this package for defaults. ) The TAXWARE Tax module
enables merchants to automate sales tax calculation and processing on a
state-by-state basis.
• Mall_proﬁle ﬂat tax: for example, in the Netland Mall demo, the tax rate
is set to 12%, so $100 nets tax of $12.
• The TX Sales_Tax table with Zipcodes and assigned sales tax rates. This
is not supported in the mall model with multiple merchants.
Secure Mail
Secure Mail is a service that augments the regular UNIX electronic mail that is
used by the Merchant System 1.5. Secure Mail provides security for the users of
the electronic mail in the context of:
• The purchase order delivery. Please see Chapter 8, “Setting Up Order
Delivery” for details

• The sales tax audit ﬁle delivery. Refer to Chapter 8, “Setting Up Audit
File Delivery” for details
• The delivery of the product data from the Staging Server to the
Merchant Server. Refer to Chapter 4, “Setting Up Your Mall” for details
The security provided consists of message confidentiality, data integrity, and
originator authentication. Confidentiality is implemented using encryption. It
ensures that only the intended recipients can read the message. Integrity and
originator authentication are implemented using a digital signature. A digital
signature is used to verify that a message was not changed and from whom the
message came. The Secure Mail implementation conforms to the S/MIME
(Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) and PKCS (Public Key Cryptog-
raphy Standards) standards.
To configure Secure Mail, see Chapter 6, “Setting Up Secure Mail”.
Secure Transactions
The TX provides a number of features for keeping transactions secure over the
Internet. Credit Card Retry Attack provides a detection mechanism for
preventing fraudulent use of a credit card number. In addition, Credit Card
number encryption protects even further against electronic credit card “theft.”
Encrypted database passwords provide an added layer of security against
unauthorized access to the Transaction Server database.
Order Processing
The TX receives purchase order information from shoppers, verifies the
integrity of the completed checkout form, and stores the purchase order in the
Transaction Server database. It verifies prices and other merchandise infor-
mation from the MS database. The TX calculates order amounts, shipping
charges, and sales taxes for the total order amount. The TX then forwards order
information to the MED for fulfillment.
To configure for Order Processing, see Chapter 8, “Setting Up Order Delivery”

Audit Administration
The Transaction Server also provides sales tax audit reports that are sent
directly to the merchant.
Audit reports can be sent from the Transaction Server to a Merchant either in
clear or encrypted form. The receipt of audits is optional, and lists of merchants
who wish to receive reports and details about the schedule of the delivery must
be specified.
To configure for Audit Administration, see Chapter 8, “Setting Up Audit File
Delivery”
Credit Card Services
Credit Card services can be conducted via leased line or the Internet. The
system enables customers to conduct secure credit card transactions electroni-
cally. Customers are issued electronic receipts, and all transactions are logged
to ensure complete recovery in case of a system failure.
You install and configure the Merchant System. The Merchant applies to the
Credit Card Acquirer to establish an account. The Credit Card Acquirer verifies
the credentials of the Merchant and creates an account.
The specific software components of the credit card system include:
• The ccpd daemon, a continuously operating process on a Transaction
Server machine that implements SSL security and message transmission.
This daemon communicates with the gateway, which is located at the
Acquirer’s site.
• The fdd daemon, a continuously operating process on the gateway
machine that implements direct message transmission to the acquirer’s
processor.
• The ccp library, a collection of functions to implement credit card
processing. This library is linked as part of the Transaction Server
component of Netscape’s Internet commerce products. The functions in
this library are used to generate authorization messages in credit card
processor-speciﬁc formats.

For configuration information regarding Credit Cards see Chapter 9, “Config-
uring for Credit Card Processing”
Shipping Models
The shipping model determines the pricing structure for freight charges. The
merchant prepares the shipping model worksheet for the selected shipping
method. You extract shipping data from the shipping model worksheet and
add this data to the Transaction Server (TX) database. This information then
provides the customer and merchant with accurate shipping price/charge infor-
mation.
The steps for setting up shipping models are in Chapter 10, “Setting Up
Merchant Shipping Models”
Rounding Policy
The rounding method is specified in the system.ini file (token
TX_ROUNDING). The available values and some examples of their effect are
outlined in the following table:
The default value is "PLAIN";
Value Description 1.225 1.235 1.2251
PLAIN Rounds up
on a tie
1.23 1.24 1.23
BANKERS On a tie,
round so that
the last digit is
even
1.22 1.24 1.23
UP Always
round up
1.23 1.24 1.23
DOWN Always
round down
1.22 1.23 1.22
TRUNCATE Always
round down
1.22 1.23 1.22

The MED is software that runs on a host computer at the merchant site. As Site
Administrator, you will provide this software to each merchant.
Typically, the merchant will load the MED using standard UNIX commands.
The MED consists of programs and a directory structure that accomodate the
following Merchant System features and activities:
• Order information (Required)
The MED directory contains a file structure to accomodate order infor-
mation at the Merchant site. The MED receives and parses order infor-
mation, decrypts it if necessary, and returns an acknowledgment.
• TAXWARE Audit Reports (optional)
If audit report
receipt is not
enabled, the
TAXWARE
executable is not
used.
The Merchant System uses tax calculation software from TAXWARE, Inc. to
calculate taxes on merchant customers’ orders. It can also issue audit
reports on a periodic basis. The MED directory contains the TAXWARE
executable that automatically sets up an audit administration account and
file structure. The MED receives and parses audit information, decrypts it if
necessary, and returns an acknowledgment.
• Secure mail (optional)
If a mall or single retailer supports Secure mail, the MED directory at the
Merchant Site contains an executable that allows for generation of a certif-
icate request to a certification authority. By applying for a certficate, you
and the Merchant can guarantee your identities to each other and engage in
secure Internet communications. For details on Secure Mail and its set up,
see Chapter 6, “Setting Up Secure Mail” For details on the MED setup, see
The Merchant’s Handbook.

Administration Flow
The main tasks you perform on the Merchant System are as follows:
• Plan your mall needs after installation.
• Install Merchant software.
• Configure the servers before setting up the Mall.
• Enter and load the seed data (basic Mall setup data) using the HTML Forms
Interface (see.
• Receive product data from Merchant in Name:Value Pair file.
• Set up the merchant data (if not assigned to the merchants) via a
Name:Value Pair file.
Additional tasks carried out if the Staging Server is used
• Load the merchant data onto the Staging Server
• Stage the Mall.
• View the staged Mall data and checks for accuracy.
• If the data is not accurate, resubmit the N:V file to Merchant for
correction of data.
• Extract and transfer the staged Mall data from the Staging Server to the
Merchant Server.
The following diagrams illustrate the flow of shopping on the Merchant System:

Figure 1.2 Flow of Shopping on the Merchant System.
Go to
Enter Stores
Product
Page
Stores
Home
Page
Navigate
through
Merchant
Pages
Browse other merchant stores
Choose Merchant
Continued

Figure 1.3 Flow of Shopping on the Merchant System.
Navigate
Other product
Navigate Products
Put in
Shopping Basket
Bud
Page
Select Attributes
& Quantity
More ItemsYes
More of
Same
Item
View
Other
Checkout
Items
View
Detail
Product
Page
Purchase
pages
Buy Now
No
Yes
Receive
Transaction
Receipt

Figure 1.4 Typical Merchant System Configuration
Transaction Server
Site Administrator MerchantCustomer
checkout
shopping
(product selection)
Merchant Server
Staging Server
MED
(Merchant Enabling
Device)
orders
audit reports
merchant Info
product Info
order receive acknowledgment
audit
report
receive
ackknowledgement

Chapter 2, Planning and Configuring Your Site 39
C h a p t e r
2Planning and ConfiguringYour Site
his chapter provides step-by-step instructions for configuring the
Merchant System. The topics discussed in this chapter include:
This chapter is
designed to be used
with Appendix A—
System
Configuration
Planning Packets.
• Overview of Mall Planning and Design
• Availability of Merchant System Features
• Pre-Installation Check-list
• Determining Mall Structure
• Designing the Mall Interface
• Configuration Overview
• Planning Your Site
• Backing Up the Configuration Files
• Entering the Staging Server Parameter Values
• Entering the Merchant Server Parameter Values
• Entering the Transaction Server Parameter Values
T

Overview of Mall Planning and Design
40 Merchant System: Site Administrators’s Handbook
The Merchant System provides flexibility in its design and use. Therefore,
before creating the Mall, there are a few issues you need to address to ensure
optimal use of its capabilities. These are summarized below:
1. Availability of Merchant System Features
Not all components of the TX are available in both the domestic and export
versions of the product.
The following components are only available in the domestic version:
1. Credit Card Acquirer (CCA) billing
2. TAXWARE (AVP) Sales Tax package
2. Pre-Installation Check-list
Before the installation can begin, it is necessary to make some decisions
that will affect how various components are installed.
1. Users (IDs, Names)
2. Host names
3. Email addresses
4. Merchant System installation
5. Third party dependencies: Credit Card Acquirer, TAXWARE, Certiﬁcation
Authority for Secure Mail.
3. Determine the Mall structure.
The first step is to determine the mall structure. This includes deciding:
• the roles of the various users, as described on page 42
• the taxation method you will use
• the credit card services you will use
• use of product search
• pricing, color, etc.

These tasks are discussed in Determining Mall Structure on page 42.
1. Design the Mall interface.
The next step is to design the various display templates and interfaces you
need to customize. These include:
• Product Search Interface on page 46
• Customer Checkout Interface on page 50
• These tasks are discussed in Designing the Mall Interface on page 50.

Determining Mall Structure
To determine the Mall structure, you must:
• Determine the role structure (for example, who designs the product
pages?).
• Determine the directory structure (for example, different store and
department levels).
• Determine the feature set (for example, product search).
Guidelines for each task are provided in the following subsections.
Determining the Role Structure
There are three basic roles and each has specific capabilities and access.
However, as site administrator, you can determine the capabilities of each role
for your mall. The basic roles, in descending order of authority and security, are
as follows:
In some malls, one
person may assume
the roles of the site
administrator, mall
operator, and
merchant.
1. Site administrator
The site administrator has the highest level of access, permissions, and
capabilities. All security-sensitive setup and operations procedures (such as
access to tax and credit card services information) are the responsibility of
the site administrator. The site administrator has complete access to all
aspects of the system and the data it contains, including responsibility for
daily system maintenance and operation which may be delegated to the
mall operator.
Typical site administrator tasks are:
• Installing and Conﬁguring the Merchant System
• Planning the Mall
• Creating the mall and setting it up on the net
• Recovering the Mall in the event of a crash
• Staging the Mall data

2. At some sites the Site Administrator may designate a Mall Operator.
The mall operator is responsible for the daily maintenance and operation of
all non-security-sensitive aspects of the system.
Mall operator tasks also may include:
• Backing up the system at various levels
• Providing customer and merchant support
• Starting up and shutting down the servers.
3. Merchant
Merchant tasks, if granted by the site administrator, may include:
• Entering and updating the merchant data speciﬁc to the merchant’s store-
front
• Designing product display pages and related product data for only that
merchant’s individual storefront
• Providing shipping model selection, credit card, and tax information for the
storefront to you for loading
• Testing, correcting, and approving staged Mall data (Refer to “The
Merchant’s Handbook” for details)

Determining the Directory Structure
After you determine
your Mall model
based on the
following
considerations, you
can then choose
either to stage and
test your Mall on the
Staging Server
before going “live”
or to go “live” on
the Merchant Server
without staging. See
Chapter 4 of this
manual for
instructions on
creating a staged
and live malls.
These are the considerations involved in determining the Mall model.
1. Overall Mall structure
There are two basic structural models:
• Multiple Stores
This model consists of several discrete vendors collected under one “virtual
roof,” similar to an indoor shopping mall.
• Single Retailer with several departments
This model consists of one vendor featuring several departments and
services, like a major department store. The storefronts therefore represent
different store departments (e.g., “Housewares,” or “Electronics”).
2. Product Selection Levels
The Merchant System provides three Product Selection Levels. These
comprise a descending hierarchy of links between product display (HTML)
pages. The hierarchy is three layers deep.
• Product Selection Level 1 is the top layer.
• Product Selection Level 1 pages can link to several Product Selection
Level 2 pages.
• These in turn can each link to several Product Selection Level 3 pages.
In addition, each Product Selection Level has a Selection Alias which is
the name that the merchant assigns to the level. In the examples that
follow, Selection Level 2 Aliases would be Author or Equipment.

Do not use spaces
between words or
special characters.
Instead, use the
underscore.
The Product Selection Levels represent whatever category you choose. For
example, a book store might use the following scheme:
In a Mall using the department store model, a storefront representing the
sports equipment department might use the following structure:
Figure 1.5 Example of Product Selection Levels for Bookstore
Selection Level 1 Selection Level 2 Selection Level 3
Select Category:
Science_Fiction
Classics
Plays
Mysteries
Non_Fiction
Self_Help
…
Select Author:
Larry_Niven
Stanislaw_Lem
Ursula_K_LeGuin
Ray_Bradbury
…
Select Title:
Dispossessed
Lathe_of_Heaven
Earthsea_Trilogy
…
Figure 1.6 Product Selection Levels for a Sports Department
Selection Level 1 Selection Level 2 Selection Level 3
Select Sport:
Fitness
Skiing
Tennis
Martial Arts
Baseball
Swimming
…
Select Equipment:
Rowing Machines
Stairclimbers
Trampolines
Treadmills
Weights
…
Select Feature(s):
Non-motorized
Motorized
Dual Purpose
Cross-training
…

Product Selection Level 3 pages also link supplemental Product Leaf Pages,
which in turn link Product Bud Pages. A leaf page is an HTML page which
displays one or more products with the description, price, and other
attributes for each product. A bud page usually provides an enlarged photo-
graph or other graphic of the product, along with additional attribute infor-
mation. From a bud page you select an item to place in the Shopping
Basket. See the Merchant System Product Designer’s Handbook for more
information about leaf and bud pages.
Determining the Feature Set
Determine which features in the following list are appropriate for your Mall.
Related Products
Query feature (See
Designing the Product
Search Interface on
page 46.
Product Search features
You can perform Boolean or Free Text-based searches on products available in
the mall. For related products search only, Free Text mode is suggested.
For instructions on
setting up tax
services, see Chapter
5, Configuring the
Merchant Nexus
Interface.
TAXWARE services
You must determine whether you are going to use TAXWARE’s Sales Tax
Calculation Services. Your other options are to use either flat tax calculation or
a tax table.
For information on
setting up Credit
Card Services, see
Chapter 9, Chapter 9,
“Configuring for
Credit Card
Processing”.
Credit Card Services
• Support services
• Restrictions
• Security systems

Determining Mall Policy
Establishing Prices and Pricing Policy
Establish Your Prices You must establish a standard product price and sales price (if a sale is in
progress) for each product. Note that prices can change at any time, but they
must exist as part of the product information that is provided to you.
In addition, there is the option of defining a SKU for each product. If an SKU is
defined for a product, you must establish a SKU price. Optionally, you can
establish a SKU sales price for the product.
For details on how product information is set up by the merchant, see The
Merchant’s Handbook.
Final Selling Price
Derivation
Because the Merchant System accepts many types of prices for a product, it
must determine what the customer ends up paying for the product. It does this
based on the following criteria:
• pricing type values that are deﬁned and their precedence
Note that the nominal price for the product is the first existing of the
following prices:
1. SKU sale
2. product sale
3. SKU price
4. product price
• prior basket price for the product
Note that the basket price for the product is the first existing prior price
recorded in an internal Product History database or the price displayed at the
time the item was deposited in the shopping basket.
When the Merchant System determines this criteria, it can derive the following
prices:
• Sales price as nominal price
If a sales price exists, the Merchant System ignores the standard product
price.

It uses the SKU sale price as the nominal price if it is defined. Otherwise it
uses the product sales price as the nominal price.
• Product price as nominal price
If a sales price does not exist, the Merchant System uses the SKU price as the
nominal price. Otherwise the nominal price is the product sales price.
Establish Pricing
Policy
As a customer places products in their Shopping Basket, the price of each
product is entered in the Shopping Basket form. When a customer “checks
out,” the Merchant System verifies current pricing on each item in the basket.
The price for a product may have changed between the time the customer first
began shopping and when said customer “checks out.”
The merchant will have decided what action the Merchant System will take
when it finds that prices are not equal between the nominal price and the
basket price. You can then provide the appropriate settings for handling price
discrepancies for your store or department.
If an item in the customer’s shopping basket is priced higher or lower than the
store’s or department’s nominal price, you can specify that the Merchant System
enforce one of the following policies:
• Always charge the customer the higher price
• Always charge the customer the lower price
• Always charge the customer the store’s nominal price
• Always charge the (older) prior shopping basket price
WARNING To ensure pricing security, we recommend that you set up the pricing policy to
exclude the lower price policy.
If you select the last option, the Merchant System first checks the Product
History database to determine what price was the last lowest price and uses
that price (the prior shopping basket price) instead of the nominal price or the
price displayed the time the customer made a purchase.
IMPORTANT The customer will be notified if the store policy requires charging a different
price from the older shopping basket price, which is the price the customer
saw when they selected “Add to Shopping Basket.”

Shipping Models
The shipping model determines the pricing structure for freight charges. The
merchant prepares the shipping model worksheet for the selected shipping
method. You extract shipping data from the shipping model worksheet and
add this data to the Transaction Server (TX) database. This information then
provides the customer and merchant with accurate price information.
The steps for setting up shipping models are in Chapter 10, “Setting Up
Merchant Shipping Models”

Designing the Mall Interface
Designing the Mall Interface
You are now ready to design the Mall interface.
The Merchant System uses templates to generate HTML pages and forms that
appear on the Mall or in the store or department. These pages include:
• Product Displays (leaf, bud and coupon pages).
The product displays are related to the individual stores. See the Merchant
System Product Designer’s Handbook for design information.
• Product Search interface.
The product search interface is related to the entire mall. See the Product
Designer’s Handbook for design information.
• Checkout interface.
The checkout interface is related to the entire mall. See Designing the
Checkout Interface below.
You can customize these templates. The Merchant System provides the Meta
Language Extension for this purpose, Refer to The Product Designer’s
Handbook for further information.
Designing the Checkout Interface
The Checkout Interface consists of the following pages:
• Shopping Basket page with the items the customer selected
• Update Shopping Basket (merchant)
• Checkout Review page with price totals and the shipping charges for items
the customer selected.
• Order Form which the customer completes (can be accessed from either the
Shopping Basket and Checkout Review pages)
• Price Change Page
For detailed instruction on customizing these templates, refer to the Merchant
System Product Designer’s Handbook.

Configuration Overview
The installation is based on a default configuration. You must then adjust the
system subsequent to your initial installation, fine-tuning the Merchant System
configuration to suit the needs of your site. To do this, you must change the
values of the appropriate parameters contained in the Merchant System config-
uration files. These files are summarized below.
Refer to your
Getting Started Guide
for information on
the default
configuration values,
and the minimal
configuration
required to start up
the system.
The Merchant Server Configuration Files
The Merchant System contains two configuration files. These are:
• system.ini:
This file contains the parameters for configuring the Merchant Server, the
Staging Server, and the Transaction Server.
• sts.cfg:
This file contains the parameters for configuring the Staging Server, the
extractor program ssextr, and the loader program ssld. (The ssld program
is also used to load data into the Merchant Server.)
The contents of these files are described in the sections below. In addition,
Appendix A - System Configuration Planning Packets provides detailed descrip-
tions of the files and the parameters they contain.
The system.ini File
All three servers use the system.ini file on their corresponding machines. The
system.ini file on the Merchant Server contains a major section for the Merchant
Server parameters, and is delineated by the header mssvr. The Merchant Server
system.ini also contains sections that are marked by ialoader etc. These contain
parameters that support the Product Search feature. The Staging Server’s
system.ini file contains the same sections and parameters that are used by the
Merchant Server. The Transaction Server’s system.ini file contains sections of
parameters delineated by headers txsvr, cctrans and txcgi. Please see Appendix
A and the Getting Started with the Merchant System book for the details of the
system.ini parameters.

The sts.cfg File
The sts.cfg file contains the parameters for staging the Mall. There are two
sts.cfg files. One resides on the Staging Server machine, the other on Merchant
Server machine. Each file is unique—parameter assignments vary between the
two versions of the file. The Staging Server uses the sts.cfg files to control the
loading, extracting, and transfer of data between the Staging Server and the
Merchant Server databases. Refer to Appendix A — System Configuration
Planning Packets for detailed information on these parameters.
Summary of Configuration Procedures
The following is a summary of the configuration procedures. (These procedures
are usually done when installing the Merchant System, but can also be repeated
through the Admin Server. Please refer to Getting Started with the Netscape
Merchant System for more details):
1. Plan your configuration and gather the configuration data.
To determine your system configuration, refer to “Planning Your Site”
below. To gather the information you need to set up your configuration,
refer to the worksheets in Appendix A—System Configuration Planning
Packets.
2. Make backup copies of the configuration files.
For instruction to back up your existing configuration files, refer to
“Backing Up the Configuration Files” on page 55.
3. Enter the Merchant Server parameter values.
To set Merchant Server parameters, refer to “Entering the Merchant Server
Parameter Values” on page 55.
4. Enter the Transaction Server parameter values.
To set Transaction Server parameters, refer to “Entering the Transaction
Server Parameter Values” on page 61.
5. Enter the Staging Server parameter values.
To set Staging Server parameters, refer to “Entering the Staging Server
Parameter Values” on page 60.

Planning Your Site
Planning Your Site
Before beginning the configuration procedure, you need to consider several
issues. The following list summarizes these preparatory steps.
1. First you must summarize your network layout, determining location
and configuration of your:
• Transaction Server
• Merchant Server
• Staging Server (optional)
Please refer to the Installation instructions for details.
2. Determine the locations for the Mall and merchant top directories.
3. Determine the server configurations.
4. Gather your configuration data.
Determining the Mall and Merchant Top
Directories
The Merchant System allows you to define the locations for the top (parent)
directories which contain the Mall and merchant files. Before you can configure
your system, you must determine where you want these directories to reside.
You can also redefine the locations for various subdirectories and files which
would normally be placed under these top directories. However, we advise
against changing these locations unless there are special circumstances at your
site which require it (such as small disk partition sizes).
URLs
You can also define the locations for a number of URLs used by the system. For
local URLs, you must determine the directory tree structure which contains
these files, if different than the defaults. You also need to define any remote
URLs that must be accessed, such as offsite merchant home pages. For details
concerning the URLs, refer to the Planning Packets in Appendix A.

Planning Your Site
Determining the Server Configurations
For most parameters, the default values suffice. However, if your site has
special requirements, you can customize the configuration. Appendix A—
System Configuration Planning Packets lists and describes all parameters
contained in the configuration files and indicates which parameters are
required and their default values. You can examine these lists to determine
which parameter values you must alter. Whenever possible, however, use the
default value for a parameter, if a default value exists.
Gathering the Configuration
Information
After you plan your site, you need to gather the information for the configu-
ration procedure. Appendix A—System Configuration Planning Packets
contains a configuration planning packet for each system component. Each
packet contains the configuration worksheets and a sample configuration file
for that component. A configuration worksheet consists of a table with the
following information for each parameter:
• Parameter Name
This is the literal parameter name in the configuration file.
• Description/Dependencies
This contains a brief description of the parameter and any dependencies on
other parameters or services.
• Req
This indicates whether a value assignment is required or optional; a
diamond ( ) in this box indicates that it is required.
• Default Setting
This indicates the default setting, if any, which was automatically assigned
during system installation.
• Assigned Value
This is a blank space where you enter your selected value.

Backing Up the Configuration Files
Before beginning the configuration process, use the checklists above and the
worksheets to plan your configuration and collect information.
Backing Up the Configuration Files
Before beginning the configuration procedure, backup the configuration files in
case of media failure or corruption of the new configuration. Then you can
return to the default configuration while you correct the problem.
The configuration files are located in this directory:
<...>/ns-apps/admin/config/
where:
<...>/ indicates the full pathname to the directory where ns-apps is installed
Entering the Merchant Server Parameter
Values
The Merchant Server parameters are contained in the configuration file
system.ini. The Merchant Server section of this file is delineated by the header
MSSVR.
We strongly
recommend that
you use
ShowParam
whenever altering
Merchant Server
parameter values, to
avoid possible
corruption or
destruction of the
configuration files.
Always make a
backup copy of your
system.ini file before
editing.
You can enter your Merchant Server parameter values either by editing the
system.ini file directly or by using the ShowParam program provided with the
system. ShowParam also indicates the default or current setting for each
parameter.
If you edit the file directly, you can access a number of parameters which are
not editable through ShowParam. Normally, you should not change these
parameters. Therefore, if you plan to change them, contact your Netscape
Merchant System Consultant or Customer Service Representative before
proceeding.
The parameters governing pathnames have suffixes indicating the type of path.
The suffixes are as follows:
_AUP Absolute URL Path

Entering the Merchant Server Parameter Values
_RUP Relative URL Path
_AFP Absolute File System Path
_RFP Relative File System Path
Refer to the
“Merchant Server
Configuration
Planning Packet” in
Appendix A for
specific details
concerning the
MSSVR parameters.
If you are editing the system.ini file directly, proceed to the MSSVR section of
the file and assign your selected values. If you are using the ShowParam
program, follow the steps outlined in the following section.

Using the ShowParam Program
To start up the ShowParam program, do the following:
1. Use the Netscape Navigator to access the ShowParam program.
Connect to the Admin Server by using the following steps:
• enter the following URL in the Location ﬁeld:
http://<server>.<domain>:<adminserver_port>
For example, to connect to an admin server on machine foo in domain
ms.com and on port number 9999, type the following URL to connect.
http://foo.ms.com:9999
• This brings up the Main Menu.

• Select the Merchant Server icon in the Applications Table.
• Now select the Modify Merchants Parameters icon from the Merchant
System Administration Menu. The ShowParam program will now execute
and bring up the Merchant System Parameters screen.

• The Merchant System Parameters screen lists the standard MSSVR conﬁg-
uration parameters, and their current or default settings.
Not all MSSVR
parameters are
accessible through
ShowParam. Only
the standard
parameters are
shown. If you must
reconfigure the
defaults values for
other MSSVR
parameters, you
must edit the
system.ini file directly.
1. Enter your parameter values in the appropriate text boxes.
The text boxes to the right of the parameter name show the current value
assigned to the parameter. To modify this value, delete the old value and
type in the new one.
2. Commit your changes.
To commit your changes to the MSSVR parameters, click on the Change
Parameters button at the bottom of the ShowParam screen.

Entering the Staging Server Parameter Values
Entering the Staging Server Parameter Values
The Staging Server parameters are contained in the file sts.cfg. To enter or
change these parameters, you must edit the sts.cfg file directly. The
ShowParam program does not support these parameters.
All of the Staging
Server parameters
are mandatory.
The Staging Server parameters govern the following:
• Generic Parameters:
These parameters contain Oracle database access information and the top
directory for the storefronts. They are indicated by the prefix ms_.
• Loader Parameters:
For a more detailed description of these parameters, refer to the “Staging Server
Configuration Packet” in Appendix A. Always make a backup copy of your
sts.cfg file before editing.
These parameters
contain pathnames
and email addresses
used by the ssld
program. Loader
parameters have the
prefix loi_.
• Extractor Parameters:
These parameters contain pathnames, email addresses, and mailer infor-
mation used by the ssextr program. These parameters are indicated by the
prefix ext_.

Entering the Transaction Server Parameter Values
Entering the Transaction Server Parameter
Values
The Transaction Server parameters are contained in the configuration file
system.ini. The Transaction Server section of this file is delineated by the
header TXSVR.
The Transaction Server parameters govern several program modules within the
server. These are:
• Transaction Server Program
• Customer Service Program
• Transaction Delivery Daemon
• Transaction Server Data Gateway
There is a parameter set for each of these programs, located in the appropriate
subsections of the TXSVR section of the system.ini file. The subsections are
delineated by comment lines containing the program name.
Refer to the
“Transaction Server
Configuration
Planning Packet” in
Appendix A for
specific details about
these parameters.
Always make a
backup copy of your
system.ini file before
editing.
To enter or change the Transaction Server parameter values, you must edit the
system.ini file directly. The ShowParam program does not support these
parameters.

Entering the Transaction Server Parameter Values

Part 2, The Front Office - Setting Up Mall Services 63
2The Front Ofﬁce -
Setting Up Mall Services

Chapter 3, Gathering the Mall Setup Information 65
C h a p t e r
3Gathering the Mall Setup Information
his chapter provides step-by-step instructions for gathering setup infor-
mation. The following topics are discussed:
• Gathering Setup Information
• Gathering Basic Mall and Merchant Information
• Gathering Product Information
• Product Selection Levels
• Product Information
• Gathering the Name:Value Pair File Data
This chapter is designed to be used with Appendix B—Mall Planning
Worksheets and Appendix C—Merchant Planning Worksheets.
T

Gathering Setup Information
There are two main categories of data which you need to collect before setting
up your Mall. These are:
• Basic Mall and Merchant Information
• Name:Value Pair ﬁle transactions data
The steps and types of information are described in the sections that follow.
Gathering Basic Mall and Merchant
Information
First you need to gather the Basic Mall Information required for setting up the
Mall. This data should be entered through the HTML Forms Interface which is
described in Appendix E, “Using the HTML DB Forms Interface”. The HTML
Forms are segregated into four categories:
• Basic Mall Information
• Basic Merchant Information
• Product Selection Levels
• Product Information
Next, you must gather Basic Merchant Information. Basic Mall and Merchant
Information are entered through the forms in the first two categories and are
described in the sections below. The other forms are provided for product data
updates or minor corrections.

Basic Global Mall Information

Basic Global Mall Information
You must enter Basic Mall Information before the merchant Name:Value Pair
file can be loaded into the Mall. Use the HTML Interface to enter this infor-
mation. Refer to the “Mall Information Worksheets” in Appendix B to gather this
data.
In addition, you must define the following items for the Mall:
These are global
values and therefore
apply to each
Merchant in the Mall.
• Mall Profile Data: Mall name and Sales tax Padding
• Units of Measure: Aliases for units of measure (e.g., “each,” “dozen”) and
number of units each represents (e.g., “each” equals 1, “dozen” equals 12).
• Credit Card Information: Name and type of card, valid prefix, mandatory
data flags (e.g., bank name, expiration date), PIN. Digit type for MOD-10
must always be set to MOD10 (it must match the
TX_CC_DIGIT_CHECK_TYPE=MOD10 parameter set for it in the system.ini
file. Credit Card features are available for the Mall, but merchants may or
may not accept all of the credit cards defined.
• Credit Card Services Information: Name of provider, types of services
(authorization and/or settlement).
• Merchant Types: Types of merchants on the Mall (e.g. Chain Retail,
Specialty Retail, etc.).
• Merchant Contact Types: The contact types accepted on the Mall (only one
record for GENERAL).
• Product Types: The types of products that can be purchased on the Mall (
HARD GOODS only).

Basic Merchant Information
Basic Merchant Information consists of two sets of data: one set of data is
provided by the Merchant and the other set that the Site Administrator enters
about each Merchant. You must enter Basic Merchant Information before the
merchant Name:Value Pair file can be loaded into the Mall. The Name:Value
Pair file consists of product data for each merchant (see “Using the Name:Value
Pair file” on page 81).
This is the information you must provide for each Merchant:
• Merchant Proﬁle: Basic merchant information (e.g., name, address, type,
email address, price policy information, shipping model, type of business,
etc.)
• Merchant Templates: Name, path, type of template and the name of the
associated merchant.
• Merchant Contacts: The person or contact point for the merchant.
• Merchant Credit Card Assignments: Credit cards accepted by the merchant
and credit card service provider information.
• Merchant Logos: Number, name, and pathname of the merchant’s logo ﬁle.
Use the HTML Interface to enter this information. Refer to the “Merchant Infor-
mation Worksheets” in Appendix C to gather this data. Refer to the Merchant
System Merchant’s Handbook to determine which information you will receive
from the Merchant.

Setting Product Selection Levels
(Optional)
This information can only be entered from the HTML Forms Interface.
• Selection Level 1: This is the top level for the product display pages. The
product selection levels can be used however you choose—to represent
departments, a single product, and so on. For example, if the Mall is a large
bookstore and level 1 could represent a category such as science fiction,
plays, classics, and so on.
• Selection Level 2: This is the middle level for product display pages. This
usually provides one deeper layer of specification. Then, for example, level
2 in this science fiction section of the bookstore would represent authors,
fantasy games, or any other item in the bookstore related to science fiction.
• Selection Level 3: This deepest level provides the final level of specification.
For example, Level 3 in this bookstore would be titles by science fiction
section (level 1) and author (level 2).
This information can be entered from either the HTML forms interface or the
Name:Value Pair file. Usually the “Selection Level Alias” should be inserted by
processing the customers’ Name:Value Pair file “Selection-Alias” transaction.
A Selection Alias is
the name assigned to
a specific level by the
merchant.
• Selection Level 1 Alias: This is a name used to indicate level 1. For example,
the alias for level 1, category, is science fiction.
• Selection Level 2 Alias: This is the name used for level 2. Using the previous
example, in Science Fiction, the alias for level 2, author, is Ursula LeGuin.
• Selection Level 3 Alias: This is the name used for level 3. Finally, for
example, the alias for level 3, title, is Earthsea Trilogy.

Getting the Name:Value Pair File Data
from Merchants
Next, you need to collect the information to create the Name:Value Pair file(s).
If this task is assigned to the various merchants subscribing to your Mall, each
merchant has a separate Name:Value Pair (N:V Pair) file. These files are then
loaded onto either the Staging or Merchant server.
A Name:Value pair file consists of an ordered sequence of merchandise
database transactions. Each transaction can, for example, add a single product
to the database and ultimately to the store front. The majority of pairs found
within a pair file are simply a given table's column name, and its associated
value.
A Name:Value Pair consists of two items of associated data:
• The Transaction Type
• The value to be assigned to the Transaction Type.
These two items are separated by a colon; no white space is allowed on either
side of the colon. Refer to Appendix E of the Merchant System Merchant’s
Handbook for details.
Prior to processing the N:V Pair file, the mall must be set up with the infor-
mation covered in the previous sections in this chapter, and in the worksheets
for setting up these transactions and assigning Name:Value Pair values that are
provided in Appendix C of this manual. The worksheets provide the following
details for each element of each transaction type:
• Element name and value variable name
• Description (and Length, if applicable)
• Whether it is required
• Assignable value type

Gathering Product Update Data
(Optional)
After you set up your Mall, you will periodically need to update product data.
You can use the remaining HTML Forms Interface forms to do this. However, it
is generally best to reload this data using an Name:Value Pair file whenever
possible (See The Merchant Guide for details). The product data update forms
are described below.
Product Selection Levels
Please see the section on “Setting Product Selection Levels (Optional)” on
page 70 above.
Product Information
This information can be entered either from the HTML Forms Interface or
Name:Value Pair file. If you plan to stage the Mall, we recommend loading
from a Name:Value Pair file. Otherwise, use the “Product Information
Worksheets” in Appendix B to gather the following information:
• Product deﬁnitions: Merchant name, product part number, description, unit
of measure, price, display rank, type, selection levels, brand, templates,
attributes, and so on.
• Additional Product Attributes Information: Additional Product Attribute
names.
• Additional Product Attribute Assignments: Collect values for each product
attribute.
• Product SKU: Stock Keeping Unit number information. The control number
for keeping inventory records.
• Product SKU Attributes: Information for creating attributes associated with a
particular product and SKU.
• SKU Attribute Assignments: Information for deﬁning the attributes.

Chapter 4, Setting Up Your Mall 73
C h a p t e r
4Setting UpYour Mall
his chapter describes how to create a Mall on the Merchant System.
• Before You Begin
• Setting Up The Mall
• Loading the Mall and Merchant Information
• Stocking the Storefront
• Going “Live”
• The Product Search module
• Updating TAXWARE data
T

Before You Begin
Before You Begin
Before you begin the Mall setup procedure on page 75, you need to:
1. Assemble the information package discussed in Chapter 3.
Be sure you have assembled the following information:
• Basic Mall Information
• Basic Merchant Information
• Product Information that is contained in Name:Value Pair ﬁles
If you haven’t gathered this information, return to Chapter 3.
2. Be aware of the differences between a “staged” setup and a “non-
staged” setup for your Mall.
A staged Mall means that you set up an environment for merchants to test,
verify, and approve data on one machine using the Staging Server. When
merchants complete the test/approval process, you can transfer the data to
another machine with the merchant server. At this point, the Mall is “live”
which means that it is accessible to customers.
If you skip the steps for staging the Mall and load untested, unverified data
directly on the Merchant Server, the Mall is “live” and ready for customers to
browse and purchase products immediately.
See Setting Up the Mall on page 75 for a summary of the tasks required to
setup the Mall.
Next, you need to:
3. Know the information loading methods.
You will load data for the Mall and Storefront using these methods:
• HTML Interface for Basic Mall and Merchant Information. (For more
information about using this interface, see Appendix E, “Using the
HTML DB Forms Interface”.)
• Name:Value Pair ﬁles (See Using the Name:Value Pair File on page 81.)

Chapter 4, Setting Up Your Mall 75
Setting Up the Mall
4. Review the utilities.
You will run a set of utilities to load or transfer data onto the Staging and
Merchant Servers. These utilities are:
• ssld
which loads appropriate data from each merchant’s Name:Value Pair file
into the server database and applicable server files. Please see “Loading
Storefront Data” on page 81
• ssextr
which extracts information from the Name:Value Pair file data in the Staging
Server database, and then sends the extracted data through e-mail to the
Merchant Server machine. The ssld program on the Merchant Server
machine, can then load the N:V Pair file sent by the ssextr on the Staging
Server into the Merchant Server database.
• sts.cfg
Before using ssld or ssextr, you need to ensure that the parameters in the
sts.cfg file are set up correctly. See “Staging Server Configuration
Worksheets” on page 241
Setting Up the Mall
You can set up your mall in a stage or non-staged (live) setup. In a staged
setup, you need two machines; one designated as the Staging Server and the
other as the Merchant Server. You need a single machine in a non-staged setup.
If you only have one machine, you can only create a non-staged setup.

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