How to use IBM App Connect with Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data

Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data (formerly Demandware) provides businesses with a cloud-based solution to create an online unified shopping experience for their customers. The platform enables businesses to anticipate customer needs from acquired valuable insights so that customers can browse products and make purchases quickly and easily.

The Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data architecture includes an integration layer that contains a robust set of APIs known as the Open Commerce API (OCAPI). IBM® App Connect uses the OCAPI to provide you with custom capabilities to enhance the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data functions. The OCAPI is divided into three APIs:
  • The Shop API is for interaction on the website such as browsing products and completing purchases.
  • The Data API is for backend system resources such as your product inventory and customer lists.
  • The Meta API is for details about the resources and documents that are provided by the open Commerce API, including custom attributes.

App Connect currently supports the Data API with the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data application.

The following information describes how to use IBM App Connect to connect Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data to your other applications.

Supported product and API versions

To find out which product and API versions this connector supports, see Detailed System Requirements on the IBM Support page.

Connecting to Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data

To connect App Connect to a Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data account, you need the following connection details:

  • Base URL
  • API version
  • Client ID
  • Client secret

To identify the values that you must enter for these settings, see the following table.

Name Information
Base URL The base URL (or protocol and hostname) of your Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data instance. For example, if the URL of your instance is https://mysite.demandware.net/on/demandware.store/Sites-Site/default/ViewApplication-DisplayWelcomePage, specify the base URL as https://mysite.demandware.net. This value is also typically shown as a Business Manager hostname in the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data user interface, under Administration > Sites > Manage Sites > Business Manager > Hostnames.
API version The API version of your Salesforce B2C Commerce instance. App Connect supports versions 18.3 and 21.3. By default, version 21.3 is selected. If you're unsure about how to obtain your API version, ask your Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data administrator or complete the following steps.
  1. Log in to your Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data Business Manager account (https://mysite.demandware.net) with an ID that has administrator access.
  2. In the Business Manager interface, click Administration > Site Development > Open Commerce API Settings
Client ID
  1. In a web browser, log in to the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data Account Manager https://account.demandware.com/ with an ID that has administrator access
  2. Click API Client. The API clients page shows a list of client IDs.
  3. If you need to create a client ID, click Add API client.

Alternatively, log in to your Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data Business Manager account (https://mysite.demandware.net) with an ID that has administrator access. In the Business Manager interface, click Administration > Site Development > Open Commerce API Settings.

Tip: If you're using a sandbox or test environment, you can use a demo value for the client ID of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Client secret When you have a client ID, you need to request an access token from the Digital Authorization Server. If the request is successful, the Digital Authorization Server returns an access token. Work with your Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data account administrator to obtain a client secret for the OCAPI client.
Tip: If you're using a sandbox or test environment, you can use a demo value for the client secret of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

To connect to a Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data endpoint from the App Connect Designer Connect > Applications and APIs page (previously the Catalog page) for the first time, expand Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Applications and APIs page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

What to consider first

Before you use App Connect with Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data, take note of the following considerations.

  • (General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer.

    For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.

  • (General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: In containers, only local accounts can be used for these events.

Show more configurable events: Events that are shown by default are pre-configured by using optimized connectivity. More items are available after you configure events that can trigger a flow by polling this application for new or updated objects.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital Data actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object Action Description
Addresses Create address Creates a new customer address with the given address information
Delete address Deletes a customer address
Retrieve addresses Retrieves the address of a customer
Update address Updates the address of a customer with the given address information
Update or create address Updates or creates the address
Campaigns Create campaign Creates a campaign using the information provided
Delete campaign Deletes the campaign by ID
Retrieve campaigns Retrieves the campaign information
Update campaign Updates the campaign with the specified information
Update or create campaign Updates or creates campaign
Catalogs Retrieve catalogs Retrieves the catalogs
Update catalog Updates the catalog using the information provided
Categories Create category Creates a catalog category using the information provided.
Delete category Deletes the category by catalog ID and category ID
Retrieve categories  
Update category Updates a catalog category using the information provided
Update or create categories Update or create categories
Customers Create customer Creates a new customer. The customer is created using the specified customer number, credentials and customer information. This action verifies the login acceptance criteria and uniqueness and mandatory customer properties. If the action fails to create the customer, it returns a 400 error code with an appropriate message.
Delete customer Deletes the customer and the related information such as customer addresses
Retrieve customers Retrieves the customer information
Update customer Updates the customer with the specified information. The customer number is allowed to be updated but will result in a CustomerNumberAlreadyInUseException if there is already another customer with the same customer number existing.
Update or create customers Updates or creates the customers
Inventory lists Create inventory list Creates an inventory list using the information provided
Delete inventory list Deletes the inventory list by ID
Retrieve inventory lists Retrieves the inventory list information
Update inventory list Updates the inventory list with the specified information
Update or create inventory list Updates or creates inventory list
Product inventory records Create product inventory record Creates a product inventory record using the information provided
Delete product inventory record Deletes a product inventory record by ID
Retrieve product inventory records Retrieves a product inventory record
Update product inventory record Updates the product inventory record with the specified information
Update or create product inventory record Updates or creates product inventory record
Products Create product Creates a product using the information provided. If a product with the same unique identifier, it will be cleaned and overwritten unless the header x-dw-validate-existing=true is passed in with the request.
Delete product Deletes the product by ID
Retrieve products Retrieves the product information
Update product Updates a product using the information provided. The fields that can be updated are name, page description, long descripton, page title, page keywords, brand, EAN, UPC, manufacture SKU, manufacture name, searchable, unit, searchable, online flag, and default variant ID.
Update or create product Updates or creates product
Site coupons Create site coupon Creates a coupon using the information provided. If a coupon exists with the same unique identifier then the coupon is replaced completely.
Delete site coupon Deletes a coupon by ID
Retrieve sites coupons Retrieves the coupon information. The following fields are returned in the coupon document when specifying the stats expand such as exported_code_count, redemption_count, total_codes_count.
Update site coupon Updates the coupon with the specified information
Update or create site coupon Updates or creates sites coupon
Site promotions Create site promotion Creates a promotion using the information provided
Delete site promotion Deletes the promotion by ID
Retrieve site promotions Action to get promotion information
Update site promotion Updates the promotion with the specified information
Update or create site promotion Updates or creates site promotion
Sites Retrieve sites Retrieves an existing site
Stores Create store Creates a store using the information provided
Delete store Deletes the store by ID
Retrieve stores Retrieves the store information
Update store Updates the store with the specified information
Update or create store Updates or creates store