The scope of our company’s knowledge and impressive expertise in SAP e-commerce product development is the result of 10-year close work with the industry. Throughout this period, our developers faced various obstacles related to media migration, backup creation, and management when working with SAP Hybris websites. The essence of these challenges for the software engineers is that it was rather time and effort-consuming to migrate large volumes of media in real-time and operate with backed-up data following the steps offered by SAP.
The first challenge related to real-time media migration is solved via the simplification of operations required to change the physical location of files from the server to the cloud storage and vice versa without interruption of the website’s work. The website’s data can now be relocated between Dropbox, Amazon S3 storage, and a local machine. Such a module’s capability is especially helpful for the developers and content managers if they need to make certain amendments to the work of a currently functioning e-commerce website.
The second challenge caused by the complications in backup management occurred when we were working on one of our e-commerce projects, namely a website specializing in apparel and glasses. The problem turned out to be rather troublesome because the list of the website’s items was quite voluminous. Since SAP does not have a ready-made solution for efficient backup management, the developers had to do everything manually. For example, they had to generate scripts, restrict permissions to archived data, filter website’s data (i.e. media content) that needed to be backed up.
Such manipulations with media migration and backup management caused a significant delay for the whole workflow and eventually became the source of our inspiration to create the tool that would automate and streamline those processes. The developed full-fledged module was called Cloud Backup and Migration v. 2.0 for SAP® Commerce, and it offers its users the following functionality:
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Rationalization of server space for large volumes of data. Optimization of data storage provided by the module results in a significant cost-saving. By using the module, companies can use storage space wisely: take heavy files, such as media data that occupy 90% of storage space, and migrate them to less expensive storages.
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New user-friendly perspective for the backoffice. To make backup management processes simplified and intuitively understandable, we configured our own UI, which means we added a new perspective to standard OOTB backoffice.
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Optimized media backup migration. The created module automated a previously inefficient SAP approach towards backup creation and management that enabled users to put the whole website’s content into one archive. The solution transformed the entire process. Instead of previously inconvenient one, the new method allowed the users to choose the particular part of the website’s data, such as the product or content catalogs, or the whole site, and perform diverse backup management activities with it in one-click.
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Integration with Amazon S3 and Dropbox cloud storages. To provide its users with seamless backup migration processes, apart from the local storage, the module has integration with Amazon S3 and Dropbox file cloud storage. With the help of such a solution, the users don’t have to struggle with storing data locally and manual backup transfer through the cloud services. Instead, users are able to export backups to the necessary storage directly and import them directly from any number of storages.
Note. The number of cloud storages integrated with the module will expand in the next version of the module.
Now when you have a vision of the module’s functionality and its benefits, let’s take a look at one of the possible scenarios of how the solution can be used and those steps that should be taken to do everything correctly. We will review the way to migrate the media from Dropbox, and the other guide will cover the backup import of the site from the Amazon S3 account to use its previous version. Mind that our module allows users to perform export tasks in a similarly simplified and seamless manner as the import ones. More detailed instructions on how to use our CBM for export, you will find in our in-depth manual available for everyone on GitHub.
Now follow our miniguide on media migration. It will direct you to a successful task completion:
Step 1. Follow this link, download the module, and install it. Mind that in order to apply our SAP Commerce CBM module v.2.0, only SAP Commerce 1808/1811 must be used in your project.
Step 2. Having installed and logged in as a user, you will have to add the credentials of your Dropbox/Amazon S3 account into the database and press the SAVE’ button. After this, you will be able to choose a previously created account for media migration and import/export operations.
Step 3. Once you click on the section Migration,’ you will see the following menu on the screen:
Image 1. Migration section as a part of new perspective for the standard OOTB backoffice
Step 4. Choose the required storage from a drop-down list. In this guide, we show one of the possible scenarios, namely the way to migrate media by using Dropbox as source storage.
Image 2. Step required for the data migration process
Step 5. Having chosen source storage, it’s required to select target storage, the place where the media will be migrated further. Then click on the button START MEDIA MIGRATION’ to begin the process of media migration. The system will send you a verification message that will pop up on the screen. You can see the migration confirmation message on the image below:
Image 3. Confirmation of media migration process
Step 6. If you press the Yes’ button, the module will start the migration process. You will see a corresponding Migration has started message’ on the screen.
Image 4. The start of media migration process
Step 7. Once the migration process is completed, you will see the following message that is shown on the screen below:
Image 5. Successful completion of media migration process
Note. If you mistakenly choose target storage similar to your source storage, the following warning message will appear on the screen:
Image 6. Warning message before the media migration process
Now let’s take a look at data import with the help of the module.
Step 1. Since the users are able to add an unlimited number of connections, they can choose the required one from the Account drop-down list and press the CONNECT’ button once the necessary one is selected.
Step 2. Once the Amazon S3 connections are added, we can start the data import. To do so, you should open the import page. From the drop-down list, you can choose the required storage. In this scenario, we are choosing Amazon S3.
Image 7. Import section as a part of new perspective for the standard OOTB backoffice
Step 3. Then you will be able to choose the required for the import file. To do so, press the CHOOSE FILE’ button and select the necessary one.
Image 8. Step required to complete the import process
Step 4. The final step is to press the START IMPORT TASK’ button and obtain the desired file. You should mind that the time the import process may take will vary depending on the size of the chosen file. During this process, you will see two messages: regarding the downloading and successful data application. In addition, once you receive such a message, you may check the details regarding the completed operation in the History’ section, as it’s shown in the image below. The possible warnings and errors will be shown in relevant alerts.
Image 9. Additional info regarding the completed import process
Note. To perform the import process successfully, the state of the chosen scope (either the whole site or particular catalog) should be restored as it was at the time when the backup was done.
Both mini-guides showed you how the media can be migrated and described the required steps for the import process from the Amazon S3. However, mind that we have reviewed just one possible scenario in terms of the data import to see the work of the module in action.
Besides those module’s capabilities that are mentioned above, it allows the users to have permanent access to the last versions of the website’s content components and modifications to perform further amendments with it. In addition to all benefits that our solution has, the bonus is that it’s completely free of charge and saves approximately 24 hours of manual work for a project so that all owners of e-commerce websites built on SAP Commerce 1808/1811 would be able to streamline their business.
Overall, if you have some difficulties with e-commerce website development, have an idea regarding the media migration or backup management improvements, or would like to create a similar solution, you can always drop us a line, and we will eagerly assist you.
