Salesforce Commerce Cloud Reference Architecture

Introduction

Purpose of this Guide

This guide aims to provide developers and architects with a set of best practices, architectural patterns, and practical implementation details to successfully integrate Fredhopper with Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC). It serves as a practical resource, drawing from real-world experiences, to streamline data ingestion and storefront integration, and ensure scalable, high-performing e-commerce search and navigation. By providing clear guidance and troubleshooting tips, this guide empowers teams to effectively leverage the combined capabilities of Fredhopper and SFCC to deliver enhanced customer experiences.

Target Audience

• E-commerce Developers:

  • Those responsible for implementing and maintaining the storefront integration between SFCC and Fredhopper.

  • Developers working on data integrations.

• Solution Architects:

  • Individuals designing the overall architecture of the e-commerce platform.

  • Architects responsible for ensuring scalability, performance, and security of the integration.

  • Those making decisions about data flow and system integration.

• System Integrators:

  • Teams implementing and deploying the Fredhopper and SFCC integration.

  • Those responsible for configuring and troubleshooting the integration.

• Technical Leads:

  • Individuals overseeing the technical aspects of the e-commerce platform.

  • Those responsible for guiding development teams and ensuring best practices are followed.

• SFCC Administrators:

  • Those who are responsible for the data exports out of SFCC and need to understand how that data will be used within Fredhopper.

• Fredhopper Administrators:

  • Those who are responsible for the data imports into Fredhopper, and need to understand how that data is being provided from SFCC.

Assumptions and Prerequisites

Assumptions

This guide assumes that readers have a foundational understanding of the following:

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC):

  • Basic knowledge of SFCC's architecture, data model, and development practices.

  • Familiarity with SFCC's OCAPI and Pipelines.

  • Understanding of SFCC's data export capabilities.

• Fredhopper:

  • Basic understanding of Fredhopper's indexing, querying, and configuration concepts.

  • Knowledge of Fredhopper's Query API and data ingestion methods (Flat File Integration using the Services API and API Integration using the Items API).

• Web Development:

  • Proficiency in web development concepts (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).

  • Familiarity with RESTful APIs and JSON or XML data format.

• Data Transformation:

  • Basic understanding of data transformation concepts and scripting languages.

Prerequisites

• Access to a Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) instance with relevant data.

• Access to a Fredhopper instance.

• Appropriate developer tools and environments (e.g., IDE, command-line tools).

• API credentials for both SFCC and Fredhopper, when the API ingestion method is being used.