Znode Storefront is architected using industry standard best practices and highly scalable components. This allows developers to focus on the business logic rather than building the base framework itself.

Znode Storefront uses the following technologies:

• Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0
• ASP.NET 2.0
• C#
• SQL Server 2005
• Net Tiers Data Access
• Microsoft Enterprise Library

Znode Storefront utilizes the following design methodologies:

• ASP.NET 2.0 Master Page templates are used for template management
• ASP.NET 2.0 SQL membership provider for authentication
• N-tier data access layer using Net Tiers (which is based on the Microsoft best practices for data access)
• Clear separation of the web, business logic and data access layers using multiple libraries
• Microsoft enterprise library is used for exception handling, logging, data access and encryption

Libraries

Znode Storefront includes the following libraries:

• ZNode.Libraries.Integrator
  This library provides interfaces for integration with 3rd party services including Payments, Shipping, etc. You can customize this library to add your own custom payment or shipping types
• ZNode.Libraries.ECommece.Business
  Thie library includes the business logic for all the ecommerce functionality in the storefront. For example, you would modify this library if you wanted to customize the ordering process or the catalog
• ZNode.Libraries.Admin
  This library includes logic for the administration portion of the storefront
• ZNode.Libraries.DataAccess.Custom
  This library allows you to add custom data access classes if required
• ZNode.Libraries.DataAccess.Entities
  *Generated by NetTiers* This library includes strongly typed datasets for the storefront database
• ZNode.Libraries.DataAccess.Service
  *Generated by NetTiers* This library provides a service interface for the data access libraries
• ZNode.Libraries.DataAccess.Data.SqlClient
  *Generated by NetTiers* This library provides the SQL Server implementation for the data access entities

Web Site Structure

The Znode Storefront application includes an ASP.NET website with the following structure

• Web\
  This is the root folder and includes ASPX pages that are the entry points for the storefront. For example, "Product.aspx" displays the product details
• Web\Admin
  Consists of all the files used for the Storefront Administration website
• Web\app_browsers
  Includes settings for browsers (ex: Safari)
• Web\app_code
  Includes the base classes for each UI page
• Web\Bin
  Compiled znode and 3rd party libraries
• Web\Data\Default\Config
  Contains configuration data for custom messages, licensing and order receipt
• Web\Data\Default\Content
  Contains the HTML content for content managed pages
• Web\Data\Default\Images
  Contains the images for the catalog and content pages
• Web\Images
  Contains common images (not specific to a storefront)
• Web\RadControls
  Contains code for the Telerik Rich Text Editor
• Web\Themes
  Contains the themes and user controls for all the functionality in the storefront. This is the most important folder since most customization is done here
• Web\WebServices
  Contains the ASP.NET WebServices that interface with the Storefront.