FAQ: Technology

Question 1

What is an SKU?

Accepted Answer

SKU, or Stock Keeping Unit, is an internal product identifier assigned by the seller. Unlike the EAN code, which is global and assigned by the manufacturer, the SKU is created by the store or wholesaler itself, usually according to its own logic: category, model, variant.
Each variant that has a separate inventory level is assigned its own SKU. This ensures that the ERP system, warehouse, and online store know exactly which item is being referred to. In B2B sales, the SKU is also important to the buyer: regular customers know the numbers of the items they order, so B2B platforms allow them to place orders by entering or uploading a list of SKUs with quantities, without having to browse the catalog.

Question 2

What is a message queue?

Accepted Answer

A message queue acts as an intermediary between systems that exchange event data. The sender - for example, a store - places a message in the queue and does not wait for a response. The recipient - for example, an ERP or CRM system - retrieves messages one by one when it is ready. The queue is managed by a separate program, known as a broker, such as RabbitMQ.
The queue protects against data loss, but not against duplicates. A message is delivered at least once, so if the connection is lost, it may be delivered a second time, and it is up to the recipient to recognize that it has already been processed. Magento has a built-in queuing mechanism, but for production environments, Adobe recommends an external broker because a simple database-based adapter does not scale.

Question 3

What is PIM?

Accepted Answer

PIM, or Product Information Management, is a system for managing product information. Descriptions, attributes, photos, variants, and translations are entered into it, and from there they flow to the online store, marketplaces, and other sales channels. This ensures that the same product does not have to be described separately in each channel.
When integrating a store with an ERP system, PIM is typically responsible for product content, while the ERP handles inventory, purchase prices, and documents. This division must be established before implementation: if a description can be edited in both the PIM and the store, one of those changes will be lost after the next import. It also happens that the PIM is not the first link in the chain; instead, the catalog is created in another company system and is only transferred from there to the PIM, and then to the store.

Question 4

What is an identity provider?

Accepted Answer

An identity provider, or IdP for short, is a system responsible for user authentication. It stores accounts and passwords, verifies that the user is who they claim to be, and in return issues a token - a signed confirmation of identity. The store, mobile app, or business dashboard does not store passwords; instead, it verifies the token. Data exchange is handled using standards, most commonly OpenID Connect (OIDC) and SAML.
You can host the identity provider yourself - for example, using Keycloak on your own server - or purchase it as a service, such as Auth0. It is the heart of Single Sign-On: thanks to it, a single account works across multiple channels. The security of the entire system depends on whether applications fully validate the token - that is, its signature, validity, and the entity for which it was issued.

Question 5

What is Keycloak?

Accepted Answer

Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management (IAM) tool. It allows you to add login functionality to applications without having to store and verify users separately in each one. It supports OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, and SAML 2.0 standards, social media login, two-factor authentication, and integration with existing user directories such as LDAP and Active Directory. The project has incubator status at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.
In ecommerce, Keycloak can serve as the identity provider for Single Sign-On: the customer has a single account for both the online store and the mobile app, and Keycloak handles the login process rather than each channel doing so separately. Since it is software rather than a subscription service, it is typically hosted on the merchant’s own infrastructure and integrated with the store via a module.

Question 6

What is social login?

Accepted Answer

Social login allows users to access the store by clicking a button such as “Sign in with Google.” The customer doesn’t have to create a password or confirm an email address, so registration takes just a few seconds. The store receives identity verification and basic data - which the customer has consented to share - from the external service.
Social login is often confused with Single Sign-On (SSO) because a similar mechanism underlies both. However, they serve two different purposes: social login lowers the barrier to entry for the customer, while SSO consolidates the store’s various channels - such as the store and the mobile app - into a single account. Both solutions can work together, as a store’s own identity provider may offer Google login as one of the available methods.

Question 7

Why does e-commerce need a backup?

Accepted Answer

A backup — a copy of the code — is required to keep the site running. Continuity is especially important from an e-commerce point of view: every hour of store downtime can directly stop us from generating revenue. A mundane reason like physical disk damage on the server is one of the reasons regular backups are mandatory. But making backups serves many more purposes:
 the option to create alternate environments where you can comfortably develop different features in isolation and test changes without touching the live store (although Ansible auto-installers or Docker-based solutions are much better suited for that),
 daily backup cycles let us travel back in time to any point — e.g. when a hard-to-identify problem appeared on our site, or it was discovered after enough time had passed that the consequences are hard to fix,
 running the backup service to the right standards is also today one of the GDPR (RODO) requirements.
Having a backup shouldn't lull our vigilance. Just having backups doesn't mean we're properly protected against an outage. Without periodic tests that involve recovering the service via the so-called disaster recovery procedure, it may turn out that copies sitting on backup servers are worth nothing to us.
If you want to read more on how to ensure the stability of an online store, especially during Black Friday or pre-holiday shopping, do read the article on our blog.

Question 8

What is a framework?

Accepted Answer

A framework is the skeleton for building an application — a kind of template containing repeatable, ready-to-use software components. Using a framework saves the developer time needed to write the application — by reusing ready elements, they can focus more on what is specific to the application.

Question 9

What is PWA?

Accepted Answer

For e-commerce, PWA (Progressive Web App) is a store "shell" built using technologies similar to those used for mobile apps. The difference is that the code runs in the browser — the user can use the same version of the site on desktop by entering the URL in the browser bar, and also launch it via an icon on their smartphone home screen, without having to install another app.
For that reason PWA is a good compromise if we can't afford to maintain both a store and a separate mobile app. Even though the store keeps the look and functions of an app, we don't have to publish it on Google Play or the App Store. 
Thanks to PWA we can deliver a smoother experience to the user: responsiveness ensures the layout fits any device, and caching lets the store work even out of network coverage. Importantly, it is often possible to build a PWA on top of an existing online store, including on the Magento platform.

Question 10

What is DevOps?

Accepted Answer

DevOps is a fast-growing term denoting the methodologies and area of work aimed at preserving operational continuity even with parallel development and ongoing engineering work. The methodology emphasizes close collaboration and communication between IT administrators and developers. It also points to the strong interdependence of IT development and IT operations. The lack of DevOps maturity inside an organization often produces the following scenarios:

a production bug means that — with the service unavailable — you lose dozens or even hundreds of orders,
 developers couldn't ship business-expected features on time because of a mass of small problems they had to handle along the way,
 the technology debt has reached a level that prevents updates and performance improvements without a giant investment in rebuilding the system from scratch.

Today this term is often expanded with an additional Sec component (DevSecOps), adding security standards in an increasingly digital world.
If you want your organization to live through digital transformation properly, fully use its potential, or grow intensively without fear of technology debt, you should start exploring and developing DevOps inside your company.

Ecommerce, Magento 2 and AI concepts explained