Discussion on AEM CIF connector vs Custom connector vs Other solutions

[#1]

Hello Team,

I need to know more details on using AEM CIF connector with Magneto or other eCommerce systems.

Few data points i am looking at:-

What are pros and cons using AEM CIF connector?

What versions of AEM can support CIF, Can AEM CAAS support CIF?

What are pros and cons using Custom AEM CIF connector via API layer? (Micro-services Approach)?

What are the Pros/Cons for AEM Headless vs Commerce Headless vs AEM and Commerce sharing the glass?

@kautuk_sahni @Arun_Patidar Please guide or tag the right people.

[#2]

The AEM CIF Connector provides a number of authoring features, like product picker/category picker that is nicely integrated with the existing AEM Sites editing environment. In addition to the connector there is also CIF Core Components that can be used as is with CSS/branding updates or extended just like regular Core Components. Everything is open sourced and new versions/updates are rolled out fairly regularly. The Connector and CIF Core Components are designed to be used with any Commerce backend however the support for Magento is the most mature. Support for a 3rd party integration is available via Adobe I/O runtime, but will require custom coding (although some starter reference implementation is available)

Support is available for AEM as a Cloud Service, 6.5 and 6.4.4. In terms of headless vs. who owns the glass, AEM CIF can be thought of as AEM owning the glass with a a headless commerce backend. The AEM authoring experience is the biggest value-add from an AEM CIF side. The ability for marketers to customize Product detail pages, category landing pages and coordinate content/offers with an in-line authoring experience is very attractive. AEM CIF follows the same design patterns as traditional Sites, so if personas are already familiar with Sites (be it developers or authors) then it is an easy transition. Additional links to read more:

https://www.adobe.io/apis/experiencecloud/commerce-integration-framework/integrations.html#!AdobeDoc...

https://docs.adobe.com/content/help/en/experience-manager-cloud-service/commerce/overview.html

https://github.com/adobe/aem-core-cif-components

https://github.com/adobe/commerce-cif-connector

https://github.com/adobe/aem-cif-guides-venia

[#3]

@dgordon86 Wondrous reply.