Role of CQ5 and Hybris in eCommerce

Question

This is my first time working with eCommerce Application - mobile app for iOS. Previously I have worked in developing many iOS applications - products and business based applications, banking domain, etc. Where, usually data is available at the client server and the communication happens through REST/SOAP services - parse the response - update the UI. I am familiar with this scenario.

I am just walking through the functional document for developing the eCommerce App, I found that they use CQ5 and Hybris as the backend systems.

I am wondering what is the role of CQ5 and Hybris here. In what ways it helps in managing an eCommerce application?

I guess they are for admin purpose. Being an iOS developer, how far I should know about them?

Answer 1

Hybris is the ecommerce system, and CQ5(now Adobe AEM) is the Content Management System (CMS) and Digital Asset management (DAM) portion. Hybris acts as the payment processor and inventory management. From a mobile experience perspective, images and templates for the UI of your app will likely coming from the AEM side (probably analytics too), while customer data is sent and received from hybris APIs. Hybris APIs are traditional REST/SOAP stuff.

If you need to learn something, you need to learn how AEM works and generates templates. Author -> Publisher -> Distributors.

Answer 2

I am wondering what is the role of CQ5 and Hybris here. In what ways it helps in managing a eCommerce application?

hybris is a framework to build ecommerce applications. CQ (AEM) is a CMS and DAM so it's not dedicated to ecommerce at all.

hybris also contains a CMS but CQ CMS is more advanced.

For me CQ is a good addition to hybris to manage pages that will be often contributed. The tool is more easy to use for someone that is not from the SI side. Also it offers more possibilities than hybris CMS.

Being an iOS developer, how far I should know about them?

It depends on what you're supposed to do.

I think CQ is not so hard to learn, at least for basic usage.

For hybris, without the intention of being mean, I would never hire an iOS developer. Indeed it's heavily based on Java EE technologies and Spring. So if you have no background in these techno you'll be quite useless... Even Java developers I worked with experienced troubles when it comes to advanced development on the hybris platform.

If your role is only restricted to call WS exposed by hybris then you don't need to know anything about hybris. Ask the hybris development team to give you a documentation of the WS your supposed to call and that's it.