1 What is SFRA and why was it introduced to replace SiteGenesis?

SFRA (Storefront Reference Architecture) is a modern MVC-based framework for building B2C Commerce storefronts. It was introduced to replace the older SiteGenesis architecture, which was a monolithic, tightly coupled codebase that was difficult to customise and upgrade.

SFRA provides:

1. A clean MVC pattern — controllers handle routing and logic, models encapsulate data, ISML templates produce HTML output
2. CommonJS-based server-side modules for better code organisation
3. Extensibility through cartridge inheritance and the server middleware pattern
4. Non-destructive customisation via server.append(), server.prepend(), and module.superModule
5. Better support for headless and API-first commerce implementations

The key advantage is that custom cartridges override or extend SFRA behaviour without modifying the base code, making platform upgrades far easier and reducing merge conflicts.