Developing business policies
In WebSphere Commerce, business policies are enforced with a combination of one or more business policy commands that implement the rules of the business policy. Each business policy command is a Java class. A business policy command can be shared by multiple business policies. The behavior of the business policy command is determined by the parameters passed to the command.
Parameters affecting the function of a business policy command can be introduced in three places:
- the contract term and condition referencing the business policy
- the business policy definition
- the business policy command itself
The business policy definition may specify a set of parameters that are automatically fed into each invocation of any of commands associated with the policy. A business policy command may specify additional parameters when it is invoked. Finally, a contract term and condition may proved extra parameters for a business command unique to the term and condition.
Business policy commands for the same type of business policy must have the same interface.
The following categories of business policies are provided in WebSphere Commerce:
- Catalog business policies
- Catalog business policies define the scope and characteristics of the catalog of products for sale in a store including prices and the categorization of products in a store's catalog.
- Payment business policies
- Invoicing, payment, and refund business policies define how a store accepts payments, pays refunds, and the format of a store's invoices.
- Returns business policies
- Returns business policies define if refunds are accepted, the time period they are accepted for, and any re-stocking fees applied to returns.
- Shipping business policies
- Shipping business policies define the shipping providers a store can use and the charges associated with each type.
- Referral interface business policies
- Referral interface business policies define the relationship between a proxy store and a remote store.
Many contract terms and conditions reference business policies. This provides a measure of control over the nature of contracts a store enters into while still providing flexibility in creating the contract terms and conditions.