The information contained in this section applies to IBM WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0.0.9 and Feautre Pack 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions.
The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.
You can extend the WebSphere Commerce product to fit your business needs. This topic describes the prerequisite skills and required knowledge that you need to customize business logic. After you have the required knowledge, use WebSphere Commerce Developer to take tutorials that guide you step-by-step through various customization scenarios.
Creating a custom implementation of a WebSphere Commerce store requires a significant amount of planning. From gathering client needs, to deploying the live solution, much work is needed to successfully deploy a custom client store. Use the resources in here to help you plan every phase of store creation.
Review this section for information about installing the WebSphere Commerce product, associated maintenance, and WebSphere Commerce enhancements.
Before you migrate WebSphere Commerce, review this information for an overview of the migration process.
WebSphere Commerce provides many tutorials.
Functional architecture provides both the set of patterns used to implement the business functionality and the frameworks in which these business functions execute.
WebSphere Commerce deals with a large amount of persistent data. There are numerous tables defined in the current database schema. Even with this extensive schema, however, you might need to extend or customize the database schema for your particular business needs.
A business model, a representation of the business processes used throughout the site, provides a sample commerce solution which includes an organization structure, default user roles and access control policies, one or more starter stores, administration tools, and business processes that demonstrate best practices. A business model can be customized to support business requirements and scenarios. WebSphere Commerce provides sample business models that show some common commerce solutions. These business models are created by setting up an organization hierarchy structure, access control policies, stores, and contracts that help satisfy the necessary business requirements.
Before starting to develop your site with WebSphere Commerce, you need to determine the business model supported by WebSphere Commerce that best represents the purpose of your site. Usually sites created with WebSphere Commerce will be implemented based on of one of these business models.
Store data is the information that is loaded into the WebSphere Commerce Server database, which allows your store to function. The URL Registry Entries and View Registry Entries packages are included in the diagram, but they are not database assets. These entries are presentation configuration (that is, struts actions and forwards) that must be deployed. URL registry entries are shown in the diagram to illustrate the entire store data information model. To operate properly, a store must have the data in place to support all customer activities. For example, in order for a customer to make a purchase, your store must contain a catalog of goods for sale (catalog data), the data associated with processing orders (tax and shipping data), and the inventory to fulfill the request (inventory and fulfillment data).
WebSphere Commerce Developer is the development toolkit for customizing a WebSphere Commerce application.
WebSphere Commerce uses Java Server Pages (JSP) to implement the view layer of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern. The view layer is in charge of retrieving data from the database through the use of data beans and formatting it to meet the display requirements. The view layers determines whether the request is sent to a browser or streamed out as XML. JSP files present a clean separation between data content and presentation.
The Controller layer is the conductor of operations for a request. It controls the transaction scope and manages the session related information for the request. The controller first dispatches to a command and then calls the appropriate view processing logic to render the response.
The business logic layer is the business components that provide OAGIS services to return data or start business processes. The presentation layer uses these OAGIS services to display data, or to invoke a business process. The business logic provides data required by the presentation layer. The business logic layer exists because more than just fetching and updating data is required by an application; there is also additional business logic independent of the presentation layer.
The interaction between the business objects and persistence layer is isolated in an object called the Business Object Mediator. Business object document (BOD) commands interact with the Business Object Mediator to handle the interaction with the logical objects and how they are persisted.
Access control in a WebSphere Commerce application is composed of the following elements: users, actions, resources, and relationships.
The WebSphere Commerce architecture is designed to support globalization. Globalization is the proper design and execution of systems, software, services, and procedures so that one instance of software, running on a single server or end-user machine, can process multilingual data and present culturally correct data in a multicultural environment such as the Internet.
You can add additional price lists, if you require multiple price lists to support cost and list prices.
The catalog subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that provides online catalog navigation, partitioning, categorization, and associations. In addition, the catalog subsystem includes support for personalized interest lists and custom catalog display pages. The catalog subsystem contains all logic and data relevant to an online catalog, including catalog groups (or categories), catalog entries, and any associations or relationships among them.
The Member subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that includes data for participants of the WebSphere Commerce system. A member can be a user, a group of users (also known as a member group), or an organizational entity (which can be an organization, such as "IBM" or an organizational unit within an organization, such as "Electronic Commerce Division"). Business logic in the Member subsystem provides member registration and profile management services. Other services which are closely related to the Member subsystem include access control, authentication, and session management.
You can display prices in your site in one currency, or you can use multiple currencies by following the instructions for the euro. For a site with multiple stores, you can use different currencies for the stores, or you can assign currencies to the store group. Depending on the type of site that you are creating, you can specify what currencies you want to use and how they are displayed. You can also allow customers to select a shopping currency.
Every product that is modified within a return is subject to an automatic approval process. With the appropriate level of security, manual approval can be issued, but for a typical return, automatic approval is easier. Automatic approval consists of a series of tests on the specified product and its relationship to the rest of the return, other returns, and the original order. For each unsuccessful test, a denial reason is logged against the return item. The reasons can be presented to a Customer Service Representative who can override the system evaluation and issue a manual approval.
Products that are included in a return are either order items or catalog entries in the WebSphere Commerce database. Return can support both ATP and non-ATP inventory systems. In addition, for ATP inventory systems, components of a dynamic and static kit are placed on a return by using the appropriate catalog entry. The refund amount depends on the type of return item that is used to create a return merchandise authorization (RMA).
A dynamic kit contains multiple products, is ordered as a unit, and has one price and one stock keeping unit (SKU). For returns, a kit is commonly treated as a unit. One can not return the components of a dynamic kit separately.
Using WebSphere Commerce, you can track returned orders, whether they are returned order items or returned catalog entries.
Refunds for a return merchandise authorization (RMA).
When you update an existing return, a suggested refund will be calculated. A Customer Service Representative can modify a suggested amount on a case-by-case basis. The suggested credit including adjustments, charges, and taxes is summed in the ReturnPrepare command after taxes are calculated.
By default, when a customer returns an item a restocking fee is not applied. You can customize WebSphere Commerce to charge customers a restocking fee; the fee can be either a flat rate, or a percentage amount of the order.
A tax calculation code indicates the tax calculation for order items. A store typically collects two type of taxes: sales or use tax, and shipping tax. The tax codes are unique within each tax type for a store. Only one tax calculation code of each tax type is applied to a particular order item.
Commerce systems need to calculate monetary amounts and apply them to business objects. Business rules and legal requirements specify how and when these monetary amounts should be calculated. When these rules and requirements change, a good commerce system can adapt to the changes with little or no programming changes.
The Order Management subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that provides shopping carts, order capture, order fulfillment, inventory, and payment function support.
The following table describes the error codes that are returned by specific WebSphere Commerce stored procedures. You should receive these error messages only when a problem with the data requires further investigation by a technical person. If you receive one of these errors (other than error code 0) and you cannot determine the cause of the error, contact IBM WebSphere Commerce support for assistance.
A web service is an interface that describes a collection of operations that are accessible through the network by using standardized XML messaging.
WebSphere Commerce search provides enhanced search functionality in starter stores by enabling enriched search engine capabilities such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction, while influencing store search results by using search term associations, and search-based merchandising rules.
The following section describes how you can leverage WebSphere Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
These topics describe the security features of WebSphere Commerce and how to configure these features.