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User Guide
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.
Developing
The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.
Presentation layer
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.
Management Center framework
The Management Center framework is the foundation for business user tooling. The business objects are defined by the individual components that make up the Management Center. The framework uses those definitions to provide all of the features that you can use to find, create, modify, and delete the defined business objects. If you plan to customize the Management Center, it is important to understand the framework and the components that make up the Management Center.
Customizing the Management Center user interface
Customize the Management Center user interface by adding, changing, or removing elements within the user interface.
Object path
Developers can use object paths to instruct the Management Center framework to use an object that is located by searching through the child objects of the selected object, instead of the selected object itself. An object path is a list of object types separated by a forward slash (that is, the / character). The framework searches recursively for child objects that match the specified object types.

Object path

Developers can use object paths to instruct the Management Center framework to use an object that is located by searching through the child objects of the selected object, instead of the selected object itself. An object path is a list of object types separated by a forward slash (that is, the / character). The framework searches recursively for child objects that match the specified object types.

For example, the object path Product/CatentryDescription indicates that the Management Center should retrieve the child object Catentry of the current object, and retrieve the child object CatentryDescription of that Catentry.

Any of the object types in an object path can be replaced by an object group. For example if a Catentry object group is defined, then the previous object path could also be specified as Catentry/CatentryDescription. Object types in an object path can be qualified with a property name and value using an Xpath-like syntax; that is, by specifying [prop=value].

The following Management Center classes include object paths: