Element palette

The element palette is the location in the Activity Builder from which business users choose triggers, targets, actions, and branch elements to add to Web and Dialog activities.

WebSphere Commerce Professional WebSphere Commerce Enterprise Dialog activities are available only in the Professional and Enterprise editions of WebSphere Commerce.

The elements in the palette are defined as a data set Introduced in Feature Pack 2 or XML in the Activity Builder. They are organized into groups by using <Group> elements. Business users can drag elements within the groups into the activity flow. Each element in the palette must refer to a defined element template.

Each element (trigger, target, action, branch) defined inside the element palette is given two treatments. The first is that the element is made to be a dragable item; this treatment provides drag-and-drop functionality for business users. The second is that each element is given a tooltip message. The palette group names and the strings for the tooltips for each element are found in the specified resource bundle and use the element name as a key.

XML schema

Each Group in the palette is defined with a Name (for example, Triggers). This name is used as a lookup key in the specified resource bundle to obtain the text for the Group. The child nodes of Groups are Element nodes. Element nodes must refer to a defined element template. These element templates can be dragged and dropped onto the flow.

The following snippet is the XML schema definition for the palette configuration file:

<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <xsd:element name = "Element">
        <xsd:complexType>
            <xsd:attribute name = "objectType" type = "xsd:string"/>
        </xsd:complexType>
    </xsd:element>
    <xsd:element name = "Group">
        <xsd:complexType>
            <xsd:sequence maxOccurs = "unbounded" minOccurs = "0">
                <xsd:element maxOccurs = "unbounded" ref = "Element"></xsd:element>
            </xsd:sequence>
            <xsd:attribute name = "resourceBundle" type = "xsd:string"/>
            <xsd:attribute name = "name" type = "xsd:string"/>
        </xsd:complexType>
    </xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>

Sample XML definition

The following snippet is the default palette definition for the Dialog activity palette:

<dataset name = "palette">
    <Group
        resourceBundle = "mktMarketingResources"
        name = "triggers"
        helpText = "help_palette_triggers"
        helpLink = "concepts/csbtriggers.htm">
        <Element objectType = "wait"/>
        <Element objectType = "registers"/>
        <Element objectType = "purchases"/>
        <Element objectType = "customerParticipatesInSocialCommerce"/>
        <Element objectType = "customerAbandonsShoppingCart"/>
        <Element objectType = "customerCelebratesBirthday"/>
        <Element objectType = "customerIsInSegment"/>
    </Group>
    <Group
        resourceBundle = "mktMarketingResources"
        name = "targets"
        helpText = "help_palette_targets"
        helpLink = "concepts/csbtargets.htm">
        <Element objectType = "customerSegmentIdList"/>
        <Element objectType = "shoppingCart"/>
        <Element objectType = "purchaseHistory"/>
        <Element objectType = "catalogBrowsingBehavior"/>
        <Element objectType = "onlineBehavior"/>
        <Element objectType = "socialCommerceParticipation"/>
        <Element objectType = "time"/>
    </Group>
    <Group
        resourceBundle = "mktMarketingResources"
        name = "actions"
        helpText = "help_palette_actions"
        helpLink = "concepts/csbactions.htm">
        <Element objectType = "sendMessage"/>
        <Element objectType = "issueCoupon"/>
        <Element objectType = "addToRemoveFromCustomerSegment"/>
    </Group>
    <Group resourceBundle = "mktMarketingResources" name = "branching">
        <Element objectType = "simpleBranch"/>
        <Element objectType = "branch"/>
    </Group>
</dataset>

<Xml name="palette">
	<Group helpLink="concepts/csbtriggers.htm" helpText="help_palette_triggers" 
        name="triggers" resourceBundle="mktMarketingResources">
		<Element objectType="wait"/>
		<Element objectType="registers"/>
		<Element objectType="purchases"/>
		<Element objectType="customerParticipatesInSocialCommerce"/>
		<Element objectType="customerAbandonsShoppingCart"/>
		<Element objectType="birthdayTrigger"/>
		<Element objectType="customerIsInSegment"/>		
		<Element objectType="eventAndParametersTrigger"/>
		<Element objectType="CustomerSearchesTrigger"/>					
       </Group>
	<Group helpLink="concepts/csbtargets.htm" helpText="help_palette_targets" 
        name="targets" resourceBundle="mktMarketingResources">
		<Element objectType="customerSegmentIdList"/>
		<Element objectType="shoppingCart"/>
		<Element objectType="purchaseHistory"/>
		<Element objectType="catalogBrowsingBehavior"/>
		<Element objectType="onlineBehavior"/>
		<Element objectType="socialCommerceParticipation"/>
		<Element objectType="time"/>
	</Group>
	<Group helpLink="concepts/csbactions.htm" helpText="help_palette_actions" 
        name="actions" resourceBundle="mktMarketingResources">
		<Element objectType="sendMessage"/>
		<Element objectType="issueCoupon"/>
		<Element objectType="addToRemoveFromCustomerSegment"/>
	</Group>
	<Group helpLink="concepts/csbbranchvsexp.htm" helpText="help_palette_branching" 
        name="branching" resourceBundle="mktMarketingResources">
		<Element objectType="simpleBranch"/>
	</Group>
</Xml>

Each element that is defined above, corresponds to an instance of a lzx/commerce/foundation/restricted/flowBuilder/FlowElementObjectDefinition.lzx/wcfFlowElementObjectDefinition object specific to the element.