Overview of customizing Management Center

Customize the Management Center user interface by adding, changing, or removing elements within the user interface.

What you need to know before you start

To customize Management Center, you should be able to use WebSphere Commerce Developer and you should know the following programming languages:

OpenLaszlo
XML
SQL
JSP

You should also have the knowledge that is described in the following table:


Required knowledge	See
Understand Management Center features	IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce Management Center user interface
Understand the Management Center framework	Management Center framework
Understand the API information that is used by the Management Center framework. Be especially familiar with the API information applicable to your customization	OpenLaszlo API
Understand the Management Center user interface	Management Center user interface
Understand modeling guidelines	Management Center modeling guidelines
Understand file directory structure	Management Center file directory structure
Understand naming conventions	Management Center file and class naming conventions
Understand main elements of the Management Center	Object path Language-sensitive objects Resource access control
Under the Management Center Web application	Management Center Web application
Understand maintenance and migration considerations	Maintenance and migration considerations for Management Center

Tutorials and procedures

When you have the required skills and knowledge, and you are ready to customize Management Center, you can choose one of the following tutorials or procedures.

Tutorials for customizing Management Center
Tutorial	Learning objectives	Description
Tutorial: Adding search conditions for advanced search in the Catalogs tool	Advanced Search dialog Search definitions The expression builder Extend the Advanced Search dialog to include extended properties as search Extend the controller JSP file to transfer extended search parameters Configure parametric search to search on custom data Create an expression builder to override a default expression builder Add the extended properties as a column to a list view.	In this tutorial, you add search conditions to the Advanced Search dialog in the Catalogs tool. You extend the advanced search with two new conditions: warranty type and warranty term.
Tutorial: Adding a validation rule in the Marketing tool	Validation rules Adding a validation rule. Customizing Web Activities. Adding a new validation rule for a Web activity on the OpenLaszlo client side. Adding a new validation for the server side Displaying the server side error message	In this tutorial you will be adding a new validation rule for the start and end dates of Web Activities in the Marketing tool. A validation rule will be created to ensure that the activity is active for at least 10 days. If the user enters a start date and an end date that are not at least 10 days apart, a validation error is displayed. The new rule is implemented on both the Management Center client and the WebSphere Commerce Server side. This ensures that the dates are validated, whether they are created in the activity by way of the Management Center or any client that interfaces with the server.
Tutorial: Extending simple search in the Catalogs tool	Simple catalog search Catalog queries The expression builder wcfSearchDefinition wcfSearchService Configure parametric search to include custom tables Update the search widget in the Catalogs tool to include new search definition Create a controller JSP file to retrieve and mediate the Management Center object Create an ExpressionBuilder in get-data-config.xml to call the new query and pass query parameters.	In this tutorial, you extend simple search in the Catalogs tool in the Management Center. Simple search is a function that is performed in the search widget of the Management Center. It provides the capability to search on a single property, such as the price or size of a product. The Catalogs tool provides several simple searches such as search catalog entries by name and search category by name. In this tutorial, you extend simple search on catalog entries by warranty term, warranty type, and care instruction. In the storefront, customers could search for more properties of your products.
Tutorial: Adding support for multiple values of Attribute Dictionary attributes	Attribute dictionary attributes Enable multiple values for attribute dictionary attributes in mediator configuration. Enable multiple values for attribute dictionary attributes in Data Load configuration. Create Data Load data for multiple values of attribute dictionary attributes. Update the product display JSP file to present the multiple values of attribute dictionary attributes.	In this tutorial, you learn how to customize the attribute dictionary feature to add support for multiple values for attribute dictionary attributes.
Tutorial: Adding dynamic text fields to the Store Management tool	Resource bundles The Store Management tool Store profile fields Simple extensions of objects. Customize the Management Center Store Management tool. Create resource bundles.	This tutorial demonstrates how to add dynamic text fields in the Store Management tool and display this new content in the storefront. To complete this tutorial you modify definition files to use UserData element support, you add a profile field to the Store Management tool and then add the content to your storefront. The Store Management tool provides support for the UserData element in the logical layer object noun and physical layer database. This support acts as an extension point for adding new customizable data fields to a store profile.
Tutorial: Adding a Store Feature to the Store Management tool	The contact tooltip feature The idresgen utility The massload utility The Management Center Store Management tool Extend objects. Customize the Management Center Store Management tool.	In this tutorial, you learn how to customize the Store Management tool to add a link in your storefront to display store contact information.
Tutorial: Creating a promotion type	Identify the user input necessary to create a promotion type and define an OpenLaszlo object to represent the information Define a resource bundle for custom text strings Define a promotion template Use existing OpenLaszlo user interface widgets to build a properties view Create and register an XSL template to create the runtime promotion XML Customize the Management Center user interface to add the required widgets to the Promotions tool property editor. Customization allows the business user to create promotions by using your new promotion type Customize the promotion engine to add support for the new promotion type	In this tutorial, you can customize the Management Center Promotions tool to add support for a new promotion type. A promotion uses a specific purchase condition and reward. Use this tutorial to create a promotion type by customizing an existing promotion type. You can add new promotions to the Management Center Promotions tool, if the default promotion types do not meet your business needs.
Tutorial: Adding languages to WebSphere Commerce	After completing this tutorial, you should be familiar with the following concepts: Instance configuration files Language data Properties and resource bundle files The selected Languages list After completing this tutorial, you should be able to complete the following tasks: Creating and updating bootstrap files Include language data in the WebSphere Commerce instance Adding language support to Management Center Adding language support to WebSphere Commerce stores Creating properties files for new languages Creating image files for new languages Loading language data into stores Grouping languages by country and separating languages by store	In this tutorial, you are adding support for additional languages to WebSphere Commerce. WebSphere Commerce is available in 13 languages by default, and you can add more languages to WebSphere Commerce stores and WebSphere Commerce tools.
Tutorial: Extending the Management Center Catalog Upload feature to upload custom data	The Catalog Upload feature The Data Load utility The data load order and business object configuration files Create custom version of the Catalog Upload feature configuration files Create CSV files to load data from custom tables. Use the Catalog Upload feature to load data into custom tables.	This tutorial demonstrates how to customize the Management Center Catalogs tool Catalog Upload feature to load data into custom tables.
Tutorial: Creating folders in the Marketing tool	After completing the tutorial, you should be familiar with the following concepts: Management Center object definitions Top and primary object definitions Child and reference objects List view and properties view Management Center tool definitions JSP files After completing this tutorial, you should be able to perform the following tasks Create folders in the marketing tool Create Management Center primary and child objects definitions, and reference objects Create Management Center view definitions, such as properties views and list views Create Struts actions to register the new JSP files Create JSP files to display both the folders and e-Marketing Spots in folders Implement access control	In this tutorial, you learn how to add support for folders in the Marketing tool. The marketing folders that you create in this tutorial are specific for grouping e-Marketing Spots to improve organizing and managing these e-Marketing Spots. To create your e-Marketing Spot folders, you extend the Marketing tool to include folder support for e-Marketing Spots. With the folder support enabled, a Marketing Manager can group e-Marketing Spots to categorize and manage the e-Marketing Spots within the Marketing tool.

Creating and customizing a new tool in the Management Center

The Management Center tool scenario is a series of tutorials that simulate the scope of a complete customization project. Over the course of the scenario, you add a tool to the Management Center, add display logic for the tool to the storefront, and create a WebSphere Commerce service module. The service module handles the business logic and persistence of the tool. The scenario uses the example of adding a tool that manages recipes for meals.

Note: Database support for the Recipes tool scenario is limited to the Apache Derby and DB2 database engines. If you intend to use workspaces or complete Tutorial: Extending a Management Center tool to support workspaces for a custom object, then complete the Recipes tool scenario by using a DB2 database. You cannot use an Apache Derby database with workspaces. If you do not plan to use workspaces, then you can complete the Recipes tool scenario by using either DB2 or Apache Derby. The Recipes tool scenario is not supported on an Oracle database, and no Oracle specific SQL statements are provided in these tutorials.


Tutorial	Learning Objectives	Description
Tutorial: Adding a tool to the Management Center	Project service modules. Management Center object definitions. Top and primary object definitions. Child and reference objects. List view and properties view. Management Center tool definitions. Add a custom tool to the Management Center. Create Management Center object definitions that include: primary objects, child objects, and reference objects. Create Management Center view definitions, such as properties views and list views. Create Struts actions to process Management Center services. Create JSP files to display information with the get-data tag.	In this tutorial, you are adding a tool to the Management Center. You are adding the Recipes tool. You learn to use the Management Center programming framework to create a presentation layer with OpenLaszlo and JavaServer Pages (JSP) files.
Tutorial: Supporting extended sites in a Management Center tool for a custom object	List view and the properties view definitions. Business object definitions. Change Management Center definitions to support extended sites store Change Management Center view definitions, such as the properties views and list views to support extended sites store. Change JavaServer Pages (JSP) files to support extended sites store.	In this tutorial you will be adding support for extended sites in the Recipe tutorial. The objective of this tutorial is to support extended site features for the Recipes tool that you created in Adding a tool to the Management Center.
Tutorial: Extending a Management Center tool to support content versioning for a custom object	The content versioning feature The `UpdateVersionSchema` utility. Access control policies Resource bundles Create custom content versioning configuration files, and update the version schema with your custom tables. Change Management Center definitions to support content versioning. Change Management Center view definitions, such as the properties views to support content versioning (add the Versions tab to the user interface). Enable version services in the definition file. Create a serialization JSP file to get the version-related information for the custom objects. Update the query template file to include the version parameter to make the different versions viewable. View version details.	In this tutorial, you learn how to add support for the content versioning feature in a new Management Center tool.
Tutorial: Using the getData JTSL tag to display data from a custom service	Expression builders Create a get-data-config file to process service requests. Create and register new storefront JavaServer Pages (JSP) files. Modify existing JSP files to interact with the new JSP files. Retrieve and display custom data using the getData tag. Extend the store properties file to include new definitions.	In this tutorial you will be modifying the storefront to display a new Recipes section.
Tutorial: Extending a Management Center tool to support workspaces for a custom object	Content and operational data. The change control mediator for nouns. The Get request access profile. The InsertMoreData command. Enable workspace support for a service module Enable change control for a noun Include change control information in the response of a Get service Create a workspace with task groups and tasks by using Workspace Administration Tool	In this tutorial, you add workspace support to the Recipes tool by enabling workspace support for the Project service module. This process prevents the same object from being edited by users in different task groups within the same workspace. Workspaces in the Management Center use BOD service modules. You can customize which aspects of the physical and logical layers of a BOD service module are under change control. This change control data is passed back to the presentation layer where you can show it in the Management Center workspaces.
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Procedures

After you learn how to customize Management Center by taking the tutorials, see these generic procedures to perform your own Management Center customization.


Topic	What it contains
Customizing the Management Center shell	You can customize the Management Center shell, which encompasses all of the common (non-tool-specific) aspects of the Management Center. The shell includes the Management Center menu, banner, tool tabs, and status area.
Customizing an existing Management Center tool	You can customize the Management Center Catalogs, Marketing, Promotions, Store Management, Catalog Filter and Pricing, and Assets tools to meet your business needs.
Creating a new tool for the Management Center	The Management Center offers the Catalogs, Marketing, Promotions, Installments, Store Management, Catalog Filter and Pricing, Assets, and Tasks tools, ready to use. As part of your Management Center customization, you can create a new custom tool.