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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.
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.
Defining the OpenLaszlo classes instantiated in a tool definition class
An instance of the wcfBusinessObjectEditor class contains child elements that define the characteristics of the tool definition. These child elements are class instances that define the services and objects used by the tool. Before you instantiate these classes you must define them.
Defining views for a Management Center object
The Management Center provides the explorer view which displays items in the form of a tree. The explorer view is displayed in the left area of the Management Center and controls what is shown in the main work area. The main work area supports three types of views that display business objects: properties views, list views, and calendar views.
Defining the explorer view for a Management Center tool
The explorer view is a tree view that you can use to control what is displayed in the main work area. Select a node in the explorer view to display the view that is currently associated with that node in the main work area.

Defining the explorer view for a Management Center tool

The explorer view is a tree view that you can use to control what is displayed in the main work area. Select a node in the explorer view to display the view that is currently associated with that node in the main work area.

About this task

The explorer view always includes the Search Results node (to allow you to return to a list of results at any time) and Active Work node (to show the objects you currently have open). The rest of the explorer view displays objects that will help you locate the business objects with which you want to work. These object nodes might be organizational objects that represent a category of object types such as Promotions or Campaigns, or they might be root level business objects such as a catalog or directory that you can expand to display the next level of business objects in the hierarchy. Select an organizational object to display the list of business objects of that type in the main work area. Select a root level business object or an expanded business object to display a list of objects related to the selected object in the main work area. For example, when you select a category, the list of catalog entries within that category are displayed in the main work area.

To define an explorer view for Management Center objects:

Procedure

The explorer view is not declared explicitly. The business object editor (lzx/commerce/foundation/restricted/BusinessObjectEditor.lzx/wcfBusinessObjectEditor) uses the top object definition and filter definitions to construct this view. Refer to Defining a top object definition in the explorer view and Defining a filter tasks.

What to do next

After you complete your work:

Right-click LOBTools Project; then click Build OpenLaszlo Project to produce an updated ManagementCenter.swf file under the WCDE_installdir\workspace\LOBTools\WebContent directory. This setting is the default environment setting.
Test your work by viewing them in the Management Center, using this URL: https://hostname:8000/lobtools.
Deploy your files to your production environment.