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HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
Customizing
The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
Presentation layer
HCL 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.
Customizing price rules
You can customize price rules to suit the business needs of your site. For example, you can create a new condition or action for business users to add to price rules. Customization is supported for both the Price Rule Builder tool user interface in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, and for the pricing services.
Customizing conditions and actions in price rules
To provide business users with more options for price rules, you can create new conditions and actions to use in the Price Rule Builder in Management Center.
Adding a new custom condition or action for a price rule
Add a customized condition or action element to the Price Rule Builder if the default price rule elements in Management Center do not meet your business needs. When your customization is complete, business users can use the new price rule element in price rules.
Creating the price rule element template definition
By creating the price rule element template definition, you define the blueprint for your price rule element. When you have defined the price rule runtime XML you require, you must add the template definition to the PRELETEMPLATE table as a new entry.
Example: price rule element template for an action
When creating a custom action for a price rule, you can refer to this sample SQL statement that adds an element template to the PRELETEMPLATE table.

Documentation
HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
- Getting started
  HCL Commerce has different advantages for business users, administrators and developers. HCL Commerce targets each of these roles with a tailored set of offerings so that each of your users can get maximum benefit.
- Installing and deploying
  Learn how to install and deploy HCL Commerce development environments and HCL Commerce production environments.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to HCL Commerce Version 9.1, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
- Operating
  Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using HCL Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
  Topics in the Administering category highlight tasks that are typically performed by the Site Administrator, to support daily operations of the HCL Commerce site.
- Customizing
  The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
  - Customizing Management Center for HCL Commerce
    HCL Commerce allows you to pull the GIT bundle of Management Center source code and start the application locally to customize the Management Center.
  - Managed asset deployment
    Managed assets are files that are uploaded by business users to be used for store marketing, or to supplement products. They are added to HCL Commerce through the Assets tool or the Marketing tool in Management Center. By default, managed assets are extracted and deployed through the HCL Commerce EAR. To maintain performance in a large-scale production environment, site administrators must switch to alternative extraction and deployment methods for managed assets.
  - HCL Commerce development environment
    HCL Commerce Developer is the development toolkit for customizing a HCL Commerce application.
  - Functional architecture
    Functional architecture provides both the set of patterns used to implement the business functionality and the frameworks in which these business functions execute.
  - Persistent object model
    HCL 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.
  - Creating your custom store
    After you install and set up your programming environment, you can create your custom store and customize your storefront. You must ensure that the store server is properly configured, and that your store assets are moved to the Store server.
  - Presentation layer
    HCL 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.
    - HCL Commerce Struts framework
      Struts is a well documented, mature and popular framework for building front ends to Java applications. To address concerns in software applications, it uses a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture: The Model represents the business or database code, the View represents the page design code, and the Controller represents the navigational code.
    - Spring framework
      The Spring Framework is a lightweight, open source programming and configuration model for developing Java based enterprise applications. This framework is used in HCL Commerce for building and configuring Management Center, including the managing of URL requests from Management Center to retrieve and process object data.
    - Management Center
      The Management Center for HCL Commerce framework is the foundation for HCL Commerce business user tooling. The business objects that are managed with Management Center are defined by the individual components that make up Management Center. The Management Center framework uses these definitions to provide the features that you can use to find, create, modify, and delete the defined business objects. If you plan to customize the Management Center, ensure that you understand the framework and all of the components that make up Management Center.
    - Developing Commerce Composer assets
      Enrich the capabilities of the Commerce Composer tool by developing your own widgets and templates, and extending other features and functions to suit your business needs.
    - Customizing promotions
      Customizing promotions can involve the customization of the promotion business user tools and the underlying promotion engine, which features a clean architecture supporting rich functionality, as well as a wide array of customization possibilities.
    - Working with the promotions component configuration file
      Some Management Center components, like the promotions component, have customizable configuration files. These files contain properties that control certain component features.
    - Customizing marketing
      You can customize marketing features and objects to better meet the business needs of your site. For example, you can customize e-Marketing Spots, customer segments, activities, activity components, such as triggers, targets and actions, and more. Customization is supported for the Marketing tool in Management Center and for the storefront to display e-Marketing Spots.
    - Customizing price rules
      You can customize price rules to suit the business needs of your site. For example, you can create a new condition or action for business users to add to price rules. Customization is supported for both the Price Rule Builder tool user interface in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, and for the pricing services.
      - Customizing conditions and actions in price rules
        To provide business users with more options for price rules, you can create new conditions and actions to use in the Price Rule Builder in Management Center.
        Price rule data storage and process flow
        If you are customizing price rules, you should know which database tables store data about price rules. In addition, you should understand what is happening behind the scenes when your store displays a price generated by a price rule. This knowledge helps you understand what you need to create or change to support customized conditions and actions in price rules.
        Price rule element template definitions
        The conditions and actions used in price rules are based on templates. The templates are called price rule element template definitions. If you are customizing a condition or action, you must understand the purpose and structure of these template definitions before you modify an existing template or create a new one.
        Price rule element task commands
        Each condition and action has an associated task command called a price rule element task command. The task command performs the work associated with the price rule element. The price rule element template definition must specify which task command to use.
        List of shipped price rule element templates and task commands
        Price rule elements have different requirements depending on their function. Reviewing details about the conditions and actions shipped with the Management Center can help you understand the requirements for a new price rule element. You can also view the API documentation for any of the task commands.
        Price rule element template parameters
        Price rule element template parameters specify the pieces of data that a price rule element task command needs to perform its function. The pricing services pass the data to the task command when processing a condition or action in a price rule.
        Passing additional parameters to price rule engine
        Customized parameters can pass to the price rule element, by using the request properties in the command context, and the extended data map in the runtime parameters for price rules.
        Adding a new custom condition or action for a price rule
        Add a customized condition or action element to the Price Rule Builder if the default price rule elements in Management Center do not meet your business needs. When your customization is complete, business users can use the new price rule element in price rules.
        Creating the price rule element template definition
        By creating the price rule element template definition, you define the blueprint for your price rule element. When you have defined the price rule runtime XML you require, you must add the template definition to the PRELETEMPLATE table as a new entry.
        Example: price rule element template for a condition
        When creating a custom condition for a price rule, you can refer to this sample SQL statement that adds an element template to the PRELETEMPLATE table.
        Example: price rule element template for an action
        When creating a custom action for a price rule, you can refer to this sample SQL statement that adds an element template to the PRELETEMPLATE table.
        Adding support to get additional fields associated with the offer for display price REST API
        You can see the start and end date in the response if you add these configuration properties.
        Creating the price rule element task command
        Create a new task command interface and its associated implementation class for your new price rule element. The task command performs the work for the price rule element and validates parameters.
        Defining icons to represent the price rule element
        You can create and load three sizes of a custom icon to represent your new price rule element in the Management Center user interface. These images help business users identify the element when creating price rules in the Price Rule Builder.
        Creating the object definition for the price rule element
        Create an object definition for the new condition or action to collect input from the Management Center user interface. When business users fill in data about the new condition or action in a price rule, the object definition persists the data in two tables: PRELEMENT and PRELEMENTATTR.
        Creating the properties view for the price rule element
        If your new price rule element requires input from business users, declare the widgets to capture that input. By doing this, you create the user interface, called the properties view, for the new price rule element. In the Price Rule Builder, the properties view for a price rule element displays below the work area when you click the price rule element.
        Creating the summary for the price rule element
        If you want to display summary text below the price rule element in the Price Rule Builder work area, create a new extension for this summary. In the Price Rule Builder, business users can read the summary text to quickly understand how an element is being used in a price rule.
        Adding the price rule element to the palette in the Price Rule Builder
        You must include the new price rule element in the element palette so that business users can drag the new element from the palette into the work area.
        Creating and registering a serialization JSP file for the price rule element
        Create and register a serialization JSP file to take the authoring elements from the PRELEMENT and PRELEMENTATTR tables for your new price rule element and display them in the Management Center user interface. Business users can then set the properties for the price rule element when creating a price rule.
        Creating a properties field in Management Center
        You can enable a customizable field in the properties view for a price list in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool. You can use the extra field to display offers and discounts for certain regions to your customers.
      - Registering custom command implementations in the command registry
        If your store uses custom commands that handle pricing terms for contracts that do not use price rules, you must register the command implementations. This is required so that you can continue to use your custom command implementations for existing contracts, and also use price rules for new or updated contracts.
      - Displaying an alternative price in Management Center
        You can customize Management Center to show an alternative price to your customers, such as a competitors price, with the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool. This price list is in addition to the list price and offer price. You can choose where to display the alternative price, on pages such as the category page, product detail page, or order flow page.
    - Customizing store preview
      You can customize store preview to add enhancements that help business users work more efficiently. These enhancements include the click-to-edit function and in-context preview function.
    - Customizing content versioning
      The content versioning feature is enabled for some objects in the Catalogs tool in Management Center. You can add or remove content versioning support for existing objects and custom objects by customizing both Management Center and HCL Commerce server.
    - Customizing the infrastructure component
      Customizing the infrastructure component provides you the ability to change configurable properties for Management Center and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) functionality.
    - Developing JSP pages
      To create JSP pages for HCL Commerce, you should have Rational Application Developer skills and JSP skills. You should also be familiar with JSTL.
    - HCL Commerce JSP programming best practices
      This section offers the following selection of JSP programming best practices, which promote development of reusable and easily maintainable JSP pages within the HCL Commerce store development framework:
    - Double-click handling in HCL Commerce
      The purpose of double-click handling in HCL Commerce is to prevent processing the same request twice to ensure data integrity within the system. When processing certain URL requests, such as OrderItemAdd, the double-click feature of HCL Commerce will identify whether the request from the online shopper is currently being processed and blocks the current request if that is the case.
  - Controller layer
    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.
  - Business logic layer
    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.
  - Persistence 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.
  - Business model information model
    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. HCL 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.
  - Business models
    Before starting to develop your site with HCL Commerce, you need to determine the business model supported by HCL Commerce that best represents the purpose of your site. Usually sites created with HCL Commerce will be implemented based on of one of these business models.
  - Store data information model
    Store data is the information that is loaded into the Transaction 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).
  - Customizing HCL Commerce
    You can extend the HCL 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 HCL Commerce Developer to take tutorials that guide you step-by-step through various customization scenarios.
  - Run Engine command framework
    The Run Engine command framework provides predefined commands, that you can use to change environment parameters or container configurations. This framework is built into the HCL provided Docker images.
  - GraphQL for HCL Commerce
    The GraphQL markup language is available for any API. It is a server-side interpreter for processing queries using a data type system you design. With GraphQL, your data and code are independent of any database or storage system.
  - Representational State Transfer (REST) services
    HCL Commerce uses Representational State Transfer (REST) services to provide a framework that can be used to develop RESTful applications on several platforms. These platforms can include web, mobile, kiosks, and social applications.
  - Web services
  - Search
    HCL Commerce comes with a powerful and fully integrated search function. The search functions in HCL Commerce provide an enriched customer experience, with features such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Since it is built on industry standards, HCL Commerce Search is highly flexible and extensible. Starter stores can use the search engine's most sophisticated features without requiring extra customization. Starting with Version 9.1, HCL Commerce Search with Elasticsearch microservices manage indexing and other crucial tasks, with no performance impact on the storefront or transaction server.
- Tutorials
  HCL Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your HCL Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
  Topics in the Samples category highlight the various samples that are provided with HCL Commerce.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage HCL Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of HCL Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
  Topics in the Performance section describe the means by which to plan, implement, test, and re-visit the optimization of HCL Commerce site performance.
- Troubleshooting
  Topics in the Troubleshooting section highlight common issues that are encountered with HCL Commerce, and how they can be addressed or mitigated.
- Reference
  Topics in the Reference section contain all of the HCL Commerce reference documentation.

Example: price rule element template for an action

When creating a custom action for a price rule, you can refer to this sample SQL statement that adds an element template to the PRELETEMPLATE table.

Sample

The purpose of the action in this sample is to get an external price for a catalog entry by calling external service. The SQL statement looks like this:

INSERT INTO PRELETEMPLATE VALUES 
(11,'customGetExternalPriceAction',0,'Custom get external price action element.',3,'
<FlowElementImplementation type="CustomGetExternalPriceAction">
<Implementation invocationType="TaskCommand">
<Class name="com.ibm.commerce.price.rule.commands.element.CustomGetExternalPriceActionElementCmd">
<Argument name="serviceURL" value="PRICERULE_serviceURL"/> 
</Class></Implementation></FlowElementImplementation>',null,null,null,0);

For this example, the PRICERULE_serviceURL parameter in the element template definition will be replaced with the actual URL (for example, http://mycompany.com/external/offerprice) when the price rule is used on the storefront to set pricing.