Elite starter store

The Elite starter store contains all the features that are offered by the Madisons starter store plus additional B2B capabilities. You can use the Elite starter store as a stand-alone store using the Advanced B2B direct business model or as an asset store in the Extended Sites business model.

Beginning in Feature Pack 8, the Elite starter store is deprecated. If you want the latest WebSphere Commerce capabilities for a B2B direct store, publish the Aurora starter store as a B2B direct store. For more information, see Aurora as a B2B direct starter store.

The Elite starter store provides all the pages and features necessary for a functioning B2B online store. It is packaged with WebSphere Commerce as a store archive (Elite.sar). The Elite starter store demonstrates best practices in store development with WebSphere Commerce, and can act as a base for implementing storefronts. It uses Rich Internet Application (RIA) technologies such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) and Dojo widgets to provide customers with an interactive and rich shopping experience. It follows best practices in web design, such as using CSS and DIV tags for page layout, design, and styling.

The Elite starter store delivers feature-rich and interactive web applications that are compatible across platforms and browsers by taking advantage of Ajax and Dojo widget technologies. Ajax technologies enable web applications to retrieve data from the server asynchronously, while the browsing session remains intact. For example, refresh areas are present in pages for areas where content can be changed on the page, such as a current order. Dojo widgets enable the store users to dynamically interact with the pages, such as adding the ability to quickly view product information, rather than navigating to the specific individual product pages.

WebSphere Commerce services are used in the Elite starter store for all marketing, member, and order component interactions. Product attributes are retrieved using catalog services. The store uses data beans and commands when required, as all runtime functionality is not available using services alone.