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.

The Management Center is a rich graphical Web-based tool that business users interact with to manage their business. The Management Center is developed using OpenLaszlo open source technology, which involves writing declarative XML files with embedded JavaScript.
Note: For more information about OpenLaszlo, visit http://openlaszlo.org.
This diagram illustrates a high-level overview of the Management Center framework:WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0.0.0Feature Pack 1

Management Center architecture
Introduced in Feature Pack 2

Management Center architecture

The OpenLaszlo source XML is compiled into and presented as a Flash application, which is downloaded to the client (business user's) browser, and displayed by a Flash player within a Web browser.

Introduced in Feature Pack 2The Management Center Flash application loads configuration information (called definitions) from the Management Center Web application. These definitions are contained in XML files used by the Management Center framework to display all of the tools, business objects, properties views, and list views in Management Center. Since these XML files do not need to be compiled into the Management Center Flash binary file (ManagementCenter.swf), this reduces the frequency with which you need to rebuild the OpenLaszlo Project.

The Flash application makes name-value pair HTTP requests to the Management Center Web application, which communicates through Web services within the WebSphere Commerce Server.

On the server side, the WebSphere Commerce Server receives data from the client and processes actions on the business objects. The Management Center Web application communicates with the WebSphere Commerce Server through SOA/SOI component services.

In between the Management Center client and the WebSphere Commerce Server is the Management Center Web application. It mediates the name-value pair HTTP requests into OAGIS service requests.