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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.
Customizing IBM Sales Center
In the IBM Sales Center for WebSphere Commerce there is a set of user interface panels, views and dialogs that contain the most commonly used features. You can add to or configure the user interface to suit your needs, as well as changing the content and format of the data that is passed between the client and the server.
Perspectives
A perspective is a particular rendering of the IBM Sales Center that contains a predefined combination of views and editors. There are two perspectives in the IBM Sales Center, the Orders and Web Browser perspectives, that enable different sets of tasks. Both perspectives can be open and visible, but only one can be active at a time.
Extending a perspective
Existing perspectives can be extended by adding new views, placeholders, short cuts and action sets. Most elements are straight forward; a name and an ID to identify the item to be added. Views have additional attributes to describe the relative positioning and visual characteristics of the new view being added.

Extending a perspective

Existing perspectives can be extended by adding new views, placeholders, short cuts and action sets. Most elements are straight forward; a name and an ID to identify the item to be added. Views have additional attributes to describe the relative positioning and visual characteristics of the new view being added.

Procedure

Create an implementation class for the perspective to be extended. The following sample adds a new view to the orders perspective:


package extensions;

import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart;

public class ExtendedView extends ViewPart {

        public void createPartControl(Composite arg0) {
                setPartName("Extended View");
        }

        public void setFocus() {
        }
}

Use the base Eclipse org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtension extension point. A complete description of the extension point and the syntax are available in the developer documentation for org.eclipse.ui. In the example, the extension is defined in a new plug-in called extensions:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?eclipse version="3.0"?>
<plugin>
  
   <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.views">
      <view name="Extended View"
            
            id="extensions.ExtendedView">
      </view>
   </extension>
   <extension point="org.eclipse.ui.perspectiveExtensions">
      <perspectiveExtension
targetID="com.ibm.commerce.telesales.ordersPerspective">
         <view id="extensions.ExtendedView"
               relative="com.ibm.commerce.telesales.storesView"
               relationship="bottom"
               ratio="0.8"/>
      </perspectiveExtension>
   </extension>
</plugin>