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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.
WebSphere Commerce integration with WebSphere Portal
You can integrate WebSphere Commerce, a Business Application Service with WebSphere Portal, an Interaction Service. The Interaction Service provides core portal services (WebSphere Portal) that aggregate applications and content and deliver them as role-based applications. The Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) pattern is used for communication, mediation, transformation and integration with external systems. Using an ESB to integrate the Web services exposed from WebSphere Commerce to the WebSphere Portal promotes a loosely coupled design where the ESB manages the interactions styles between the WebSphere Commerce services and the presentation layer. You do not need to alter your presentation layer to support the protocol and format used by the WebSphere Commerce services. Instead, you rely on the ESB to perform tasks such as message transformation and protocol mediation. Neither WebSphere Commerce nor WebSphere Portal needs to change in order to communicate with one another. The ESB is used to act as an interpreter between the two systems and will translate the messages into a format the receiving system understands.
WebSphere Commerce Portal development environment
The WebSphere Commerce Portal development environment uses Rational Application Developer 7.5 as the workbench tool for coding, testing, and debugging the MVCPortlet application. Since WebSphere Commerce Developer edition also uses the same version of the workbench, it is possible to have both the development environment coexist within the same workspace.
Creating a WebSphere Commerce sample portal page on WebSphere Portal
The sample portal page consists of a set of portlets that demonstrate some of the WebSphere Commerce capabilities through WebSphere Portal. WebSphere Commerce Portlets use cooperative portlet wires. This framework provides online shoppers with a similar shopping experience to that of the WebSphere Commerce Madisons starter store. The framework provides merchants with additional online business sales channels to other portal environments. Each of these portlets provides a unique set of WebSphere Commerce functionality that can be further customized by business partners, integrators, and customers.

Creating a WebSphere Commerce sample portal page on WebSphere Portal

The sample portal page consists of a set of portlets that demonstrate some of the WebSphere Commerce capabilities through WebSphere Portal. WebSphere Commerce Portlets use cooperative portlet wires. This framework provides online shoppers with a similar shopping experience to that of the WebSphere Commerce Madisons starter store. The framework provides merchants with additional online business sales channels to other portal environments. Each of these portlets provides a unique set of WebSphere Commerce functionality that can be further customized by business partners, integrators, and customers.

Before you begin

Setup the WebSphere Commerce Portal development environment.

Procedure

Construct the WebSphere Portal site layout that uses the WebSphere Portal Administration Console, or use a pre-constructed Composite Application template for the Extended Site. For more information, see Managing pages.
Assign the proper access rights to the portal site for the Extended Site user access that uses the predefined WebSphere Portal member groups. For more information, see Controlling access.

Example

A sample XML Access script file for creating a sample WebSphere Portal page layout that uses several MVCPortlet instances to assemble a simple business-to-consumer shopping flow.

CreateSamplePages.xml

For instructions about how to run this script, see the comment in the file WEB-INF/scripts/CreateSamplePages.xml.