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WebSphere Commerce Version 8
  • Overview
  • What's new
  • User Guide
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  1. Home
  2. User Guide

    The information contained in this section applies to WebSphere Commerce Version 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in a newer section.WebSphere Commerce is a single, unified e-commerce platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), directly with businesses (B2B), and indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models). WebSphere Commerce is designed to be a customizable, scalable, and high availability solution that is built to leverage open standards. 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.

  3. Developing

    The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.

  4. 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.

  5. Operational architecture

    Operational architecture includes the system design and topology and the non-functional requirements of the WebSphere Commerce system.

  • User Guide

    The information contained in this section applies to WebSphere Commerce Version 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in a newer section.WebSphere Commerce is a single, unified e-commerce platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), directly with businesses (B2B), and indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models). WebSphere Commerce is designed to be a customizable, scalable, and high availability solution that is built to leverage open standards. 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.

    • Planning

      Creating a custom implementation of a WebSphere Commerce store requires a significant amount of planning. From gathering client needs, to deploying the live solution, much work is needed to successfully deploy a custom client store. Use the resources in here to help you plan every phase of store creation.

    • Installing

      Review the following sections for information about installing the WebSphere Commerce product, associated maintenance, and WebSphere Commerce enhancements.

    • Migrating

      Before you migrate to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.

    • Deploying

      The topics in this section describe how to publish stores to either a test or production environment, and how to deploy customized code.

    • Operating
    • Integrating

      Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using WebSphere Commerce in combination with other products.

    • Administering
    • Tutorials

      WebSphere Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your WebSphere Commerce instance and stores.

    • Samples
    • Developing

      The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.

      • 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.

        • WebSphere Commerce common architecture

          Before examining how the WebSphere Commerce Server functions, it is useful to look at the larger picture of the software components that relate to WebSphere Commerce.

        • Operational architecture

          Operational architecture includes the system design and topology and the non-functional requirements of the WebSphere Commerce system.

      • Persistent object model

        WebSphere 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.

      • 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.

      • 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. WebSphere 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 WebSphere Commerce, you need to determine the business model supported by WebSphere Commerce that best represents the purpose of your site. Usually sites created with WebSphere 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 WebSphere Commerce 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 WebSphere Commerce

        You can extend the WebSphere 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 WebSphere Commerce Developer to take tutorials that guide you step-by-step through various customization scenarios.

      • WebSphere Commerce development environment

        WebSphere Commerce Developer is the development toolkit for customizing a WebSphere Commerce application.

      • Web services and WebSphere Commerce

        A web service is an interface that describes a collection of operations that are accessible through the network by using standardized XML messaging.

      • WebSphere Commerce Search

        WebSphere Commerce comes with a powerful and fully integrated search function. The search functions in WebSphere Commerce provide an enriched customer experience, with features such as automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Since it is built on open standards, WebSphere Commerce Search is highly flexible and extensible. Starter stores can use the search engine's most sophisticated features without requiring extra customization. A key feature of Search is that sales personnel can create and manage search term associations, and search-based merchandising rules, from within the Management Center and Store view.

    • Compliance

      The following section describes how you can leverage WebSphere Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.

    • Securing

      These topics describe the security features of WebSphere Commerce and how to configure these features.

    • Performance
    • Troubleshooting

Operational architecture

Operational architecture includes the system design and topology and the non-functional requirements of the WebSphere Commerce system.

Refer to the following topics:

  • WebSphere Commerce development environment
  • Performance tuning
  • Securing
  • Loading utilities
  • Deploying
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