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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.
Developing
The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.
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.
WebSphere Commerce enterprise beans
The persistence layer within the WebSphere Commerce architecture is implemented according to the EJB component architecture. The EJB architecture defines two types of enterprise beans: entity beans and session beans. Entity beans are further divided into container-managed persistence (CMP) beans and bean-managed persistence (BMP) beans.
Object life cycles
The enterprise beans in the object model include both independent and dependent objects. An independent object has its own life cycle, controlled directly by the create or remove requests of the business logic invoking the object. A dependent object has a life cycle that is attached to another object, known as the owner object (which may also in turn be a dependent object, but further up the association hierarchy, an independent object exists). When the owner object is deleted, all dependent objects are also deleted. The actual deletes are controlled by cascading delete specifications within the database.

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.
  - 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.
    - WebSphere Commerce enterprise beans
      The persistence layer within the WebSphere Commerce architecture is implemented according to the EJB component architecture. The EJB architecture defines two types of enterprise beans: entity beans and session beans. Entity beans are further divided into container-managed persistence (CMP) beans and bean-managed persistence (BMP) beans.
      - Object life cycles
        The enterprise beans in the object model include both independent and dependent objects. An independent object has its own life cycle, controlled directly by the create or remove requests of the business logic invoking the object. A dependent object has a life cycle that is attached to another object, known as the owner object (which may also in turn be a dependent object, but further up the association hierarchy, an independent object exists). When the owner object is deleted, all dependent objects are also deleted. The actual deletes are controlled by cascading delete specifications within the database.
      - Transactions
        The Enterprise JavaBeans Version 2.1 architecture specifies three alternative commit-time options with respect to the instance state.
      - Primary keys
        A primary key is a unique key that is part of the definition of a table. It can be used to distinguish one record from others. All records must have a primary key. When you create a new record in a table, you may need to generate a unique primary key for the record.
      - Access beans
        WebSphere Commerce commands interact with access beans rather than directly with entity beans. EJB access beans can greatly simplify client access to enterprise beans and alleviate the performance problems that are associated with remote calls for multiple enterprise bean attributes.
      - Extending the WebSphere Commerce object model
        Application requirements may lead you to extend the existing WebSphere Commerce object model. The WebSphere Commerce object model can be extended in two ways.
  - 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

Object life cycles

The enterprise beans in the object model include both independent and dependent objects. An independent object has its own life cycle, controlled directly by the create or remove requests of the business logic invoking the object. A dependent object has a life cycle that is attached to another object, known as the owner object (which may also in turn be a dependent object, but further up the association hierarchy, an independent object exists). When the owner object is deleted, all dependent objects are also deleted. The actual deletes are controlled by cascading delete specifications within the database.

For example, given a user object that returns an address book object and a list of order objects, if the user object is deleted, its address book object is also deleted (since the book is owned by the user), and so are all the address objects within the book (since the addresses are owned by the book). However, the order objects are not deleted because the owner of orders is a store object, not the user object.

A specific design pattern is used for the creation of dependent objects. The create method of a dependent object must supply a reference to its owner object; therefore, the owner object must exist before the dependent object can be created.