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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.
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.
Catalog subsystem
The catalog subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that provides online catalog navigation, partitioning, categorization, and associations. In addition, the catalog subsystem includes support for personalized interest lists and custom catalog display pages. The catalog subsystem contains all logic and data relevant to an online catalog, including catalog groups (or categories), catalog entries, and any associations or relationships among them.
Catalog search methods
WebSphere Commerce offers two search options to address the different needs of customers and administrators. Each of the search formats is based on underlying technology that uses the Catalog Search data bean. The search methods are provided primarily by a search engine and an abstraction layer API from which you can build search features and search tools.

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.
  - 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.
    - Understanding access control
      Access control in a WebSphere Commerce application is composed of the following elements: users, actions, resources, and relationships.
    - Supporting globalization
      The WebSphere Commerce architecture is designed to support globalization. Globalization is the proper design and execution of systems, software, services, and procedures so that one instance of software, running on a single server or end-user machine, can process multilingual data and present culturally correct data in a multicultural environment such as the Internet.
    - Adding and modifying price lists and price policies
      You can add additional price lists, if you require multiple price lists to support cost and list prices.
    - Business relationship assets
    - Catalog subsystem
      The catalog subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that provides online catalog navigation, partitioning, categorization, and associations. In addition, the catalog subsystem includes support for personalized interest lists and custom catalog display pages. The catalog subsystem contains all logic and data relevant to an online catalog, including catalog groups (or categories), catalog entries, and any associations or relationships among them.
      - Master catalog
        The master catalog is the central location to manage your store merchandise. Everything that you need in your store is contained within the master catalog. It is the single catalog that contains all products, items, relationships, and standard prices for everything that is for sale in your store.
      - Master catalog example
        A master catalog for a clothing store could contain catalog groups, products, items, and product sets.
      - Catalog navigation
        Catalogs partition catalog entries and catalog groups into meaningful views for customers.
      - Catalog groups
        Catalog groups are generic groupings of online catalog entries within a catalog. A catalog group may contain more than one catalog group or catalog entries. You can associate catalog groups with any number of catalogs. For example, the "Men's Pants" catalog group can be associated to the "Summer", "Winter" and "Spring" catalogs.
      - Catalog and marketing attachments - developer overview
        For catalog and marketing assets, an attachment consists of an attachment relationship, attachment target, and an attachment asset.
      - Configurable products
        Think of configurable products as made-to-order products that are dynamically configured by the customer. This configuration (or grouping) of products is based on the customer's requirements and is sold as a single unit. In WebSphere Commerce, this type of configuration is called a dynamic kit and is one of the available catalog entries. The components of a dynamic kit are composed by an external product configurator through a set of predefined rules and user interaction. There are several product configurators available that can be used to configure dynamic kits. While WebSphere Commerce does not supply a product configurator, support and integration is provided for an external product configurator.
      - Catalog entries
        Catalog entries represent merchandise in an online catalog that often includes a name or part number, a description, one or more offer prices, images, and other details. A catalog entry can be a product, item, package, bundle, or dynamic kit.
      - Packages and bundles
        Packages and bundles are groupings of catalog entries used for promotional purposes.
      - Products and items
      - Configuring Catalog boundaries to prevent unbound exceptions
        The catalog subsystem defines business object values for product search results. The default values are defined in the xml/config/com.ibm.commerce.catalog/wc-admin-component.xml file. Limit controls are disabled by default. You can enable it by changing the values to meet your business needs.
      - Catalog search methods
        WebSphere Commerce offers two search options to address the different needs of customers and administrators. Each of the search formats is based on underlying technology that uses the Catalog Search data bean. The search methods are provided primarily by a search engine and an abstraction layer API from which you can build search features and search tools.
        Simple catalog search
        The basic Catalog Search allows the customer to navigate the catalog quickly to find items of interest. Customers enter one input criteria as the complete search expression. By specifying one or more words into a single expression, items from the catalog that match those words are returned in the search results. Boolean support returns results that contain any one word from the expression. This type of search is typical of those offered as one part of a panel on any Web page.
        Advanced catalog search
        The advanced version of the catalog search feature provides a more comprehensive search facility to your customers through the use of flexible search terms that limit search results.
        Catalog search bean
        The catalog search functionality is implemented by a data bean that generates SQL queries against the database.
        Adding catalog search to your site
        To add catalog search to your site, you must add the CatalogSearch data bean to each page from which you want to make a search available.
        Catalog search features
        Both the simple catalog search and the advanced catalog search provide the features explained in this section.
        Catalog search performance
        The Catalog Search feature uses what is known as a vertical schema search. A vertical schema search searches through tables in which data is stored vertically in name/value pairs, rather than through data stored horizontally in predefined columns. This flexibility impacts performance to some degree because the data is not optimized for searching. The simple catalog search will perform about as fast as a simple text string search and customers will not experience a significant delay between launching a search and obtaining results, except those caused by common Internet traffic constraints.
        Customizing catalog search
        Due to varying site requirements, you will probably find it necessary to use database table columns in your search that do not exist in the catalog search framework provided upon installation. The catalog search framework search engine is a class.
        Catalog search limitations
        If you choose to implement catalog search functionality for your site, you should be aware of the limitations explained in this section.
        Search method comparison
        Refer to the table in this section for a list of available search methods. The Features, Usage, and Scope columns describe each search method's features and limitations.
    - Member subsystem
      The Member subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that includes data for participants of the WebSphere Commerce system. A member can be a user, a group of users (also known as a member group), or an organizational entity (which can be an organization, such as "IBM" or an organizational unit within an organization, such as "Electronic Commerce Division"). Business logic in the Member subsystem provides member registration and profile management services. Other services which are closely related to the Member subsystem include access control, authentication, and session management.
    - Currency
      You can display prices in your site in one currency, or you can use multiple currencies by following the instructions for the euro. For a site with multiple stores, you can use different currencies for the stores, or you can assign currencies to the store group. Depending on the type of site that you are creating, you can specify what currencies you want to use and how they are displayed. You can also allow customers to select a shopping currency.
    - Returns
    - Tax codes
      A tax calculation code indicates the tax calculation for order items. A store typically collects two type of taxes: sales or use tax, and shipping tax. The tax codes are unique within each tax type for a store. Only one tax calculation code of each tax type is applied to a particular order item.
    - Calculation framework
      Commerce systems need to calculate monetary amounts and apply them to business objects. Business rules and legal requirements specify how and when these monetary amounts should be calculated. When these rules and requirements change, a good commerce system can adapt to the changes with little or no programming changes.
    - Order Management subsystem
      The Order Management subsystem is a component of the WebSphere Commerce Server that provides shopping carts, order capture, order fulfillment, inventory, and payment function support.
    - Stored procedure error codes
      The following table describes the error codes that are returned by specific WebSphere Commerce stored procedures. You should receive these error messages only when a problem with the data requires further investigation by a technical person. If you receive one of these errors (other than error code 0) and you cannot determine the cause of the error, contact IBM WebSphere Commerce support for assistance.
    - Trading subsystem
  - 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

Catalog search methods

WebSphere Commerce offers two search options to address the different needs of customers and administrators. Each of the search formats is based on underlying technology that uses the Catalog Search data bean. The search methods are provided primarily by a search engine and an abstraction layer API from which you can build search features and search tools.

The following search methods are available:

Catalog search: The catalog search provides both basic and advanced search functionality to your site for use by customers.
Catalog search enables you to implement a search tool for your customers that is powerful enough to search both vertical and horizontal constraints to locate products. By adding a simple search interface to any JSP file in your site, you can provide your customers an additional way to locate products.

These two types of search are complementary.