Promotions customization: Management Center

If the default promotion types that are supplied with the Management Center do not meet your business needs, you can create custom promotion types. Business users can then use the custom promotion types in the Management Center Promotions tool to create promotions for the store.

What you need to know before you start

To create a custom promotion type, you should be able to use WebSphere Commerce Developer and you should know the following programming languages:

The Java programming language
The XML programming language, including XSL Transformations (XSLT)

Ensure that you also review the information that is described in the following table:


Required knowledge	Topics
The Management Center Promotions tool and the promotion types that are available by default	Promotions Promotion type feature matrix Creating promotions
Management Center user interface framework and the components that make up the Management Center	Management Center framework
The promotion engine architecture and how promotions are represented in XML	Black box view of the promotion engine's architecture Promotion anatomy Purchase condition XML definition Example: runtime promotion XML
The types of promotion XML (authoring versus runtime) and the role of XSLT templates	How promotion data is stored and managed

If you are introducing a new implementation of some higher level element of the promotion engine, for example, an entirely new purchase condition or a new agenda builder, then you need an in-depth understanding of the promotion engine and how it relates to your customization scenario. See Promotion engine components and Customization scenarios. This type of customization is more complex.

Tutorials and procedures about creating new Management Center promotion types

When you have the required skills and knowledge, and you are ready to create a custom promotion type, the following instructions are available to you:


Topic	What it contains
Tutorial: Creating a promotion type	This detailed tutorial leads you through the steps to create an example custom promotion type, including how to build the Management Center user interface to support the new promotion type. At the end of the tutorial, you test the new promotion type in the Management Center and on the storefront. Sample code for the custom promotion type is also provided. Completing this tutorial provides you with a wealth of knowledge about Management Center promotions customization.
Creating a custom promotion type in the Management Center	This set of generic procedures explains the steps that you must complete to add a custom promotion type. Examples are included in certain procedures.