WCS8: Commerce Composer

WCS8: Commerce Composer Framework

What is what - 

From feature pack 7 of WCS 7 onwards, a new feature called commence composer is introduced which will help the business to change the layout & alignment of widgets without much involvement from IT team. Widgets are independent components which can be plugged anywhere and will perform the pre-defined functionalities.

A Commerce Composer widget is a frame that displays a specific type of store content, such as ads, product recommendations, or navigational links. To create a layout, you add widgets to slots in a layout template, and then set the properties and content for each widget.

WebSphere Commerce provides the Commerce Composer widget library, which offers over two dozen out of the box widgets for creating store pages rich with features to enhance the shopping experience. You can customize the widgets to suit your store design. You can also use widgets from IBM business partners and other sources, if the widgets are developed to be compatible with the Commerce Composer tool.

Installing the Java Emitter Template (JET) package

Procedure

To install the Java Emitter Template (JET).

1. Start Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect, whichever software that you installed for use with WebSphere Commerce.
2. Click Help > Install New Software...
3. In the Work with field, enter the following URL and then click Add:

http://download.eclipse.org/modeling/m2t/updates/releases/

4. a name for the repository and then click OK.
5. Expand the M2T JET SDK 1.1.1 section.
6. Select Java Emitter Templates (JET) All-In-One Feature.
7. Click Next to install the JET feature.

Some eCommerce Sites -


1. Ripley
http://ripley.cl
http://ripley.com.pe

2. HP
http://shopping.hp.com

3. OPSM
http://opsm.com.au
http://opsm.co.nz

4. Staples Canada
http://staples.ca
http://staples.com

5. Target
http://target.com

6. Barnes & Noble’s stores
http://upenn.bncollege.com
http://sc.bncollege.com
http://temple.bncollege.com

1) WCS-8: How to define error message resources

Retrieving error messages, accomplished in earlier versions of  WCS using the StoreErrorDataBean can also be achieved by using Struts declarative exception handling framework.

Path -
WCDE_ENT70\workspace\CommerceAccelerator\WebContent\WEB-INF\struts-config.xml

Tags -
<message-resources
        className="com.ibm.commerce.struts.messages.WCMessageResourcesConfig"
        factory="com.ibm.commerce.struts.messages.WCPropertyMessageResourcesFactory"
        key="org.apache.struts.action.MESSAGE" null="true" parameter="com.ibm.strutsstore.resources.ApplicationResources">
        <set-property property="additionalProperties" value="com.ibm.commerce.ras.properties.ecServerMessages,com.ibm.commerce.catalog.ras.properties.WcCatalogUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.pa.ras.properties.WcPAUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.search.ras.properties.WcSearchUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.runtime.ras.properties.WcRuntimeUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.tools.devtools.ras.properties.WcDevToolsUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.tools.ras.properties.WcToolsUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.bi.ras.properties.WcBIUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.messaging.ras.properties.WcMessagingUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.portal.ras.properties.WcPortalUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.approval.ras.properties.WcApprovalUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.collaboration.ras.properties.WcCollaborationUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.contract.ras.properties.WcContractUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.price.ras.properties.WcPriceUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.ubf.ras.properties.WcUBFUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.emarketing.ras.properties.WcEMarketingUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.personalization.ras.properties.WcPersonalizationUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.rules.ras.properties.WcRulesUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.member.ras.properties.WcMemberUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.promotion.ras.properties.WcPromotionUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.order.ras.properties.WcOrderUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.payment.ras.properties.WcPaymentUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.fulfillment.ras.properties.WcFulfillmentUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.inventory.ras.properties.WcInventoryUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.ordermanagement.ras.properties.WcOrderManagementUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.returns.ras.properties.WcReturnsUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.negotiation.ras.properties.WcNegotiationUserMessages,com.ibm.commerce.rfq.ras.properties.WcRFQUserMessages,
com.ibm.commerce.utf.ras.properties.WcUTFUserMessages"/>
    </message-resources>


The same can be achieved for single store and multi-stored websites by using this attributes

key="myStore" null="false" parameter="com.mycompany.properties.MyStore" 

instead of 

key="org.apache.struts.action.MESSAGE" null="false"  parameter=""  

WCS Property file -

com.ibm.commerce.ordermanagement.ras.properties.WcOrderManagementUserMessages