Overview of customizing WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, Organization Administration Console, or Administration Console

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Overview of customizing WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, Organization Administration Console, or Administration Console

The WebSphere Commerce browser-based tools (WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, Organization Administration Console, Administration Console) can be extended or changed. In addition to customizing the tools you can also create a new browser-based tool that uses the same underlying framework. A new tool based on the tools framework is referred to as a WebSphere Commerce tools user interface center.

What know before you start

To customize the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, you require knowledge in the following areas:

HTML

JavaScript

XML

Structured Query Language (SQL)

Java programming

JavaServer Pages technology

WebSphere Commerce development environment

You should also have the knowledge described in the following table:

Required knowledge See
Understand the high level architecture of how the user interface interacts with business users, and the WebSphere Commerce Server. Understand the best practices for how to customize each asset type. WebSphere Commerce Accelerator architecture
Understand the UI elements such as wizards or notebooks that you can add to any of the WebSphere Commerce tools user interface centers. Tools framework
If we will add operational reports to WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, understand the reporting framework. Reporting framework

Tutorials, samples and procedures

When you have the required skills and knowledge, and you are ready to customize a WebSphere Commerce tool, the following instructions are available to help you:

Topic What it contains
Customize the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator home page You can change the default WebSphere Commerce Accelerator home page to a custom page.
Customize the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator CSS files The appearance of the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator is governed by a cascading style sheet (CSS). The simplest customization of the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator is modifying this file to make changes to the format, font, or behavior of the text and other elements within the interface. In this file, we will also find URLs that point at the various background images.
Add a new user message To incorporate user messages into the user interface elements, you create several assets.
Add a medium sized image to the Product Management tool You can customize the view tabs and columns for the Product Management tools pages.
Add a new tab to the Product Management tools To add a new tab to the Product Management tools to better meet the business needs, you can customize the JSP files and create a new command to reuse the product line update command, and fulfill additional tasks.
Implement keyword search in the Product Management tool To enhance search in the store, you can customize the Catalog Entry Search page by supporting keyword search, providing a new level of search results.
Example: Adding an action button to the Campaigns list page This scenario is a generic example describing how to add an action button to a list page. You can adapt this scenario it to other components, with different targets by changing the appropriate assets.
Example: Enabling custom text fields on the Content dialog The content component acts as a repository for any marketing collateral, including images and flash animations, that is designed to support a campaign. Content displays in the space defined by either a content spot, or an e-Marketing Spot, and is obtained from the database when the server renders the page. Content may be associated with a click action, which is a URL that specifies an action to perform when a customer clicks on the content.
Example: Altering the relative field locations on the Content dialog The content component in WebSphere Commerce acts as a repository for any marketing collateral, including images and flash animations, that is designed to support a campaign. Content displays in the space defined by either a content spot, or an e-Marketing Spot, and is obtained from the commerce database when the commerce server renders the page. Each content may be associated with a click action, which is a URL that specifies an action to perform when a customer clicks on the content.
Reporting framework Add a new operational report to the WebSphere Commerce

Tools framework
The tools framework defines user interface elements and functionality used to control and manipulate these elements.

Related concepts

Application developer information road map

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Required knowledge	See
Understand the high level architecture of how the user interface interacts with business users, and the WebSphere Commerce Server. Understand the best practices for how to customize each asset type.	WebSphere Commerce Accelerator architecture
Understand the UI elements such as wizards or notebooks that you can add to any of the WebSphere Commerce tools user interface centers.	Tools framework
If we will add operational reports to WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, understand the reporting framework.	Reporting framework

Topic	What it contains
Customize the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator home page	You can change the default WebSphere Commerce Accelerator home page to a custom page.
Customize the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator CSS files	The appearance of the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator is governed by a cascading style sheet (CSS). The simplest customization of the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator is modifying this file to make changes to the format, font, or behavior of the text and other elements within the interface. In this file, we will also find URLs that point at the various background images.
Add a new user message	To incorporate user messages into the user interface elements, you create several assets.
Add a medium sized image to the Product Management tool	You can customize the view tabs and columns for the Product Management tools pages.
Add a new tab to the Product Management tools	To add a new tab to the Product Management tools to better meet the business needs, you can customize the JSP files and create a new command to reuse the product line update command, and fulfill additional tasks.
Implement keyword search in the Product Management tool	To enhance search in the store, you can customize the Catalog Entry Search page by supporting keyword search, providing a new level of search results.
Example: Adding an action button to the Campaigns list page	This scenario is a generic example describing how to add an action button to a list page. You can adapt this scenario it to other components, with different targets by changing the appropriate assets.
Example: Enabling custom text fields on the Content dialog	The content component acts as a repository for any marketing collateral, including images and flash animations, that is designed to support a campaign. Content displays in the space defined by either a content spot, or an e-Marketing Spot, and is obtained from the database when the server renders the page. Content may be associated with a click action, which is a URL that specifies an action to perform when a customer clicks on the content.
Example: Altering the relative field locations on the Content dialog	The content component in WebSphere Commerce acts as a repository for any marketing collateral, including images and flash animations, that is designed to support a campaign. Content displays in the space defined by either a content spot, or an e-Marketing Spot, and is obtained from the commerce database when the commerce server renders the page. Each content may be associated with a click action, which is a URL that specifies an action to perform when a customer clicks on the content.
Reporting framework	Add a new operational report to the WebSphere Commerce