Develop > Presentation layer > Customize IBM Sales Center > WebSphere Commerce integration > Userdata changes in support of command extension
Userdata properties
When send additional data from the IBM Sales Center client to WebSphere Commerce, you have approximately three choices.
Userdata provides the simplest mechanism and does not require changes to the business object document (BOD) schema. All current BOD messages contain the Userdata element. Userdata provides the ability to pass name-value pairs.
Extend an existing BOD and Model Object is useful when you have a large volume of data to pass, especially where there are repeating groups of data that do not fit well into name-value pairs.
The final method, creating a new BOD and model object, should only be used when the information required to be passed is unrelated to the existing BODs provided by IBM. The data is not related to Customer, Operator, Order, or Product.
These are the advantages and disadvantages to adding data to the Userdata element:
- Advantages
- Requires no schema changes
- Fields are automatically mapped on WebSphere Commerce side
- Difficult with record data - lists of repeating data
- Disadvantages
- Limited amount of data can be passed
- Restricted to name-value pairs
- Cannot use for passing complex data structure, such as a nested one
Related concepts
Userdata changes in support of command extension