Tutorials > Content management
Tutorial: Managing content with workspaces using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
This tutorial shows you how to use workspaces in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to add product content to a store.
Learning objectives
In this tutorial, new product data will be added to the store while following a workspace approval process on an authoring server resulting in a set of data ready for publishing to the production instance.
This tutorial does not cover publishing the data to production server from the authoring server.
After completing this tutorial, you should be able to complete the following tasks:
- Create a workspace with task groups and tasks.
- Create a template for a task group.
- Activate a task group to begin the process of changing content.
- Create and contribute product content from within a workspace task.
- Preview changes made from within the task group.
- Approve a task group and its changes.
Time required
Expect this tutorial to take about 2 hours to complete.
Audience
This tutorial is intended for users with the following roles:
- The Workspace Manager creates and activates a workspace with task group and tasks to model the Introduce New Product process.
- The Product Manager works on the workspace task assigned to him and creates content for the store.
- The Workspace Task Group Approver validates the changes by previewing the store and approves the task group to complete the process.
Prerequisites
The tutorial requires an understanding of the workspaces and WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.
Before starting this tutorial, ensure that you have:
- An authoring server instance of WebSphere Commerce or workspaces enabled in a WebSphere Commerce development environment. Ensure the instance or test environment is started.
- A store published in the authoring server instance or development environment.
- Three different users created. The users have the following properties:
User ID Organization Roles jim Root Organization Workspace Manager mike Root Organization Product Manager, Workspace Content Contributor elle Root Organization Product Manager, Workspace Task Group Approver While you do not have to use the user IDs specified in this table, there are references to these users IDs throughout the tutorial.
Lessons in this tutorial
- Create a workspace
In this step, you play the role of Jim, a workspace manager, responsible for managing the process of how content is created, updated and deployed to the store. You will create a workspace designed to support processes for content change that are done on a regular basis. For the tutorial, the workspace will contain a recurring type task group to introduce new products to the catalog. This type of task group will consist of tasks performed by the same individuals and each time the process is approved and completed, it is automatically restarted. You will also create a template from this task group that can be used later.
- Activate the workspace task group
In this step, we will continue to assume the role of Jim, a Workspace Manager, and activate the task group created in the previous step to have the contributors begin work on the workspace. As the task group is recurring, we will be activating a task group that will continuously be activated upon completion with the same tasks and contributors involved.
- Contribute content
In this task, we will assume the role of the Content Contributor Mike who is assigned to work on the Product introductions task group. You will use the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator tool to complete the work for the task group. Complete the work that is assigned to user Mike and create a product.
- Approve content
In this step, we will assume the role of Elle, the content approver that is assigned to approve the Product introductions task group. You will use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator tool to validate the changes made for this task group.