What's new for integrators
Learn about the new features and functions WebSphere Commerce offers integrators that responsible for integrating WebSphere Commerce with other IBM and third-party solutions.This section describes the new additions and changes within only the initial WebSphere Commerce Version 9.0.0.0 release. For more information about new additions and changes for WebSphere Commerce Version 9 available through update packages, see:
- What's new in the latest update packages for WebSphere Commerce
- What's new in earlier update packages for WebSphere Commerce
For more information about update packages, including how WebSphere Commerce releases update packages, see Maintenance.
Watson Content Hub integration
Watson Content Hub (formerly DX Content Hub) gives business owners the power to create iconic, robust, and consistent brand experiences by using cloud-based, cognitive content management capabilities. Marketing and merchandising professionals can quickly select content to create relevant offers that are delivered across multiple channels, such as mobile, web-based or email, including those delivered by IBM Marketing Cloud Transact XML and IBM Commerce on Cloud. WebSphere Commerce Version 9 provides the following Watson Content Hub integration enhancements compared to WebSphere Commerce Version 8:
- We can use Watson Content Hub content for product-specific attributes and overrides.
- A single sign-on (SSO) can be used between Management Center and Watson Content Hub. The single sign-on lets you access the asset picker for catalog, marketing, and attachments.
- Web development tools are available for use to push web assets such as JavaScript, CSS, and image files to Watson Content Hub. This is facilitated by enabling the Watson Content Hub store function in the Store Management tool, and then using wchtools. IBM recommends that we use wchtools when you have a large number of external content or assets to upload to Watson Content Hub.
- We can use store preview to preview unpublished assets from Watson Content Hub in your store.
Generic External Order system integration
Integrate a distributed order management (DOM) system with the store to provide comprehensive coverage of the order lifecycle across channels, from capture to fulfillment.
Externalized Customization (xC)
Externalized customization is a new programming pattern that introduces a separation between the core application components and our customizations. By using this new pattern WebSphere Commerce can deliver innovation more quickly. More importantly, the new programming pattern allows us to deploy innovation more quickly. Developers create customization code external to WebSphere Commerce. When the business logic is called that you customized, there is a reference to fetch the customized instruction instead of running the IBM provided code. This isolation of customization also improves security, and the stability of your application, the e-commerce store.
Extending WebSphere Commerce with xC extension points
Payment integration
We can integrate WebSphere Commerce with a payment service provider through payment tokenization. With payment tokenization, the shopper enters payment information through WebSphere Commerce, and WebSphere Commerce calls the payment service provider to replace sensitive payment information such as credit card number with a surrogate value (token). In this model, WebSphere Commerce only saves the token for payment processing, and non-sensitive data such as masked credit card number for display purposes.
Taxation integration
We can integrate WebSphere Commerce with a third-party tax calculation system to provide tax calculations for the store. Integrating with a third-party tax service provider can help you to build and maintain a highly secure e-commerce site with a worldwide tax calculation process. Use the available WebSphere Commerce tax integration extension points to create any extensions that you need for integrating with your third-party tax calculation system. The tax integration xC extensions are a set of task commands that are called by the order component to communicate with the third-party tax calculation system when the tax integration feature is enabled.
Generic External Inventory system integration
Integrate an inventory management system with the store to ensure that inventory availability is constantly updated to reflect the store's current inventory levels. Inventory includes anything that can be physically accounted for in a fulfillment center such as items, products, SKUs, bundles, and prebuilt kits.
Apple Pay on the Web integration
Originally introduced in WebSphere Commerce Version 8, Apple Pay on the Web integration with WebSphere Commerce provides you with an easy and secure way to accept and process payments. Apple Pay on the Web enables customers to purchase products in the Aurora starter store with a single touch in Safari on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience on Cloud integration
This integration was originally introduced in WebSphere Commerce Version 8. By integrating Tealeaf Customer Experience on Cloud with WebSphere Commerce, we can track how our customers interact with your web and mobile storefronts. We can use this data to understand shopper behavior and improve the design of the store. Tealeaf Customer Experience on Cloud comes configured with default reports, workspaces, and events. For a more detailed look at how shoppers use your storefront, we can build customized reports, workspaces, and events that suit your business needs.
Dynamic Pricing integration
This integration was originally introduced in WebSphere Commerce Version 8. We can integrate Dynamic Pricing, a cloud-based pricing system, with WebSphere Commerce, so merchandisers can quickly analyze and react to pricing changes in the market. Pricing data can be automatically exported from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing, where the data then is analyzed in relation to business strategies and other sources of market data. Updated prices can be approved and automatically imported to WebSphere Commerce, so the adjusted prices can appear on the live storefront.
UBX audience support
This integration was originally introduced in WebSphere Commerce Version 8. We can integrate Universal Behavior Exchange (UBX) with WebSphere Commerce so that we can import and export WebSphere Commerce customer segments as UBX audiences between third-party applications.
After enabling UBX integration, we can work with customer segments in the Marketing tool to export information to external applications. This is done by selecting the Allow exports to external applications property when creating a customer segment. Then, we can manage customer segments by importing and exporting them within UBX.
Related concepts
What's new in WebSphere Commerce Version 9.0.1.x