WebSphere Commerce data beans

WebSphere Commerce and the WebSphere Commerce development environment include a set of Java beans, called WebSphere Commerce data beans, that access information from the tables in the database. Creating store pages using these beans allows us to display information that may change often, such as catalog groups and product lists, or product prices.

The WebSphere Commerce data beans are grouped into the following areas:

• Access control

• (Enterprise) Approval

• Catalog

• Common

• (Enterprise) Contract

• Coupon promotion, coupon redemption, coupon wallet

• Fulfillment

• Inventory

• Message extension

• Order

• Order management

• Order status

• Payment

• PvC

• Taxation

• User

• User traffic

• Unified Trading Framework

Each WebSphere Commerce data bean accesses information from a particular table. For example, the CatalogGroupDataBean, a catalog bean, accesses information from the CATGROUP table. In that table, the bean accesses information from a particular column through properties. That is, the categoryId property accesses the information in the CATGROUP_ID (catalog group reference number) column in the CATGROUP table.

Some WebSphere Commerce data beans work in conjunction with others. For example, the CategoryDataBean will return a list of the applicable Product or ItemDataBeans within a particular catalog. The ProductDataBean includes the PriceDataBean that allows us to display the price for that product.

Use a JSP editor of your choice, we can choose any WebSphere Commerce data bean to add to the store page and select which properties we want to display from the Bean Property Selection window.

Related concepts
WebSphere Commerce framework overview

Related tasks
Creating a simple data bean
Customizing data beans

Related reference
JSP programming best practice: Use the StoreErrorDataBean data bean for error handling
JSP programming best practice: Use the Commerce-specific tag for bean activation