Product overview > What's new summary > New features and functionality > What's new for developers
Development environment enhancements
The WebSphere Commerce development environment contains several enhancements from v6 to v7. These guidelines can help you work with the customized code when using WebSphere Commerce Developer in v7.
- The Rational Application Developer software stack has been updated to v7.5. See Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software, v7.5 releases: new features and enhancements for more information.
- The Dynamic Web Projects project no longer exists as a container for the projects. All projects are now in the root directory of WebSphere Commerce Developer.
- Several context menus have changed from v6 to v7. For example, New > Other > Simple > File is now simplified to New > File.
- The consumer direct sample store is no longer published by default with WebSphere Commerce. You must publish the consumer direct sample store to work with the customized code and complete several tutorials.
- The WC_EAR directory in WebSphere Commerce v7 now contains xml and properties directories. In WebSphere Commerce v6, the directories were located in the WCDE_INSTALL/xml and WCDE_INSTALL/properties directories.
- WebSphere Commerce v7 supports Apache Derby instead of Cloudscape. IBM has dropped support for the Cloudscape database. If you are using IBM Cloudscape it is recommended that you upgrade to the recent release of Apache Derby.
- When working with OpenLaszlo .lzx files, the property value of an element cannot contain a blank space. If a blank space is present, an invalid JavaScript identifier warning is displayed and causes the view display to fail. For example, in RecipeInstructionsPropertiesView.lzx, the Instruction Properties name value changes to InstructionProperties.
- The pattern that was based on the design pattern toolkit (DPTK) has been upgraded to use Java Emitter Templates (JET). It is part of Rational Application Developer 7.5 instead of an external add-on.
- The Catalog service has been updated. The catalog service XPaths are changed to be successful in the tutorials.
- The Madisons starter store supports more colors by default in WebSphere Commerce v7. The customization code assets in WebSphere Commerce v6 for Feature Pack 5 must be updated to reflect the new number of default colors.
The development environment workspace now contains xml and properties directories
The WC_EAR directory in WebSphere Commerce v7 now contains xml and properties directories. In previous versions of WebSphere Commerce, the directories were located in the WCDE_INSTALL/xml and WCDE_INSTALL/properties directories.
Related concepts
Development environment - differences between releases