Next >Tutorial: Adding fields in the Catalogs tool
In this tutorial, you extend the Management Center Catalogs tool to display UserData information, which business users can manage and edit in the tool. In this tutorial. you add language insensitive and language sensitive properties to the Catalogs tool.
- To add a language insensitive property, you customize the Catalogs tool to provide a mechanism for selecting UserData information for products. The CatalogEntry noun uses the UserData element as a data extension point to add new data for the warranty example that is used in this tutorial without changing the logical model. In this tutorial, warranty information is added to the CatalogEntry noun UserData element to demonstrate the addition of language independent properties. A warranty consists of a term or the number of days the warranty applies and a type, either limited or comprehensive. Warranty information is not translated because it contains only the Warranty term and type.
- To add a language sensitive property, you add a property to the CatalogEntryDescription noun. This property defines care instructions for catalog entries. In this tutorial, the care instruction information applies to a specific catalog entry and language. The care instruction consists of a text description of the instruction.
After you complete this tutorial the warranty term UserData column displays on the product list table in the Catalogs tool. The Category Manager can open the property view, browse Warranty information, select values for Warranty term and Warranty type, and save the values to the database. The Category Manager can also open the property view to browse the information for the product care instruction in the Catalogs tool.
Learning objectives
After completing this tutorial, you should be familiar with the concept of Management Center. After completing this tutorial, you should be able to perform the following tasks:
- Extend WebSphere Commerce query templates to include new data.
- Update an object definition to include new UserData or attribute properties.
- Update a properties view definition to include new widgets for displaying new properties.
- Update a list view definition to include new properties.
Time required
Expect this tutorial to take three hours to complete. The tutorial can take longer if you explore concepts related to this tutorial.
Skill level
This tutorial is intended for advanced developers that are responsible for creating and customizing WebSphere Commerce services and customizing Management Center. To complete this tutorial, ensure that we are familiar with the following terms and concepts:
- Web services
- XML
- WebSphere Commerce services
- Relational databases
- SQL
- Rational Application Developer
- Management Center framework
- JSP
- Access control
System requirements
Before starting this tutorial, ensure created a user with the category manager role for testing your Management Center customization. For more information about creating a user, see Creating a user.
Tutorial resources
We can download and review a compressed file containing the code samples used in this tutorial. Download and extract this file to a temporary directory, such as C:\Temp:
Lessons in this tutorial
- Adding language insensitive properties in the Catalogs tool
In this lesson, we are customizing the Catalogs tool to support more UserData information that is added to the CatalogEntry noun. In this tutorial, we are adding support for catalog entry warranty details information. We can follow the same procedure for any language insensitive properties of a noun.- Extending the resource bundle and properties files
In this lesson, you create a properties file containing the text for the new field in the Catalogs tool.- Adding a column to the catalog entry list view
In this lesson, you customize the catalog entry list view by adding warranty information as a new column for catalog entries.- Creating a properties view tab for custom information
In this lesson, you customize the properties view for products to add a tab for displaying warranty information.- Defining the combination box values
In this lesson, you define the values for the warranty term and warranty type combination boxes that display in the list view and properties view. A combination box is a user interface widget that contains a drop-down list of values that a user can select.- Adding language-sensitive properties in the Catalogs tool
In this lesson, you add language-sensitive care instructions as an editable property for products in the Catalogs tool. After you complete the following steps, this property displays on the warranty tab createdd in a previous lesson.- Testing the customization
In this lesson, you verify that our customization is successful by viewing and editing the new property information in the Catalogs tool.