Creating new page layout for Product display page.

In this tutorial let’s discuss of how to create a custom page layout. For this we will take the sample of the product page layout which is already present and on using this existing layout we will create a new layout for the product page. For this we will just modify the existing code for getting familiar of creation of page layout. Later you guys can try trails with your own styles J

Lets start the tast prior to this lets have some basic information like the below :

Store_id, storeent_id, member_id, Max_pagelayout_id.

Lets gather the information by simple queries,

Open the database access JSP,

• Execute : select * from STOREENT where identifier ='Aurora' ; (This query gives STOREENT_ID and MEMBER_ID of our store)
• Execute : select max(PAGELAYOUT_ID) from PAGELAYOUT; (This query gives maximum Pagelayout_id used. So we can make Max+1 for our new page layout)

Creating the new product page layout JSP:

                We will create a new product page layout by just copying the default product page layout and modify it. In the default product page layout, we will find a double e-marketing spot container. Lets remove this code part for our newly creating page layout.

Open the toolkit and search(shft+ctrl+R) ProductDisplay.jsp

Copy and paste there in the same folder(/Stores/WebContent/Aurora/Layouts/).

Then rename the copied file to XProductDisplay.jsp.

Open the newly copied file and start modifying the code by removing the double e-spot container section. Just check-out the sample code part.

<!—Start Double E-Spot Container à

<div class=”widget_double_espot_container_position”>

<div class=”widget_double_espot_container”>

<c:choose>

<c:when test=”${env_fetchMarketingDetailsOnLoad}”>

<div dojoType=”wc.widget.RefreshArea” id=”DoubleContentAreaESpot_Widget” controllerId=”DoubleContentAreaESpot_Controller”>

</div>

</c:when>

<c:otherwise>

<%out.flush();%>

<c:import url=”${env_jspStoreDir}Widgets/Espot/ContentRecommendation/ContentRecommendation.jsp”>

      <c:param name=”emsName” value=”CatalogBanner_Content” />

      <c:param name=”numberContentPerRow” value=”2” />

      <c:param name=”catalogId” value=”${catalogId}” />

      </c:import>      

      <%out.flush();%>

      </c:otherwise>

      </c:choose>

      </div>

      </div>

<!—End Double E-Spot Container -> 

• Lets add some CSS to this newly created page layout. Check-out the sample code part below,

<!-- Product Image and Product Information -->

<style type=”text/css”>

.left_product_information_div

{

float:left;

margin-top : 36px;

positive:relative;

}

.right_product_image_div

{

Border-right-width:0;

Margin-left:14px;

Float:left;

Position:relative;

}

<!-- Content with Right Sidebar -->

.left_recommended_products

{

Float:left;

}

.right_desc

{

Border-right-width:0;

Height:190px;

Width:700px;

Float:right;

}

.infoview

{

Margin-top:40px;

}

</style>

• Now finally modification part is done and now save the file J.

Now lets define the struts entries for the newly created pagelayout.

We will be updating the struts entries by following the below steps,

• Open struts-config-ext.xml and paste the following code part before to </global-forwards> tag

<!—modified for new page layout -->

<forward className="com.ibm.commerce.struts.ECActionForward" name="XProductPageLayoutView/11001" path="/Layouts/ XProductDisplay.jsp "/>

<!—modified for new page layout -->

@Note : the store_id may be different at your end.

• Under the action-mappings update the following code part exactly before the </action-mappings> tag

<!—modified for new page layout -->

<action path=”/XProductPageLayoutView” type=”com.ibm.commerce.struts.baseaction”>

<set-property property=”credentialsAccepted” value=”10101:P”/>

</action>

<!—modified for new page layout -->

• Save the struts file after updating all the modifications.

Update Struts configuration :

• we can update the struts by restarting the server or else
• we can update in the commerce administration console
• both the steps are doing the same task finally.

Now lets add the new thumbnail images in the newly created product page layout:

Copy the images (i.e. product_thumb_large.png and product_thumb_small.png) from stores>web content > Aurora > images > layouts. Edit the images by removing double e-spot rename as XProduct_thumb_small.png and XProduct_thumb_large.png and paste it under the same path.

Register the new product page layout in the DB:

• Restart the server after making all the above mentioned modifications
• Open the DB access JSP from the hintsandtips.html guide.
• Copy the below script and submit the query.

insert into pagelayout(PAGELAYOUT_ID, NAME, MEMBER_ID,

STOREENT_ID,PAGELAYOUTTYPE_ID, MASTERCSS, DEVICETYPE, STATE,

ISTEMPLATE, DESCRIPTION,THUMBNAIL, FULLIMAGE, VIEWNAME) values

(100067, 'Layout used for dress products',7000000000000000101, 10101, 'ProductPage', null,

'Web', 1, 0, 'This layout contains the following widgets: 1. Header, 2. Product image, 3. Product

promotions, 4. Product name, price and ratings, 5. Product short description, 6.Product attributes

and actions, 7. Inventory details, 8. Merchandising associations, 9. E-Marketing Spot for Catalog

entries, 10. Footer.', '/images/layouts/XProduct_thumb_small.png',

'/images/layouts/XProduct_thumb_large.png', 'XProductPageLayoutView');

• Do remember that the above query doesn’t throw any exceptions.

Apply the New layout and start testing :

1. Open the CMC and select Page layout apply our product layout
2. Select the Aurora store

Assign the new layout for the product

• Store pages for Aurora > Apparel > Women > Dresses > Catalog Entry Page layout properties > Product PageLayout Assignments.
• Drag & Drop the newly updated page layout.
• Enter today date and time for the start date in the section
• Select save and close option.

Test the new layout :

1. Publish the server
2. Reload the Aurora home page and navigate to Departments > Apparel > Women > dresses
3. Select an item. Our custom page layout will come up.
4. Now its possible to modify according to our own desired way for any product page with the layout of the same modifications.

@Let me know if any thing major obligation faced during the modifications.

Commerce composer related data..

Commerce composer important tables:

PAGELAYOUT

PAGELAYOUTTYPE

PLLOCATION

PLPAGE

PLSTOREWIDGET

PLTEMPLATEREL

PLWIDGET

PLWIDGETDEF

PLWIDGETDEFDESC

PLWIDGETNVP

PLWIDGETREL

PLWIDGETSLOT

STOREPLTYPES

Some of the important queries:

Select * from PLWIDGET where PAGELAYOUT_ID in (select PAGELAYOUT_ID from PAGELAYOUT where name like 'Sample%');

Select * from PLWIDGETDEF where IDENTIFIER like 'Sample%';

Select * from PLWIDGETDEFDESC where PLWIDGETDEF_ID in (select PLWIDGETDEF_ID from PLWIDGETDEF where IDENTIFIER like 'Sample%');

Select * from PLSTOREWIDGET where PLWIDGETDEF_ID in (select PLWIDGETDEF_ID from PLWIDGETDEF where IDENTIFIER like 'Sample%');

Select * from PAGELAYOUT where name like 'Sample%';

Select * from PLWIDGETREL where PLWIDGET_ID_CHILD in (select PLWIDGET_ID

 from PLWIDGET where PAGELAYOUT_ID in (select PAGELAYOUT_ID from PAGELAYOUT where name like 'Sample%'));

Select * from PLWIDGETSLOT where PAGELAYOUT_ID in (select PAGELAYOUT_ID from PAGELAYOUT where name like 'Sample%');

Do share the related data if anything found so that it can be helpful to others tooo...

Promotion Related DB queries.

--This table contains all the Promotion that is created and it can be identified by the name Under the column "NAME"
select * from PX_PROMOTION where PX_Promotion_id=10000301;

-- This table contains all the promotions that are created and the promotion name is present under "CODE" column
select * from calcode;

-- This table contains all the promotion codes available for the particular store.
select * from px_cdpool;

-- This table contains all the promotion code information for relationships with a promotion.
select * from PX_CDPROMO;

-- This table contains all the promotion code usage information.
select * from PX_CDUSAGE;

-- This table contains all of the coupons issued to individual customers.
select * from PX_COUPON;

-- This table contains promotion description information.
select * from PX_DESCRIPTION ;

-- This table Contains the promotion group information (i.e. under the grpname we can classify the type of promotion it belongs to).
select * from PX_GROUP;

-- This table contains promotion policies (based on the storeent_id we can classify the promotions and also we can get the status of the promotion).
select * from PX_POLICY;

-- This table contains details about how promotions are applied to an order.
select * from PX_PROMOARG;

-- This table contains statistics about promotion usage.
select * from PX_USAGE;

Optimistic locking & Pessimistic locking

Optimistic locking allows you to lower the isolation level that you use in an application so that fewer locks are placed on the database assets. It allows more applications to run concurrently against the database, and potentially increase the throughput of your applications.
To protect against potential database integrity problems brought on by lowering the isolation level, an optimistic locking implementation has to ensure that no integrity problems occur. The WebSphere Commerce implementation utilizes an optimistic predicate column for each table in the WebSphere Commerce database - OPTCOUNTER.
This helps ensure that every time there is a change to the database, the optimistic predicate can be:
1. Updated with a new value
2. Checked for change
 
In this way, the implementation can guarantee that a row in the database has not changed between the time it was read and the time it was written, to protect the integrity of the database.
With this new freedom that optimistic locking offers, of placing fewer locks on the database, for a shorter period of time, one has to realize that there can also be drawbacks.

A Pessimistic locking strategy means the avoidance of optimistic locking issues by placing locks on the database. In other words, pessimistic locking assumes there will be a collision in the database, and takes precautions to avoid these collisions. A pessimistic locking strategy protects the integrity of the database by locking database assets over the entire duration of a transaction, from the beginning to the end. During this period, no other transactions can access the same assets because they are locked. This strategy results in greater wait times for more transactions. It also raises a possibility that these transactions will either time out or potentially become deadlocked.
An Optimistic locking strategy can improve the application execution by shortening the window in which these pessimistic consequences can occur. At the same time, it opens itself up to collisions where two or more transactions attempt to update the same row in the database. When this happens in an optimistic locking strategy, rollbacks (or failures) for one or more (or all) of the transactions can occur.

WebSphere Commerce uses an optimistic locking scheme that allows the database transaction isolation level to be lowered from repeatable read to read committed. Using that scheme, database rows not normally accessed concurrently are not locked with an intent to update when they are read. Instead, when the update is eventually made, the row is checked to make sure it has not been updated concurrently since it was read. If it has been updated concurrently, then the transaction is rolled back and the command may be restarted from the beginning in a new transaction, if appropriate. In this scheme, performance is improved when concurrent updates do not normally occur, because the relatively expensive process of obtaining the database locks with intent to update is avoided. On the other hand, for those operations where concurrent updates are more likely to occur, pessimistic locking, whereby intent to update locks are obtained when the row is read, continues to be used, thus avoiding the more expensive process of rolling back and re-starting from the beginning in a new transaction.

Attribute Data-Model and important tables with queries.

Attribute Data-Model

--Information related to ATTR_ID & IDENTIFIER based on this we will get the ATTR_ID with which we will be proceeding further for the next table.

select * from attr;

-- Information related to ATTRVAL_ID & ATTR_ID & IDENTIFIER based on the previous step we will be getting the ATTRVAL_ID with which we further proceed to get the catentries related to the particular value.

select * from attrval where attr_id=7000000000000009685;

-- Information related to ATTRVAL_ID  & ATTR_ID & CATENTRY_ID based on the previous step we will get the catEntries which are associated to a particular ATTR_ID

(Stores the catalog entry (CATENTRY) and attribute dictionary attribute (ATTR) relationship)

select * from catentryattr where attrval_id=7000000000000021190 and attr_id =7000000000000009685;

Attribute data model

Attribute Data Model-tables

WCS Organisation Structures

Organization Structures

Types of Organizations in WCS are :

1. Consumer Direct Organization.
2. B2B direct Organization.
3. Demand Chain Organization.
4. Extended Sites Organization.
5. Supply Chain Organization 

1.  Consumer Direct Organization.

Consumer Direct Organization.

 

     2.  B2B direct Organization.

B2B direct Organization.

  

    3. Demand Chain Organization.

Demand Chain Organization.

    4. Extended Sites Organization.

Extended Sites Organization.

    

     5. Supply Chain Organization.

Supply Chain Organization.