WebSphere Commerce Workspace Management

Solution DescriptionWorkspace Enabled WebSphere CommerceContent Features3rd Party CMS (optional)Advanced Features (workflow, notification, web content management)Workspace supportApproval workflowPreview, Attachments Publish, contentSpotIntegration servicesWorkspace enablementWorkspace enabled bulk load capabilityBusiness ToolingCatalog ToolingMarketing ToolingAttachment Tooling

Workspaces - Empowering the Business UserWorkspaces enable separation of function and dataEnable data separation by store and/or eventCollaborate on changes without corruption from other projects changes

Workspaces empower the business user to decideDetermine when changes are complete/approvedPublish directly to productionPublish both database and file assets to production

Workspaces provide control and ensure accuracyAssignment of users to tasksEnable control over what can be publishedPreview changes by date/time/user

Workspaces - Empowering the Business User

Commerce WorkspacesWorkspacesProvide separation of data for business usersChanges/preview are visibly scoped a workspaceBusiness users in other workspaces do not see other workspace changes Task GroupsGroup tasks within a workspace that need to share data but have different approval or scheduling needsApprove work directly to productionTasksUnit of assigned work within a task groupContent contributors are assigned to tasksTasks appear on the content contributor's task list within accelerator until they mark them complete

Workspace Enabled AssetsStatic content as collateral spots on your web page.Business objects and associated content.Products & attributesCatalogs & CategoriesMerchandising AssociationsAdCopy & Campaigns

Attachments are any file assetsImagesReference documents (pdfs, doc etc.)Engineering diagramsURLsAssociated to business contentCatalog objectsMarketing collateralStore content Commerce Attachments

WorkspaceNWorkspace1Workspace2Workspace Management Data ModelRead Schema data is union of WS and BS where WS overrides BS.. . .

Workspace Management Data model per workspaceWorkspace PreviewWC Accelerator under a workspace taskRead Schema data is union of WS and BS where WS overrides BS.readContent updateWC Admin Consoles, Stores, WC Accelerator (no workspace)read-onlyABCABCContent updateStore/config updateLoader

Workspace Management Commit data modelWorkspace PreviewWC Accelerator under a workspace taskRead Schema data is union of WS and BS where WS overrides BS.readContent/attachment updateWC Admin Consoles, Stores, WC Accelerator (no workspace)read-onlyABCABCContent updateStore/Config updateCApproval (commit)Loader

Commerce Workspace Management Integration ScenariosBusiness Content IntegrationExternal Product Information Management integration (Backend Enterprise systems, WPC).Workflow Engine IntegrationControl workflow across Enterprise Content Management.Attachment Repository ManagementManage attachments into separate repository (such as Web Content Management tool).Web Content Workspace IntegrationWeb Content Management mapping to a Workspace to preview and fetch data in synch.CustomizationAbility to add additional workspace enabled resources.Customized workspace/task group/task management.

Commerce Workspaces - Business Content IntegrationWeb Content Management SystemCommerce ContentTooling (Accelerator)Workspace AdministrationWorkspace EnabledData ModelWC File SystemWeb Designers, Graphic ArtistsMarketing/ Merchandising TasksFile SyndicationCommerce Content, AttachmentsAttachment CommitBusiness ContentTooling (WPC)

Loader Data FeedProduct Data ManagementWorkspace Context ServiceProduct ManagersJSPs, HTML

Commerce Workspaces Integration ScenariosWeb Content ManagementCommerce ContentTooling (Accelerator)WorkflowEngineWorkspace EnabledData ModelWC File SystemWeb DesignersMarketing/ Merchandising TasksFile SyndicationCommerce ContentAttachment CommitBusiness ContentTooling (WPC)

Loader Data FeedWorkspace Context ServiceProduct Management TasksAttachmentsWorkspace Preview AdapterPreview file requestWorkflow process to Workspace Data Model mappingJSPs, HTML

Schema ManagementWorkspace schema creation is done during instance creation via Ant task. (In Toolkit there is an additional enableWorkspace.bat).Fixed number of reusable workspaces managed in CMWSSCHEMA table.

Schemas are mapped to workspace through identifiers and allocated during Workspace activation and must be released explicitly when WS is complete.Each Workspace contains read/write schemas for all tables. Tables can be defined as follows:Content: a copy of the physical table in the write schema (with added WS columns). Read schema is join between base and write schema.Operational: a copy of the physical table in the write schema (with added WS columns). Read schema alias to write schema.Configuration: Read and Write Schema alias to base.Schema is created based on table definitions in xml files

Configuration and contextsTwo new webapps involved: Workspace Administration webappPreview WebApp (contains the File Serving Servlet)All requests to view files from UI should specify port/path to File Serving Servlet.Preview UI will route to Preview WebApp to establish new contextsUnder Darwyn a new persistent model exists for maintaining session information contained under ActivityToken. Content Context and Preview Context are supported through this infrastructure to identify state of session.

CMMETADATA table Contains lock information and also history of updates in a workspace.Plan in future is to use for publish

Resource Managers / ContainersProgramming Model and Object Model based on Resource Containers and Resource ManagersResource Container maps to a component and defines scope of tables plus can also determDefault implementation of Resource Managers based on Access Beans (specify in the XML file)Resource Managers uses ActivityToken to switch schemasResource Manager actions:createResource expects an EntityData object.Based on the class name provided it will pass updateResource default implementation Default implementation performs the following:via sql copy the record if not exists into the Workspace SchemaPerform the commit copy helper.SQL Update the row to add WS info.deleteResourceDefault implementation performs the following:If row does not exist in base / but in WS delete the row from WS Schemasql copy the record if not exists into the Workspace Schema and update the row to add WS info.

Some notes:Very important to always perform refreshCopyHelper().