Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite Developer Toolkit FAQs

Transcription

1 Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite Developer Toolkit FAQs Sterling Order Management Sterling Configure, Price, Quote Sterling Warehouse Management System September 2012 Copyright IBM Corporation, US Government Users Restricted Rights Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

2 2 Contents Note: Throughout, links to the information center refer to the Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite V9.2 information center at What is the tiered environment for development, test, and production?... 3 What is Sterling Order Management?... 3 What is the basic installation process?... 4 Is setup different between the three environments?... 4 How do I control whether the application server runs in exploded or EAR mode?... 5 What is the suggested development environment for a laptop?... 5 Is there a recommended process for creating customizations?... 5 Where do I find Javadocs and other documentation for developers?... 6 How do I customize the database?... 6 How do I make changes to APIs or web services?... 6 What is the Console JSP Interface? How do I get started?... 7 What are the RCP applications? How do I get started?... 7 What is the Applications Manager? How do I get started?... 7 What is Sterling Business Center? How do I get started?... 7 What is the Reference Application for Sterling Order Management?... 8 Can I customize agents?... 8 Can I customize transactions?... 8 What is the Condition Builder? How is it used in customizations?... 8 What messaging software is supported?... 8 How do I move my changes from one environment to another?... 9 Are there testing tools?... 9 Is there support for Microsoft COM+?... 9 Can you summarize how to customize Sterling Order Management?... 10

3 3 What is the tiered environment for development, test, and production? IBM Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite includes three product offerings: IBM Sterling Order Management IBM Sterling Configure, Price, Quote IBM Sterling Warehouse Management System Each of the offerings requires a tiered environment, using a combination of application server, Web server, and database server software. Typically, customization projects involve installing the product and working in three environments: Individual development environment, a working environment where you create customizations Shared test environment, a testing environment that integrates all changes and that usually mirrors the production environment Production environment, where final, tested changes are deployed What is Sterling Order Management? Sterling Order Management is a suite of applications and solutions. Installing the base software is a required first step. This layer (IBM Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation) provides six solutions as well as access to the backend database tables, transactions, and APIs that you can customize. Depending on the licensing agreement, you may also install and customize other applications on top of the base layer. After all the components you need are installed in an installation directory, you build an EAR file and deploy this to your development environment. You create your customizations in the development environment. Layer of Sterling Order Management Base software, required installation. Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation includes backend support for APIs, database extensions, and transactions. Description Two administrative tools: Applications Manager IBM Sterling Business Center Six solutions: IBM Sterling Distributed Order Management IBM Sterling Global Inventory Visibility IBM Sterling Logistics Management IBM Sterling Reverse Logistics IBM Sterling Supply Collaboration IBM Sterling Service Delivery and Scheduling

4 4 Layer of Sterling Order Management Order management application software. Optional installations based on the licensing agreement Business intelligence software. Optional installation. Also requires the installation of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Server. Description IBM Sterling Call Center IBM Sterling Store IBM Sterling Store Inventory Management Two solutions: Selling and Fulfillment Foundation Business Intelligence Operational Reports, bundled with IBM Cognos Framework Manager IBM Sterling Business Intelligence, bundled with IBM Cognos Adaptive Analytics. What is the basic installation process? Whether you install your development, test, or production environment, you follow the same basic process: Verify stack requirements. Install and configure a database, either DB2 or Oracle. Install and configure an application server, either IBM WebSphere, JBoss, or Oracle WebLogic. Install the base software and other components supported by the licensing agreement. From the installation directory, build an EAR file. Then deploy the EAR file to the appropriate environment, whether development, test, or production. Is setup different between the three environments? Yes. The installation process is the same, but the application server is set up differently in the three environments: In your development environment, the application server runs in exploded (non-ear) mode. Exploded mode saves time by enabling the application server to automatically load the latest version of edited JSP files directly from specific directories rather than reading them from the compiled EAR file. Thus, you see the results of your changes more quickly without having to repeatedly create the EAR file In the shared test environment, the application server runs in EAR mode when you need to duplicate the production environment. However, it can run in exploded (non-ear) mode when you need to test and adjust customizations quickly. In the production environment, the application server always runs in EAR mode.

5 5 How do I control whether the application server runs in exploded or EAR mode? You control the mode of the application server when you build the EAR file that is deployed on the application server. By default, the EAR file supports production (EAR) mode. To run in exploded (non-ear) mode, include an optional parameter ( Ddevmode-true) when you build the EAR file that will be deployed in the development or test environment. What is the suggested development environment for a laptop? Operating system -- Microsoft Windows Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer (required) with suggested addition of Mozilla Firefox. Database IBM DB2 or Oracle Application server IBM WebSphere, JBoss, or Oracle WebLogic Analytics IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Server with either Adaptive Analytics or Framework Manager as needed. Other helpful tools o SSH client such as PuTTY o SCP client such as PSCP o Text editor such as Microsoft Windows EditPlus o Java Development Kit version 6 o Integrated development environment (IDE) such as Eclipse Is there a recommended process for creating customizations? Projects to customize or extend the product vary with the type of changes that are needed. However, most projects involve an interconnected series of changes that are best carried out in this order: Plan your customizations. Locate developer documentation. Prepare your development environment. You install a database, an application server, and Sterling Order Management software. Then you build an EAR file and deploy it to your development environment. Extend the database. Make other changes to APIs and web services. Customize the user interface. Extend transactions. Build the EAR file and deploy your changes to the shared test environment. Test the changes and adjust as needed.

6 6 When the test environment is satisfactory, build the EAR file and deploy the changes to your production environment. Where do I find Javadocs and other documentation for developers? Two types of developer documentation are provided: Technical reference material such as Javadocs, ERDs, and XSDs are available on the Developer Documentation CD that is included in your media package or is available as an electronic file on Passport Advantage. If you want to make these materials available online within your development environment, use the BUILD_DOC_EAR property when you build the application EAR file and deploy it to your test environment. Conceptual and task documentation about customizations is included in the information center. Go to Navigate to Localization and Customization > Customization. How do I customize the database? For many customization projects, the first task is to extend the database so that it supports the other UI or API changes that you make later. Information about what you can and cannot change in the database is included in the information center. Go to Navigate to Localization and Customization > Customization > Extend the Database. If you modify database tables so that APIs are impacted, you must extend the templates of those APIs or you cannot store or retrieve data from the database. How do I make changes to APIs or web services? The three product offerings can call or invoke standard APIs or custom APIs. Invoke standard APIs for displaying data in the UI and for saving changes made in the UI to the database. Invoke customized APIs for executing your custom logic in the extended service definitions and pipeline configurations. APIs use input and output XML to store and retrieve data from the database. If you don't extend these API input and output XML files, you may not get the results you want in the UI when your business logic is executing. Every API input and output XML file has a DTD and XSD associated to it. Whenever you modify input and output XML, you must generate the corresponding DTD and XSD to ensure data integrity. If you don't generate the DTD and XSD for extended XMLs, you may get inconsistent data. You can customize JAX-WS handlers for web services.

7 7 What is the Console JSP Interface? How do I get started? In Sterling Order Management, the Console JSP Interface is the UI framework that supports these solutions: Sterling Distributed Order Management Sterling Global Inventory Visibility Sterling Logistics Management Sterling Reverse Logistics Sterling Supply Collaboration Sterling Service Delivery and Scheduling To get started, copy the existing JSP file and make the required changes. Go to the information center Navigate to Localization and Customization > Customization > Customize the User Interface > Customizing the Console JSP Interface. What are the RCP applications? How do I get started? In Sterling Order Management, Sterling Call Center, Sterling Store, and Sterling Inventory Store Management are customized through the RCP interface. To create new screens, use Visual Editor (an Eclipse plug-in). To customize existing screens, use the Rich Client Platform Extensibility Tool (supplied). To open a customized UI in another editor, use the YCDExtensionUtils.launchTaskInEditor() utility method. What is the Applications Manager? How do I get started? The Applications Manager is an administrative tool for Sterling Order Management solutions and applications. You customize it through the SWING interface. Go to the information center Navigate to Localization and Customization > Customization > Customize the User Interface > Customizing the Swing Interface. What is Sterling Business Center? How do I get started? Sterling Business Center is an administrative tool for Sterling Order Management solutions and applications. You customize it through the Web UI framework. Go to the information center Navigate to Localization and Customization > Customization > Customize the User Interface > Customizing Sterling Business Center.

8 8 What is the Reference Application for Sterling Order Management? The Reference Application is a sample instance of Sterling Call Center, Sterling Store, or Sterling Inventory Management. You install it in your development or test environment and use it as a planning tool for determining your production implementation. Installing the Reference Application involves identifying sample configuration settings and transactional data that you want to analyze as a possible production implementation. Can I customize agents? Agents are time-triggered transactions. You can configure supplied agents or create your own. Go to To configure supplied agents, navigate to Sterling Order Management > Configure and Administer the System and Users > Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation Configuration. To build your own time-triggered transactions, navigate to Localization and Customization > Customization > Extending Transactions. Can I customize transactions? You can create customized, time-triggered transactions that are invoked and scheduled in the same way that you invoke and schedule supplied transactions. You can coordinate your custom, time-triggered transactions with external transactions and run them either by raising an event, calling a user exit, or invoking a custom API or service. What is the Condition Builder? How is it used in customizations? The Condition Builder is a configuration tool for defining pipelines within Sterling Order Management. In customizations, it is used as part of the service definition framework. You can extend and enhance the standard functionality of your application by extending the Condition Builder and by using it to integrate with external systems. Extend the Condition Builder to define complex and dynamic conditions for executing your custom business logic and using a static set of attributes. Define variables to dynamically configure properties belonging to actions, agents, and services configurations. Set up transactional data security for controlling who has access to what data, how much they can see, and what they can do with it. What messaging software is supported? The three product offerings support message queues that communicate with external systems: Oracle WebLogic JMS

9 9 IBM WebSphere MQ JBoss Messaging IBM WebSphere Default Messaging TIBCO JMS How do I move my changes from one environment to another? Use the Configuration Deployment Tool to move configurations from your test environment to your production environment. Are there testing tools? Use the HTTP API tester within your test environment to test the upload and download of binary large objects (BLOBs). To upload a BLOB, user information (user ID and password) should already be present in the session. If a session is not already open, you can make a dummy API call so that user information gets stored in the session. You do not need to make a dummy API call to download a BLOB. Use the change project management feature within your test environment. You consolidate database changes into a single project, divide a project into smaller units, and run tests as part of an approval process. Is there support for Microsoft COM+? You have an option to customize your application with Microsoft COM+. Using Microsoft COM+ has advantages such as increased security, better performance, increased manageability of server applications, and support for clients of mixed environments.

10 10 Can you summarize how to customize Sterling Order Management? Layer of Sterling Order Management Base software IBM Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation Order management applications, per licensing agreement Business intelligence software, optional Customization Notes Customize backend code in the base software by extending the database, extending transactions, and customizing APIs. Customize two administrative tools: Applications Manager supports customization through a SWING interface. Sterling Business Center supports customization through the Web UI framework. Customize 6 solutions through the Console JSP interface. Sterling Distributed Order Management Sterling Global Inventory Visibility Sterling Logistics Management Sterling Reverse Logistics Sterling Supply Collaboration (additional licensing) Sterling Service Delivery and Scheduling (additional licensing) Customize backend code in the base software layer. Customize 3 applications through the RCP interface. Sterling Call Center Sterling Store Sterling Store Inventory Management Customize backend code in the base software layer. Configure IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Server. Customize 2 solutions: Selling and Fulfillment Foundation Business Intelligence Operational Reports is bundled with IBM Cognos Framework Manager. Sterling Business Intelligence is bundled with IBM Cognos Adaptive Analytics and supports customization through the Web UI framework.