WebSphere Commerce Portal V5.4 Solutions

Chapter 2. WebSphere Commerce Portal architecture 37

portlet session. The view JSP downloads the Sametime applet from the

Sametime server, passing the user credential, the server name, and the server

port number to the Sametime applet. The Sametime applet then renders within

the Sametime portlet communicating with the Sametime server, achieving the

effect of native integration of Sametime capabilities in the WebSphere

Commerce Portal.

2.2 WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Portal

architecture overview

When designing a commerce enabled portal solution, it is important to

understand the existing architecture of a deployed site, including the base

architecture of WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Portal. Architectural

decisions are often influenced by existing technologies. This section provides an

overview of the WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Portal architecture.

2.2.1 WebSphere Commerce architecture

WebSphere Commerce is largely based on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)

architecture found in the WebSphere Application Server. For this reason, the

WebSphere Commerce architecture shares many benefits of the WebSphere

architecture for scalability, security, and flexible programming environment.

We will focus our attention on the following aspects of the WebSphere

Commerce architecture:

򐂰 WebSphere Commerce runtime environment

򐂰 WebSphere Commerce subsystems and components

򐂰 WebSphere Commerce HTTP request flow

WebSphere Commerce runtime environment

WebSphere Commerce can be implemented in various runtime configurations

such as single-tier, two-two, three-tier and three-tier enterprise. For the purposes

of this chapter, we have highlighted the nodes seen in Figure 2-9 on page 38 that

are relevant to a comparison of WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Commerce

Portal. For a standard WebSphere Commerce site implementation, the Directory

(LDAP) node and Collaboration node (Domino™, Sametime, Quickplace®) are

optional (see Figure 2-9 on page 38). When integrating WebSphere Commerce

with WebSphere Portal, the Directory node is required for single sign-on (SSO).

The Web server node, WebSphere Commerce Payments node, and Database

node components can be installed on the same system as WebSphere

Commerce.

38 WebSphere Commerce Portal V5.4 Solutions

Figure 2-9 WebSphere Commerce runtime architecture and distinguishing features for comparison

WebSphere Commerce mobile device client access

WebSphere Commerce V5.4 can support mobile devices such as a mobile

phone, wireless PDA using WAP, i-mode, and HTTP protocols. This was made

possible in WebSphere Commerce Suite V5.1 with the introduction of the PvC

adapter, supporting database tables, and content-specific JSPs containing a

markup language and format that the mobile device can understand. This

functionality also exists in WebSphere Commerce V5.4. This type of mobile

device access is named mobile commerce direct (or m-commerce direct).

The direct approach uses a device manager that receives a request containing

information about a device from a servlet. It determines which adapter would

best process the request, and passes the request to the appropriate adapter.

Adapters are device-specific components that perform processing functions

before passing a request to a controller.

Outside Zone

Demilitarized Zone

Internal Network

Protocol Firewall

Domain Firewall

80/443

I

n

t

e

r

n

e

t

Web Server

+ plugin

node

Database

Server

node

WebSphere

Commerce

node

WebSphere

Commerce

Payments

node

Directory

(LDAP)

node

Collaboration

node

Web browser

client

Mobile device

clients

Wireless

Gateway

node

Chapter 2. WebSphere Commerce Portal architecture 39

WebSphere Commerce m-commerce direct request flow

The flow of a request from a mobile device to WebSphere Commerce using

m-commerce direct (see Figure 2-10) is as follows:

1. To prevent applications from having to handle system functions, such as

access control and authentication, requests from any device are first

processed by the WebSphere Commerce Web Controller.

2. The adapter creates a session context and a controller request object, and

passes the controller request object to the Web Controller.

The controller request object contains a set of properties, formatted by the

adapter. It also contains a backward reference to the adapter object and a

reference to the session context object created by the adapter.

3. The Web controller executes the request by invoking the corresponding

controller command.

All business logic is implemented in the controller command.

4. Based on the view name returned by the controller command, it will return the

appropriate JSP file to the requesting device as seen in Figure 2-10.

Figure 2-10 m-commerce direct - computing flow

To implement the m-commerce direct approach, you must configure the device

manager to recognize the type of device that is assessing your store. This is

accomplished by creating a PvC adapter and content JSPs with the appropriate

markup language of the targeted mobile device.

Mobile

Device

Request

Sent

Response

Returned

Mobile

Application

WebSphere Commcer V5.4

Request

Sent

Response

Returned

Mobile

Internet

Request

Servlet

Device

Manager

Controller

Command

View

Command

Web

Controller

JSP

File

PVC Adapter

Session