iStore for Beginners
What is iStore ?
Fully integrated with the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle iStore 11i is
a powerful tool that allows businesses to create and manage online
ecommerce sites. A highly configurable Java application, Oracle iStore
employs Oracle foundation and back-end applications along with its own
comprehensive Java and PL/SQL programming and logic to deliver a
high-end application that responds to the growing need for online
commerce in business-to-business (B2B), business partner, and
business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic scenarios. Oracle iStore lets
businesses create, manage, and personalize powerful Internet storefronts
in a secure and scalable environment.
Oracle iStore contains two user interfaces:
_ The Site Administration Application:
The Site
Administration Application allows site administrators to create and
maintain multiple sites, catalogs, and related business rules, as well
as access business and operational reports.
_ The Customer Application:
This is the
customer-facing application which features shopping carts and lists,
cart sharing, a full range of order taking and tracking capabilities,
e-mail notifications of user events, quote retrieval and updates,
marketing, guided selling, and more.
Background / Overview
In
this article we would concentrate on the Site Administration
Application and in particular features that deal with the Customer Site
Look and feel related features. I have chosen to concentrate on the look
and feel related areas because this is where the developer usually
comes into the picture and perhaps is the first pain point whenever
someone starts off learning the iStore application. We would deal with
the nuances of the iStore technical pieces in articles that are to come
in the future.
Customer Application Display
Oracle
iStore utilizes JavaServer Pages (JSPs), which combine Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) to call dynamic data and HTML to present
static data. A robust PL/SQL layer interfaces with the Oracle database
to provide consistent and accurate data storage and retrieval.
In the
Customer Application, each web page is made up of an overall JSP (for
example the seeded Site Home Page, ibeCZzpHome.jsp) that calls other
JSPs to display the various areas of the page. Oracle iStore uses
templates and other components to present the Customer Application.
Display Templates
The
bulk of the Customer Application display is presented through the
hundreds of Display Templates that are seeded in Oracle iStore. Display
Templates are of various types, depending upon which areas of the
Customer Application they are meant to display. For example, some
templates display the shopping cart pages, some display the catalog
pages, and other templates display the order tracking pages. Each
template used in the online sites links to a JSP which provides the
actual display content. By mapping your own JSPs to the seeded
templates, you can provide your own customized content in the sites.
Section and Product Template Gallery
Using
sections and their products organized into a hierarchal structure, your
product catalog is presented through a powerful section and product
catalog building tool. Display Templates for sections and products are
presented in the Site Administration Application in WYSIWYG fashion,
allowing you to easily select how your sections and products actually
display to customers.
Bin Display
Oracle
iStore’s Display Template functionality allows you to map bins with
specific JSP content into the top, bottom, and sides of the catalog,
shopping cart, and registration pages. Section page bins can be
configured in two ways -- using fixed layout, where every catalog
section page shows the mapped bins in the same location on every page,
or using configurable layout, where bins can be placed on the page of a
specific section and in a specific location.
Images, Messages, and HTML Content
Oracle
iStore features flexible and reusable content tools. To present product
images and HTML content in your specialty sites, you map seeded content
components to seeded or new media objects, which are in turn linked to
the content files (e.g., .gif, .htm) which you supply. To present
messages, you utilize hundreds of seeded text messages, some of which
are also reusable media objects. See the Implementing Content chapter of
the Oracle iStore Implementation and Administration Guide for details.
The seeded Customer Application text messages can be altered.
Content Repository
The Content
Repository in the Site Administration Application allows you to view and
upload the source files used in your site pages. The Content Repository
page lists the source files in your Content Repository, and allows you
to preview the files. It also allows access to other pages where you can
upload and update source files.
In the Content Repository page you can:
_ View all source files that have been uploaded to the Content Repository
_ Delete source files from the Content Repository
_ Search for source files within the Content Repository
_ Access the Upload/Update Source File pages, where you can upload source
files for the repository
Content Components and Media Objects
Oracle
iStore’s content components and media objects are reusable content
placeholders in the seeded JSPs that allow you to define content for the
Customer Application beyond that provided by section or product
description information.
This content
can be image or html files that you associate with a section or product
in order to provide your customers with additional information. It also
can be text messages used to prompt or guide the user.
Deep Dive – Catalog and configuring the catalog display
To implement iStore you would typically have to do the following:
· You would create a customer site that any given customer has access to.
· Each site has a catalog
· Each catalog has sections
· And each section displays products under it along with access to search functionality.
The catalog hierarchy is divided in the following:
· Sections
o Root Section:
This is the top most section in the hierarchy and the Site gets
associated with a root section. All sections are directly or indirectly
children of the root section.
o Navigable Section:
This is defined to be any section under the root section(and root
section included) that a user can browse and navigate to. Each navigable
section can have subsections defined under it and can also have
products.
o Leaf Section: This is a navigable section itself but cannot have any further navigable section defined under it it can contain only products
o Featured Section:
This is a special section which cannot be part of a browsing hierarchy.
Each featured section is rendered automatically on the home page of
each navigable section. Featured sections can contain only products and
cannot have sub sections.
For a clear description of rules pertaining to each section type please refer to the administrative guide.
· Section and Product Display Profile Options
Several profile options control how sections and products appear in the specialty
site sections. These are discussed in this section.
· Setting the Number of Home Page Tabs and Subtabs
Top-level
sections of a site’s root node become tabs across the top of the Site
Home Page. The second-level sections become the subtabs across the top
of the Site Home Page.
The number of tabs and subtabs is controlled by these profile options:
_ IBE: Number of Menu Tabs --- Specifies the number of menu tabs across the
top of the Site Home Page.
_ IBE: Number of Menu Subtabs --- Specifies the number of menu subtabs below
the menu tabs on the Site Home Page.
· Setting the Number of Child Sections Per Page
The profile
option, IBE: Sections Per Page for Display, allows you to set the
maximum number of subsections to display on a page before the
subsections fall to a new page.
· Displaying the Section Path
The profile
option, IBE: Use Section Path, determines whether the section path
displays in those catalog templates which can display a section path.
· Displaying Bins with Seeded Content
Three bins with seeded JSP content are controlled by profile options when using Fixed Layout for sections. These bins are:
1. Browse Bin
2. Global Bin
3. Welcome Bin
· Displaying a Set Number of Items in Leaf Sections
The profile
option, IBE: Items Per Page for Display, specifies number of items to
display in Leaf sections of the hierarchy (the ending sections of a
node).
· Displaying a Set Number of Items in Sections
The profile
option, IBE: Items Per Section for Display, specifies the number of
items to display in sections of the hierarchy that contain products.
· Displaying a Set Number of Items in Multiple-Section Template
The profile
option, IBE: Lines Per Section for Multiple Section Display, specifies
the number of items to display per section in Display Templates that
show multiple sections.
· Section Templates Overview
The
structure of your catalog sections as they display on Customer UI pages
is determined by your layout and template choices for the sections. To
aid your understanding of the options involved, following is a process
flow for building section structure.
Process Flow for Building Section Structure
In this process, you associate each section to:
A Layout Template ---
This choice determines whether all sections have the same bin locations
(Fixed Layout) or whether each section can have separate bin locations
(Configurable Layout).
For e.g with Fixed layout the Browser Bin would always be to the left and the welcome bin would always be to the right.
Fixed layout:
Configurable Layout
A Display Template ---
This choice determines which section elements (name, description,
content components) display for each section and how the section looks.
One template
could show the section to display such that only the navigable
subsections show up as links so that you can navigate the:
Alternately another template could show the sections along with the products in a products drop down:
You could alternately have a layout where the subsections and their products are listed as shown below:
These different layouts can be achieved with the help of templates.
Similarly
there are different templates for rendering product information as well.
You could for example have product information with product detail/
with picture/ with large picture so on and so forth.
There are
several such templates that are shipped by default by Oracle. If none of
these layouts suit your requirement you would need to go in for a
customization.