IBM WebSphere Commerce glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

access control
In computer security, the process of ensuring that only authorized users can access the resources of a computer system in authorized ways.
access group
A type of member group used to define access control. See also site administrator.
accessory
A type of merchandising association in which a suggested product is chosen as an addition to the currently displayed or selected product. See also cross-sell, merchandising association, up-sell.
account
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, a relationship between the merchant and the financial institution which processes transactions for that merchant. There can be multiple accounts for each payment cassette.
account representative
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce responsible for creating contracts for accounts, and monitoring account activity. Account representatives are part of the sales organization, and can be involved in the creation of targeted sales promotions such as discounts and coupons.
acquirer
In e-commerce, the financial institution (or an agent of the financial institution) that receives from the merchant the financial data relating to a transaction and authorizes the transaction.
action group
An explicitly defined group of operations corresponding to Java commands that act on resources.
activation
In EJB, the process of transferring an enterprise bean from secondary storage to memory.
ad copy
The information, images and other media used to support a marketing activity. Also referred to as sales collateral.
address book
A collection of shipping and billing addresses owned by a customer. These are useful for a customer who wants to purchase gifts and ship them to different addresses.
ad hoc inventory receipt
A record of physical inventory that arrived at a specific fulfillment center at a specific time, and was not expected inventory. See also inventory receipt.
advanced order
An order from a store that has been enabled to use advanced order processing capabilities. A user can request expedited handling and shipping, and specify different shipping addresses and shipment dates for certain items in an advanced order.
advanced order processing
A method for processing orders in which a store captures and processes orders with advanced features such as multiple shipping addresses, multiple ship dates (including future ship dates), multiple payment methods, and expedited handling and shipping requests. See also standard order processing.
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
A standard code used for information exchange among data processing systems, data communication systems, and associated equipment. ASCII uses a coded character set consisting of 7-bit coded characters. See also Unicode.
application partitioning
In the scheduler, the grouping of frequent jobs, to avoid overloading the scheduler's default application pool.
approvable action
A command or group of commands invoked by a user that cannot be executed without prior approval from an approver within the organization. See also approval flow, approver, approver group.
approval
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, the creation of a Payments object by a merchant. For cassettes that implement credit card protocols, approval will likely map to authorization. Other cassettes might implement the approval process differently.
approval flow
The series of steps initiated when a user attempts to execute a task involving an approvable action. The process first verifies that the user is authorized to invoke the command. If the user is authorized, the request for command execution is sent to the appropriate approver for acceptance or rejection. Multiple levels of approval are possible. See also approvable action.
approver
The individual authorized to approve or reject an approvable action. See also approvable action.
approver group
The designated users within a specific organization to whom an approval request is directed when an approvable action is invoked. Requests are directed to the entire unit, rather than a single individual. See also approvable action.
ASCII
See American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
asset store
A store that contains a collection of sharable resources (business artifacts, business processes, and storefront assets) that can be leveraged in other types of stores. An asset store does not perform or record business transactions; it is simply a holder of assets that can be used by other stores. See also catalog asset store, storefront asset store.
ATP inventory
See available to promise inventory.
attribute value
The property of a defining attribute such as a specific color (blue or yellow) or size (medium). See also defining attribute.
auction
A method of sale involving negotiating and dynamically establishing the price and other terms of sale for goods and services, typically to the highest bidder.
authorization
The process of granting a user either complete or restricted access to an object, resource, or function.
available to promise inventory (ATP inventory)
The inventory that is available in stock (on hand) plus the inventory that is on order, not including inventory that is currently being processed, reserved or allocated to backorders.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

B

B2B
See business-to-business.
B2B direct business model
A business model that supports commerce transactions involving products, services, or information between two businesses or parties. Typical B2B direct transactions occur between buyers, suppliers, manufacturers, resellers, distributors, and trading partners. The Advanced B2B direct starter store is an example of a B2B direct business. See also direct sales business model, consumer direct.
B2C
See business-to-consumer.
back-office business logic
The implementation of business logic, using commands and customized code, allowing a customer to complete an action in the store front. For example, the implementation of business logic that allows a customer to complete an order. See also storefront assets.
backorder
The status of an ordered product when inventory allocation has determined that the product is not available.
base search space
An implementation of the Product Advisor. This style of implementation uses WebSphere Commerce base database tables to facilitate searching a particular category of products. See also separate search space.
batch
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, a collection of payment transactions, such as captures, credits, capture reversals, and credit reversals, processed as a group. A batch is submitted as a single unit to the Acquirer's financial system. Business guidelines regarding the use of batch processing are developed by credit acquiring institutions. Merchants also establish policies that align with these guidelines.
bean
A definition or instance of a JavaBeans component.
beaninfo
A Java class that provides explicit information about the properties, events, and methods of a companion bean class.
BOD
See Business Object Document.
brand
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, the Cassette object for all of the WebSphere Commerce Payments cassettes (for example, Cassette for VisaNet and Cassette for Paymentech). Each financial transaction for a WebSphere Commerce Payments cassette is associated with a particular brand (for example, MasterCard or VISA). Each account with a financial institution can be configured to support one or more brands.
broadcast job
A job that runs on all cluster members at once. Like any other job, it is handled by the scheduler. See also scheduler.
buffer
An area of storage that compensates for the different speeds of data flow or timings of events by temporarily holding a block of data that is waiting to be processed or written to an I/O device.
bundle
Catalog merchandise that provides single-click function for referring to multiple items. More formally, a bundle is a composite catalog entry consisting of at least one code. See also dynamic kit, package, kit, prebuilt kit.
business intelligence
The consolidation and analysis of data collected in the day-to-day operation of a business, which is then used as a basis for better business decisions and competitive advantage.
business intelligence report
A report that is generated by WebSphere Commerce Analyzer that analyzes commerce data in a separate data mart. The data is moved from the WebSphere Commerce database, and analyzed on a scheduled basis. Once this analysis is complete, this report provides information about established patterns in the data.
business model
A sample commerce solution which includes an organization structure, default user roles and access control policies, one or more starter stores, administration tools, and business processes that demonstrate best practices. A business model can be customized to support business requirements and scenarios.
Business Object Document (BOD)
A representation of a standard business process that flows within an organization or between organizations. Examples are: add purchase order, show product availability, and add sales order. BODs are defined by the Open Applications Group using XML.
business policy
A set of rules followed by a store or group of stores defining business processes, industry practices, or the scope and characteristics of business offerings.
business question
A question that is answered in a business report regarding specific information about the success of different campaigns, activities, and the customers who are using the store.
business-to-business (B2B)
Refers to Internet applications that exchange information or execute transactions between businesses. See also business-to-consumer.
business-to-consumer (B2C)
Refers to the subset of Internet applications that exchange information or execute transactions between businesses and consumers. See also business-to-business.
buyer
(1) On the sell-side, a defined role in WebSphere Commerce that handles negotiations and ordering, keeps track of inventory, makes purchase order decisions, tracks reasons for returns, and tracks expected inventory records and receipts.
(2) On the buy-side, a defined role in WebSphere Commerce that makes purchases from the seller's Web site on behalf of a customer account. Typically, purchases are made under one or more agreements negotiated with the Seller.
buyer administrator
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages the information for the buying organization. The buyer administrator creates and administers the suborganizations within the buying organization and manages the various users, including approving users as buyers (buy-side).
buyer approver
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that approves orders made by the buyer (buy-side) before the order is submitted for purchase with the seller.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

C

CA
See certificate authority.
cache
A special-purpose buffer storage, smaller and faster than main storage, used to hold a copy of instructions and data obtained from main storage and likely to be needed next by the processor.
calculation code
A code associated with order items, catalog entries, or catalog groups to specify how discounts, shipping charges, sales or use taxes, and shipping taxes should be calculated.
calculation rule
A rule that defines how a calculation will be done.
calculation scale
A set of ranges that can be used by a calculation rule. For example, for shipping charges, there can be a set of weight ranges that each correspond to a particular cost. That is, a product that weighs between 0 to 5 kg might cost $10.00 to ship, while a product weighing 5 to 10 kg might cost $15.00 to ship.
call center
A place staffed by users in the customer service representative access group, who can perform some functions on behalf of a customer. For example, they can update customer information, including the password; they can also update orders or place a new order.
call center dashboard
A user interface that provides information on how the customer service representative, shift, or call center is performing.
calling command ID
A numeric identifier for a command that calls an API function.
campaign
A planned series of operations including advertisements and suggestive selling techniques, that are pursued to achieve a defined set of business objectives. In the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, campaigns are used to coordinate and aggregate groups of campaign initiatives.
capture
The process by which your Acquirer receives payment from the customer's financial institution and remits the payment to you. A "capture" is the guarantee that the funds are available and that the transfer will take place.
cassette
A software component which supports a particular payment protocol.
catalog asset store
A collection of catalog artifacts that creates a virtual catalog. See also asset store, storefront asset store.
catalog entry
An object in an online catalog. An entry has a name, description, list price, and other details. The entry can be as simple as a SKU; it can also be a product that is automatically broken down into its component items such as a bundle or package.
catalog group
A collection of one or more catalog entries or catalog groups which create a navigational hierarchy for an online catalog.
category
A group within a system of classification whose contents share similar properties. In WebSphere Commerce, categories are used to organize products or services offered by the store. For example, a clothing store can include categories arranged by lifestyle (casual, formal, outdoor), gender (men, women), or age (infants, children, adults). A category is usually implemented as a catalog group. See also category page.
category manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories. The category hierarchy organizes products or services offered by the store. The category manager also manages products, expected inventory records, vendor information, inventory, and return reasons.
category page
A Web page in an online store that displays product categories. Category pages connect customers to child category pages or to products that belong to the selected category. See also category, child category.
CCF
See Common Connector Framework.
certificate authority (CA)
An organization that issues certificates. The CA authenticates the certificate owner's identity and the services that the owner is authorized to use, issues new certificates, renews existing certificates, and revokes certificates.
channel manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages the channel hub, as well as the distributors and resellers associated with that hub, including creating and importing distributor and reseller contracts.
child category
A category that is subordinate to another category in a hierarchy. See also category page, parent category.
child organizational entity
One or more further levels of organizational entities that exist beneath the parent organizational entity.
clickstream
In Web advertising, the sequence of clicks or pages requested as a visitor explores a Web site.
Clickstream Engine
The Macromedia LikeMinds Personalization Server component that accesses transaction information and generates recommendations based on users' shopping behavior as they navigate a Web site. WebSphere Commerce generates events based on shopping behavior, including viewing a product detail page and adding items to a shopping cart or wish list. These events are forwarded to the Clickstream Engine.
clickthrough rate
In Web advertising, the number of clicks on an HTML page as a percentage of the number of times that the ad was downloaded with a page. See also impression.
client
A system or process that is dependent on another system or process (usually called the server) to provide it with access to data, services, programs, or resources. See also server, host.
cluster member
An identically configured copy of an object, such as an application server. Cluster members can be used for workload management purposes, for example, to support horizontal scaling and vertical scaling.
code
A number which uniquely identifies a catalog entry in the WebSphere Commerce system. A product code is used as the prefix for creating individual SKU codes.
collaborative filtering
Personalization technology that calculates the similarity between users based on the behaviors of a number of other people and uses that information to make recommendations for the current user.
command bean
A Java bean that contains the programming logic to handle a particular request. The WebSphere Commerce commands follow the WebSphere command programming model. There are four types of commands: controller commands, task commands, data bean commands, and view commands.
commit
To end a unit of work by releasing locks so that the database changes made by that unit of work can be perceived by other processes. This operation makes the data changes permanent.
commitment boundary
A point at which there are no changes to a database file pending within a job. See also roll back.
commitment control
A way of grouping file operations that allows the processing of a group of database changes as one unit or the removal of a group of database changes as one unit. See also roll back.
Common Connector Framework (CCF)
Interface and class definitions that provide a consistent means of interacting with enterprise resources (for example, CICS and Encina transactions) from any Java execution environment.
component store archive
A starter store archive for a component of a composite store archive. These component store archives are available for each business model. See also composite store archive.
composite catalog entry
A collection of catalog entries that breaks down to its separate components when ordered. See also dynamic kit.
composite store archive
A compressed file that contains the organization structure, predefined user roles, and necessary access control policies to create the appropriate store environment, plus a working starter store or site. Each of the parts that make up the composite store archive are also available as separate store archives. See also store archive, component store archive.
Composition Services
The component of the WebSphere Commerce messaging system that provides a formatted output for messages using JSP templates.
compound key
In a relational database, a key that consists of two or more attributes in a relation.
configurator
Software that provides a dynamic rules-based kit (bundling) capability to determine a group of items that can be sold together. The configurator can also supply a price for the configuration. This grouping is based on pre-defined rules in addition to user interaction with the configurator. See also dynamic kit.
consumer direct
The consumer direct business model supports commerce transactions involving products, services, or information between businesses and consumers. Consumers typically purchase goods or services directly from a business in a consumer direct scenario. The FashionFlow starter store is an example of a consumer direct business. See also direct sales business model, B2B direct business model.
contract
In WebSphere Commerce, an agreement representing the terms and conditions that apply to a transaction.
controller command
A command that interacts with a Web controller directly. On completion, a controller command returns the name of a view task to be executed. The Web controller determines the correct implementation class of the view command and then invokes it. See also task command.
counter value
A displayed monetary amount converted from the shopping currency into a different currency.
cross-sell
A product recommendation that is related or complementary to the currently displayed or selected product. See also up-sell, accessory.
current charge
In an advanced order, the set of charges a customer incurs for order items that can be shipped at once. See also total charge.
customer
A user of an online store.
customer-facing store
An online site where users can obtain information regarding products and conduct business transactions regarding these products. Business transactions can include retail purchases, transactions between businesses, and transactions between a government organization and citizens or businesses. WebSphere Commerce uses the generic term store to describe the online space where all of these business transactions take place. WebSphere Commerce supports the following customer-facing stores: hub store, direct sales store, and hosted store.
customer group
A type of member group consisting of a collection of customers who have been grouped by a site administrator because they share similar shopping patterns or characteristics. Typically, customer groups are based on information that customers provide during registration. Customer groups might be entitled to discounts or other incentives, or be shown different product and category pages than other customers. A customer can belong to one or more customer groups per store. See also site administrator.
customer segment
All information about the customer that is held by the seller. This can include basic demographics, order history, or operational data such as the user ID and shipping address. Customer segments are dynamic; marketing managers define the criteria for including a customer in a customer segment. Customer segments can be the targets of campaigns.
customer service representative
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages customer inquiries. The customer service representative also processes customer registration, orders, and returns. See also customer service supervisor, order.
customer service supervisor
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that has access to all customer service tasks. The customer service supervisor manages customer inquiries (such as customer registration, orders, returns, and auctions) and has authority to complete tasks that cannot be accessed by a customer service representative, such as approving system-denied returns records, and contacting customers regarding payment exceptions (such as credit card authorization failures). See also customer service representative.
customer session data
Information gathered from customers during the time they visit an online store.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

D

database-managed space table space (DMS table space)
A table space whose storage space is managed by the database manager. See also system-managed space table space.
data bean
A type of Java bean that is placed into a JSP file. The data bean represents data that is accessible by the store developer. Data beans can have associated commands that are invoked when the JSP instantiates the data bean at run time.
data bean command
A command associated with a data bean, and called by a JSP file. This command retrieves data for the data bean from a persistent object, such as an entity bean.
data bean manager
A module that invokes a data bean command to fetch data from corresponding entity beans.
data mart
A subset of a data warehouse that contains data that is tailored and optimized for the specific reporting needs of a department or team. A data mart can be a subset of a warehouse for an entire organization, such as data that is contained in online analytical processing (OLAP) tools.
data mining
The process of collecting critical business information from a data warehouse, correlating the information and uncovering associations, patterns, and trends.
default contract
In WebSphere Commerce, an agreement representing the terms and conditions that apply to all transactions. A default contract is required for all stores.
default organization
The organizational entity that is used when a user registers and does not identify an organizational entity. In addition, guest users are created under the default organization.
defining attribute
A property of an item in an online store such as its color or size. Items can have several defining attributes. Defining attributes are used for SKU resolution. See also attribute value, item, descriptive attribute.
delete cascade
A DB2 process that causes an action to be taken on rows in a database when another row is deleted.
delete rule
A rule associated with a referential constraint that either restricts the deletion of a parent row or specifies the effect of such a deletion on the dependent rows.
demand chain
A demand chain is a value chain that supports both direct sales channels and indirect sales channels. The Commerce Plaza sample site is an example of an indirect sales channel demand chain. See also supply chain, value chain business model.
deployment
(1) The act of packaging enterprise beans into a JAR file for distribution to a container on an enterprise bean server.
(2) The process of making WebSphere Commerce application code available for use. This process includes packaging customized commands, data beans, and enterprise beans into JAR files. The JAR files must then be installed and configured within a container.
deployment descriptor
An XML file that describes how to deploy a module or application by specifying configuration and container options. For example, an EJB deployment descriptor passes information to an EJB container about how to manage and control an enterprise bean.
descriptive attribute
An additional description for an item. For example, special instructions for clothing care or required battery types. Descriptive attributes are not used for SKU resolution. See also defining attribute.
direct sales business model
A business model that supports commerce transactions involving products, services, or information directly between businesses and consumers or between two businesses or parties. WebSphere Commerce supports the following types of direct sales business models: consumer direct and B2B direct. See also B2B direct business model, consumer direct.
direct sales store
A customer-facing store that supports the exchange of products, services, or information directly between businesses and consumers, or between two businesses or parties. See also hosted store.
discount
A price incentive offered to customers to promote a purchase.
display format
A set of display preferences that a customer at a multicultural store can select, depending on their language and locale. For example, a multicultural commerce site can have different formats for United States English and Japanese. These display formats would differ in the language of the text as well as such features as currency, units of measure, and data formats.
display page
(1) A page in an online store that is generated in response to a command.
(2) A page in a catalog that displays category and product information.
disposition
In WebSphere Commerce, disposing of or transferring inventory that has been returned to the Seller's fulfillment center by a customer. See also fulfillment center.
distinguished name
A set of name-value pairs (such as CN=person's name and C=country or region) that uniquely identify an entity in a digital certificate.
distributor
In WebSphere Commerce, in the context of the demand chain business model, a distributor is defined as an indirect seller of products. A distributor does not sell directly to end users of the product, but only to other sellers, such as resellers. A distributor can provide its own value-add services of modifications to the product, and can also choose to group products for sale into kits or bundles differently from its suppliers.
distributor proxy store
A store that acts as a placeholder for an external distributor store, allowing resellers to conduct business indirectly by way of the proxy store. See also proxy store.
DMS table space
See database-managed space table space.
document type definition (DTD)
The rules that specify the structure for a particular class of SGML or XML documents. The DTD defines the structure with elements, attributes, and notations, and it establishes constraints for how each element, attribute, and notation can be used within the particular class of documents.
domain name
In the Internet suite of protocols, a name of a host system. A domain name consists of a sequence of subnames that are separated by a delimiter character, for example, www.ibm.com.
DTD
See document type definition.
dual display
The simultaneous display of a monetary amount in the shopping currency, and one or more counter value amounts in a different currency.
dynamic
Pertaining to an operation that occurs at the time it is needed rather than at a predetermined or fixed time. See also static.
dynamic kit
A group of products that are ordered as a unit. The information about the products contained in a dynamic kit is controlled by an external configurator and supplied at order entry time. The individual components of a dynamic kit cannot be modified in the order, but they can be reconfigured by the configurator. The entire configuration must be fulfilled together. See also bundle, composite catalog entry, configurator.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

E

Eclipse
An open-source initiative that provides ISVs and other tool developers with a standard platform for developing plug-compatible application development tools.
e-mail activity
A method of delivering merchandising and marketing content to customers. E-mail activities deliver customized e-mail messages, based on JSP templates, which can include advertisements, suggestive selling initiatives, and promotions, among other merchandising and marketing content.
e-Marketing Spot
In WebSphere Commerce, data on a Web page that typically results from a marketing activity such as a campaign.
encryption
In computer security, the process of transforming data into an unintelligible form in such a way that the original data either cannot be obtained or can be obtained only by using a decryption process.
entity
In object-oriented design, an item that can be treated as a unit and, often, as a member of a particular category or type. An entity can be a concrete thing or an abstract idea.
ETL
See extract, transform, and load.
event-driven payments
In WebSphere Commerce, a software layer (API) that provides payment-processing logic at a business level. As a subcomponent of the order system, event-driven payments determines what type of payment actions should be executed at specific times or business events in the life cycle of an order or a return.
exception condition
An abnormal condition that might arise during execution of a program.
execution agenda
A class that acts as a table that plots the relationship between promotions and promotion policies. The execution agenda contains a list of promotions which are potentially applicable to an order, and all of the policies that are applicable to each individual promotion in the list.
expected inventory
Inventory that has been ordered from a vendor and that is expected to be received by the seller. This information is contained in an expected inventory record. See also expected inventory record, seller.
expected inventory record
Lists the inventory that has been ordered from a vendor and that is expected to be received by the Seller. An expected inventory record can contain information for multiple items, fulfillment centers, and dates. See also expected inventory, inventory receipt, seller.
expedited order
A release of an advanced order for which a user has requested expedited handling and shipping for particular order items.
extraction
The process of moving data from temporary tables on the WebSphere Commerce Analyzer server to the WebSphere Commerce Analyzer data mart. The data in the temporary tables was replicated from the WebSphere Commerce database.
extraction time window
The window of time between the last time the WebSphere Commerce Analyzer extraction was run for this source and the current time. For WebSphere Commerce sources, this time window is indicated by the WebSphere Commerce Analyzer parameters TIME_CUT_OFF and TIME_CUT_OFF_PREV.
extract, transform, and load (ETL)
The process of collecting data from one or more sources, cleansing and transforming it, and then loading it into a database.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

F

factory
In object-oriented programming, a class that is used to create instances of another class. A factory is used to isolate the creation of objects of a particular class into one place so that new functions can be provided without widespread code changes.
feature attribute
An attribute that specifies how the information about products is to be displayed to customers. For example, features with numerical descriptions can be displayed to a customer in either ascending or descending order.
foreign key
In a relational database, a key in one table that references the primary key in another table.
framework
A set of object classes that provide a collection of related functions for a user or piece of software.
fulfillment center
Serves as a storage warehouse where products are packaged and shipped to customers. Fulfillment centers, stores, and shipping carriers are treated as separate entities. See also disposition, shipping carrier.
future order
A release of an advanced order for which the user has requested that the shipment be delayed until a specified future date.
future order offset
A setting in an online store that indicates how much time in advance of the specified ship date of a future order when order items should be allocated in inventory.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

G

gateway
A device or program used to connect two systems or networks. The systems might have different characteristics, such as different communication protocols, different network architecture, or different security policies, in which case the gateway performs a translation role as well as a connection role.
geo-code
In WebSphere Commerce, an application-specific code representing a geographical region. See also jurisdiction.
guided sell metaphor
A metaphor that presents customers with a series of multiple-choice questions, where each answer determines the next question and eventually refines the search to a smaller list of products. The guided sell metaphor is intended for customers who are not sure where to start.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

H

host
A computer that is connected to a network and provides an access point to that network. The host can be a client, a server, or both a client and server simultaneously. See also server, client.
hosted store
A customer-facing store that is hosted by the site operator for the owner of the store. The store owner can have the option of administering the store. See also direct sales store.
hosting sales business model
A business model that supports hosting of merchants or other businesses by an Internet Service Provider or other hosting provider.
host name
In the Internet suite of protocols, the name given to a computer. Sometimes, host name is used to mean the fully qualified domain name; other times, it is used to mean the most specific subname of a fully qualified domain name. For example, if mycomputer.city.company.com is the fully qualified domain name, either of the following names can be considered the host name: mycomputer.city.company.com, mycomputer.
HTML
See Hypertext Markup Language.
HTTP
See Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
hub
A customer-facing store that enables partners or clients.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
A markup language that conforms to the SGML standard and was designed primarily to support the online display of textual and graphical information that includes hypertext links.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
An Internet protocol that is used to transfer and display hypertext and XML documents on the Web.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I

IDE
See integrated development environment.
ID resolution
The generation of reference numbers prior to loading XML elements into a database. ID resolution is used to uniquely identify data within the database system.
impression
In Web advertising, an ad's appearance on an accessed page. For example, if a Web page displays three ads, each ad would have one impression. Online publishers often sell ad space according to impressions. See also clickthrough rate.
inbound call center
A centralized office of a company that answers incoming telephone calls from customers.
inbound message
A message that WebSphere Commerce receives from an external or back-end application. The Transport adapter supports five inbound messages in XML format: Order Status Update, Product Inventory Update, Product Price Update, Customer Update, and Customer New. Inbound messages are used to integrate WebSphere Commerce with other systems.
information roadmap
An overview of a set of information resources, along with guidance on how to navigate through that information. For example, an information roadmap can provide the different starting points for different types of users that they can use to navigate through the different pieces of information to learn about the product or about specific tasks.
input method
A component that converts key strokes into text input that could not otherwise be typed directly, such as characters that are not native to your operating system. For example, the input method component can be used to type Japanese text on an English keyboard.
integrated development environment (IDE)
A set of software development tools such as source editors, compilers, and debuggers, that are accessible from a single user interface. In Eclipse, the IDE is called the workbench.
interest item
An item that a customer has indicated for recurring or potential purchase. An interest item is stored with quantity information, but not price information. See also shopping cart.
Internet Protocol address
See IP address.
inventory allocation
The process of designating inventory for an order against inventory that actually exists in a fulfillment center. Allocation is not the same as inventory reservation, which is a more stringent policy, and does not typically apply to orders. See also inventory allocation against expected inventory, inventory sharing arrangement, inventory reservation.
inventory allocation against expected inventory
The process of designating inventory for an order against inventory that is expected to be received at a fulfillment center. This information is typically found in an expected inventory record. See also inventory allocation.
inventory on hand
Inventory that is physically available to fulfill orders.
inventory receipt
The receipt of products at a fulfillment center. Products are either expected and recorded in expected inventory records, or received ad hoc. Ad hoc inventory receipts are not recorded in expected inventory records. See also ad hoc inventory receipt, expected inventory record.
inventory reservation
The process of designating inventory for a particular purpose and that is not available to allocate to orders. See also inventory allocation.
inventory sharing arrangement
An arrangement whereby a store makes its inventory receipts available to another store for inventory allocation. See also inventory allocation.
IP address (Internet Protocol address)
The unique 32-bit address that specifies the location of each device or workstation in the Internet. For example, 9.67.97.103 is an IP address. The address field contains two parts: the first part is the network address; the second part is the host number. For example, 9.67.97.103 is an IP address.
ISO 4217
A three-letter format standard adopted by the International Organization for Standardization, used to indicate the currency in which a monetary amount is expressed. For example, the United States dollar is expressed as USD.
issuer
In e-commerce, a financial institution that issues payment cards to individuals. An issuer can act as its own certificate authority (CA) or can contract with a third party for the service.
item
An entity that has a part number or SKU. All items that are related to a particular product exhibit the same set of attributes and are distinguished by their attribute values. An item does not need to be associated with a product. If an item has no distinct attributes, it does not have an associated product. See also defining attribute.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

J

JAR
See Java archive.
Java API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC)
A specification that describes application programming interfaces (APIs) and conventions for building Web services and Web service clients that use remote procedure calls (RPC) and XML. JAX-RPC is also known as JSR 101.
Java archive (JAR)
A compressed file format for storing all the resources that are required to install and run a Java program in a single file.
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)
An industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java platform and a wide range of databases. The JDBC interface provides a call-level API for SQL-based database access.
Java Message Service (JMS)
An application programming interface that provides Java language functions for handling messages.
JAX-RPC
See Java API for XML-based RPC.
JDBC
See Java Database Connectivity.
JMS
See Java Message Service.
job
A WebSphere Commerce command that is scheduled to run at a specified time or interval. See also scheduler.
JSP file
A scripted HTML file that has a .jsp extension and allows for the inclusion of dynamic content in Web pages. A JSP file can be directly requested as a URL, called by a servlet, or called from within an HTML page.
jurisdiction
A geographical region for tax or shipping purposes representing a country or region, province or territory, zip or postal code range, or an application-specific geo-code. See also geo-code.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

K

kit
A collection of catalog entries that are ordered as a single SKU. A kit is available in one of three types: dynamic kit, prebuilt kit, and static kit. See also bundle, prebuilt kit.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

L

LDAP
See Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
An open protocol that uses TCP/IP to provide access to directories that support an X.500 model and that does not incur the resource requirements of the more complex X.500 Directory Access Protocol (DAP). For example, LDAP can be used to locate people, organizations, and other resources in an Internet or intranet directory.
line item set
A set of order items (or portions of order items when the quantity of order items is greater than one). It is a temporary grouping of order items used by the promotion engine during promotion evaluation.
list price
A price that is part of the catalog entry. Because a catalog can be produced by a manufacturer, who supplies a list price as part of the description of each entry, the list price is not necessarily the price at which an entry is sold. See also offer price.
load balancing
The monitoring of application servers and management of the workload on servers. If one server exceeds its workload, requests are forwarded to another server with more capacity.
logistics manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages fulfillment. The logistics manager has access to all operational tasks, including the duties of the pick packer, receiver, and returns administrator. See also pick packer, returns administrator, receiver.
Luhn formula
An industry standard used by many credit card companies as a rudimentary prevention of credit card fraud.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

M

manifest
A shipment confirmation that can contain tracking identification information.
marketing event
In WebSphere Commerce, any event within the system that is considered to be significant for the purposes of marketing. Most marketing events are directly driven by customer behavior. Examples include catalog browsing, navigation, and shopping cart activity.
marketing manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that monitors, analyzes, and understands customer behavior. The marketing manager also creates and modifies customer segments for targeted selling and creates and manages campaigns.
marketplace
A business-to-business e-commerce Web site in which those organizations granted access to the site are presented with a unified view of the products and services being traded on that site. They are also provided with a variety of trading mechanisms to facilitate trade among themselves.
master catalog
The main catalog containing all products, SKUs, descriptions, and standard pricing for each product. Each product belongs to a single category. See also online catalog, sales catalog.
member
A person, group, or organization known to the system. A member can be a user, an organization, an organization unit, or a member group. A member can act as a customer or an administrator, or can own entities. A member must first become a member of the marketplace before becoming a user.
member group
A group that is used to implement role-based control in WebSphere Commerce. The type of member group indicates its intended usage. A customer group is for general use, while an access group is for access control purposes.
merchandising association
An association between two catalog items for the purpose of a sales activity. For example, a camera might have a "requires" merchandising association with a set of batteries, and a dictionary might have a "goes with" merchandising association with a thesaurus. See also accessory.
metaphor
In WebSphere Commerce, a usage paradigm that customers can use to navigate product catalogs. Metaphors are provided as part of the Product Advisor component.
mining base
A repository where all the information about the mining run settings and the corresponding results is stored.
Multichannel Sales Center
A WebSphere Commerce enhancement that provides a user interface to support inbound call center activities.
multipayment framework
In WebSphere Commerce, the structure that allows for different merchant servers using different payment systems to issue the same generic commands and use the same generic data. Also known as WebSphere Commerce Payments (formerly called Payment Manager). WebSphere Commerce Payments uses protocol-specific cassettes to translate generic calls to protocol-specific messages.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

N

node
In a network, a point at which one or more functional units connect channels or data circuits. In general, a node has the capability to recognize and process or forward transmissions to other nodes.
nonregistered customer
A customer who is not registered with a store. Nonregistered customers are created when a customer adds something to the shopping cart, but has not yet registered.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

O

object
Any digital content that a user can manipulate as a single unit to perform a task. An object can appear as text, an icon, or both.
ODS
See operation data store.
offer
A price for a product, in one or more currencies, along with a set of conditions such as an effective time range or an acceptable quantity range, which must be satisfied in order to use the price.
offer price
A price at which items are offered by a store. The offer price is the final price paid, before taxes, discounts, and shipping. Offer prices can be qualified by quantity ordered (that is, you can have a different price per quantity), time frame, member groups, or contract. When items are actually placed into an interest item list or into an order, the price shown is the offer price. See also list price.
online catalog
General term for a collection of catalog groups or catalog entries available for display and purchase at an online store. See also master catalog.
operational report
A report based on data from the WebSphere Commerce database that is created in real time.
operation data store (ODS)
The working area for the extract, transform, and load (ETL) processing. The data from WebSphere Commerce is replicated to ODS (_r tables).
operations manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages order processing, ensuring that orders are properly fulfilled, payment is received, and orders are shipped. The operations manager can search for customer orders, view details, manage order information, and create and edit returns. See also order, sales manager.
order
(1) One or more products, prebuilt kits, bundles, or SKUs, or a combination thereof, selected for purchase. An order contains quantities, prices, shipping information, payment instructions, and other charges, such as taxes, which are compiled and displayed to customers after they initiate the ordering process.
(2) One or more products, their prices, and the quantity specified, that a customer has selected to purchase or has purchased. A customer service representative can also place an order on behalf of a customer. See also customer service representative, operations manager, sales manager, shopping cart.
order block
An indicator added to an order that indicates if the items in an order can be released to fulfillment.
organization
In WebSphere Commerce, a business or company. For example, IBM is an organization. An organization can have several organizational units; for example, the IBM Electronic Commerce Division. A typical WebSphere Commerce organizational hierarchy includes artificial organizational entities created specifically to support access control; for example root organization, default organization, and child organizational entity. Each organizational entity can have multiple users, but each user can belong to only one organizational entity.
organization administrator
In WebSphere Commerce, the representative of a member organization who establishes organizational approval flows, and assigns roles to the users within the organization.
outbound message
A message generated by WebSphere Commerce that is sent to a back-end system. The WebSphere Commerce Transport adapter supports one outbound message, called Order Create. This message contains order information copied from the WebSphere Commerce Server to back-end systems, where further order fulfillment processes take place. Outbound messages are used to integrate WebSphere Commerce with other systems.
output queue
A generalized mechanism to separate a set of products that require special treatment in the fulfillment process. An output queue can direct information about ordered products to a printer or a file. For example, monogramming would require special attention; sending products to be monogrammed to the same output queue would allow for this.
owner
One who has access and permission to operate on an entity.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

P

package
(1) A collection of catalog entries that has a SKU and can be ordered as a single item. See also bundle, stock keeping unit.
(2) A shipping unit that can be tracked by a shipping carrier.
packing slip
A printed document containing a list of all the products in a given release. Typically, this document also contains the ship-to address, shipping carrier information, and sometimes pricing information. See also release.
parametric search
A search of the online catalog in which the searcher specifies attributes or values as criteria.
parent category
A category that contains other categories in a hierarchy. See also child category.
partner group
In WebSphere Commerce, a designation for business partners that assigns them a set of entitlements and privileges. For example, a manufacturer can assign resellers a designation of Gold, Silver, or Bronze, based on their success in selling the product line, or their volume of sales.
partner site
A Web site operated by a business partner, such as a distributor or a supplier.
payment
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, a merchant's request of a financial institution to approve all or part of an order. In many cases, all the money authorized for collection by an order will be collected in a single payment. Some payment systems allow the money authorized in one order (that is, one set of payment instructions) to be collected in multiple payments, depending on the business model.
payment action
In WebSphere Commerce, a financial operation that is associated with a payment instruction. For example, approve (authorize), reverse approval, deposit (capture), reverse deposit, refund, and validate are payment actions.
payment action rule
See payment rule.
payment back-end system
The payment service provider, payment processor, or proxy for an external payment system.
payment instruction
In WebSphere Commerce, the instance of a payment method with the details necessary to perform payment actions. For example, if a payment method name is CardBrandX, then the payment instruction consists of CardBrandX, plus the cardholder name, billing address, account number, and expiration date.
payment method
The means by which payments are made for an order. For example, payment methods can include various brands of credit cards, electronic checks, lines of credit, and gift certificates.
payment plug-in
A self-contained software component that serves as a proxy for a payment back-end system. Payment plug-ins are responsible for payment protocol and protocol data validation.
Payment Plug-in Controller
In WebSphere Commerce, the software layer that coordinates and delegates payment requests to the payment plug-ins. The Payment Plug-in Controller interacts with WebSphere Commerce Payments through the WCPayments plug-in.
payment protocol
In WebSphere Commerce, the conventions that govern the exchange of data between payment cassettes or plug-ins and the backend financial systems (payment service provider or payment processor). For example, VisaNet and Paymentech have different payment protocols.
payment rule
In WebSphere Commerce, a set of configurable parameters that define payment actions to be executed by the event-driven payments subcomponent during business events.
payment server
In e-commerce, the electronic equivalent of a cash register that organizes and accepts payment for the goods and services selected for purchase. A payment server uses other components, such as a payment gateway and a payment management system, to complete the financial transactions.
payment subsystem
In WebSphere Commerce, the software that handles payment processing. When the advanced orders function is used in WebSphere Commerce, the payment subsystem consists of the event-driven payments subcomponent, Payments Plug-in Controller, and payment plug-ins. In addition, it can include a payment plug-in for communicating with the WebSphere Commerce Payments component (the multipayment framework). When the standard orders function is used, the payment subsystem consists of the WebSphere Commerce Payments component if that component is configured for use.
p-card
See purchasing card.
PCB
See promotion control block.
persistence
A characteristic of data that is maintained across session boundaries, or of an object that continues to exist after the execution of the program or process that created it, usually in nonvolatile storage such as a database system.
personalization
The process of enabling information to be targeted to specific users based on business rules and user profile information.
personalization engine
An application that can generate product recommendations and special offers to customers based on information collected during visits to e-commerce sites.
personalized attributes
In the RFQ trading mechanism, a list of attributes created by a selling organization that a buyer must use when sending an RFQ to that organization. In addition to the predefined attributes provided by the seller, buyers can specify unique attributes in designated attribute fields.
pick batch
A group of releases that are managed as a unit in a fulfillment center.
pick packer
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that picks products from fulfillment centers and packs the products for shipping to customers. The pick packer also manages pick tickets and packing slips which are used to confirm shipment of products during order fulfillment. See also logistics manager.
pick ticket
A printed document containing a list of all the products required to fulfill the releases in a given pick batch. This document is used by pickers to gather the products that must be packaged and shipped for all of the releases included in the pick batch.
portlet
A reusable Web module that runs on a portal server. Portlets have predefined roles such as retrieving news headlines, searching a database, or displaying a calendar.
prebuilt kit
A collection of catalog entries that has a code and is ordered as a single item. See also bundle, kit.
prebuilt kit component
An item that is sold as part of a prebuilt kit.
preferred currency
The currency indicated by a customer as the one in which he or she would prefer to see prices. The preferred currency is indicated in the customer profile. See also shopping currency, supported currency.
preferred language
The language indicated by a customer as being the one in which he or she would like to conduct transactions. The preferred language is indicated either in the customer profile or by use of the langId parameter, which is available from the URL-based controller commands. See also shopping language.
primary key
In a relational database, a key that uniquely identifies one row of a database table.
procurement buyer
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that uses the account belonging to the buyer organization to make purchases from the seller and sends pending orders to the procurement system for approval.
procurement buyer administrator
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that registers and approves users as procurement buyers (buy-side). The procurement buyer administrator manages the various users and creates and administers the suborganizations within the buying organization.
procurement card
See purchasing card.
product
A catalog entity that can be viewed as a group of items that share attributes. All items that are related to a particular product exhibit the same set of attributes and are distinguished by their attribute values. A product cannot be purchased.
product comparison metaphor
A metaphor that allows customers to compare the similarities and differences between products.
product exploration metaphor
A metaphor that is intended for customers who are familiar with the features of a given category of products. The customer selects the feature values that they want, which initiates a parametric search of the product data. A resulting list of the appropriate products matching the parameter values displays.
production-ready data
Data on the staging server before it is published on the production server.
production server
A WebSphere Commerce Server containing the set of data and files accessed by customers. See also staging server.
product manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that is responsible for determining the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store. The product manager traces customer purchases and suggests discounts. The product manager also determines selling techniques, and creates and manages auctions and bid controls. The product manager role is equivalent to a merchandising manager.
product page
A Web page that displays detailed information about a product in an online store.
product recommendation
A sales and marketing technique in which catalog inventory is suggested to customers based on their profile or on independent criteria.
project
In Eclipse, a unit of organization used to group folders or packages. Projects are used for building, version management, sharing, and organizing resources.
promotion
Business logic that offers incentives to customers when certain conditions have been satisfied.
promotion context
A transient object that only exists when the promotion engine is called to evaluate whether promotions are applicable to an order. It captures the state of the promotion engine during the process.
promotion group
A logical container that holds promotions of similar natures.
promotion policy
Business logic that governs how multiple promotions should be applied to a single order.
proxy store
A store that represents a business partner's operational assets and handles the business logic that allows a WebSphere Commerce site to interact with an external business partner. A proxy store does not include a storefront and cannot be accessed by users. See also distributor proxy store.
publish
To transfer files to the WebSphere Commerce Server using Store Services to create an operation store from a store archive.
purchasing card (p-card)
A credit card that a business can offer its departments or employees to allow them to buy business-related items. A business will make arrangements with the card issuer to govern the purchases that card holders can make. For example, maximum limits can be imposed and the cards can be restricted to allow purchases of certain items only. Purchasing cards can also have preprogrammed limits for purchase amounts.
purge
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, to remove all associated payments and credits from a batch object, treating it as if it has just been created.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Q


R

receiver
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that receives inventory at the fulfillment center, tracks expected inventory records and ad hoc receipts for ordered products, and receives returned products as a result of customer returns. See also logistics manager.
recency, frequency, monetary (RFM)
A technique used to determine which customers are the best ones by examining how recently a customer has purchased (recency), how often they purchase (frequency), and how much the customer spends (monetary).
redirection URL
A URL used in a URL command to indicate the page that should be sent to the customer upon completion of the command. See also shopping flow URL.
reference store
An online store that contains fully functional code for selected features of an online store, for example, auctions. Reference stores are designed to be used by store developers as code samples of the highlighted features.
referential integrity
The condition that exists when all intended references from data in one column of a table to data in another column of the same or a different table are valid.
referral
A record that shows number of times a third-party business or Web site has referred customers to the Web site. Referrals can be measured for recognition purposes through various techniques including clickstream analysis, clickthrough rates, affiliate marketing services, and surveys.
refund
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, the credit amount in the smallest denomination of the particular currency used to place the order.
registered customer
(1) A customer who is registered with a store. To register, a customer provides personal information to the WebSphere Commerce system, such as an e-mail address.
(2) In WebSphere Commerce, a defined role that allows the reseller to shop in the marketplace. Resellers must first register in the marketplace and be approved by the seller administrator in order to attain the registered customer role.
release
In a WebSphere Commerce store, a set of products in a given order that have the same ship-to address, ship time, shipping method, fulfillment center, and shipping carrier. Products in a release can be shipped in multiple packages. For example, a release could contain four computer monitors. It would not be practical to ship them all in one large box, but they are still considered a single release. Products that would otherwise be part of a single release might be released separately if the seller's policy dictates. See also packing slip.
replication
The process of maintaining a defined set of data in more than one location. It involves copying designated changes for one location (a source) to another (a target), and synchronizing the data in both locations.
report context
The basis for a displayed report. The context changes depending on which function you are using in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. Available report contexts include campaigns, initiatives, and a combined context.
reporting application
A program that gathers information about the customers and sales transactions of a business.
request for quote (RFQ)
The trading mechanism used when a buyer solicits quotes for a specific set of goods or services. It can be used if a buyer does not find a particular item in the catalog, finds an item without a price, or wants to establish a long-term supply arrangement for a fixed-price item.
reseller
In WebSphere Commerce, in the context of the demand chain business model, a business that sells products to businesses (such as end users or other resellers), after having obtained the goods from manufacturers, distributors, or other resellers. A reseller can provide its own value-add services of modifications to the product, and can also choose to package or bundle products differently from its suppliers.
reserved inventory
Inventory that has been designated for a particular purpose, and is not available to allocate to orders.
resource bundle
A class that contains the text for the store pages. If the store supports more than one language, the resource bundle will contain multiple "bundles," that is one bundle per language. The bundle files are created and accessed according to the Java PropertyResourceBundle API. In Java, ICU, and Windows, resource bundles use inheritance, so that variant locales (e.g. fr_CA) need only specify the differences from a parent locale (e.g. fr), and not copy all resources. (This saves on storage and maintenance.)
resource group
A group of resources that can include business objects such as contracts or a set of related commands. In access control policies, resource groups specify the resources to which the policy authorizes access.
return
One or more products, their prices, and the quantity specified, that a customer has selected for a refund from the store in which the product was originally purchased. The refund can be in the form of a credit, refund, or replacement product. Depending on your business, a return does not always require the customer to physically return the unwanted product. For example, a refund for a magazine subscription would not require a physical return.
return merchandise authorization (RMA)
Authorization from the Seller for a customer to return products ordered from a store and receive a credit, refund, or replacement product. At the Seller's discretion, a product does not need to be returned in order to receive a credit, refund, or replacement product.
returns administrator
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages the disposition of returned products. See also logistics manager.
RFM
See recency, frequency, monetary.
RFQ
See request for quote.
RFQ response
When using the RFQ trading mechanism, the reply that a seller sends to a buyer who has sent them an RFQ. The RFQ response indicates the terms and conditions under which the Seller will sell the products or services to that buyer.
RMA
See return merchandise authorization.
role
A definition of the access levels that users have and the specific resources that they can modify at those levels. Users are limited in how they can access information if they do not have the proper role. Multiple roles are permissible.
roll back
(1) To remove changes that were made to database files under commitment control since the last commitment boundary. See also commitment boundary, commitment control.
(2) To return to a previous stable condition.
root organization
The top level of an organization, which owns site level access control policies, and is automatically assigned all roles included in the WebSphere Commerce product.
run time
The time period during which a computer program is running.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

S

sale
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, the simultaneous authorization and capture of a transaction.
sales catalog
A section of the master catalog that contains a flexible structure for customer display purposes. Users can have only one master catalog per store, but can have as many sales catalogs as they want. See also master catalog.
sales manager
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that manages order processing, ensuring that orders are properly fulfilled, payment is received, and orders are shipped. The sales manager can search for customer orders, view details, manage order information, and create and edit returns. See also operations manager, order.
sample store
See starter store.
SAR
See store archive.
SAR file format
In WebSphere Commerce, SAR (store archive) is a platform-independent file format that aggregates many files into one. See also store archive.
scheduler
A multithread, multiprocess background server designed to handle the scheduling and launching of jobs, based on a simple timing scheme. See also broadcast job, job.
schema
A collection of database objects such as tables, views, indexes, or triggers that define a database. A database schema provides a logical classification of database objects.
script
An exact text for the customer service representative to read to a customer regarding transactions. Scripts can be short-hand or prompts to remind a representative to say certain things to a customer at certain points during a call.
Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol
A security-enhanced variation of HTTP. S-HTTP allows servers and clients to authenticate each other and to define the kind of security used in transmissions. S-HTTP is an alternative to another well-known security protocol, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). S-HTTP is distinct from HTTPS (HTTP over SSL). See also secure server.
secure server
A server that encrypts files that it is sending and decrypts files that it has received to facilitate secure communication with a client. See also Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
Secure Sockets Layer
A security protocol that provides communication privacy. SSL enables client/server applications to communicate in a way that is designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery.
segment
A data mining construct that groups input data records within a given dataset, on the basis of similar characteristics. Each group is called a segment. Within a segment, each piece of data is evaluated (or scored) for the degree to which it fits the segment to which it belongs. This statistical conformance is represented by a number, called the score, which ranges between 0.0 and 1.0. In DB2 Intelligent Miner, this concept is known as a cluster.
seller
(1) The role that supervises the overall store objectives and management, in addition to tracking the store sales. The seller role is equivalent to a merchant.
(2) A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that has access to all WebSphere Commerce Accelerator capabilities. See also expected inventory, expected inventory record.
seller administrator
The seller administrator manages the information for the selling organization. The seller administrator creates and administers the suborganizations within the selling organization and the various users in the selling organization, including the assignment of appropriate business roles.
separate search space
An implementation of the Product Advisor. For this style of implementation, additional database tables must be created that contain metadata to facilitate searching a particular category of products. See also base search space.
server
In a network, hardware or software that provides facilities to other stations. For example, a file server, a printer server, or a mail server. The station making the request of the server is usually called the client. See also host, client.
service agreement
An agreement between a provider and supplier, or a host and recipient, to define store setup and business relationship terms and conditions.
service provider
Any company that provides services for a fee to its customers, such as telecommunication companies, application service providers, enterprise IT, and Internet service providers.
service requester
The application that initiates an interaction with a Web service. Examples of a service requestor include a typical Internet browser and an application that uses Web services to gather information for its processing requirements. The service requestor binds to the service using the published information and calls the service.
session ID
A unique identifier that is assigned when a customer accesses WebSphere Commerce. For a non-registered customer, the session ID is assigned by the system. For a registered customer, the session ID is the login user ID.
settle
In WebSphere Commerce Payments, an attempt to close a batch object and transfer funds. As part of the settling procedure, there might be some reconciliation or balancing steps (depending on the cassette and financial institution policy) to ensure that the merchant and financial institution agree on the funds being transferred. If the reconciliation steps fail, the batch can remain in an open state.
ship as complete
A shipping option that requires all items in an order to be shipped together.
shipping carrier
A company that provides shipping services from a fulfillment center to a customer. See also fulfillment center.
ship together
An advanced order shipping option that allows items in an order to be marked for multiple group shipping instructions in the order item list.
shopper
See customer.
shopping cart
A pending order. See also interest item, order.
shopping currency
The currency that is used by a store in its transactions with a particular customer. See also preferred currency, supported currency.
shopping flow URL
A controller command that has a URL interface and is run from a store interface. See also redirection URL.
shopping language
The language that is used when displaying pages to a particular customer. If the customer's preferred language is supported by the store or site, then the preferred language is used as the shopping language. Otherwise, the shopping language is the default language for the store or site. See also preferred language.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
In the Internet suite of protocols, an application protocol for transferring mail among users of the Internet. SMTP specifies the mail exchange sequences and message format. It assumes that the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the underlying protocol.
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
A lightweight, XML-based protocol for exchanging information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP can be used to query and return information and invoke services across the Internet.
site administrator
A defined role in WebSphere Commerce that installs, configures, and maintains WebSphere Commerce and the associated software and hardware. The site administrator responds to system warnings, alerts, and errors, and diagnoses and resolves system problems. This role typically controls access and authorization, manages the Web site, monitors performance, and manages load-balancing tasks. See also access group, customer group.
SKU
See stock keeping unit.
SMS table space
See system-managed space table space.
SOAP
See Simple Object Access Protocol.
source catalog entry
A product or SKU that contains one or more merchandising associations. When a source catalog entry is displayed, the user can view the defined merchandising associations. See also target catalog entry.
SQL
See Structured Query Language.
staging server
An instance of a WebSphere Commerce Server that is used for testing purposes before new functions or data are deployed to the production server. See also production server.
standard order
An order within store that has not been enabled to use the capabilities of advanced order processing.
standard order processing
One of the methods a store can use to process orders. See also advanced order processing. See also advanced order processing.
starter store
A fully functional online store, provided in store archive format with WebSphere Commerce. Starter stores are designed to be used as a base on which an online store can be created.
starter store archive
A store archive for the WebSphere Commerce starter store.
state
(1) Stages in the life cycle of an object that identify the current status of that object. Multiple states are arranged to create a business flow.
(2) An object's characteristic that is manifested in its public and private data members, and can be divided into two categories: essential state and non-essential state.
stateful
Of or pertaining to a system or process that keeps track of the state of interaction. Stateful and stateless indicate whether a computer or computer program is designed to note and remember one or more preceding events in a given sequence of interactions with a user, another computer or program, a device, or other outside element. Stateful means the computer or program keeps track of the state of interaction, usually by setting values in a storage field designated for that purpose. Stateless means there is no record of previous interactions and each interaction request has to be handled based entirely on information that comes with it. (Computers are inherently stateful in operation, so these terms are used in the context of a particular set of interactions, not of how computers work in general.) See also stateless.
stateless
Having no record of previous interactions. A stateless server processes requests based solely on information provided with the request itself, and not based on memory from earlier requests. See also stateful.
stateless session bean
A session enterprise bean that does not maintain any conversational state. Stateless session beans are pooled with others in a container.
static
Pertaining to an operation that occurs at a predetermined or fixed time. See also dynamic.
static kit
A group of products that are ordered as a unit. The information about the products contained in a static kit is predefined and controlled within WebSphere Commerce. The individual components within the order cannot be modified and must be fulfilled together. A static kit will back order if any of its components are unavailable. See also bundle, stock keeping unit.
stock keeping unit (SKU)
An alphanumeric identifier for each item of merchandise, or catalog entry. The smallest unit available for keeping inventory control. It can include variables for department, class, vendor, style, color, size, and location. See also package.
store
In WebSphere Commerce, an online store is the place where all transactions for an online business occur. WebSphere Commerce supports several different types of entities that are defined as stores. These store types include customer-facing store, asset store, and proxy store.
store archive (SAR)
A compressed file that contains all the assets (including file assets and database information) necessary to create a store. Publishing the store archive to a WebSphere Commerce Server creates an operational store. See also SAR file format, composite store archive.
store entity
An abstract super class that can represent either a store or a store group.
storefront assets
The part of an online store that customers see while shopping. Storefront assets include HTML pages, JSP files, style sheets, images, graphics, and other multimedia file types. See also back-office business logic.
storefront asset store
A type of asset store that is a collection of JSP files, commands, business processes (for example, order processing), business policies and access control policies that create a virtual storefront. See also asset store, catalog asset store.
store owner
In WebSphere Commerce, the position that controls and owns the database and the file assets related to the online store. A store owner can be an organization.
Structured Query Language (SQL)
A standardized language for defining and manipulating data in a relational database.
suborder
The part of an order that is being shipped to a specific address. An order can consist of multiple suborders. For example, a customer might indicate different shipping addresses for different products in the shopping cart. Each shipping address and the products associated with it constitute a suborder.
supply chain
A value chain that supports procurement and sourcing of goods. See also demand chain, value chain business model.
supported currency
A currency that an online store is capable of displaying and handling. See also preferred currency, shopping currency.
system-managed space table space (SMS table space)
A table space whose storage space is managed by the operating system's file system manager. This storage model is based on files created under subdirectories, and managed by the file system. See also database-managed space table space.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

T

table
A named data object that consists of a specific number of columns and some unordered rows. See also view.
targetable command
A command that can be executed on a different target container. A targetable command invocation incurs some overhead; making the task command not targetable can improve the performance of the overall command framework.
target catalog entry
A promotional product or SKU that is defined as a merchandising association. See also source catalog entry.
targeted e-mail
A means of communicating a campaign through e-mail to specific recipients based on customer profiling.
task command
A command that implements a specific application logic. In general, a controller command and a set of task commands together implement the application logic for a URL request. A task command is not targetable, meaning it is always executed in the same container as the controller command. See also controller command.
tax category
Indicates the different categories of tax a store might be required to collect, such as federal, state or provincial, and municipal tax. Each tax category must be assigned one of the tax types; either sales or shipping.
tax type
Indicates the type of tax; either sales or shipping. Each tax type has its own unique set of tax categories.
TCP/IP
See Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
template
(1) An XML representation of the instructions used to call the promotions engine. A template contains an ordered list of promotion groups which contain the promotions available to the agenda builder. A template also passes order-specific monetary information to the promotion engine, such as the order total.
(2) In WebSphere Commerce, a predefined skeleton or pattern that determines how information displays on a Web page. The template defines characteristics such as the location and type of text and images, and background color.
top category
In an online catalog, a category of items that has no parent.
total charge
In an advanced order, the cost of all order items, along with additional fees and taxes. See also current charge.
trading mechanism
In WebSphere Commerce, a method by which buyers and sellers carry out business transactions. Depending on the edition of WebSphere Commerce, these methods might include: fixed price, contract, RFQ, and auction.
trading position
See offer.
trading position container
A price list that contains offers, also known as trading positions. The trading positions in a trading position container are made available to customers by associating the trading position container with the terms and conditions of one or more contracts.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
An industry-standard, nonproprietary set of communications protocols that provide reliable end-to-end connections between applications over interconnected networks of different types.
transport
A means by which to send an outbound message from WebSphere Commerce.
trigger
In database technology, a program that is automatically called whenever a specified action is performed on a specific table or view.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

U

UDDI
See Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration.
Unicode
A universal character encoding standard that supports the interchange, processing, and display of text that is written in any of the languages of the modern world. It also supports many classical and historical texts in a number of languages. The Unicode standard has a 16-bit international character set defined by ISO 10646.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The unique address of a file that is accessible in a network such as the Internet. The URL includes the abbreviated name of the protocol used to access the information resource and the information used by the protocol to locate the information resource.
unit abandoned
An orderable item that was placed in a shopping cart but not ordered at the time the data was extracted.
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
A set of standards-based specifications for service description and discovery over the Internet.
up-sell
A product recommendation of a related yet pricier product in the same product line as the currently displayed or selected product. Effective up-sell and cross-sell techniques drive sales by presenting products complementary to initial purchases or invite customers to purchase more expensive items than the original selection in the same product category. See also cross-sell, accessory.
URL
See Uniform Resource Locator.
use case
A technique for identifying user requirement by providing scenarios that illustrate how a user and a system interact. In WebSphere Commerce, a use case shows the flow of each user interaction in the starter store and acts as a template for creating a store.
user
Any person, organization, process, device, program, protocol, or system that uses the services of a computing system.
user group
See customer group. See also site administrator.
user registration properties file
A file on the WebSphere Commerce Server that contains information needed to support the correct language and country or region for a store.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

V

value chain business model
A business model that supports transactions involving multiple enterprises or parties. Products, goods, services, or information are delivered through the parties of the value chain from producers to end users. WebSphere Commerce supports transactions through, and relationship management of the following two types of value chains: supply chain and demand chain. See also demand chain, supply chain.
view
An alternative representation of data from one or more tables. A view can include all or some of the columns in the table or tables on which it is defined.
view command
A command that is used to compose a view as a response to a client request.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

W

Web application document root
The location within the file system where an application's Web assets are stored (such as static HTML, JSP files, and GIFs).
Web controller
An adapter to the WebSphere Commerce commands. There can be different types of Web controllers, one for each client invocation protocol, such as the HTTP request or MQSeries request.
Web server
A software program that is capable of servicing Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests.
Web service
A software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically Web Services Description Language (WSDL)).
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
An XML-based specification for describing networked services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information.
WebSphere Application Server
Web application server software that runs on a Web server and that can be used to deploy, integrate, execute, and manage e-business applications.
WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
In WebSphere Commerce, a workbench of online tools used to maintain online stores through various store operations.
WebSphere Commerce database
The database that contains the operational data for online stores.
WebSphere Commerce instance
A unique configuration of WebSphere Commerce to support an e-commerce Web site, which can contain one or multiple stores. See also Web server instance.
WebSphere Commerce Recommendation Engine
Powered by LikeMinds, the software responsible for implementing collaborative filtering recommendations.
WebSphere Commerce Server
The server that handles the store- and commerce-related functions of an e-commerce solution. The WebSphere Commerce Server provides all of the WebSphere Commerce functionality in a Web container and an EJB container.
widget
A reusable user interface component such as a button, scrollbar, control area, or text edit area, that can receive input from the keyboard or mouse and can communicate with an application or with another widget.
wrapper
An object that encapsulates and delegates to another object to alter its interface or behavior in some way. (Sun)
WSDL
See Web Services Description Language.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

X

X.509 certificate
A certificate that contains information that is defined by the X.509 standard.
XML message mapper
A mechanism that converts the incoming XML message into Java object that the target command expects. A message mapper can be registered with the instance_name.xml configuration file and is uniquely by a message mapper ID. The XML message mapper uses the mappings defined in the mapping template file to convert the XML message into the corresponding Java command parameter.

Y


Z

Feedback