What's new in this release

This topic describes new features and changes to existing features between WebSphere Commerce Version 5.6 and WebSphere Commerce Version 5.7. Intended for users experienced with previous versions of either WebSphere Commerce Suite or WebSphere Commerce, this information is designed as a quick reference to new features in this release.

In this topic, all editions of WebSphere Commerce - Express, Professional and Business - are referred to as WebSphere Commerce. Furthermore, all editions of the WebSphere Commerce development environment are referred to as the WebSphere Commerce development environment. Where required, images denote the information specific to a particular edition or platform.

WebSphere Commerce development environment

New and changed components

Business account and contract enhancements

A Site Administrator, Sales Manager, or Seller can unlock a contract for a user, using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. For example, if a user's system stops while the user is editing the contract, the contract may be locked on the system, and an administrator must unlock it. Also, if one user is editing a contract, this locks the contract and prevents other users from editing it.

Set shipping charge discounts or increases for a business account or contract using the Accounts or Contracts notebooks within the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. You can adjust the shipping charge by a fixed value (for example, discount all shipping to $10 per shipment), or set a percentage adjustment (for example, discount all shipments by 10%).

Customers can now use shipping and billing addresses from several address books. When completing the checkout process for an order, customers can select addresses from their personal address books, their parent organization's address books, or their business account organization's address books.

Group order items to ship together

The Ship Together feature can be applied to any store model that uses Advanced Order processing. The Ship Together feature allows developers to define grouping codes so that customers can select order items in a shopping cart to ship together. Using the Ship Together feature, customers can define multiple groups of items within a single order and group non-physical items, such as service and digital media products.

Order channel tracking

The Order Channel tracking feature allows you to create site-level business channel values and descriptions that can then be selected from a list of channel types in the customer service representative user interface. This feature is available in the Advanced Order processing only. A business channel is assigned during the creation of the order and the channel information is retrieved whenever the order is opened. A pre-defined set of channels is included in the WebSphere Commerce product or you can define your own types.

Order management

A Consumer direct Operations Manager or B2B direct Logistics Manager can now query the details of on hand and expected inventory to determine when inventory is arriving, to which fulfillment center inventory is arriving and how much has already been committed.

A B2C Operations Manager or B2B Logistics Manager can now query the details of on hand and expected inventory to determine when inventory is arriving, to which fulfillment center inventory is arriving and how much has already been committed.

Order search includes searches by detailed billing and shipping information, as well as by organization name, SKU, fulfillment status, and by merchant-customized fields.

For ATP enabled stores, you can use an external system of record to supply WebSphere Commerce with current inventory levels. The ATP inventory management component of WebSphere Commerce has been modified so that the quantity available for an item will be accurate regardless of when the external system of record updates inventory levels.

The Returns function of an ATP-enabled store supports the use of product serial numbers for verifying received returns. The order manifest now includes itemized information and the serial numbers of the shipped items

Orders with zero total payments

Using event-driven processing, customer orders with a zero ($0.00) total payment amount and no payment information can be processed. When an order totals zero, a message informs the customer that no payment information is required. Zero total payment orders can occur if an item is offered at no cost to the customer, an item is exchanged at no cost to the customer, or an adjustment to the order reduces the total amount of the order to zero.

Advanced order edits

To support the editing of advanced orders, three new controller commands are provided and described in the API reference information:

Through its graphical user interface, the Multichannel Sales Center provides Customer Support Representatives with the ability to edit advanced orders before they are released to fulfillment.

API Changes

The setOrderStatus(String[ ]) method used by the OrderListBean search data bean has been removed from the WebSphere Commerce API because it caused runtime exceptions. If you have any JSP files that use this method, you must change those JSP files to use another method. For example, you can instead specify a comma-delimited string of standard order status values:

OrderListBean.setOrderStatus("A, B, C, M, R, S")

Calculation Framework

The calculation framework surcharges feature allows a store to associate non-taxable charges, such as recycling fees for PCs, with products in specific jurisdictions

Shipping Changes

New store relationships for shipping allow you to share shipping: modes between stores, jurisdictions or jurisdiction group data between stores, and calculation of charges between stores.

Shipping instructions can be supplied by customers or Customer Service Representatives when placing an order at a store. For example, customers can specify that packages should be "left on the back porch" or "under the door mat" at delivery. These optional instructions are text only and are entered independently of regular order comments. In addition, for B2B direct stores, a shipping carrier account number can be specified with an order if the shipping charge type selected at order entry is "charge by carrier." Developers can retrieve shipping instructions and shipping carrier account numbers from the WebSphere Commerce database when printing packing slips or labels. Updates to shipping instructions or shipping carrier account number information can be made by Customer Support Representatives only.

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