Asset stores (Business Edition)

In order to facilitate the creation and management of multiple stores such as customer-facing stores and proxy stores, WebSphere Commerce implements asset stores. Asset stores contain collections of sharable resources (business artifacts, business processes and storefront assets) that can be leveraged in other stores. For example, instead of creating a catalog as part of the hub, a hub may leverage a catalog asset store, which can also be shared by the hub's channels or partners. As a result, a simple catalog can be used by hundreds or thousands of stores, thereby reducing data management needs. An asset store is usually composed of the assets that can be used by multiple stores, but is in itself not a fully functional store and does not conduct business transactions.

WebSphere Commerce provides sample catalog asset stores and storefront asset stores. The following diagram illustrates the relationship between stores and a catalog asset store.