Versions
The first version of the platform was introduced in 1996, [4] during the emergence of e-commerce with a product called Net.Commerce (V1.0 and subsequently V2.0, V3.1, and V3.2) that was first deployed to sell event tickets and merchandise for the 1996 Olympic Games. In 2001, Net.Commerce was renamed to WebSphere Commerce Suite, releasing versions V4.1 and V5.1. In 2002, WebSphere Commerce V5.4 was released, followed by V5.5 in 2003, V5.6 in 2004 and V5.6.1 in 2005. The latest major release versions are:
- Version 6.0 (2006) [5]
- Version 7.0 (2009) [6]
- Version 8.0 (2015) [7]
- Version 9.0 (2018) [8]
- Version 9.1 (2020) [9]
There are three editions of WebSphere Commerce software. Each edition provides an increasing set of functionality in comparison: [10]
- Express [11] (Note: With the announcement of Version 8.0 the platform variants offered were simplified to Professional and Enterprise editions only.)
- Professional [12]
- Enterprise [13] (Note: Enterprise edition was previously known as Business Edition prior to Version 6.0)
IBM provides an integrated development environment that is used to build and test customizations. The developer platform is called IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer for which there are also 3 editions that pair with their runtime environments (i.e. WebSphere Commerce Developer Express, WebSphere Commerce Developer Professional, and WebSphere Commerce Developer Enterprise). [14]
The WebSphere Commerce Developer toolkit runs within IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software (RAD) as the foundation Java IDE, and RAD extends the Eclipse environment with visual and other development features. [15]
A specific WebSphere Commerce version uses a specific version of RAD, for example:
- WebSphere Commerce Developer V6 is based on RAD V6
- WebSphere Commerce Developer V7 is based on either IBM Rational Software Architect (RSA) or RAD V7.5
- WebSphere Commerce Developer V8 is based on either RSA or RAD V9.5.
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