Product Master architecture
IBM® Product Master has a scalable architecture that provides security and operational redundancy (or high availability).
The Product Master has a component-based architecture that can consist of a two-tier or three-tier configuration. The Product Master components include: core components, integration components, and collaboration components. For best performance, run Product Master on a dedicated system and restrict access to the system to maintain security.
Product Master provides a PIM solution development platform with scheduler, business process management, event processing, queue management, and other common components. It supports SQL-like business data query, object-oriented scripting, Java™ API programming, web service development, and other PIM solution development features.
Product Master includes a web-based application with a
three-tier architecture that consists of:
- A web browser user interface for rendering PIM content in a browser, including static, dynamic, or cached data in the client side.
- A middle tier with the functional modules that process user requests and produce PIM content in the server side that runs on an application server.
- A database management system (DBMS) that stores the data that is required by the middle tier that runs on a database server.
Core components
- API layer
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- Java API
- You use the Java APIs to extend an Product Master solution by creating Java client programs, services, or GUIs that invoke the APIs to access Product Master functionality. You can also implement pre-defined interfaces and make the compiled classes available to the system, such that when a specific extension point is reached, the system invokes the class by using a special URL. For more information about Java APIs and how you can use them to access Product Master, see:
- Search API
- You use the Search API to search for information in the Collaborative Edition system. You can customize and define the searching model to support different business user requirements. For more information, see
- Script API
- The Script APIs provide a full featured set of capabilities to extend an Product Master solution. For more information, see
- Business Object layer
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- Data objects
- You use these objects to model the instance level objects at your site. Instance level objects are the objects that you perform actions on most often in the course of a day. For example, products, SKUs, work items, and so on.
- Metadata objects
- You use these objects to model the structure of an implementation, for example, catalogs, hierarchies, and so on. These objects also define the structure of the data objects, for example, specs that define attributes of items.
- User modeling objects
- You use these objects to capture the user model of an enterprise. The user model defines items like the reporting hierarchy of users, roles, users, data access privileges, permissions, and so on.
- Infrastructure layer
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- Queue manager
- The queue manager service sends documents outside of Product Master.
- Event processor
- The event processor service dispatches events between all the modules.
- Admin service
- The Admin service is used to start or stop services. The Admin service also maintains a track of the current state of other services. This service is required on all computers where one or more services is running.
- RMI registry
- The RMI registry coordinates the communication between services by using the RMI.
- Scheduler service
- The scheduler service runs the scheduled jobs such as imports, exports, and reports.
- Storage layer
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- Docstore
- The set of physical database tables and file system locations where you store the extended or unstructured content. For example, feed files, reports, export job output, and so on. You use the document store to manage all incoming and outgoing files.
- Product Master repository
- The set of physical database tables that are used to persist the business objects in.
Integration Components
- Custom tools
- Custom tools provide a custom user interface in the Product Mastersystem. You can use custom tools to extend the user interface of the Product Master system.
- Web services
- You can use the web services to invoke standard Web service requests. A set of sample Web services and custom Web services that use the Product Master scripting language are also provided. For more information, see
- Import-export
- The jobs that are responsible for ingesting the incoming data (imports) and generating data (export) to send to the external systems. These jobs move data between Product Master and other applications from a system integration perspective. For more information, see
Collaboration Components
- Workflow engine
- This service processes the events that are related to business objects that are moving through business processes and have been captured in the workflows.
- Data authoring UI
- A set of user interface screens that are used to interact with the data objects (instance level business objects) to specify and enrich the data that is provided for them and to set up associations between them. All user interface interaction is processed by the appsvr process.
- Import-export
- The jobs that are responsible for ingesting the incoming data (imports) and generating data (export) to send to the external systems. These jobs run in the context of a scheduler service.