The Expression Builder
The Commerce Server feature that enables business managers to create, edit, and view expressions is called the Expression Builder. The Expression Builder provides the user interface for building expressions. It accesses the appropriate properties for building an expression, and it names and stores the expression in the Commerce Server databases.
The Expression Builder is designed so that site developers can easily embed its functionality and user interface in other Business Desk modules. In addition, it can be invoked by any Web application that uses and manipulates expressions, enabling you to integrate it with other processes. For example, if you have an existing content management process, you can incorporate Expression Builder functionality, and then target content to users.
To create applications that use the Expression Builder, you do the following:
- Define profiles. You specify which profiles the expression should use, and the Expression Builder loads those profile definitions for constructing the expression. You can also specify a profile properties filter to limit the properties in the profile that will be available to an Expression Builder user.
- Save expressions. You can specify the expression/profile store to use, and the Expression Builder loads and saves expressions in that database.
- Display messages to users. You can customize the messages that are displayed in the Expression Builder user interface. For example, the default title message is "Create an expression," but for your implementation, you might change it to "Create an Ad-Targeting Expression."
The Expression Builder uses Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML) for its user interface, so the style sheets of the application will apply to the Expression Builder user interface, giving your application a consistent look and feel.
See Also
Using Targeting Methods in Web Site Management
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