Broadleaf Commerce continues to invest in its framework and has released key features included in the Version 1.5 Release, which offers a newly improved administration platform featuring enhanced catalog, merchandising, and promotion capabilities. As part of this release, the administration platform is being entirely rewritten using Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

With this should come significant interest from current clients as well as enterprises looking for an eCommerce solution. "Moving to GWT allows us to better support our design goals of providing an easily extensible solution," said Jeff Fischer, Chief Architect with Broadleaf Commerce.

The key features offered in the Version 1.5.0-M2 Release includes:

A fully customizable administration platform

  • Product administration
  • Order administration
  • Customer administration

Enhanced promotion capability

  • Powerful, intuitive promotion maintenance
  • Promotion targeting based on customer, product, and/or order attributes
  • Easy to setup "buy one, get one" promotions

Early demos of the product are being well received by current and prospective customers. In addition to the features already available as part of the 1.5.0-M2 release, Broadleaf Commerce is leveraging the new GWT based admin platform to add Content Management features that will be included in the final 1.5 release scheduled for November.

These features will allow sites to personalize promotional content based on any data the site has available for the customer. Additionally, the ability to maintain internationalized messages, pages, and structured content will be supported. "We are excited about the new content management system," said Brian Polster, President of Broadleaf Commerce. "We recognized a common gap with enterprise Java customers and content management. Our goal is to provide a system that works well for any Java site and is focused on the needs of enterprise eCommerce customers."

Broadleaf Commerce uses a robust, extensible architecture that enables customization and rapid development. It is built on the Spring Framework, which is the leading platform to build and run enterprise Java applications. By leveraging the Broadleaf Commerce solution, companies will benefit from key distinctions such as its low cost of ownership and best of breed open source frameworks. Broadleaf Commerce continues to focus on developing and enhancing its eCommerce platform in order to provide online retailers a cost-effective alternative to traditional software platforms.