Product Provider Web Part
The Product Provider Web Part allows a Web Part on the current page to communicate with Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 R2. All communications by Catalog Web Parts with Commerce Server 2009 R2 are either through the Product Provider Web Part or the Product Query Web Part.
Note
Commerce Server 2009 R2 has a restriction to make sure that only one Product Query or Product Provider Web Part is on the Web site page at a time. A developer can use the Extensibility Kit to remove the restriction. Open the Extensibility Kit and navigate to UI\Catalog\WebParts\ProductQuery\ProductQuery.cs to find the ThereIsOnlyOneProductProvider() method. A developer can modify this method to remove or alter the restriction.
Product Provider Web Part Properties
The Product Provider Web Part property sheet lets site designers control some aspects of the Web Part's behavior and appearance.
To display the Web Part property sheet:
On the Web Part page, click Site Actions menu and then select Edit Page.
Click the Web Part drop-down menu and then select Edit Web Part. The Web Part property sheet is displayed.
To view properties, expand the relevant sections.
For a detailed list of this Web Part properties and information related to customizing this Web Part, see Working with the Product Provider Web Part
Selection Logic
This webpart uses the datafill contained in the property sheet to determine which catalog to query for products. Catalog selection logic is as follows:
If the Catalog property is set, use it.
If the Catalog property is not set, use the catalog query string variable set in the URL.
If the catalog query string variable is not set, read the channel configuration SPList and use the value specified for the default catalog.