Programmatic Components of the Commerce Server .NET Application Framework

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The Commerce Server .NET Application Framework introduces the Base Class Library and the Common Language Runtime Interop Layer to the Commerce Server platform. The Base Class Library and the Common Language Runtime Interop Layer enable Commerce Server objects and services to be utilized within ASP.NET. In addition, the Commerce Server .NET Application Framework uses a new application runtime that simplifies the process of building new Commerce Server applications.

The Base Class Library enables developers to access most pre-existing Commerce Server COM objects through a programming model consistent with the Common Language Specification (CLS) and the .NET Framework design guidelines. Internally, many of the classes in the Base Class Library use existing Commerce Server COM objects.

Between the Base Class Library and the Commerce Server COM platform is the Common Language Runtime Interop Layer, primarily composed of the Primary Interop Assemblies. The Primary Interop Assemblies contain the runtime callable wrapper (RCW) classes that permit the common language runtime to interact with COM objects. For each COM DLL file containing run-time objects, a Primary Interop Assembly is provided.

You should use the Base Class Library instead of using the Primary Interop Assemblies directly. The Base Class Library manages the lifetime of the underlying COM objects for you, resulting in increased performance and stability. The Base Class Library simplifies the programming model and follows the .NET Framework design guidelines.

The following figure shows the internal workflow for how the components in the platform communicate to fulfill a request from a user.

Commerce Server .NET Application Framework

Depicts the Commerce Server .NET Application Framework.

For reference information pertaining to the members of the Base Class Library and the Primary Interop Assemblies, see .NET Class Reference.

This section contains:

See Also

Commerce Server .NET Application Framework Tutorial

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