OrderGroup, OrderForm, and OrderGroupManager Objects

The OrderGroup object is used in Commerce Server 2002 to store, access, and compute basket and order information for a site. The OrderGroupManager object works in conjunction with the OrderGroup object, providing search and other management operations for orders.

The OrderForm object is a dictionary that contains individual entries, and entries that are Dictionary and SimpleList objects. The structure makes it possible to present a detailed summary of all or part of one or more shopping sessions to the user or to the Order Processing pipeline (OPP). This summary includes data such as name, address, and credit-card information, as well as product information related to the purchase.

The following diagram shows the relationship of the OrderGroup object and the OrderForm object to each other and to the Addresses and LineItem dictionaries.

An OrderGroup object describes order information. It groups order forms, and provides aggregate operations and aggregate totals. The OrderGroup object links to one or more OrderForm objects, and to one or more Address dictionaries.

The OrderForm object specifies header information for an order, such as the shipping total, the tax total, and other data required to process the order. The OrderForm object references one or more LineItem dictionaries, which describe the specific products to be purchased. The Addresses dictionary specifies billing and shipping address information for purchase orders. Each OrderForm object typically specifies a billing_address_id value, and each line item specifies a shipping_address_id value.

The following figure shows the components of the OrderForm object.

The OrderGroup object often contains just one OrderForm object, but when you want your users to purchase items from different suppliers, the multiple OrderForm object feature of the OrderGroup object enables you to retain distinctions between suppliers while allowing a unified shopping experience for the user.

The following objects commonly occur within the OrderGroup object:

• Address dictionaries. These dictionaries specify billing and shipping information for purchase orders.
• OrderForm objects. These objects contain a SimpleList object called Items that contains the Item dictionaries holding line item information.
• Items SimpleLists. The Items SimpleLists contain the Item dictionaries.
• Item dictionaries. These dictionaries specify the contents of the line items in an order form. An OrderForm object, representing the information used to process the order form, references zero or more Item dictionaries through the Items list.

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