The Commerce Server objects are instances of Microsoft® ActiveX® server components that provide the run-time environment for the presentation of Commerce Server sites. These components are registered on your system as ActiveX server components when you install Commerce Server. Like the objects included with Active Server Pages (ASP), Commerce Server objects support methods and properties that you call and set from within the Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript) or Microsoft® JScript™ server-side code that runs your Commerce Server site.
Commerce Server objects provide an extensive set of services that ASP does not provide; services that simplify and automate many of the tasks that you would have to perform manually to build a working site from ASP components alone. Such tasks include the reliable maintenance of state data across multiple sessions and the automated processing of order data through the order processing pipeline (OPP).
This section describes the Commerce Server objects, and includes definitions of the methods and properties that they support.
Commerce Server defines the following server objects.
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| AdminFile | Provides access to server-side files. |
| AdminSite | Localizes information about a Commerce Server site, including data source names (DSNs), queries, and the path to the pipeline configuration file, within a single object. |
| AdminWebServer | Provides access to read-only properties of the site. |
| ConfigurationCacheHelper | Caches a pipeline configuration in memory, helping to reduce the performance penalty associated with accessing a pipeline configuration (.pcf ) on disk. |
| DataFunctions | Supports a collection of functions that validate the format of data for database storage or for processing by the pipeline. |
| DBStorage | Supports mapping Dictionary and SimpleList objects to and from a database, primarily for the storage of receipt and order information. |
| Dictionary | Provides for the in-memory storage of name/value pairs. |
| FileDocument | Supports saving and restoring information contained in any persistable object to and from disk. |
| MessageManager | Stores error messages in multiple languages that the OPP components use to describe error conditions. |
| MicroPipe | Enables embedding and running a single pipeline component on an ASP page without requiring a pipeline and a .pcf file. |
| MtsPipeline | Loads and executes a pipeline configuration. This object is registered under Microsoft® Transaction Server (MTS)as transactions not supported. |
| MtsTxPipeline | Loads and executes a pipeline configuration. This object is registered under MTS as transactions required. |
| OrderForm | Supports the in-memory storage of customer and purchase information for the current shopping session. |
| Page | Simplifies the layout of HTML pages and the interaction between these pages and the data sources used by your site. |
| Predictor | Enables Intelligent Cross-Sell by suggesting other items that a customer might be interested in. |
| SimpleDBDS | Maps an Active Directory Service (ADS) to a standard database table, so that a Commerce Server site can maintain customer information using Personalization & Membership ( P&M) while retaining a pre-existing database. |
| SimpleList | General-purpose list of Variants. |
| StandardSManager | Facilitates the creation, deletion, and retrieval of shopper IDs. |
The following implementations of the Dictionary object are used in typical Commerce Server sites.
| Dictionary Implementation | Description |
|---|---|
| PipeContext | Passed through the pipeline as a holder of properties needed by pipeline components. |
| QueryMap | Contains query descriptions that may be used by various objects. |
| Site | Provides access to the Commerce Server site configuration stored in the Site.csc file. |
The following objects are included to support applications developed for earlier versions of Commerce Server, but are not recommended for use in new applications.
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| Content | For backward compatibility only. |
| Datasource | For backward compatibility only. |
| OrderPipeline | For backward compatibility only. |
| TrafficLogFile | For backward compatibility only. |
| TrafficTable | For backward compatibility only. |
This document does not include components that run within the pipeline. For information on the pipeline components, see The Order Processing Pipeline and The Commerce Interchange Pipeline.
This document assumes that you are familiar with Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript) or with Microsoft® JScript, and with the use of one of these languages within Active Server Pages (ASP).
For information about VBScript and ASP, see the Microsoft® Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 documentation.