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The Product Pipeline

The Product Pipeline runs OPP components that compute price and discount information on individual products. This pipeline is often used to compute information that is displayed on the Product.asp page.

The template for this pipeline is Product.pct. An example of a pipeline based on this template is the Product.pcf file that is created in the /Config directory of a custom site created by the Site Builder Wizard.

The Product pipeline consists of the following stages.

Product Info Stage

The Product Info stage contains components that retrieve product information about the items in the items list from the site database. If information about a given item cannot be retrieved, Product Info stage components mark the item for deletion by creating a delete name/value pair in the item Dictionary, and initializing the name/value pair to one (1).

After the Product Information components have been executed, the required component in the Product Information stage iterates through the items list, deleting every item that has been marked for deletion.

The components related to this stage are shown in the following table.

Component Description
QueryProdInfo Executes a database query, based on the SKUs in the OrderForm's items list, and puts the returned data in the OrderForm's items collection. If no data is found for the SKU, the item is marked for deletion, and a pur_badsku errir is added to the _Basket_Errors list.
QueryProdInfoADO Executes a database query, using the Microsoft® ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). This component differs from QueryProdInfo in that the query that it executes can take multiple parameters, and can reference a query in the QueryMap Dictionary.
RequiredProdInfo
(embedded in stage)
If any items are marked for deletion, deletes them and writes appropriate error messages.

Shopper Information Stage

The Shopper Information stage adds information about the customer to the OrderForm.

The components related to this stage are shown in the following table.

Component Description
DefaultShopperInfoz
(included in template)
Initializes entries in the order form to contain the values read from the shopper dictionary.

Item Price Stage

The Item Price stage contains components that set the _iadjust_regularprice for each item in the items list and that verify that this value has been set. If this value cannot be set, an error is raised.

The purpose of this initialization is to ensure that the _iadjust_regularprice name/value pair contains the most current price information for the given SKU.

The components related to this stage are shown in the following table.

Component Description
DefaultItemPrice
(included in template)
For each item in the items list, initializes that item's _iadjust_regularprice name/value pair to the value stored in _product_list_price.
RequiredItemPrice
(embedded in stage)
Ensures that _iadjust_regularprice is set for each item in the items list.

Item Adjust Price Stage

The Item Adjust Price stage contains components that initialize the _iadjust_currentprice name/value pair. When this stage is complete, _iadjust_currentprice contains the current price of the item, adjusted for sales or promotions.

If no sale or promotion component is included in this stage, the name/value pair is set to the value stored in _iadjust_regularprice.

Once the item._iadjust_currentprice name/value pair has be set for an item, that item cannot be adjusted a second time. For example, if a stage includes multiple both an ItemPromo and a SaleAdjust component, and an item on the order qualifies for both the promotion and the sale adjustment, the item's _iadjust_currentprice will be initialized by the component that is executed first within the stage. This generalization applies for any combination of Item Price Adjust components that you include in your pipeline.

The components related to this stage are shown in the following table.

Component Description
ItemPromo Adjusts the _iadjust_currentprice name/value pair, based on promotional parameters.
SaleAdjust Determines whether an item is on sale. If it is, SaleAdjust sets the item's _iadjust_currentprice name/value pair to the value stored in the _product_sale_price name/value pair.
RequiredItemAdjustPrice
(embedded in stage)
Verifies that the _iadjust_currentprice name/value pair is set.

Inventory Stage

This stage verifies that every item ordered is in stock.

The components related to this stage include the following.

Component Description
FlagInventory Flags items in the items SimpleList that are out of stock.
LocalInventory Checks the OrderForm to ensure that an item does not require more of a given SKU than is in stock.
ReduceLocalInventory For backward compatibility.


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