Writing Custom Components

The Microsoft® Commerce Server version 3.0 pipeline is a software infrastructure that sequentially executes an array of components. Each component is a custom-tailored Component Object Model (COM) object designed to perform operations on some part of the OrderForm or Dictionary. The pipeline coordinates the interaction of pipeline components by passing the OrderForm or Dictionary from one component to another.

Pipeline components are configured to support one of several architectures. The first, the order processing pipeline (OPP), automates order processing in a business-to-consumer scenario. The Clocktower, which is included among the Commerce Server sample stores, illustrates this use. The second, the Commerce Interchange Pipeline (CIP), is intended to facilitate the packaging and transmission of business documents across a network. The Microsoft Market sample site illustrates this use of the pipeline architecture.

Commerce Server 3.0 includes a powerful set of components that can be combined into a pipeline to support either scenario. In addition, you can create your own components to extend the capabilities of the pipeline architecture. This guide explains how to do this, and includes the following topics:

• Overview. Explains the basic structure of pipeline components, and introduces the OrderForm and Dictionary objects on which pipeline components operate. In addition, this section introduces some of the software components, such as the Active Template Library (ATL) that you can use to build pipeline components.
• The Active Template Library (ATL) MinMaxShip Component Sample. Illustrates, step by step, how to create, build, and register an OPP component using the ATL.