Question

A purchase order can be stored in Commerce Server 2007 in the purchaseorders table, which comes with a limited default storage columns. What if you want to add new columns to this table that would be used to store additional order information?

Pls Note that I am a beginner in Commerce server 2007

Thanks in Advance

KP

Answer 1

You can extend the PurchaseOrders table in two ways. Both involve adding additional data to the PurchaseOrder class and mapping that to a new column in the database:

1. Map a weakly typed PurchaseOrder class property to a new database column. How to Map a Weakly Typed Indexer Property to an Explicit Database Column documents this and explicitly mentions the PurchaseOrder scenario. There is also relevant material in the blog post Mapping Weakly Typed Properties to Storage.

2. Derive a new class from PurchaseOrder and add a property. Read How to Derive a New Orders Class and How to Modify the Orders Configuration Files to get a feel for this. Also, see the entire section Extending the Orders Runtime. Finally, there is an example of the entire process, but applied to the LineItem class.

Important Note: While the first approach is quicker, it has some limitations when using the CS BizTalk adapters. For example, I don’t think you can use a weakly typed property to correlate. However, my memory is hazy on this (just remember getting bitten by something along those lines).