Building Pipeline Components
The Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 pipeline is a software infrastructure that executes a sequence of components. Each component is a custom-tailored Component Object Model (COM) object designed to perform operations on some part of an OrderForm or Dictionary. The pipeline coordinates the interaction of pipeline components by passing the OrderForm or Dictionary object from one component to another.
You can use pipelines to model many linear processes. The two main processes modeled in Commerce Server are order processing, which is handled by the Order Processing pipelines (OPP), and content selection, which is handled by the Content Selection Framework (CSF) pipelines. The OPP automates order processing in a business-to-consumer scenario. The CSF pipelines automate the selection of advertisements and discounts.
Commerce Server includes a set of components that can be combined into a pipeline to support either architecture. In addition, you can create your own components to extend the capabilities of the pipeline architecture, as described in this section.
This section contains:
About Pipeline Components. Describes the basic structure of pipeline components and introduces the OrderForm and Dictionary objects on which pipeline components operate.
Creating Pipeline Components Using Visual Basic. Explains how to create and build a pipeline component using the Visual Basic Pipeline Component Wizard, as well as how to customize your components using Microsoft Visual Basic.
Creating Pipeline Components Using the Active Template Library (ATL). Explains how to create, build, and register a pipeline component using the ATL Pipeline Component Wizard, as well as how to customize your components using C++.
MinMaxShip Sample Pipeline Component. Describes the design of the MinMaxShip sample pipeline component and explains how to implement it in Commerce Server pipelines.
.gif "Ee797518.note(en-US,CS.10).gif")
Notes
Commerce Server includes wizards for creating pipeline components using Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C++. For the most current sample code for the components, see the ATL Pipeline Component Wizard, the Visual Basic Pipeline Component Wizard, and the complete sample code in the Programmer's Reference.
You must have Visual C++ version 6.0 or Visual Basic version 6.0 or higher installed on your computer in order to use the ATL Pipeline Component Wizard.