What Are the Default and Required Orders Pipeline Components?
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All the templates for the Orders Processing pipelines (OPPs) include Default and Required components. Commerce Server provides these components to ensure the integrity of data as it enters and leaves a pipeline stage.
Generally, Default components appear at the start of a pipeline stage, and site developers frequently replace them. Default components are all named as such — for example, DefaultShippingCy. Default components make sure that critical values for the stage exist. This might involve copying the values of one set of dictionary keys to another set of keys, or initializing some values to zero. If the pipeline does not require special functionality, the Default components do not have to be replaced. However, if you need these Default components to function differently, you will have to either replace these components with other components included in Commerce Server or create your own custom components. For more information about how to create custom components, see Building Pipeline Components. For a list of components included with Commerce Server, see Pipeline Component Reference.
Required components ensure the integrity of the data as it leaves the pipeline stage. Frequently, this involves setting values and raising errors or warnings. It can also involve checking that values were set in a previous component.
Additionally, some Required components, such as RequiredItemPriceCy, automatically perform currency and integer conversions at the end of a pipeline stage when the Currency Mode is set to Currency and Integer (compatibility). This means that if a pipeline stage contains only Commerce Server objects, you do not have to worry about converting the values. For more information about currency handling, see Currency Enhancements.