AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

I would like to know the best way to add custom fields to an Order. I was considering a couple different approaches but both have negatives which I'm trying to avoid.

One of my requirements is to be able to filter an order by a custom field. For example, I need to add a new field to Order called PatientName. When I call OrderDataSource.LoadForCriteria(..) I need to filter by the PatientName field.

One suggestion I saw was to create a second table for the additional fields and use the OrderId as a foreign key on my custom table. The problem here is that I can’t search for an order using criteria from my custom table. It’s also a problem because I can’t show the data in the same result set. This forces me to display order first and then lookup the additional order information in a second query.

A second option is to extend the Order, OrderCollection and OrderDataSource classes. I could add new properties to the Order, and override the OrderDataSource methods. Then instead of using the CommerceBuilder.Orders.Order I could use my custom Order.

The preferred approach for us is to add new properties to the Order class and add the corresponding fields to the Orders table. Without source code, this isn’t possible either. I understand this breaks upgrade support and that's not an issue for us. We're using the API as a platform and starting point for a larger application.

I would appreciate feedback as to the best approach and the ones that adheres the closest to existing AC architecture.

Thanks!

I can't modify classes either. My only solution was to create external tables, class them and develop methods. It's important to me keep the future-upgrades-still-compatible scenario alive.

AC7 is brand new - you're going to want at least a few of the future updates. Excluding yourself now from upgrades will most likely have painful repercussions later in life.

What I do is search my custom table first and return a custom data class that includes the AC7 class as part of it. Then I have both my data strongly-typed and all the functionality of the Able class I've included.

Hello gturner. Have you or anyone else found a good method to do this?

I am looking for the same feature: to be able to get more control over the custom fields.

In fact I would like to pull up a grid populated with all records matching a particular custom field and sort by another custom field and be able to edit this grid.

Thanks,
Bruce.

I can't modify classes either. My only solution was to create external tables, class them and develop methods. It's important to me keep the future-upgrades-still-compatible scenario alive.

Agreed with you. I think Custom table + custom data warper is the best solution in this case for some one who is going to implement this.