Mapping Purchase Orders to the Database
The OrderObjectMappings.xml file describes how to map instances of the PurchaseOrder class to records in the transactions resource database. The XML file contains elements that represent the following items:
Members of the PurchaseOrder class and members of the classes nested within the PurchaseOrder class.
The database tables and their structure.
The mapping between members of a PurchaseOrder instance and columns in a database table.
When you create a new Commerce Server Core Systems Web application, a default transactions resource database and a default OrderObjectMappings.xml file are created for you. You must update the OrderObjectMappings.xml file in the following situations:
If you add, remove, or modify members of the PurchaseOrder class or a class that is nested within the PurchaseOrder class, and the values of those members are stored in the database.
If you add a weakly-typed indexer property to PurchaseOrder objects or objects that are nested within a PurchaseOrder object, and you want to map the weakly-typed indexer property to a database column.
Note
The values of all weakly-typed indexer properties are stored in a database column as a binary large object (BLOB) when a PurchaseOrder instance is saved in the database. However, you cannot search columns that contain a BLOB. If you write a custom application that needs to search a weakly-typed indexer property, you must explicitly map the weakly-typed indexer property to a database column. Note that the Commerce Server Core Systems business user applications and data management APIs do not support searching on weakly-typed indexer properties, whether or not they are mapped to the database.
If you do not extend the Orders System, you do not need to have an OrderObjectMappings.xml file.
The topics in this section describe the elements in the OrderObjectMappings.xml file.