What Is the Multiple-shipment Shipping Architecture?
The multiple-shipment shipping architecture for Commerce Server Core Systems has two purposes:
To modify shipping method configurations so that people who are not programmers can configure them.
To provide functionality to process multiple shipment methods for a single order.
In the multiple-shipment shipping architecture, the Shipping stage generally uses the same three components—the Splitter, ShippingMethodRouter, and ShippingDiscountAdjust components.
The ShippingMethodRouter, Splitter, and ShippingDiscountAdjust components are the only shipping components that you should use in a pipeline. The ShippingMethodRouter component runs shipping methods that you configure using Customer and Orders Manager.
Use the ShippingMethodRouter component to register all shipping cost calculation components, except the the Splitter component.
The CacheManager object uses the ShippingManagerCache component to load data from the ShippingMethod table into the cache. The ShippingMethodRouter component, in turn, uses the ShippingManagerCache component to get and maintain the cached shipping information.
The following table lists the components and objects in the multiple-shipment shipping architecture, and provides links to more detailed information about each object and component.
Object |
Description |
|---|---|
This object determines the shipping method, runs the individual shipping components, and calculates the total shipping costs for the order. |
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This pipeline component calculates shipping for individual shipments. It handles charging by weight, quantity, and subtotal. This component is run and configured by the ShippingMethodRouter component. This component can be replaced or augmented by custom components. |
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The CacheManager object uses this loader component to handle data from the ShippingMethod database table. |
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This component applies shipping discounts to an order; it uses the multiple-shipment shipping architecture. |
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In its shipping configuration, this component divides an order into multiple shipments based on a set of distinguishers. |
You must calculate taxes on individual shipments because the shipments can vary depending on the shipment method. New tax components need to take into account the multiple-shipment structure. For more information about the multiple-shipment structure, see What Are Shipping and Address Structures?.
Handling charges, however, are calculated based on the order, rather than on the individual shipments.