Pipeline Structure
A pipeline is defined in a pipeline configuration file, which has a .pcf file extension. In the .pcf file, you can see the stages of the pipeline. Each stage contains one or more pipeline components. A site developer can configure each stage to work with the unique requirements of your site.
The following figure shows the stages of the Retailing Purchase Pipeline (the Purchase.pcf file).
.gif "A figure that shows the stages of the Retailing Purchase Pipeline.")
Information is passed from an ASP page to the pipeline by using the following two dictionaries:
- Context dictionary. A read-only dictionary that provides the pipeline with information about the environment. For example, it might contain the connection string for a database.
- Order dictionary. A read/write dictionary that provides the data that the pipeline is to process. For example, when a user submits an order, all the information is gathered together in the order dictionary, and is then passed to the Order Processing Pipeline.
The content of each dictionary is dependent on the type of pipeline. A site developer specifies the information that must be included in the dictionary on the ASP page.
Commerce Server pipelines can be run as transactions, which allow the pipeline to roll back the process if an error occurs. In addition, Commerce Server pipelines take advantage of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server object pooling to greatly increase the processing speed. For information about object pooling, see the Windows 2000 Server online documentation.
See Also
Extending the Content Selection Framework
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