Cart module: reference information

Last updated:
Edit on GitHub

The Cart module consists of several components in Yves and Zed. The Yves components create the cart requests and persist the cart into the session. The Zed components persist the data into the database and expand the items with data obtained from plugins.

Cart operations are invoked in CartClient, which contains methods for all common operations (add, update, remove).

Each cart operation uses CartChangeTransfer objects. Each transfer holds the current quote transfer and the items that are being modified. Current QuoteTransfer is read from the current session and is provided by the QuoteSession session adapter.

When an operation is invoked, CartClient makes an HTTP request to the Zed Cart module. The cart module gateway controller forwards the request to CartFacade where a corresponding operation is handled and modified; QuoteTransfer is returned to Yves and persisted into the session.

Cart data flow

Cart Data Flow

Cart operations

The Cart module in Zed has a cart operation class that handles cart operation requests. Each operation does the following:

  • Expands cart items. Augments cart items with additional data (prices, product details, and product options).
  • Persisting. Storage provider stores items into the database and merges items if the same item is added. By default, it uses NonPersistentProvider.
  • Item grouping. Cart uses the item grouper to group items in the cart using a specially crafted group key, which is provided by the cart expander. For example, a list containing the same item coming from different merchants must be split into separate groups and shipped separately.
  • Log operation message. Cart writes messages to the messenger. These messages are returned to Yves — for example, validation messages, success, and failure messages.
  • Cart recalculation. This happens for each operation in cart recalculation. Cart amounts are reset and recalculated with newly added items.

Cart persistence providers

Cart has different persistence providers in Zed. By default, it only modifies the current QuoteTransfer, and it doesn’t persist the data. A use case example is building a cart where the cart items are persisted between log-ins. In this case, StorageProviderInterface needs to be implemented, and the operation dependency must be changed.

Cart expanders

Zed Cart modules can have expander plugins registered. Expander plugins expand the cart with additional data such as price information and product information, and they add product options.

Currently, we ship with several plugins:

CART EXPANDER DESCRIPTION
ProductCartPlugin Adds product information to ItemTransfer (idConcreteProduct, idAbstractProduct, abstractSku, name and taxRate).
CartItemPricePlugin Adds unitGrossPrice into itemTransfer.
CartItemProductOptionPlugin Adds the productOption collection into ItemTransfer.
SkuGroupKeyPlugin Appends SKU to the group key, so the item’s int are grouped by SKU.
CartItemGroupKeyOptionPlugin Creates a product option group key from option IDs, so items with different option combinations are placed separately.

Cart prechecks

The Zed Cart module has a list of pre-checks. These are validators that run when adding a new item to the cart. We have a list of default prechecks, which you may add your own to. To do so, add a new plugin to Pyz/Zed/Cart/CartDependencyProvider::getCartPreCheckPlugins().

Currently, we ship a couple of default prechecks:

CART PRE-CHECK DESCRIPTION
ProductExistsCartPreCheckPlugin Checks that the passed products exist in the DB. This plugin is provided by the ProductCartConnector module.
CartBundleAvailabilityPreCheckPlugin Checks the availability of new cart items (products and product bundles). Provided by the ProductBundle module.
CheckAvailabilityPlugin Checks the availability of new cart items (only products). Provided by the AvailabilityCartConnector module.