Commerce Foundation Data Types
The Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation API uses a restricted set of native .NET data types and places some additional interpretation on them. Commerce Server 2009 does not expose proprietary data types to avoid creating a dependency on CrossTier type’s assemblies and DataSets.
Supported Data Types
Data Type |
Description |
|---|---|
Array |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
Boolean |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
Byte |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
Char |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
DateTime |
The Microsoft Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation API represents all DateTime values in the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) time zone. Because the Commerce Server 2009 business logic may be unaware of the client’s time zone, the caller is responsible for all conversion between UTC and the local time zone. The recommended provider design is to persist all DateTime values as UTC. Commerce Server 2009 providers must convert the DateTime accordingly. The following table represents the format in which each Commerce Server module stores the DateTime information:
Feature Commerce Server Core Systems Format Commerce Server Core Systems DB Format
MarketingLocalUTC
CatalogLocalLocal
Transactions (Orders)LocalUTC
ProfilesLocalLocal
|
Decimal |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
Double |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
Int |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
Int64 |
The WSDL representation of Int64 is long. |
UInt |
The WSDL representation of UInt64 is unsignedLong. |
UInt64 |
The WSDL representation of a Single is float. |
Single |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
String |
Same as Commerce Server Core Systems. |
List<> |
Collections of commerce entities that support standard data types. The WSDL representation of List<> is an array of the datatype of the list. |
See Also
Other Resources
Developing with the Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation
Developing with the Commerce Foundation Catalog System
Developing with the Commerce Foundation Marketing System