Serializable carts

In the SerializedCarts data model, all cart data is stored in one table, SerializableCart. This table contains these defined and searchable columns:

The Data column is where all the cart data is serialized to JSON format and then stored as a string.

Cart data is serialized to a JSON formatted string before persisting it to the database. To achieve this, several cart components participate in the serialization/deserialization which takes IMarket as a parameter.

Serializable components implement the IExtendedProperties interface, and custom values can be added to the Properties collection on the Serializable components as long as the value can be JSON serialized.

Converting a serialized cart with custom properties to a purchase order requires the Meta Fields corresponding to the custom properties to be present on the purchase order type. See Extending order classesExtending order classes.

The mapping between the serialized cart's custom properties and the purchase order's corresponding meta fields is strictly based on property name. The serialized cart is created with an emptyPropertiesemptyProperties collection, meaning that it is not prepopulated with the keys or default values of the meta fields added to the purchase order, or the legacy cart meta-class.

By default, the SerializedCarts mode is enabled for a new installation site and disabled for an upgraded site.

To enable SerializedCarts mode, do the following:

If that setting does not exist, add it like this:

Alternatively, enable the SerializedCarts mode programmatically by adding the following to your InitializeModule class:

If switching from a legacy version to Serializable carts, you may need to migrate existing carts. If so, run the scheduled job LegacyCartsMigrationJob available in the CMS admin view immediately after switching to the new cart system to complete the migration and remove legacy carts.