[Zahhar]

Hi all!


My add-on needs to extend order properties with several custom fields.
I want to avoid creation of separate table for my addon data, and store custom fields somewhere in the existing table structure.

Example: my add-on offers customer a "Gift Wrap" checkbox during checkout. I can inject required HTML to views using template hooks, and then trap checkbox values using hooks in controllers. Now I need to store customer selection (if checkbox is set or not) together with order data.

Ideally, I would like to store my custom fields and a serizlized array somewhere in the orders table, and
to let CS-Cart save this field and populate for me, without writing much code.

What is the best way to do it? I wonder, if there is a best practice for this approach?

Thank you in advance.

[eComLabs]

@Zahhar,

You can use the "cscart_order_data" table. It stores a lot of different order data by default.

Here is the example code:

  $_data = array (
	    'order_id' => $order_id,
	    'type' => 'Z',
	    'data' => serialize(YOUR_CUSTOM_DATA_ARRAY),
    );
db_query("REPLACE INTO ?:order_data ?e", $_data);

Just make sure that the type char (Z in your case) is not used by core functions or add-ons. I can provide you with few examples from the core:

P - payment information
R - secondary currency
T - taxes
G - groups information
L - shipping information
C - coupons

[Zahhar]

Thanks, I will try this approach.

[eComLabs]

@Zahhar,

You are welcome! If you face any problem, please let us know.