Suggestions on storing shopping cart info

[Cirene]

I am writing a shopping cart app in asp.net.

So far I created 2 classes, 1 for customer_info (name, address, email), 1
for product_info (prodname, price, description).

As the shopper adds things to the cart and navigates throught the site to
shop more, should I store this info in a session var? What is the typical
way? Should I create another class for cart and store an array of
product_info to keep track of what's in the cart, etc...?

What do you recommend?

Thanks

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere .comwrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP06.phx.gbl. ..

As the shopper adds things to the cart and navigates throught the site to
shop more, should I store this info in a session var?

That would work. Alternatively, if you want the customer to be able to save
the cart and come back to it later, you should save it to a database...

Should I create another class for cart and store an array of product_info
to keep track of what's in the cart, etc...?

That's what I do, though I tend to use a generic e.g. Dictionary<int, int>
to store the ID of the purchased product along with the number of items
purchased...
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Cirene]

Thanks Mark, as usual. I'll give it a try...

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <ma**@markNOSPA Mrae.netwrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP04.phx.gbl. ..

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere .comwrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP06.phx.gbl. ..

>As the shopper adds things to the cart and navigates throught the site to
shop more, should I store this info in a session var?

That would work. Alternatively, if you want the customer to be able to
save the cart and come back to it later, you should save it to a
database...

>Should I create another class for cart and store an array of product_info
to keep track of what's in the cart, etc...?

That's what I do, though I tend to use a generic e.g. Dictionary<int, int>
to store the ID of the purchased product along with the number of items
purchased...
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Cirene]

Would using a generic list (of these objects) be the best way to handle this
in your opinion? Store that to a session var?

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <ma**@markNOSPA Mrae.netwrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP04.phx.gbl. ..

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere .comwrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP06.phx.gbl. ..

>As the shopper adds things to the cart and navigates throught the site to
shop more, should I store this info in a session var?

That would work. Alternatively, if you want the customer to be able to
save the cart and come back to it later, you should save it to a
database...

>Should I create another class for cart and store an array of product_info
to keep track of what's in the cart, etc...?

That's what I do, though I tend to use a generic e.g. Dictionary<int, int>
to store the ID of the purchased product along with the number of items
purchased...
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere .comwrote in message
news:O4******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP05.phx.gbl...

[please don't top-post]

>That's what I do, though I tend to use a generic e.g. Dictionary<int,
intto store the ID of the purchased product along with the number of
items purchased...

Would using a generic list (of these objects) be the best way to handle
this in your opinion? Store that to a session variable?

No it wouldn't, otherwise that's what I'd be doing. I've never found any
need to persist anything other than the ID of the item bought together with
the number of items purchased.
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

[Cirene]

But to perisist it using a session var doesn't using a List allow you to
easily access, add and remove items in the cart? Or should I just use an
arraylist of the cart items?

I was just looking at this and it seemed like a good idea...
http://www.java2s.com/Code/VB/Generi...nericClass.htm

By the way i'm not sure what "top-posting" is. I just hit "Reply to Group"
in Outlook Express. :)

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <ma**@markNOSPA Mrae.netwrote in message
news:%2******** *******@TK2MSFT NGP05.phx.gbl.. .

"Cirene" <ci****@nowhere .comwrote in message
news:O4******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP05.phx.gbl...

[please don't top-post]

>>That's what I do, though I tend to use a generic e.g. Dictionary<int,
intto store the ID of the purchased product along with the number of
items purchased...

Would using a generic list (of these objects) be the best way to handle
this in your opinion? Store that to a session variable?

No it wouldn't, otherwise that's what I'd be doing. I've never found any
need to persist anything other than the ID of the item bought together
with the number of items purchased.
--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net