Data Structures and Storage

Product Data

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Composite Products are stored in the database as custom post type entries of the product post type, similar to all product types in WooCommerce core. The extension introduces the Composite type by adding a composite term value to the product_type taxonomy.

All composite products are instances of the WC_Product_Composite class, which extends the core WC_Product class. You can use all methods of the WC_Product class with composite-type product instances. In addition to these, the WC_Product_Composite class provides a number of methods specific to Composite Product objects. A detailed reference of all methods is beyond the scope of this document – please refer to the class itself for details about each method.

WC_Product_Composite objects rely on their own datastore for reading/writing object properties from/to the database. The following table contains a list of properties and meta fields specific to the Composite type:

Property	Meta Key	Description
price	_bto_base_price	Base price of the composite product.
regular_price	_bto_base_regular_price	Base regular price of the composite product.
sale_price	_bto_base_sale_price	Base sale price of the composite product.
composite_data	_bto_data	Component data, serialized.
scenario_data	_bto_scenario_data	Scenario definitions, serialized.
layout	_bto_style	Layout value. Values: single | progressive | paged | paged-componentized
shop_price_calc	_bto_shop_price_calc	Catalog Price value. Values: defaults | min_max | hidden
editable_in_cart	_bto_edit_in_cart	Edit in Cart option value. Values: yes | no
add_to_cart_form_location	_bto_add_to_cart_form_location	Form Location value. Values: yes | no
sold_individually_context	_bto_sold_individually	Sold Individually option context. Values: product | configuration
virtual_composite	_wc_pb_virtual_composite	Manages state for the Virtual checkbox. When the Virtual box is ticked, all Components, in addition to the Composite itself, are treated as Virtual. When the virtual_composite property is true, then the virtual property is also true. When the virtual_composite property is false, the virtual property is used to control whether the Composite is an assembled or unassembled one. For more information, refer to the examples that follow this table. Values: yes | no
aggregate_weight	_wc_bto_aggregate_weight	When creating assembled Composites, this property controls whether chosen Component Option weights should be aggregated and added to the weight specified under Product Data > Shipping. Values: yes | no

Cart & Order Item Data

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Relationships

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In cart context, a WC_Product_Composite product acts as a trigger for adding additional products to the cart on the woocommerce_add_to_cart action, depending on the posted configuration data. Prior to this, the extension does its own client-side and server-side validation to ensure that a configuration can be added to the cart, taking into account all configuration and availability constraints.

In the cart, a composite product shows up as a group of cart items:

• A container cart item, associated with the composite product itself.
• A number of child cart items, each associated with a Component.

Assuming that an order is placed, the same group of quantity-synced cart items will find their way into the created order, as well.

Thanks to this approach:

• All inventory management is relayed to WooCommerce core.
• Compatibility with 3rd party plugins/extensions is greatly simplified, since the process of adding child products to the cart/orders does not bypass any hooks that would be normally triggered in core.
• The container cart/order item can be used to easily override the physical properties of its children at the application layer, useful in use cases with complex shipping requirements.
• A clear separation of parent and child prices in the cart makes it easier to implement complex pricing schemes and allows each child item to maintain its individual tax rate.

Cart Item Data

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Parent/child cart items are identified by appending the following fields to cart items:

Field	Type	Item Context	Description
composite_parent	string	Child	Cart item ID of the container cart item that this child cart item belongs to.
composite_children	array	Parent	Cart item IDs of all child cart items associated with a composite container item.
composite_data	array	Parent/Child	Composite configuration data array, used for a) identifying the entire group uniquely and b) carrying out in-cart validation.
composite_item	string	Child	Component ID associated with this child cart item.

This data is used internally to establish the parent/child relationships of cart items associated with a composite product. The extension provides a set of global utility functions that you can use to:

• Check if a cart item is a composite child item and get its parent.
• Check if a cart item is a composite parent item and get its children.

For details, please refer to the Functions Reference.

Order Item Data

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Parent/child order items are identified by creating the following order item meta:

Key	Type	Item Context	Description
_composite_cart_key	string	Parent/Child	Original cart item ID (or other unique hash) that identifies the order item.
_composite_parent	string	Child	Unique hash of the parent order item.
_composite_children	serialized array	Parent	Unique hashes of all associated child items.
_composite_data	serialized array	Parent/Child	Serialized array with composite configuration data, used for a) identifying the entire group uniquely and b) carrying out in-cart validation when re-ordering.
_composite_item	string	Child	Component ID associated with this child order item.
_component_priced_- _individually	string	Child	Indicates whether the item was Priced Individually when the order was placed.
_component_needs_- shipping	string	Child	Indicates whether the child item was Shipped Individually from the composite when the order was placed.
_composite_weight	numeric	Parent	The total per-unit weight of a composite parent when the order was placed. May differ from the value defined in the Weight field of the Shipping tab when using a variable container weight.

This data is used internally to establish the parent/child relationships of order items associated with a composite. The extension provides a set of global utility functions that you can use to:

• Check if an order item is a composite child item and get its parent.
• Check if an order item is a composite parent item and get its children.

For details, please refer to the Functions Reference.

Questions & Support

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