I am attempting to modify the Webshop described in Chapter 9 of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results. I need to remove all references to price, both on the store side and the admin side, as the items being ordered do not have any cost associated with them. Is there an easy way to do this without screwing up the other working elements? Any assistance with this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Hi there,

It's certainly possible, but it may take some time.

Here's what I would do:

1. Remove all references to the price from the database tables.

2. Remove all references to the price from the stored procedures.

3. Remove all references to the price in the business layer (like the Product class and the Shopping Cart)

4. Compile.

5. This results in a number of errors, most of which should be easy to fix. For example, the code that sends the price to the database. Since the price is sent in a param, all you need to do is delete the reference to the price in the param setup.

6. With the business later and data access layer done, you should be able to compile them again. After that, you can use search and replace to find references to the price in the aspx pages and remove them.

This should again be pretty easy, because price is "just another item". So, it's a column in a grid, a row in a table and so on.

Let me know if this works for you, or when you have additional questions...

Cheers,

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Beginning Dreamweaver MX / MX 2004
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.

Thanks very much. That seems to have taken care of the pricing elements. The other thing I have to do is to include additional fields in product details, and I guess I'm just slow, but I'm really not sure how to begin. I need to include a requested completion date, a set of optional special instructions for each order, and several bit fields, depending on the type of job being rquested (new, change or reprint). I'm fairly new at this; any suggestions that might get me pointed in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Hi mlevans,

I would almost recommend doing the opposite of what you did when you removed the Price element:

1. Add your new fields in the database tables.

2. Add your new fields to the stored procedures.

3. Add your new fields in the business layer objects (like the Product class and the Shopping Cart)

5. Extend the data access layer to include the new fields, getting them from and passing them to the stored procedures that access the database.

6. Extend the aspx pages and add your new fields.

Sorry if this sounds too obvious but I really think this is the way to do it....

If there are specific areas that you need help with, please let me know.

Cheers,

Imar
---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Beginning Dreamweaver MX / MX 2004
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.