Customizing the shopping cart calculation

The Kentico E-commerce Solution allows you to customize the shopping cart calculation engine. The system runs this calculation when working with the shopping cart during checkout and when creating or editing orders. The calculation determines how the system applies discounts, handles shipping costs, adds taxes, etc.

For example, you can:

  • Completely replace the shopping cart calculation with a custom solution
  • Integrate custom steps into the calculation process

To customize the shopping cart calculation:

  1. Open your Kentico project in Visual Studio.

  2. Create new classes that implement the calculation interfaces (described below).

    Class location

    For production sites, we recommend creating a new assembly (Class library project) in your Kentico solution and including the classes there. Then, add the appropriate references to both the assembly and the main Kentico web project. For more information, see Best practices for customization.

  3. Implement all methods required by the given interfaces.

  4. Register your implementations of the interfaces using the RegisterImplementation assembly attribute (or use a Factory class to serve instances dynamically in certain cases).

When you reload the website, the system uses the custom implementations when calculating the price totals and other data of shopping carts and orders.

In code, you can run the calculation for a shopping cart object (ShoppingCartInfo) by calling the object’s Evaluate() method.

Calculation interfaces and data types

All mentioned classes can be found in the CMS.Ecommerce namespace.

Main calculation logic

The core shopping cart calculation is performed by the registered implementations of the following interfaces:

  • IShoppingCartCalculator
  • IShoppingCartCalculationFactory – serves an instance of a class implementing IShoppingCartCalculator for each site. Must be implemented to use custom IShoppingCartCalculator implementations.

Implementations of IShoppingCartCalculator must contain the Calculate method. The method provides a CalculatorData parameter with the following properties:

  • Request – a CalculationRequest object that contains the data of the processed shopping cart, such as a collection of cart items (products), the customer object, the cart currency, etc.
  • Result – a CalculationResult object that stores the results of the calculation, such as shopping cart totals, discount summaries, tax summaries, etc.

Note: To ensure that your custom calculator implementations work without errors, you need to perform null checks before accessing CalculationRequest properties. The system runs the calculation process during early stages of the shopping cart life cycle where many properties are not set yet. For example, the CalculationRequest.PaymentOption property has a null value when calculating shopping carts where the customer has not selected a payment option yet.

To fully replace the shopping cart calculation logic, the Calculate method of your IShoppingCartCalculator implementation needs to process the data provided in CalculatorData.Request and set all available properties of CalculatorData.Result.

The default shopping cart calculation in Kentico uses a composite IShoppingCartCalculator step, consisting of multiple other IShoppingCartCalculator implementations that are executed in a specific order. See the Default calculation pipeline section for details.

Integration with shopping carts

The E-commerce API uses the following interfaces to connect the main calculation logic to shopping cart objects:

  • IShoppingCartAdapterService – prepares the data for the IShoppingCartCalculator calculations and applies the results to the shopping cart. Implementations must contain the following methods:
    • GetCalculationRequestGetCalculationResult – methods that initialize the CalculationRequest and CalculationResult objects for the calculation using the data of a specified shopping cart (ShoppingCartInfo).

    • ApplyCalculationResult – applies the results (CalculationResult) to the specified shopping cart (ShoppingCartInfo) after the calculation.

      You can create and register your own IShoppingCartAdapterService implementation if you need to add custom properties into the calculation data for use within IShoppingCartCalculator classes:

      1. Create custom classes that inherit from CalculationRequest or CalculationResult.
      2. Add properties to the classes according to your requirements.
      3. Define the GetCalculationRequest and GetCalculationResult methods within your IShoppingCartAdapterService implementation and return instances of your derived request or result classes.
      4. If you need to use custom result properties to apply values to the shopping cart, convert the CalculationResult parameter to your derived type within the ApplyCalculationResult method.
  • IShoppingCartEvaluator – contains an Evaluate method that encapsulates the entire shopping cart evaluation and calculation logic. The default implementation prepares the calculation data using IShoppingCartAdapterService, runs the calculation using IShoppingCartCalculationFactory, and ensures automatic adding of free products to shopping carts for Buy X Get Y discounts.

Default calculation pipeline

The default shopping cart calculation in Kentico uses a composite implementation of the IShoppingCartCalculator interface – the ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection class. The ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection accepts an IEnumerable collection of other IShoppingCartCalculator instances (steps), calls the Calculate method of each step, and passes the CalculatorData between the steps.

The default calculation pipeline consists of the following steps (each step is an IShoppingCartCalculator implementation):

Calculation step

Function

1

UnitPriceCalculator

Calculates the unit price for all products in the shopping cart (including unit-level discounts – catalog discounts and volume discounts).

Sets the following properties of each CalculationResultItem in the CalculationResult.Items collection:

  • ItemUnitPrice
  • UnitDiscount
  • UnitDiscountSummary

2

CartItemDiscountCalculator

Evaluates and calculates Buy X Get Y discounts and Product coupons for the shopping cart.

  • Sets the ItemDiscount and ItemDiscountSummary properties for each CalculationResultItem in the CalculationResult.Items collection.
  • Adds any coupon codes related to the applied discounts into the CalculationResult.AppliedCouponCodes collection.

3

TotalValuesCalculator

Calculates and sets the following total values:

  • CalculationResult.Subtotal
  • CalculationResult.Total
  • CalculationResult.GrandTotal
  • CalculationResultItem.LineSubtotal for each item in the CalculationResult.Items collection

At this point, the Subtotal, Total and GrandTotal values are all the same – a sum of the LineSubTotal values for all items in CalculationResult.Items.

4

OrderDiscountsCalculator

Evaluates and calculates order discounts for the shopping cart.

  • Sets the CalculationResult.OrderDiscount value.
  • Adds each applied order discount to the CalculationResult.OrderDiscountSummary collection.
  • If any of the applied order discounts use a coupon code, adds the coupon codes to the CalculationResult.AppliedCouponCodes collection.

5

TotalValuesCalculator

Recalculates and sets the following total values:

  • CalculationResult.Subtotal
  • CalculationResult.Total
  • CalculationResult.GrandTotal
  • CalculationResultItem.LineSubtotal for each item in the CalculationResult.Items collection

The CalculationResult.OrderDiscount value set by the previous step is now subtracted from the Total and GrandTotal values.

6

ShippingCalculator

Calculates the shipping price for the shopping cart.

  • Sets the CalculationResult.Shipping value.
  • If any free shipping offers with a coupon code are applied, adds the coupon codes to the CalculationResult.AppliedCouponCodes collection.

7

TaxCalculator

Calculates taxes for all CalculationRequest.Items and the CalculationResult.Shipping value.

  • Sets the overall CalculationResult.Tax value.
  • Fills the CalculationResult.TaxSummary collection based on the applied tax types.

8

TotalValuesCalculator

Recalculates and sets the following total values:

  • CalculationResult.Subtotal
  • CalculationResult.Total
  • CalculationResult.GrandTotal
  • CalculationResultItem.LineSubtotal for each item in the CalculationResult.Items collection

The CalculationResult.Shipping and CalculationResult.Tax values set by the previous steps are now added to the Total and GrandTotal values.

9

OtherPaymentsCalculator

Calculates the values of gift cards applied to the shopping cart.

  • Sets the CalculationResult.OtherPayments value.
  • Adds each applied gift card to the CalculationResult.OtherPaymentsApplication summary collection.
  • Adds the coupon code of each applied gift card to the CalculationResult.AppliedCouponCodes collection.

10

TotalValuesCalculator

Recalculates and sets the following total values:

  • CalculationResult.Subtotal
  • CalculationResult.Total
  • CalculationResult.GrandTotal
  • CalculationResultItem.LineSubtotal for each item in the CalculationResult.Items collection

The CalculationResult.OtherPayments value set by the previous step is now subtracted from the final GrandTotal value.

Modifying the default calculation

You can use the ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection class to customize the shopping cart calculation while preserving the default calculation (or parts of it):

  1. Prepare an IEnumerable collection of IShoppingCartCalculator instances. Define your own calculation pipeline, consisting of the default calculation steps and your own custom IShoppingCartCalculator steps.
  2. Create and register a custom IShoppingCartCalculationFactory implementation.
  3. Implement the GetCalculator method in the IShoppingCartCalculationFactory class and return an instance of the default ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection class, with the prepared IShoppingCartCalculator collection as the constructor parameter.

Note: If you have custom steps that modify the Subtotal, Total or GrandTotal values of the CalculationResult, you either need to run the steps after the last usage of the default TotalValuesCalculator step or you need to implement a custom calculator for the total values that reflects your customizations. Otherwise the TotalValuesCalculator step performs the default calculation of the shopping cart totals, which overwrites any values assigned by custom steps.

Example – Adding an extra charge calculation step

The following example demonstrates how to add a custom step to the shopping cart calculation, while preserving all of the default calculation logic. The step adds an extra charge to the total price of the shopping cart or order based on the selected payment option.

Prepare a separate project for custom classes in your Kentico solution:

  1. Open your Kentico solution in Visual Studio.

  2. Create a new Class Library project in the Kentico solution (or reuse an existing custom project).

  3. Add references to the required Kentico libraries (DLLs) for the new project:

    1. Right-click the project and select Add -> Reference.

    2. Select the Browse tab of the Reference manager dialog, click Browse and navigate to the Lib folder of your Kentico web project.

    3. Add references to the following libraries (and any others that you may need in your custom code):

      • CMS.Base.dll
      • CMS.Core.dll
      • CMS.DataEngine.dll
      • CMS.Ecommerce.dll
      • CMS.Globalization.dll
      • CMS.Helpers.dll
      • CMS.Membership.dll
  4. Reference the custom project from the Kentico web project (CMSApp or CMS).

  5. Edit the custom project’s AssemblyInfo.cs file (in the Properties folder).

  6. Add the AssemblyDiscoverable assembly attribute:

    
    
    
     using CMS;
    
     [assembly:AssemblyDiscoverable]
    
    
     

Continue by creating custom implementations of the IShoppingCartCalculationFactory and IShoppingCartCalculator interfaces:

  1. Add a new class under the custom project, implementing the IShoppingCartCalculator interface.

  2. Implement the Calculate method to define the custom calculation logic that adds the extra charge to the shopping cart totals.

    
    
    
     using CMS.Ecommerce;
     using CMS.Core;
    
     public class ExtraChargeShoppingCartCalculator : IShoppingCartCalculator
     {
         /// <summary>
         /// Runs shopping cart calculation based on specified calculation data.
         /// </summary>
         public void Calculate(CalculatorData calculationData)
         {
             CalculationRequest request = calculationData.Request;
             CalculationResult result = calculationData.Result;
    
             decimal extraCharge = 0;
    
             // Adds an extra charge of 5 (in the site's main currency) to the shopping cart totals
             // if the selected payment option's code name is 'custompayment'
             if (calculationData.Request.PaymentOption?.PaymentOptionName.ToLowerInvariant() == "custompayment")
             {
                 extraCharge = 5m;
    
                 // Uses the default Kentico currency API to convert the price
                 // from the site's main currency into the requested currency (if necessary)
                 ICurrencyConverterFactory currencyConverterFactory = Service.Resolve<ICurrencyConverterFactory>();
                 ICurrencyConverter currencyConverter = currencyConverterFactory.GetCurrencyConverter(calculationData.Request.Site);
    
                 string siteMainCurrencyCode = Service.Resolve<ISiteMainCurrencySource>().GetSiteMainCurrencyCode(calculationData.Request.Site);
                 string currencyCode = calculationData.Request.Currency.CurrencyCode;
    
                 extraCharge = currencyConverter.Convert(extraCharge, siteMainCurrencyCode, currencyCode);
             }
    
             result.Total += extraCharge;
             result.GrandTotal += extraCharge;
         }
     }
    
    
     
  3. Add a new class under the custom project, implementing the IShoppingCartCalculationFactory interface.

  4. Prepare an IEnumerable collection of IShoppingCartCalculator instances matching the default calculation steps, and add an instance of the custom ExtraChargeShoppingCartCalculator step to the end.

  5. Implement the GetCalculator method in the IShoppingCartCalculationFactory class.

    • Return an instance of the default ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection class, with the prepared IShoppingCartCalculator collection as the constructor parameter.



using System.Collections.Generic;

using CMS;
using CMS.Ecommerce;
using CMS.DataEngine;

// Registers the custom implementation of IShoppingCartCalculationFactory
[assembly: RegisterImplementation(typeof(IShoppingCartCalculationFactory), typeof(CustomShoppingCartCalculationFactory))]

public class CustomShoppingCartCalculationFactory : IShoppingCartCalculationFactory
{
    // Provides an instance of the customized shopping cart calculator
    public IShoppingCartCalculator GetCalculator(SiteInfoIdentifier siteIdentifier)
    {
        // This sample does not parameterize the calculator based on the current site
        // Use the method's 'siteIdentifier' parameter if you need different calculation logic for each site
        return new ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection(CustomCalculationSteps);
    }

    // Defines a custom pipeline of calculation steps
    private static List<IShoppingCartCalculator> CustomCalculationSteps = 
        new List<IShoppingCartCalculator>
        {
            // The default calculation pipeline
            new UnitPriceCalculator(),
            new CartItemDiscountCalculator(),
            new TotalValuesCalculator(),
            new OrderDiscountsCalculator(),
            new TotalValuesCalculator(),
            new ShippingCalculator(),
            new TaxCalculator(),
            new TotalValuesCalculator(),
            new OtherPaymentsCalculator(),
            new TotalValuesCalculator(),

            // Adds the custom "extra charge" step to the end of the calculation
            new ExtraChargeShoppingCartCalculator()
        };
}


  1. Save all changes and Build the custom project.

The registered CustomShoppingCartCalculationFactory class provides an instance of ShoppingCartCalculatorCollection with an extended list of calculation steps. The calculation performs all of the default steps without any changes, and the custom ExtraChargeShoppingCartCalculator step at the end of the calculation pipeline adds an extra charge to orders that use the “Custom payment” payment option.

Note: This basic example does not display any information about the reason for the price increase to customers or store administrators (for example in the shopping cart details during checkout, when editing orders, or in invoices). The total values of shopping carts or orders may appear inconsistent unless you add content explaining the price change (for example, you can mention the extra charge in the display name of the related payment option).