Units of measure assets information model diagram description

This diagram illustrates the structure of units of measure in the WebSphere Commerce Server.

Quantity unit and quantity unit format

A quantity unit is the unit of measurement used in the store, for example, kilograms, pounds, meters, inches, liters, and so on. The quantity unit format is how this quantity unit is formatted in the store, for example how many decimal places are used when displaying the quantity unit.

Each quantity unit format is part of only one store entity, but each store entity may have several quantity unit formats.

A quantity unit format can exist for each quantity unit and number usage, and may have one or more quantity unit format descriptions, depending on how many languages the store supports.

Quantity units defined in one store may be used by other stores. In order for one store to use quantity units defined in another store a store relationship of type com.ibm.commerce.measurement.format must be created between the stores. For more information, see Relationships between stores.

Quantity unit format description

A quantity unit format description describes how to format (for display purposes) a quantity amount in a particular quantity unit, in a particular language.

Number usage

Number usage defines the way a number is used in an application. For example, by using number usage codes in your WebSphere Commerce code, you can choose the way you would like that number (currency or quantity) to be formatted or rounded. These codes (defined in the NUMBRUSG table) allow the number to be formatted according to the rules specified for that type of number usage in the CURFORMAT, CURFMTDESC, QTYFORMAT and QTYFMTDESC tables. This allows stores to format numbers in different ways to meet the requirements of a variety of situations.