When Quote id generated in magento?

Question

When Quote id generated in magento?

Is it generated:

• when customer got registered
• or when customer adds product to cart.

I have gone through many article but there is no clearance on it.

Answer 1

The quote id is generated when a product is added to cart.

Here's the workflow:

app/code/core/Magento/Checkout/controllers/CartController.php => addAction() method

$cart   = $this->_getCart();
...
$cart->save();

app/code/core/Magento/Checkout/Model/Cart.php => save() method

    $this->getQuote()->getBillingAddress();
    $this->getQuote()->getShippingAddress()->setCollectShippingRates(true);
    $this->getQuote()->collectTotals();
    $this->getQuote()->save();

app/code/core/Magento/Checkout/Model/Cart.php => getQuote() method

public function getQuote()
{
    if (!$this->hasData('quote')) {
        $this->setData('quote', $this->getCheckoutSession()->getQuote());
    }
    return $this->_getData('quote');
}

app/code/core/Magento/Checkout/Model/Session.php => getQuote() method

This is where the quote id is generated, you can see it creates a quote if the quote is null.

   if ($this->_quote === null) {
        /** @var $quote Mage_Sales_Model_Quote */
        $quote = Mage::getModel('sales/quote')->setStoreId(Mage::app()->getStore()->getId());
        if ($this->getQuoteId()) {
            if ($this->_loadInactive) {
                $quote->load($this->getQuoteId());
            } else {
                $quote->loadActive($this->getQuoteId());
            }
            if ($quote->getId()) {
                /**
                 * If current currency code of quote is not equal current currency code of store,
                 * need recalculate totals of quote. It is possible if customer use currency switcher or
                 * store switcher.
                 */
                if ($quote->getQuoteCurrencyCode() != Mage::app()->getStore()->getCurrentCurrencyCode()) {
                    $quote->setStore(Mage::app()->getStore());
                    $quote->collectTotals()->save();
                    /*
                     * We mast to create new quote object, because collectTotals()
                     * can to create links with other objects.
                     */
                    $quote = Mage::getModel('sales/quote')->setStoreId(Mage::app()->getStore()->getId());
                    $quote->load($this->getQuoteId());
                }
            } else {
                $this->setQuoteId(null);
            }
        }

        $customerSession = Mage::getSingleton('customer/session');

        if (!$this->getQuoteId()) {
            if ($customerSession->isLoggedIn() || $this->_customer) {
                $customer = ($this->_customer) ? $this->_customer : $customerSession->getCustomer();
                $quote->loadByCustomer($customer);
                $this->setQuoteId($quote->getId());
            } else {
                $quote->setIsCheckoutCart(true);
                Mage::dispatchEvent('checkout_quote_init', array('quote'=>$quote));
            }
        }

        if ($this->getQuoteId()) {
            if ($customerSession->isLoggedIn() || $this->_customer) {
                $customer = ($this->_customer) ? $this->_customer : $customerSession->getCustomer();
                $quote->setCustomer($customer);
            }
        }

        $quote->setStore(Mage::app()->getStore());
        $this->_quote = $quote;
    }

Answer 2

When you add any product in cart from site at that time quote entry is generated for you in related quote table.

main quote table is sales_flat_quote and each differnt item is store inside sales_flat_quote_item table. when customer got registered at that time no quote id is generated.

Only for product add to cart process, all product info are saved in quote table.

Thanks.