What is a magento quote?

I can't under开发者_开发问答stand what is a quote. Can someone give a detailed answer on what are magento quotes, what data they store, what's their lifetime and other relevant information?

Edit: Please notice the difference: Magento vs Magneto. Also the "magento" and "mvc" tags.

quote = cart contents in Magento. Theoretically the quote is an offer and if the user accepts it (by checking out) it converts to order. You can control the lifetime yourself and they store metadata about the store, totals information , shipping and billing relations, relations to payment method and shipping method (that is quoted separately) and items

A Cart is composed of a Quote so Cart Product is really a Quote Item so when you deal with $cart->addProduct() it does some check and add it by $this->getQuote()->addProduct() Don't use directly (when it's possible) quote function like Mage_Sales_Model_Quote::addProduct() because checks will not be done.

Quote is used for save cart items.when we add item to cart, reserved id given for your cart and after order placed all details fetch from that id of quote table. quote table will not clear automatically.