Get order_id before submiting order in Magento

Question

I have added a custom field in checkout page at shipping method step in magento. I am able to insert data from this field to my custom table mg_cake_message(msg_id,customer_id,cake_msg). I need another attribute (order_id) to show data for respective orders in admin panel. How can i get order_id before submitting an order?

I have searched in google and some of people suggest to use quote_id instead of order_id. Is quote_id is same as order_id ?

If it's not possible to get order_id before submiting order then how can the two previous step(Billing Information, Shipping Information) is managed?

Please make me a response .....

Answer 1

A quote in Magento is basically an order that hasn't been placed yet. It contains product items (shopping cart), addresses and payment/shipping methods. It is created as soon as you add an item to cart and Magento creates a sales/quote object.. During checkout, billing and shipping data is added to the quote. Finally, when the user clicks place order, the quote object is converted to an order sales/order object.