Designing the Online Store
Once the catalog has been set-up and once your products have been defined, you can work on the specifics of the online shop. These specifics involve three major functions of online stores (or ecommerce sites):
Teasers
- A teaser is basically a link (i.e. a redirection) to a specific location in the catalog. Teasers can be attached to the root catalog, or to whatever collection.
Guided Selling Processes
- Guided Selling Processes are in essence small Configurable Processes that allow you to set up a questionnaire which can be used to look up products & services in the catalog in a customer-oriented way.
Usable search criteria
- On the catalog as well as on each collection, the search criteria are used to define which business properties are to be exposed. These business properties are the ones which will allow the end-user to perform advanced searches.
Managing teasers
HOW TO ADD A TEASER
In order to add a teaser, proceed as follows:
How to
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Indicate the catalog or collection to which the teaser has to be associated by selecting its icon
[In the explorer toolbar]
- Execute the “New Teaser” function
[In the popup]
- Select “Create New”
- Enter a name and a description for the teaser you would like to create. Hit “Add” or “Add & Open” in order to create the teaser
- The teaser is created and added to the collection.
[In the menu toolbar]
- Save
In order to quickly add an existing teaser, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the "Explore structure" explorer]
Indicate the catalog or collection to which the teaser has to be associated by selecting its icon
[In the explorer toolbar]
- Execute the "New Teaser" function
[In the popup]
- Choose "Reuse existing"
- Choose a workspace
- Enter part of the teaser name or description and choose it in the proposed list.
- Hit "Add" or "Add & Open" in order to add the teaser to the catalog tree.
The teaser is added to the collection.
[In the menu toolbar]
Sav
SPECIFY THE TEASER ATTRIBUTES
In order to update an existing teaser, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Open the teaser by clicking on its description
- The teaser is opened in the working section
[In the working section]
- Update the system properties
- Update the teaser shortcut
[In the menu toolbar]
- Save
Whenever you create a teaser, the following details can be updated in the working area:
| FIELD | REQUIRED | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | Yes | The virtual environment in which a teaser has been created. In many cases, only one workspace is to be used. The workspace is fully determined by the workspace chosen in the dashboard. |
| Name | Yes | The identifier of the teaser. The length of the name is limited to 64 bytes and is preferably readable. It is recommended to adopt a coding rule for names, e.g. have them start with a small letter and use a capital letter for every new word. Example: myTeaser |
| Description | Yes | The description will functionally describe the teaser, and is limited to 4000 bytes. |
| Customize | No | This is a customizable field usable for purposes outside the control of the Designer. Limited to 4000 bytes. |
| Type | No | Allows assigning a user type to the teaser, which can be used as a classifier in order to segment exports, to specialize the user interface at run-time, or for other purposes. For more information about user types, please refer to Define object classifications. |
| Valid period | No | These “From” and “To” fields allow expressing the start and/or end date before or beyond which the teaser is not valid. Both dates are optional. |
Moreover, the teaser shortcut is a CPE that points to a target object inside the catalog. The target objects which can be reached using are teaser are:
- A collection (or catalog)
- A product (Standard Item, Sales Product or Configuration Process)
- A guided selling process
The teaser CPE has to address the exact location of the target object, by browsing the catalog tree.
E.g. if the target object is a standard item:
CPE.rootCL.[workspace/]CL/collection1. [workspace/]CL/collection2.
[workspace/]CL/collection3…[workspace/]SI/si001
« rootCL » is a shortcut for the root catalog.
HOW TO REMOVE A TEASER
In order to remove a teaser, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Select the teaser by selecting its icon
[Via the explorer toolbar]
- Click on the “delete” button.
- A popup will indicate “Please confirm that you want to remove the selected teaser”.
[In the popup]
- A popup will indicate “Please confirm that you want to remove the selected teaser”.
- Click OK”.
- A new popup arrives
[In the popup]
- If you want to delete the teaser permanently, click “Delete”.
- If you simply want to remove the teaser from this catalog, but keep it in the repository, click “Keep”.
[Via the menu toolbar]
- Save.
Managing search criteria
In the online store, within a catalog or collection, declaring a business property will have two effects:
- First, the business property will be a search criteria for the catalog / collection.
- Second, the order of the business property in the Displayed Business Properties table will be the order of the business property in the item list of that collection / catalog. In the productListBox, any BP that is flagged as “isLeading” but is not present in the search criteria will be displayed after the BPs marked as Search Criteria. Their order will be the order they are defined in their BPS – not alphabetically.
In order to declare search criteria for a catalog or a collection, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Open the collection or catalog of interest by clicking on its name or description
- The collection is opened in the working section
[In the “Filter Objects” section]
- The collection is opened in the working section
- Choose the workspace to search in
- Choose the type “Business Property”
- (optionally) Enter the name or description of the business property of interest
- (optionally) Enter the user type
- Execute the “Search” function
- All corresponding business properties appear in the resulting table
[In the “Filter Objects” section] - Look up the business property of interest and drag & drop it to the “Search Criteria” table in the working section
[In the menu toolbar]
- All corresponding business properties appear in the resulting table
- Save
In order to remove the search criteria for a given catalog or collection, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Open the collection or catalog of interest by clicking on its name or description
- The collection is opened in the working section
[In the working section]
- Select the search criteria to be deleted
[In the table toolbar] - Execute the “Delete line” function
[In the menu toolbar]
- Save
In order to change the order of the search criteria for a given catalog or collection, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the "Explore structure" explorer]
- Open the collection or catalog of interest by clicking on its name or description
- The collection is opened in the working section
[In the working section]
- Select the search criteria to be deleted
[In the explorer toolbar]
- Execute the "Move up/down" function
[In the menu toolbar]
- Save
Use guided selling to improve selling efficiency
HOW TO ADD A GUIDED SELLING PROCESS
In order to add a Guided Selling process, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Indicate the catalog or collection to which the Guided Selling process has to be associated by selecting its icon
[In the explorer toolbar]
- Execute the “New Guided Selling Process” function
[In the popup]
- Select “Create New”
- Enter a name and a description for the Guided Selling process you would like to create.
- Hit “Add” or “Add & Open” in order to create the Guided Selling process
- The Guided Selling process is created and added to the collection.
[In the menu toolbar]
- Save
In order to quickly add an existing Guided Selling process, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the "Explore structure" explorer]
Indicate the catalog or collection to which the Guided Selling process has to be associated by selecting its icon
[In the menu toolbar]
Execute the "New Guided Selling Process" function
[In the popup]
Choose "Reuse existing"
- Choose a workspace
- Enter part of the Guided Selling process name or description and choose it in the proposed list.
- Hit "Add" or "Add & Open" in order to add the Guided Selling process to the catalog tree.
The Guided Selling process is added to the collection.
[In the menu toolbar]
Save
SPECIFY THE GUIDED SELLING PROCESS ATTRIBUTES
In order to update an existing Guided Selling process, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the "Explore structure" explorer]
- Open the Guided Selling process by clicking on its description
- The Guided Selling process is opened in the working section
[In the working section]
- Update the system properties
- Update the Guided Selling process filtering scope
[In the menu toolbar]
- Save
Whenever you create a Guided Selling process, the following details can be updated in the working area:
| FIELD | REQUIRED | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | Yes | The virtual environment in which a Guided Selling process has been created. In many cases, only one workspace is to be used. The workspace is fully determined by the workspace chosen in the dashboard. |
| Name | Yes | The identifier of the Guided Selling process. The length of the name is limited to 64 bytes and is preferably readable. It is recommended to adopt a coding rule for names, e.g. have them start with a small letter and use a capital letter for every new word. Example: myGuidedSellingProcess |
| Description | Yes | The description will functionally describe the Guided Selling process, and is limited to 4000 bytes. |
| Customize | No | This is a customizable field usable for purposes outside the control of the Designer. Limited to 4000 bytes. |
| Type | No | Allows assigning a user type to the Guided Selling process, which can be used as a classifier in order to segment exports, to specialize the user interface at run-time, or for other purposes. For more information about user types, please refer to Define object classifications. |
| Valid period | No | These “From” and “To” fields allow expressing the start and/or end date before or beyond which the Guided Selling process is not valid. Both dates are optional. |
Moreover, when specifying a Guided Selling Process, the Filtering Scope needs to be set. The
filtering scope indicates if the Guided Selling Process will search and retrieve items
- from the current collection only (the collection it is attached to) or
- from the current sub-tree (meaning: the current collection and all its child collections, recursively).
For more information about Guided Selling Processes, refer to Design Guided Selling Processes.
HOW TO REMOVE A GUIDED SELLING PROCESS
In order to remove a Guided Selling process, proceed as follows:
How to:
[Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
- Select the Guided Selling process by selecting its icon
[Via the explorer toolbar]
- Click on the “delete” button.
- A popup will indicate “Please confirm that you want to remove the selected Guided Selling process”.
[In the popup]
- A popup will indicate “Please confirm that you want to remove the selected Guided Selling process”.
- Click OK”.
- A new popup arrives
[In the popup]
- If you want to delete the Guided Selling process permanently, click “Delete”.
- If you simply want to remove the Guided Selling process from this catalog, but keep it in the repository, click “Keep”.
[Via the menu toolbar]
- If you simply want to remove the Guided Selling process from this catalog, but keep it in the repository, click “Keep”.
- Save.