You can add different types of rich media elements to Guided Selling Processes. In order to add an image, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
  • Select the element to which you want to add rich media objects. In order to add rich media to:
    • a Guided Selling Process, select its name or description
    • a form, select its name or description
    • a form property, select the parent form’s name or description
    • a business value, select the Guided Selling Process
    • A table appears showing all available rich media entries for the chosen element.
• [Using the “Rich Media” step]
  • Select the specific user type you would like to work on, by clicking on the corresponding view. The default entry is indicated by the “default” view.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Expand the “Images” folder.
  • Navigate through all subfolders.
  • Click on a subfolder to view its’ content.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Once you have found the image of interest, drag & drop it to the “Image” cell in the rich media table for the corresponding Guided Selling Process, form, form property or business value.
• [Using the “Rich Media Table”]
  • If necessary, you can add a URL to the image. In order to do that:
    • Click on the image
    • In the popup, enter the URL and click on OK.
• [In the menu toolbar]
  • Save.

In order to add text, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
  • Select the element to which you want to add rich media objects. In order to add rich media to:
    • a Guided Selling Process, select its name or description
    • a form, select its name or description
    • a form property, select the parent form’s name or description
    • a business value, select the Guided Selling Process
    • A table appears showing all available rich media entries for the chosen element.
• [Using the “Rich Media Table”]
  • Click on the “text” cell associated to the element of interest. In the popup:
    • Enter the text
    • Optionally, enter a URL
    • Click OK
• [In the menu toolbar]
  • Save.

In order to add a file, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
  • Select the element to which you want to add rich media objects. In order to add rich media to:
    • a Guided Selling Process, select its name or description
    • a form, select its name or description
    • a form property, select the parent form’s name or description
    • a business value, select the Guided Selling Process
    • A table appears showing all available rich media entries for the chosen element.
• [Using the “Rich Media” step]
  • Select the specific user type you would like to work on, by clicking on the corresponding view. The default entry is indicated by the “default” view.
• [Using the "Explore rich media" explorer]
  • Expand the "Files" folder.
  • Navigate through all subfolders.
  • Click on a subfolder to view its' content.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Once you have found the file of interest, drag & drop it to the “Files” cell in the rich media table for the corresponding Guided Selling Process, form, form property or business value.
• [Using the “Rich Media Table”]
  • If necessary, you can add a title to the file. In order to do that:
    • Click on the file
    • In the popup, enter the title and click on OK.
• [In the menu toolbar]
  • Save.

In order to add a plugin, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
  • Open the catalog or a collection by selecting its name or description
• or
• [Via the “Explore Labels” explorer]
  • Open a label by selecting its name or description
  • A table appears showing all available rich media entries for the chosen element.
• [Using the “Rich Media” step]
  • Select the specific user type you would like to work on, by clicking on the corresponding view. The default entry is indicated by the “default” view.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Expand the “Plugin” folder.
  • Navigate through all subfolders.
  • Click on a subfolder to view its’ content.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Once you have found the plugin of interest, drag & drop it to the “Plugin” cell in the rich media table for the corresponding catalog, collection, label, teaser, guided selling process, Configuration Process, sales product, standard item or business value.
• [Using the "Rich Media Table"]
  • In order to add parameters to the plugin (necessary to embed it in an HTML structure):
    • Click on the plugin
    • In the popup, enter the parameters and click on OK.
• In the menu toolbar]

  • Save.

In order to add a report, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
  • Open the catalog or a collection by selecting its name or description
• or
• [Via the “Explore Labels” explorer]
  • Open a label by selecting its name or description
  • A table appears showing all available rich media entries for the chosen element.
• [Using the “Rich Media” step]
  • Select the specific user type you would like to work on, by clicking on the corresponding view. The default entry is indicated by the “default” view.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Expand the “Reports” folder.
  • Navigate through all subfolders.
  • Click on a subfolder to view its’ content.
• [Using the “Explore rich media” explorer]
  • Once you have found the report of interest, drag & drop it to the “Reports” cell in the rich media table for the corresponding catalog, collection, label, teaser, guided selling process, Configuration Process, sales product, standard item or business value.
• [Using the “Rich Media Table”]
  • Click on the report
• [In the popup]
  • Enter the report title
  • Enter the report entry point
  • Specify the output format
  • Enter additional parameters
  • Click OK
• [In the menu toolbar]

  • Save.

In order to remove a unique element (image, file or text), proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the “Explore structure” explorer]
  • Select the element to which you want to remove rich media objects. In order to remove rich media to:
  • a Guided Selling Process, select its name or description
  • a form, select its name or description
  • a form property, select the parent form’s name or description
  • a business value, select the Guided Selling Process
  • A table appears showing all available rich media entries for the chosen element.
• [Using the “Rich Media Table”]
  • Click on the “image”, “file”, “text”, “plugin” or “report" you would like to remove. In the popup:
  • Tick the “clear cell” checkbox
  • Click OK.
• [In the menu toolbar]
  • Save.

Once you have created your rich media gallery, it is very easy to reuse the same elements and associated them through a spreadsheet program.

In order to export the rich media for a Guided Selling Process, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the menu toolbar]
  • Click on the “export” button.
• [In the “popup”]
  • Choose a CSV delimiter. Default value = “;”
  • Choose a list delimiter. Default value = “~”
  • Indicate the decimal separator to be used in the export file.
  • Indicate the encoding to be used by the export file.
  • Click “ok”.
    • The export process starts. The browser will allow you to open or save the CSV file to a certain location.

In order to import rich media again, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the menu toolbar]
  • Click on the “import” button.
• [In the “popup”]
  • Indicate the CSV delimiter used in the import file. Default value = “;”
  • Indicate the list delimiter used in the import file. Default value = “~”
  • Indicate the decimal separator used in the import file.
  • Indicate the import file encoding format.
  • Choose the CSV file to be imported.
  • Click “ok”.
  • The import process starts. This is an asynchronous process and you can continue to model.

    The Designer will inform you automatically when the process is completed.

• [Via the menu toolbar]
  • Save.
    Tip: The import file should have the following heading: Workspace Name;User Type Name;User Type Type;User Type Class;Object Name;Object Type;Parent Object Name;Parent Object Type;Image Path;Image Filename;Image Content URL;Text Content;Text Content URL;File Path;File Filename;File Title;Plugin Path;Plugin Filename;Plugin Parameters; Report Title; Report Entry Point; Report Output Format; Report Parameters

Defining Access Rights

Once the Build and Controls step have been completed, your Guided Selling Process contains all the rules which are important for the structure of your Guided Selling Process.

However, on some occasions, the rules you’ve specified and which concern the structure of your Guided Selling Process have to be specialized. This can happen when the requirement analysis rules that will define the structure of the Guided Selling Process defer in certain circumstances. Typically, these circumstances are workflow-related, and address issues that are not a part of the requirements analysis itself but which are more about the surrounding business processes.

These business processes make that some decisions you had to make concerning the Guided Selling Process structure have to be reviewed.

Although you could try and solve this situation by making the rules built in the Controls step more complex, the Access Rights step allows you to do this in an easier way, without having to modify the inside of BRC.

Information:

Managing access rights allows you to override the Guided Selling Process rules concerning:

• Existence
• Visibility
• Required
• Updateable

The rules, implemented using the Controls step, have allowed you to define a certain state (one of the above-mentioned) using either a constant Boolean value (“TRUE” or “FALSE”) or a BRC.

The access rights will allow you to override these default product rules, and to specialize them in certain circumstances, based on one or multiple aliases.

The following procedure will allow you to implement access rights allowing overriding a state which has been setup using basic product rules:

• For each property you would like to override, specify the criteria to take into account
• For each property you would like to override, create as many lines that are necessary to specify all conditions which will override the standard product rule
  • For each line to be added, the property has to be dragged & dropped (or built using the CPE Builder)
  • For each line which has been added, the conditions need to be entered for each alias
• For each line which has been entered, override the default product rule by giving it a fixed value (“TRUE” or “FALSE”) or assigning it a BRC.

In order to specify a new access rights condition, proceed as follows:

How to:

• [Via the explorer toolbar]
  • Click on the Add alias function
• [In the popup window]
  • Enter the alias name. Keep the name as short as possible because a column will be created for the alias.
  • Construct the CPE corresponding to the alias.
  • If the type of the CPE is not read-only, make sure that you choose the correct type
  • Click on “OK”
  • Result: a new column has been created representing your alias.

In order to add access rights conditions, proceed as follows. For each condition:

How to:

• Specify the property to be overridden:
  • [Using the CPE Explorer]
    • Browse to the CPE of the property you would like to override and drag & drop that CPE to an empty line
  • or
  • [Using the CPE Builder]
    • Click on an empty line and use the CPE Builder to construct the CPE corresponding to the property you would like to control.
• Specify the value for the alias columns which you have added in the previous step.
  • [If the criterion applies]
    • For the line corresponding to the property you are working on, select an operator and enter a value.
  • [If the criterion does not apply]
    • Make sure that the operator as well as the value are both empty. This indicates that the criterion does not apply.
• Associate the new rule to the property:
  • [If the new rule for the specified conditions is fixed]
    • Choose the corresponding “TRUE” or “FALSE” value in the “fixed” column.
  • [If the new rule for the specified conditions is a BRC]
    • Create a BRC using the Add BRC function or drag & drop an existing one using the Filter Objects explorer.
• Save

Defining BRCs

Within a Guided Selling Process project, the BRC will:

• Define the constraints between the various questions of the requirements analysis user script (‘Constraints’ step)
• Control and limit the valuation domain of the Form Properties (‘Structure’ step)
• Customize the access rights to the objects contained in the CP (‘Access Rights’ step)
  Reference: Please refer to the following chapter for more details: How to design a BRC:

Defining the Filter Method

The Filter Method allows defining the result of the Guided Selling Process. Basically, the Guided Selling Process is a questionnaire that the end-user has to go through in order to analyze his or her requirements. When the end-user has (completely or partially) answered all the questions in that questionnaire, the filtering method will be executed in order to search and retrieve all the products in the catalog that correspond to the users’ input (basically: all the so-called “matching” products).

The filter method logic is used to map to or look up standard items in the Designer repository:

• The mapping function enables you to specify a BRC that clearly designates the products to be issued in function of some criteria. This mapping function also enables you to associate specific quantities with each standard item. A score can be associated to the result that can be used to order the result to the end-user following the score sequence.
• The lookup function enables you to search for standard items in the CPQ repository, based on the following options:

  System properties

  • This option allows you to specify search criteria such as the item name, description or parent.

    Business properties

    • This option allows you to specify the product characteristics to which matching products should respond

      Pricing attributes

    • This option allows you to specify price ranges to which the targeted products have to correspond

      Product links

    • This option allows you to specify the product relationships in which the products are occurring, either as a “child” or as a “parent”.

In order to define a filtering method for a Guided Selling Process, proceed as follows:

How To:

In the filter method, you can design either a mapping function or a lookup function. If a mapping function has been provided, the lookup function will be deactivated (meaning that the CPQ Engine will only use the mapping function).

In each case, the items found by the lookup function have to match all search criteria (an exact match is performed).

The Filtering Method engine performs an exact match, meaning that products have to meet all conditions specified by system properties, business properties, pricing properties and/or product links. However, the filtering method can execute partially, meaning that not all criteria have to be fulfilled.

The partial matching issues a list of items which could be of interest to the user.

Defining the Event Logic

The step Event Logic will allow you to watch certain events during the Guided Selling Process at runtime, and to take action when these events occur.

For instance, the event onComplete can be used to trigger the action apply breakdown (which executes the filter method) when the Guided Selling Process is completed by the end-user.

It is important to understand that the events are triggered once the constraint propagation is finished and not immediately after a user action.

The constraint propagation starts, and the CPQ Engine will automatically broadcast that answer to all BRC that have an alias pointing to that form property. The event is triggered, and the actions are triggered in sequence. If an action triggers a constraint propagation cycle, the next action will only start when the propagation is finished.

In this step, you will define actions and their related triggering events. The goal is to automate some actions at run-time:

• to guide the end-user,
• to facilitate/automate navigation during the configuration of the product
• to launch internal processes or calculations.
• Etc..
  information: The goal of event logic is to automate user actions or to trigger the calculation of the filtering method.

In order to know how to Event Logic for Guided Selling Processes, please refer to Modeling Configuration Processes—Defining the Event Logic.