Adding an item

To add a new item in your Infor e-Commerce standalone application:

Log on to the Business Center as a merchant administrator.
Click the Items:Itemslink in the navigator.
Click Create New.
On the Item Details page, enter the basic information as described in and then click Create.

The page then reloads, showing additional settings (the page is now the same as the standard Item Details page for editing existing items). For "normal" and "sub-item only" items, you can see all settings described in "Item Settings". For "none", the form is somewhat simpler.

To add an item in your application integrated with M3, refer to the Infor e-Commerce M3 Connector’s Guide or appropriate M3 documentation.
Enter all details and click Save .

To be able to view the changes made, ensure that the Item.GenerateVisibility, and Lucene.Index jobs are executed.

Item settings

The Details Area

The settings in the Details area establish the basic information about the item and how it can be used in your catalog. The following fields are available:


Field	Description
Item Number	A unique identifier code for the item. Typically, this is the code used in the Merchant’s existing inventory system. It must be unique for each item in the database. Alphanumeric (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) characters are tested and valid.
Stock	Specifies how many items are currently in stock. Infor e-Commerce uses this information when displaying items for ordering, but does not update this number as orders come in. To keep this number updated, the merchant must either do it manually or interface the database with a back-end system.
Min. Stock	Specifies the inventory level at which the merchant would normally re-order this item. When the Stock value reaches this level, the merchant is notified when entering the Items:Logistics area of the Business Center.
Max Stock	Indicates the maximum number of the item that the merchant can normally stock. This is used for reference as part of the display shown in the Items:Logistics area of the Business Center.
Brands	Includes all of the brands currently available in the Infor e-Commerce database. Brands can be configured in the Items:Brands area of the Business Center.
Manufacturer Name	Includes all of the manufacturers currently available in the Infor e-Commerce database. If the correct manufacturer does not appear, then you must first create it using the controls in the Items:Manufacturers area of the Business Center.
Active/Visible	If set to "No", the item is considered inactive and is never listed as an independent item, nor as a sub-item for complex items. If set to "Yes", the item appears whenever appropriate.
Weight	The weight of the item. Infor e-Commerce does not specify the units (pounds, ounces, kilograms, etc.) for weight, so you can use any weight system that you like. However, Infor e-Commerce cannot convert between weight systems. You must therefore be sure that all of your items are specified using the same unit (for example, kilograms) and that you use this same unit when specifying the weight thresholds for shipping charges.
Emphasized	Setting to "Yes" marks the item with an icon in the Customer Center. If you use this function, you will probably want to customize it to do something more attention-grabbing, such as changing the default icon.
Details URL	A URL that provides extra information about the current item. This can be any file that you like, for example a page in your own presentation, a PDF file, an item-specific page in the manufacturer’s presentation, the front page of the manufacturer, or a good review. To link to a page or document in your own presentation, you can enter a relative link (relative to the document folder to which the Customer Center is deployed). To link to another presentation, use a full path, starting with "http://".
EAN Code	A unique code for the item usually used to generate a computer-readable bar code. There are (at least) two standards for generating bar codes: UPC and EAN. You can enter either type of number into this field. Usually, this setting is optional and is stored for your reference. In some customized and/or interfaced solutions, however, it may be required.
UN/SPC	A schema that classifies and identifies commodities. It is typically used in sell-side and buy-side catalogs and as a standardized account code in analyzing expenditure (Spend Analysis). In Infor e-Commerce, you can specify a UN/SPSC code for each item; usually, it is optional and is stored for your reference. In some customized and/or interfaced solutions, however, it may be required.
Item Type	Identifies how the item will be used in the presentation. Normal: Both simple items and sub-items that can be ordered separately must be assigned this type. Sub-Item Only: Items of this type will never be listed when browsing the catalog or when searching for items. Items that cannot be ordered separately must be assigned this type. None: This is used for complex-item categories where some sub-items might be optional, in which case a "none" option must be available for that sub-item group. Usually, you have only one item of this type, which is assigned to all sub-item categories that require it.
Item Field 1 Item Field 2 Item Field 3 Item Field 4 Item Field 5	Provides extra information about the item.

The Unit area

The Unit settings for an item control how customers can specify quantities of that item in an order. The settings work as follows:


Field	Description
Unit Unit	The unit by which the item is sold (for example, piece, kilogram, liter, meter.). The units shown in the list are established in the Application Setup:Codes area of the Business Center. If you need a unit that is not listed, you can add it there (together with a translation in each supported language).
Modular Quantity	The smallest available increment by which the item can be purchased using the unit you have selected. For example, if the item is ice-cream that comes in 5-liter boxes and you have selected to use "liters" as your unit, then your modular quantity would probably be 5. If instead you selected "boxes" as your unit, then your modular quantity might be 1. If a customer tries to order a quantity that is not divisible by the modular quantity, the final order will be rounded up to the nearest valid value.
Minimum Quantity	The smallest number of the item that can be ordered. Using the same ice-cream example as above, you might set this to 5 if your unit is liters; or you would set this to 1 if your unit is boxes. You might also have a policy of demanding that customers always purchase at least 4 boxes with each order, in which case you would set this to 4 boxes (or 20 liters), but could leave the modular quantity set to 1 box (or 5 liters) so customers could buy 5 boxes if they wanted to.

Most pages where users can specify quantities for ordering, include input-validation JavaScript that checks these values, thereby alerting the user to errors before they are permitted to submit the form. The application also checks these values; so even if the JavaScript fails or is somehow subverted, the order form will still reject incorrect quantity specifications. For details about how to customize and/or translate the error messages.

Note: For roles that have the "Buy One" feature element, the system provides a Buy One button rather than quantity input fields for ordering from item pages. For them, the Buy One button will add the minimum quantity to their order form, even if it is greater than one. Furthermore, if the modular quantity is greater than the minimum quantity, then the Buy One button will add the modular quantity.

The Texts Area

The Texts area includes fields that enable you to specify the item name and description in each language supported by the application. As with all other language-specific text in the application, these values are stored in the ItemText table; references to the appropriate text IDs are stored with the item record in the Item table.

The Tax Groups area

Infor e-Commerce computes the VAT (sales tax) due for each item based on the delivery address, item tax class and customer tax status.

In order to compute tax correctly, Infor e-Commerce must know how each item is taxed in each customer country.

Use the controls in the Add New Tax Group area, to assign a tax group to the item.

The Categories area

Typically, each item belongs to at least one category. Items that do not belong to any category will not be visible when browsing categories, but can still be found using the search form. Categories are important for several reasons:

Customer browsing – When customers browse for items, they start by drilling down through categories until they find a list of matching items. Items are displayed in the list for each browsable category.
Discounts and campaigns – Discounts and campaigns can apply based on item categories.
Sub Items – When you create a complex item, you assign sub-item categories to establish the set of options. Only those items in the selected sub-item category or categories will be available as possible options for the complex item. For more details on complex item, see Applying attributes to items.

Use the controls in the Add New Category area to assign categories to the item. If more than one category is assigned, then choose one as the main category for computing discounts and campaigns. Identify the main category by selecting the appropriate Main Category option button (remember that you must submit the form after changing the main category setting and run the scheduled jobs). The category path shown on the top of the item details page in the Customer Center depends on this setting. If the main category is not set, the item trail is not displayed.

The Bill of Material area

An item can be a collection of other items that also exist in the catalog as separate items. If no configuration options are available, then you can collect the various component items as a "bill of material" for a single combined item. This is still considered a "simple item" because it is not configurable; with bill-of-material item, the content and price of the collection is fixed. The only difference between a true simple item and one with a bill of material is that when customers view the bill-of-material item, they can follow links for more information about the constituent item.

Use the controls in the Add New Bill of Material area to establish a list of items and their quantities that make up the bill of material.

The Attributes area

If you are working with a configurable item, you must also make settings in the Attributes area at the bottom of the page.

When you add attributes to the item, you essentially turn the item into a complex item with either variants or sub-items. See the remaining sections of this chapter for details about how to work with these settings.