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Status Updates Feature: Basic Requirements

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Overview

What exactly is the Status Updates feature?

The Status Updates feature generally refers to the process of sending current "status" data assigned to line items or an entire order from the Order Manager to the Web, whether it is a shopping cart an e-commerce software system that allows a merchant to sell products on the Web. In the context of the Order Manager, it refers to the settings that describe a merchants web store to the program, allowing it communicate with the online shopping cart and import orders, and other information etc. system or if the data is being sent to the Stone Edge Order Status System (OSS Stone Edge Technologies Order Status System (additional subscription service) which allows order status information to be sent from the Order Manager to Stone Edge servers where the merchant can direct their customers for the latest status information about their purchases.), for the purpose of keeping customers informed about the progress of their orders. However, the Status Updates feature can also be used purely for internal purposes, as well. In either case, the fundamental process relates to the assignment of a Status Label being assigned to a line item individual items listed on an order or an entire order.

Some Status Labels are already provided with the program, such as Item Shipped, Order Shipped, etc., however the user may define their own labels as well. As the order is imported and processed, the user may assign Status Labels to an individual line item or the entire order that reflects its current processing stage.

Status Events are "triggers'  defined within the Order Manager that, when certain conditions have been met, cause the program to change an item or order's status label and send order status information to the Web or merely update the status information within the Order Manager tables (internal use only). The user is able to choose which events will fire and when they will fire.

The customer may view this information at the shopping cart, if the cart supports this feature, or at the Stone Edge Order Status Servers, which can be used by those carts which do not support direct status updates. The Stone Edge OSS requires an additional annual subscription fee.

While this is a rather complicated subject, this topic only touches on the basic requirements that must be met for Status Updates to be occur. Please review other Knowledge Base topics in the Related Topics section at the bottom of this article for more detailed information about some of the processes that are mentioned in this topic.   

Internal Status Updates Only

1. The system parameter UseStatusUpdates must be set to TRUE. This parameter can also be set via the Store Setup Wizard, Page 1 of the Order Status System section.

2. A Status Event that triggers an order's status to change must be defined in the Status Events section of the Store Setup Wizard (Page 2 of the Order Status System section).

3. Do not check the "Notify Cart" box to the right of the chosen Status Event. Doing so may adversely affect the performance of the program if it will not be able to complete the sending of the status updates to a web site successfully.

External Status Updates

1. The shopping cart must support receiving status updates from external sources, such as the Order Manager. If the shopping cart in question does not support status updates directly from the Order Manager, the Stone Edge Technologies Order Status System (OSS) can be used as an alternative solution, for an additional annual subscription fee. Check the Shopping Cart Matrix to determine if the cart in question is able to accept order status information from the Order Manager.

2. The system parameter UseStatusUpdates must be set to TRUE. This value can also be set via the Store Setup Wizard, Page 1 of the Order Status System section.

3. A Status Event that triggers an order's status to change must be configured in the Status Events section of the Store Setup Wizard (Page 2 of the Order Status System section) and the box for "Notify Cart" must be checked.

4. A status label *change* must have occurred within the Order Manager. For example, the order starts at status "A", and as a result of a Status Event firing, the order status becomes "B" and a status update record will be placed on the stack and sent to the shopping cart or OSS. If the status label assigned to the order has not changed (from A to B or from B to C, etc.) since the last time the Status Event was triggered, the program will not initiate a status update the next time the Status Event is fired.

5. The Stack Controller the Stack Controller is a component of the program that is in charge of sending "posts," such as email, order status, and inventory updates from the Order Manager to various destinations. It can be configured to run on each PC that uses the Order Manager (local - default setting), or it can be configured to run only on a single workstation in the complex (shared), or an entirely separate program, provided by Stone Edge Technologies, can be used to send data to other applications (external). (Local, or Shared) must be active and the status update record must have been queued on the stack to be sent to the cart or OSS. Depress the Ctrl+Shift+S keys simultaneously at the main menu to verify that the stack controller is running and updates are queueing.

6. The requests are then sent to the cart or the OSS. If an "OK" response is returned by the receiving destination, the Order Manager will delete the status update record from its stack queue, and repeat the process the next record in the stack. If an error condition is reported by the Stack Controller, contact Stone Edge Technical Support for assistance.

Created: 3/16/11

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