Status Updates Feature: Basic Requirements

Overview

What exactly is the Status Updates Feature?

Status Updates generally refers to the process of sending current “status” information assigned to line items or an entire order from SEOM to the Web, either to a shopping cartsystem or the SEOM Order Status System (OSS), for the purpose of informing customers about the progress of their orders.

However, the Status Updates feature can also be used purely for internal purposes. In either case, the fundamental process refers to assigning one or more Status Labels to a line item or order at different stages of the order-processing life cycle.

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 SEOM 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 SEOM tables (internal use only). The user is able to choose which events will fire and when they will fire.

The customer then views this information at the shopping cart, or at the SEOM Order Status Servers, for those carts which do not support direct status updates. The SEOM 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 occur. Please review other Knowledge Base topics on this subject for additional information.

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 SEOM. If the shopping cart in question does not support status updates directly from SEOM, the 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 directly from SEOM.
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 Stone Edge. 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 (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, SEOM will delete the status update record from its stack queue, and repeat the process with the next record in the stack. If an error condition is reported by the Stack Controller, contact SEOM Technical Support for assistance.