Managing Product Statuses

Overview

This article reviews how product status is used and the options for how product status can be managed.

What Product Status Does

The product status (products.status), or product field Display Online, is the main field for determining if a product displays to users on your site front. A product that is disabled (products.status = 0) will never display in the product catalog section of your site and cannot be purchased. These items will continue to display in sales order and invoice histories as information only. There are add-on modules available to be able to segregate products so they are viewable to some users and not others, but a product still has to be enabled for products to show with these modules. Outside of these additional modules a product with a status = 1 will display on the site and status = 0 will not display on the site. Products that are disabled are still visible in the Product Content Management section of the worker portal and information can be edited in CIMcloud before the product is set to display on the site front.

Options for Managing Product Status

The initial handling of product status can be requested based on the selections in the ERP Sync Questionnaire

1. Products Initially Sync as Disabled: The standard unless otherwise specified in the ERP Sync Questionnaire is that all products when they sync to CIMcloud for the first time are set to disabled. This allows the product to be reviewed and additional information added before the product is set to display on the site front. After the initial sync, product status is manage in the CIMcloud Product Content Management section of the worker portal. Product statuses can be managed at the individual product level or through spreadsheet uploads for large groups of products.
2. Managed by ERP User Defined Field: Many clients choose to manage the product status based on a field in the ERP. There is not a standard field for this in most ERPs, so most create a UDF (User Defined Field) or Attribute called something like Web Enabled (Though the field name in the ERP can be called whatever you would like). The field name just needs to be provided when filling in the ERP SYNC Questionnaire noted above. If you want the product to display on the website then you just set this ERP field to Yes (or checked) and this syncs to the website to enable the product. If you want to remove a product from the site front then change the UDF to No (or unchecked) and when the product syncs based on this change the product will be disabled and no longer display on the site front.
3. Products Initially Sync as Enabled: The system can also be set so that all products are set to enabled when they first sync over and then can be disabled in the CIMcloud Product Content Management section of the worker portal. This is doing the opposite of the first option when the product initially syncs but is then managed the same going forward. This is for clients who want products to be enabled on the website as soon as they are created in the ERP.