Overview
Catalog products can now be associated to a Form that can be used to gather information about the catalog item (product or service). Forms can contain fields for recording general information (Text, date etc.) and option lists that can have associated pricing. For example, there may be options like Red, Green and Blue that have no price. There may also be a list of options with prices e.g. rental car sizes.
How it Works
Items have a base price in the catalog and then on the Form the form fields can be configured with options, which may increase or decrease the base price. For example, a rental car may be $30/day for a 'Compact', but if the buyer chooses to upgrade to a 'Mid Size', then an additional $14 per day is added (total $44).
Associating a Product with a Form
Suppliers define a catalog of items as per normal. In the catalog CSV template there is a Form column where you can specify the name of the form used with the catalog item. Each catalog item can have a different form if needed. For catalogs already loaded you can also associate a form to a product by selecting Catalog > Edit on the product and specify the form name.
Note: The form name in the catalog must match the name of the form you are associating it with in your store exactly, otherwise it will come up as a validation error when loading the catalog. |
Add Form
From within your supplier login you can define forms for use with catalogs by going to Tasks > Profile > Configure Store > Forms tab.
To add a form select Add Form, give the form a name and optionally a description that will show in the help bubble text next to the form. Then you can begin adding fields to your form.
Adding Form Fields
Users can define the Field Type as well as the Data Type. If the field type is Picklist, then an Add Option window will appear and you will need to click Add Option until you have the desired amount of options. When adding options you can also choose to specify a price for the option.
Note: Adding a price for an option is used when that option is more than the price you have specified in your catalog. E.g. Jumper: catalog = $10 > sizes: small = $10, Medium = $11 and Large = $12. Small would have no price, Medium would have $1 and Large would have $2 in the form. |
- Name: Display Name.
- Code: This can be used to tie form fields together for reporting e.g. If one form field name is Color and a field name on a different form is Pastel Color, then putting a common code in both will allow reporting across them.
- Description: Longer description. This will display below the form field if Show Description is ticked.
- Show Description: Displays the description on the page below the field, if not selected the Description is shown in a help bubble next to the field.
- Mandatory: Requires the user to take action on the field question. You can select Yes, No, or Conditional. If Conditional is selected you will then have a box to chose the Field (from the other fields available on the form you are working on) that it is conditional based on and another box for the Type (either Blank or Not Blank).
- Visable: This can either be yes or conditional (based on a previous answer entry).
- Help Text: A message to help users with their entry.
- Default Value: A value set to automatically appear in the entry that can be changed by the user if needed. This would be used if the answer 9 times out of 10 will be Yes, then you can set the default value to Yes.
Using Conditional Fields
Form fields can be made conditionally visible, meaning dependent on previous fields. To use this feature, under Visible choose the value of 'Conditional'. You can then select the Conditional Field, meaning the field the visibility is dependent on. You would then choose how the Conditional Field must be populated to make your new field visible in the Type and Value fields.
The example below shows that Form Field 2 will be visible if on Form Field 1 the user selects the value Yes. If the user selects the value as No then Form Field 2 will not appear.
Field Types:
- Checkbox: Allows the user to check the box or leave unchecked for a Yes/No answer or as a mandatory checkbox, the user is required to check the box confirming that they have read the information
- Information: Allows the form to contain read-only information text used for instruction on the form
- Picklist: Provides a list of preset options to select from
- Text: Allows for free text to be entered (limited to 255 characters)
Data Types:
- Date: Provides a calendar to select a date
- Date/Time: Provides a calendar to select a date and time format fields to define a time
- Information: Defaults when Information is selected under Field Type
- Decimal Number: Allows for decimal numbers (i.e. 1.5)
- Money: Formats the field to currency and requires numbers to be entered
- Number: Requires numbers to be entered
- Text: Allows for free form text
- Yes/No: Defaults when Checkbox is selected in the Field Type
What happens to the Form Data?
Form data is captured and passed through the checkout process with the product/service lines on the PO. This is then sent to the supplier in the line item description and within the PO integration message as extrinsic fields (if integration is enabled).
What does it look like to the buyer?
Buyers are presented with the list of forms fields on the product detail page. If any of the form fields are option lists with pricing then the selection of an option will automatically change the price.