Offline ordering query

[Florian]

Hi,

So far (catalog versions historically V3 to V6) we have been running Design on one computer and order processing on a different one. As we do not use stock monitoring this was fine.

It looks like with V7 Offline ordering the order-processing machine also needs to know all products that reside on the design machine (and therefore on the website) so that we can pick from the list to populate the offline orders.

Does this mean that we need to take a snapshot everytime we make product changes on the design machine and import it on the order-processing machine to make the changes available on that computer? If that is the case, how do we stop from overwriting the orders on the order-processing computer during the import (there obviously wont be any orders coming in the snapshot to be imported)?

Hope the above makes sense!

Many thanks
Florian

[I-CC]

I am pretty sure that the snapshot import now has the option to NOT overwrite the orders area, but if you go through the process up to the point just prior to the 'do it' part, then I am sure you can confirm this....

[Florian]

Ok, I'll have a look at that, but I assume the 'snapshot' way is the way to go to keep the order-processing machine in sync with the design machine. Just seems a bit of a hassle when products change all the time and the computers are geographically miles apart.

Thanks in the meantime
Florian

[cdicken]

Does this mean that we need to take a snapshot everytime we make product changes on the design machine and import it on the order-processing machine to make the changes available on that computer?

No - as soon as you add a new product to the store from your uploading machine, you will be able to start taking orders for it on the order processing machine - even though that product may not be present on the order processing machine.

[I-CC]

But for offline orders, the machine taking the order (your order processing machine) must have the same product information in it as you have int he maintenance machine, so although online orders will be fine without any need to do snapshots, if you want to take offline orders on the order processing machine, then I believe you will need to import the snapshot to get them in sync...

Think thats right, but sure someone from actinic will confirm this...

[cdicken]

Apologies - my previous posting was wrong with regards to offline orders.

If you want to enter orders offline then you will need to send the order-processing machine a snapshot containing the latest product details. This can then update the products on the order processing machine, without overwriting the orders.

[Florian]

Thanks Chris & S@T for clarifying this, I'll give it a go
Florian