[ main menu ] Before you can open your store for business, you must first add products to your product database. The Hostahoy Shopping Cart provides an easy way to do this through the User Administration area where you can not only enter full product details, but upload product images as well. You must have at least one product in your store for it to operate. If you are new to the Hostahoy Shopping Cart you may want to start with the Simple Form. You can switch to the simple form by clicking on the link "Simple Form" in the yellow cell at the top of the product database page. The simple form has all the configurations required but leaves out the advanced features that may confuse the novice. At anytime you can switch back and fourth between the simple and advanced forms. Adding a New Product When you first enter the product database administration area, you are ready to add a new product to your database. Product code - Each product must have a unique product code. The product code must not contain any spaces. It can be a number, alphabetic characters or both. Once you enter a product into the database you cannot change the code of the product. To change the code, you must first remove the product then recreate it with the new code. This is a required field. Product name - This should be a descriptive name that will make sense to the shopper. This is a required field. Plain text only. Product category - The categories must first be entered in the basic configurations database before they are added to the pull down menu. They will appear in the order they were entered in the basic configurations.You can select as many categories for your product as you like using the control and shift keys on your keyboard. Selected categories will be highlighted and shown above the select box. Price - This is the base price of the product. This price is without any discounts added. Do not include any currency symbols. This will be added in the payment/tax configurations. This is a required field. OR Price Schedule - In place of the price, you can select a price schedule from the pull down menu. If none are available, you must first create them in the basic administration area. Minimum quantity - If you choose to enter a number in this field, your shoppers will see the minimum quantity listed by the field where they enter the quantity. If the shopper tries to enter a number below the minimum you have specified for this product, they will get an error message. Use tax schedule I for this item? - Here you can specify whether an individual product is subject to state/province or city taxes. If you have a combination of both taxable and non taxable products and you are charging tax, the appropriate tax will be charged only on the taxable items. Remember to setup your tax schedules or selecting yes will have no effect. Other taxes applied to item / Other taxes - Here you can specify whether an individual product is subject to the custom taxes you define in the tax schedule II. These taxes are triggered by matching countries. If you have a combination of both taxable and non taxable products and you are charging tax, the appropriate tax will be charged only on the taxable items. Remember to setup your tax schedules or selecting yes will have no effect. Product information - A description of the product that the shopper will read. This should be as descriptive and complete as possible. Image name - An image should (but is not required) be included with each product. Just enter the filename (with a .jpg or .gif extension). Image location - The image can appear to the left of the product description above the product description, or to the left of the name, price and description only. This would depend on the size and layout of your image. If it is very wide you would opt for the image to be on the top. If it vertically long, it would look better to the left of the information. If you have a short description with few options having the image to the left of the name, price and description only works best. Thumbnail width - This width, if set, will override the default thumbnail width for this product only. The value is in pixels (35 is default). Thumbnail location - Just like the image location you can also choose the location of the thumbnail image. Upload image* - This is the full sized product image. If the actual image on your local system is different from the filename specified in the "Image name" field, it will be renamed. Upload thumbnail* - By creating separate thumbnail images for each product, you can increase the download time of the pages. This is because by default the thumbnail image is just the product image resized by the browser. When the browser resizes the image it still downloads the entire file. If you create a smaller version of the image and use the upload feature to upload it to the server, it will be renamed "th_imagename". If this file exists on the server, it will be called in place of the default image. Upload large image* - If your full size image does not show enough detail, you can upload an even larger image of the product. This will activate the "zoom" feature for the product where shoppers can click the zoom link and be taken to the large image. Using this upload feature, the file will automatically be renamed "zoom_imagename". Option (pull down menu) - Each product can have an unlimited number of options. The pull down menu options would hold options that can be only one or the other. For example, a shirt can be only one size or another - it can't be both small and large at the same time. The first input box is for the name of the option, like "Size" or "Color". The larger textarea box is where each option is listed one per line. Each choice can increase or decrease the price of the product either by an amount (1.00 - no currency symbols) or by a percent (10 would be 10 percent - do not include % sign). Format: one choice per line. Each choice can accept a "- add" or "- subtract" followed by an amount or percent (using %). Example: Extra large - add 2.00. Option (checkbox) - Each product can have an unlimited number of options. A Checkbox will allow users to select one or more of the choices in an option. The first input box is for the name of the option, like "Features" or "Colors". The larger textarea box is where each option is listed one per line. Each choice can increase or decrease the price of the product either by an amount (1.00 - no currency symbols) or by a percent (10 would be 10 percent - do not include % sign). Format: one choice per line. Each choice can accept a "- add" or "- subtract" followed by an amount or percent (using %). Example: Extra large - add 2.00. Quantity discounts - If you offer discounts based on the quantity, you can setup a discount chart. This chart will be visible to the shopper and the appropriate discount will automatically be figured into the price. FORMAT: range:discount[enter]. Range can be in form of single digit (n), from low to high (n-nn), or a digit followed by a "+" sign (nnn+). Discount can be expressed either in the form of an amount (.50) or a percent (25%). Make sure each range and discount is separated by a colon - do not use any spaces. Example: 1-11:5%. Shipping schedule - Select from the different schedules created in the shipping schedule area. If no schedule is selected, shipping will not be charged. You must first have the shipping schedules created before you can assign a schedule to a product otherwise the product will have no schedule associated with it an therefore no shipping will be charged. Related products - Related products are displayed to the customer after they have ordered this product and have been taken to the review page. Accessories are a good example of related products. Select multiple products by holding the shift or control button. Current related products will appear highlighted and listed above the select box. Related product message - This should be an attention grabber that introduces the related products. This message, as well as the related products will appear on the review screen after the product is ordered. Text or HTML allowed. Return or Enter characters will display as new lines in HTML Number of products in stock - By adding a value in this field you create an inventory control system for this product. A separate database is created on the server with the number of products available and is updated automatically whenever a product is ordered. The current product number available will always appear in this field after an initial value for the product has been entered. When an order is "trashed" the inventory will automatically be readjusted. Accept back orders on this product? - If you accept backorders, the program will let customers order products even if there is/will be a negative value in the inventory. If backorders are not accepted, shoppers will ne notified that the product is "currently out of stock" and will not be able to order until the inventory is updated or the number "0" is removed from this field. Display current number of items available to users? - This is recommended if you choose inventory control for the product but is not needed. Back order wait time or date - It is good to let shoppers know how long of a wait there will be if an item is not in stock. In this field you can enter either a date (ex. Feb 16th) or a time value (ex. 2-4 weeks). Footnotes - Footnotes are a very useful part in a catalog type environment. There are many notes that are not relevant enough to be included in the main description but too important to be left out. The footnotes appear in small text at the bottom of the product page. Selecting an Existing Product Selecting a product is as easy as selecting it in the pull down menu. By default, the existing products are listed in alphabetical order by product code. You can choose however to list the products in order by category or product name as well by selecting the option at the top of the screen. Once you change your sorting option and select a product, the new option will be used and saved until it is changed again. Once the product is selected for editing, the option to remove the product will be available. You can also change any information about the product and it will be saved and take effect immediately after the "Make Changes" button is depressed. * File upload capable browsers (almost all recent versions of I.E. and Netscape) will display a "Browse..." button to the right of the field. When uploading images, allow extra time to before confirmation screen is displayed. |
