Adding Products

1. Click Add Products in the Black Menu.
2. Product ID: This is used by the system internally and is used to show product images, etc. Enter the Product ID with no spaces other special characters. Please use letters, numbers, dashes and underscores only.
3. Product Part Number: This may be blank. If you leave it blank it will automatically be entered the same as the Product ID. The Product Part Number is what will be displayed to the customer on the site, in order notifications and in reports. Here you may use special characters, such as commas and slashes, if necessary to match your actual inventory.
4. Product Name: Please do not use Commas in the Product Name.
5. Picture/No Picture: Click the "Picture" radio button to show a picture of the item. Otherwise, click "No Picture". If you set the cart to not use pictures in Edit Appearance in the Inital Web Administration Settings section, this setting will be ignored, although you may wish to set it to what it would be should you decide to turn images on in the future. This way you won't have to come back and change this setting on a bunch of products.
   Product Image Naming Convention and Placement:
   • There are 2 folders within the ezcart folder, "products" and "products_tn". All thumbnails which appear on the General Product view page will go into the "products_tn" (hence the "_tn" for thumbnail) folder. Larger images will go into the "products" folder. The images must be in jpg format. The image names will be the same as the Product ID, NOT THE Product Part if used, so if the Product ID is ABC, the image names will be ABC.jpg. Note that on Unix systems, this will be case sensitive, but it is a good idea to use the proper case even on Windows systems, so if you migrate to Unix in the future, you won't have to rename all your images.
   • Image Sizing: This will depend upon whether you have a menu or whatnot down the side of the product display pages if integrating with your website, or whether you set the resloution to 640 or 800 if using the standalone cart. generall, we feel that 150 pixels wide is a good size for thumbnails, or if your pictures are taller than they are wide, then 150 pixels tall. You may be able to increase the width up to 250 if you don't have a side menu or whatnot. For the large image, generally 250-350 wide is a good number. We never go taller than 400 though, or alot of users won't be able to see the entire picture.
   • Creating Sub Directories For Images: If you have many hundreds or thousands of pictures, it can be difficult listing the entire directory of images when using FTP. In this case you may use sub directories under the products and products_tn images folders. You may create sub directories (folders within the products and products_tn folders) and name them as the Main Category ID or the Category ID. Open Application.cfm and go to...
     <cfset attributes.imagepath = "Sub">
     in the " Product display and search" section. Change to...
     <cfset attributes.imagepath = "Sub">
     Example. You enter "Sub" and have Category IDs of 5, 10 and 15. Make directories named 5, 10 and 15 in both of the image directories and place the product images into their corresponding directories. This will help if you'd rather not FTP into a directory with thousands of images in it. Note that if you use this method and enter a product into more than 1 category, you will need to place copies of the image into each of the corresponding directories.
     You may also use the same method but with Main Categories by changing the variable to...
     <cfset attributes.imagepath = "Main">
   You may upload your product images using the 2 upload forms. Note that the images will be renamed to match the Product ID if necessary and will be placed in the appropriate attributes.imagepath directory if you specified Sub or Main.
6. Category: Click from the available categories. Windows users, hold down your Control Key while clicking to select multiple categories, or no categories (products in no categories are Orphans). Mac users, hold down your Command Key. Note that the category selections will appear similar to...
   Gifts (1) - Glass Creations (13)
   In the example above, Gifts is the Main Category that the Category Glass Creations is in. The numbers in parentheses are the respective IDs of the Main Category and Category.
7. Manufacturer: Select the Manufacturer if using the Manufacturers option.
8. Enter a numeric weight. May be 0 (zero) but may not be blank. Decimals are fine. Please before you understand the shipping setup options. Many of the shipping options require that this value be greater than 0 to flag whether the product is to be shipped, even if you are not charging for shipping.
9. Regular Price: 2 options here.
   1. If you leave this field blank, you must set the Price Based On Quantity Ordered using the Price Modules. This is for setting different price points based on the quantity orders, and/or setting a minimum and maximium quantity to be purchased. You will always have a link at the top of the products page after adding, updating or viewing a product with a blank price field.
   2. Set a Price of 0.00 or more. You will only want to use 0.00 if you've set pricing based on Sizes (covered later in this section) and/or if you set pricing on the Styles (covered under the Product Styles section of the documentation). Unless of course you're giving the item away.

   Please note! We attempt to trap errors that will be caused by having an empty Regular Price field and not adding prices based on quantity. There are some instamces where this just can't be done easily, so PLEASE be certain that you either enter a Regular Price (even if 0) or add pricing based on quantity.

10. Sale Price: To put items on Sale, enter a price less than that of the Regular Price. This won't work if using Price Modules (blank Regular Price field) or if the Regular Price is 0.00. Setting a Sale Price causes 2 actions.
    1. Will show the Regular Price as strike through, with the Sale Price below it in the color you set the Sale Font in Edit Appearance. Example:
       $29.95
       Sale Price: $19.95
    2. Will cause this item to show under the Weekly Specials (or whatever you set the Sale Text field to in Company Setup) link if using the standalone cart. This will also cause this item to appear in the cf_specials custom tag with the default settings, if integrating the cart into your existing web templates. This is covered in the "Integration With Your Web Site" section.
11. Defer Payment: See the Product Level section of the Deferred Payments section for help on this variable.
12. Minimum and Maximum Quantity Allowed: Do not set Minimum to 1. That will work the same as 0, but will show minimum 1. Maximum may be any number higher than the minimum. This will not be used if this item is price based on quantity as there are constraints that may be used within the price setup.
13. Descriptions: There are 2 description fields. General description rules are...
    • The short description field will accept 255 characters if using an Access or MySQL database, and 450 characters if using SQL Server. Note that <, >, ", &, and line breaks are encoded into HTML format so keep that in mind.
    • The long description field will accept up to 65,000 characters.
    • By default, using only a single field will cause that description to show in the general Product view. Using both fields (even if identical) will show the short Description field, and will also cause a Details button to appear, which when clicked, will go to a page with a larger image and the Long Description. See Description Options below.
    Description Options:
    There are several ways we can set whether to show a thumbnail, whether to show a Details page and whether we show a larger image on the details page. If the default method doesn't do what you want, open Application.cfm, go to the "Product display and search" section, and you'll see:
    <cfset attributes.showdetail = "">
    This may be set to any of the following values:
    • <cfset attributes.showdetail = ""> (blank value) If there is data in both description fields, we will show the text from the short description field, show the image in the "products_tn" directory, give a "Details" link to another page where the long description will be displayed along with the image in directory "Products". If there is only text in one of the description fields, there will be no "Details" link and the text will display from the non-empty field.
    • <cfset attributes.showdetail = "no_thumbnail"> No image will show on the General Product view page. Entering text into both description fields will cause a Details button to show, where the image from the products folder will show, along with the Long Description. Leaving Long Description blank will cause there not to be a Details button.
    • <cfset attributes.showdetail = "thumbnail"> The thumbnail from the products_tn folder will show on the General Product view page. Entering text into both description fields will cause a Details button to show, where again the image from the products_tn folder will show, along with the Long Description. This is good if you only wish to create 1 image for each product. Leaving the Long Description blank will cause there not to be a Details button.
    • <cfset attributes.showdetail = "always"> The thumbnail from the products_tn folder will show on the General Product view page. There will always be a Details button regardless of whether you use both Description fields. The image from the products folder will show on the Details page. This simply works like the default, except it saves you from having to copy the same text into both Description fields if you only have 1 Description. You may still use one or both description fields as necessary. This will also help in searches as there will only be 1 field searched if only 1 field has text in it.
    Final description field note! There is one more option with the description fields. This will mainly apply if you are a web designer or have a web designer available to help with your product data. Entering a file extension, preceded by a dot, in either field will cause a template to be included where that description would normally be. For example, entering .html as the short description for product ABC will include a file named ABC.html as opposed to showing the text from the field. Same for the long description field. There are 2 folders in the ezcart folder, descshort for the short description templates, and desclong for the long descriptions. This will work of the first character is a . (dot) and the description is no longer than 5 characters total. You may also use .cfm to include a ColdFusion template with dynamic code in it if you wish.
14. Keywords: This field will be searched when searching if it is not empty. Do not use commas when entering keywords and phrases. Separate words with a SINGLE space. Example: running shoes jogging shoes athletic shoes basketball shoes Air Jordan will produce this item in a search for shoes, jogging, jogging shoes, Jordan, Air Jordan, etc.
15. Item Backordered? If an item is backordered, it will not be available for purchase. You may mark it as backordered and enter the expected date of delivery here. On the date you enter it will automatically be available again (so you don't have to make a special trip to set it as available).
16. In Stock: Inventory Control must be enabled for this to work. If a number is entered here, that will be the quantity available for purchase. If 0 is entered, the item will not be available for purchase until the quantity is updated. If this field is blank, an unlimited number will be available for purcase. To enable the cart for Inventory Control, open Application.cfm, under the "Global settings" section, and look for...
    <cfset attributes.Inventory_Control = "0">
    Set that to "1" to use inventory control.
    Right under that setting is...
    <cfset attributes.allowordering = "0">
    If this value is set to "1", any item may still be ordered even if it is not in stock. This would mainly be used if you want to make a note such as "In Stock items ship in 1 business day. Out Of Stock items will ship within 10 business days."
17. Options: You may relate other products to this product by entering the Product IDs of the other Products in a comma delimited list. No spaces before or after the commas.
    Good List: DEF,GHI,JKL
    Bad List: DEF, GHI, JKL (note the spaces)
    Any items in this list may be ordered with the Main Product (the one you are adding). The quantity will be the same as the Main Product and may not be updated separately. Example, if you order 1 of Product ABC (the main product), and check the boxes to order Options DEF and GHI along with the Main Product, items DEF and GHI will be added to the cart along with the Main Product. If you then update the quantity to 3, or delete the main item, items DEF and GHI will be updated or deleted along with the Main Product.
    Note: This is a good way to discount items. For example, suppose you wish to sell item DEF for $10.00 by itself. But, you would also like to offer it for $7.50 if purchased along with the Main Product, ABC. You may enter item DEF twice, once in the category to which it belongs, and once into a category with an ID of 7000 or greater, or into the special "Options" category. Items in a category of 7000 or greater or in the special "Options" category will not be available in a search. Also, see Option Only below.
18. Multi-Product Option: If you entered Products into the Options field above, you may allow these products to be ordered along with the main item, or without the main item, and in different quantities than the main item, but not if you set the Optional Products to Option Only.
19. Option Only: This will be set on the items that you entered into the Options field on a Main Product, not on the Main Product itself. If you want this item to only be available as an option, check Yes. It won't matter which category this is in if you check Yes.
20. Colors: Click the available colors. Windows users, hold down your Control Key while clicking to select multiple colors. Mac users, hold down your Command Key.
21. Color Menu Text: If you use colors and leave this blank, the Select Menu will display Select Color. If you add a word, such as Pattern, the Select Menu will display Select Pattern. Do not enter the word Select, only the word which described these options, such as Pattern, Design, etc.
22. Styles: Click from the available styles. Windows users, hold down your Control Key while clicking to select multiple styles. Mac users, hold down your Command Key.
23. Sizes: Enter the available sizes in a comma delimited list with no spaces before or after the commas.
    Good List: Small,Medium,Large
    Bad List: Small, Medium, Large

24. Size Surcharge: If the available sizes are different prices, the number of items in this list must be exactly the same as the Sizes list. If the size doesn't cost any extra, enter a 0.
    Example, your widgets are available in Small, Medium and Large. You have the price of the widget set to $10.00. A small widget and a medium widget are both $10.00, but the large widget is $15.25. Your fields will be set like so:
    Sizes: Small,Medium,Large
    Size Surcharge: 0,0,5.25
    You could also set the Price to $0.00 and enter:
    Size Surcharge: 10,10,15.25
    If no sizes cost extra, leave this field blank. But if it is used, remember that there must be the same number of Size Surcharge entries as Sizes or an error will result on the site.
25. Extra Weight: Identical to the Size Surcharge field, except this will add to the weight set in the weight field. Same rules apply as above.
26. Dimensions:
    • If using the Live shipping rate options, this will send the dimensions to the carrier and oversize rates will be returned if applicable. If you enter dimensions larger than the carrier's restrictions, shipping will not be calculated.
    • If using the Loop option with either Live shipping rates or otherwise, and the Loop is set to other than "All", Entering dimensions will cause this item to be calculated as an individual package. See Shipping Setup for more on the Loop Option.
27. Freight Charge: If you wish any of your packages to be shipped by an alternate shipping method, enter the cost here. This may be used with Live shipping or with your own calculations. If using Live shipping, it is EXTREMELY important that you enter a shipping cost here for any packages that do not meet the carrier's weight and/or size restrictions for the services you are offering. The package will not be included in the call to the carrier's API if there is a charge entered here. Any packages not included in that call will be calculated at the cost entered here. As a backup measure if using Live shipping, so you do not accidentally give free shipping on an oversize product, if any packages cannot be calculated by the shipper's API, we will stop calculation on the entire order and give a message that shipping will be calculated later. Enter the Domestic and International Freight Charge in the respective fields.
28. File Extension: If this item is delivered via download, select the file extensions the download will be available in. Select multiple extensions by Ctrl-clicking on PC or Command-clicking on Mac.
29. Sorting: This is the first field that items are sorted on in search results. If you don't wish to sort on this field, you may just leave this at 0 for all items. See Filan APplication.cfm settings for other sorting options.
30. Promotions: This only works on level 1 pricing. The 2 comma delimited lists below must be the same length and must not contain any spaces befor or after the commas. The promo codes themselves may contain spaces.
    • Promo Codes: This will be a comma delimited list of promotional codes. No spaces before or after the commas.
    • Promo Discounts: This will be the dollar amount off of each item and must have the same number of values as the Promotional Codes. You should use numbers or decimals only. Do not enter dollar signs or commas in the value itself.
    Example:
    Promotional Codes: piano player,trombone
    Promo Discounts: 5.95,14.95
    If the customer entered the code "piano player" (this is not case sensitive), they would receive $5.95 off of the base price. If they entered the code "trombone", they would receive $14.95 off of the base price.
31. Click Add Product and you're done. You may view the entries and edit if necessary.