Configure a Product to Sell Online

This page explains how to configure a product to appear in the online Shopping cart. These instructions will apply for Merchandise, Publication and Subscriptions.

If you are having problems viewing products online, check to make sure the following items are set up properly:

  • Centralized Order Entry system options
  • Price Control Attributes including:
  • Customer type
  • Source codes
  • Sell Online check boxes for:
  • Product type
  • Product
  • Price
  • Startdate and enddate for:
  • Product
  • Price
  • Price attributes

In the screen shot below, because the sell online check box is selected, this merchandise will be available on the external Web site.  Without this check box selected, the product will only be available internally, through Centralized Order Entry.

Product Setup

From the product page, enter a short description that will display on search results pages. You will be able to enter a longer description later.

In the overall product setup (not price), ensure that the show online check box is selected.

Ensure that the post to web date and remove to web date values are correct. Leave both fields empty to have the item show indefinitely online, or enter dates if you want to post-date when the product appears, and set an end-date on when the product should stop appearing online. As an option, enter a show as new date to add a "new" icon that will appear next to the image in search results. The newest products may also display as a spotlighted "featured product".

Photo Upload

From the product page, or the web information page, you may upload a photo using the thumbnail field. Click the "add" link.

Click the "add" link to display the Document Upload page.

Enter a document code, summary and description.

Click the Upload New link to upload the images. The url and file name will be automatically populate.

Browse to the file you want to upload and click the OK button. You will be redirected back to the Document Upload page with the url and file automatically populated.

Price Setup

After enabling the actual product to display online, you must enable the Prices to display online as well. To do this, select the show online check box on the price(s) you want to display, and ensure the start date and end date values are correct.

The display name will appear in the online bookstore pages.

Note: There must be a unique price code for each price associated with a product or registration. Setting multiple prices without unique price codes can cause unexpected results in eWeb.

Related Products Setup

If a product has Complementary Products set up, these will display in the related items section (on the right) on the product detail page in eWeb, assuming the complementary products are configured to sell online. This feature works for Merchandise, Publications and Subscriptions.

Bookstore Display

Search Results Page

Based on the setup options above, here is how the product will display in the eWeb bookstore.

The selectable product name comes from the product name field. The shorter paragraph beneath it comes from the short description. The "new!" image displays because the show as new until date.

The prices and names come from the prices setup to show online. The text for the prices comes from the price display name.

The thumbnail image comes from the thumbnail that was uploaded. The width is set to a 90 pixel maximum, with the height auto-sizing proportionally.

Drilldown Detail Page

On the detail page, which is accessed by clicking on the thumbnail or on the product name field on the search results page, the user will view the same basic information but also the longer HTML Text field in the product setup.

Note that the image in this sample is 300 x 300 pixels, with a white margin on either side. Unlike on the search results page, the drilldown page does not try to size the image. The image appears in its raw state. Therefore, you will probably want to keep your images within 300 x 300 pixels or less.

Technical System Setup

For photos to upload and display properly, ensure that these system options and IIS settings are configured properly. You should only need to do this upon initial system setup. Once these settings are configured properly, you should not need to worry about them again.

Important! Only knowledgeable system administrators should do this.

System Option setup

Ensure that you have the right combination of system options to ensure photo images are uploaded properly.

FileUploadBaseUrl System Option

The value of the FileUploadBaseUrl should be of this general form: 

http://www.netforumurl/netForum/iweb

Substitute your own netFORUM url all the way up to and including /iweb/ as shown in the example above.

ImageUploadDirectory System Option

The value of the ImageUploadDirectory should be /photos/.

IIS Virtual Directory Setup

In IIS, add a virtual directory called photos under both the eWeb and iWeb applications. The actual word photos must match with the value you have set in the ImageUploadDirectory as described above.

The Local path for each of these directories should be set to the same folder on the file server so that these images can be shared between both iWeb and eWeb.

If this step is forgotten, then in eWeb, images will appear as a broken image link.