Ektron 9.00
The fulfillment aspect of eCommerce involves:
Prerequisites
To process orders, the Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) Windows service must be running. It is started by default when you install Ektron.
Ektron uses Microsoft’s Windows Workflow Foundation to create and implement order process workflows to handle the ordering process. The workflow can be as simple or complex as your business requires.
For example, you have a simple workflow that sends one email to the customer when an order is received, and another to your shipping department. Or, you could have a more complex workflow that:
For more information about workflows, see Customizing Workflows.
This section summarizes the shopper experience using Ektron's eCommerce feature. See Cart and Checkout for information about the Cart and Checkout server controla server control uses API language to interact with the CMS and Framework UI to display the output. A server control can be dragged and dropped onto a Web form and then modified.s used to implement the order process.
NOTE: Shoppers have the option of checking out using PayPal’s checkout system. Order information is exported, and you can use your PayPal account to fund the purchase. See Also: Configuring Payment Options.
An order invoice page displays to confirm the order. If the order was for a subscription or downloadable software, additional information appears.
The orders screen provides information about all orders in your eCommerce system. To access it, go to Workarea > Settings > Commerce > Fulfillment > Orders.
Initially, orders are sorted by submission date and time, with the most recent at the top.
You can select orders by any of the following criteria.
To use any filter, choose Reporting (see below) then the appropriate filter option:
NOTE: The following table assumes you use the default workflow installed with eCommerce. If you customize the workflow, the following table may be inaccurate. See Also: Customizing Workflows
To view the details of any order, click it. When you do, the View Order screen appears.
If the Workflow tab does not display a flowchart, verify that the server’s Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) Windows service is running. It is started by default when you install Ektron, but if it stops for some reason, the Workflow does not appear on this screen.
It is important to distinguish between authorization and capture in relation to orders:
Take into account the following:
After an order has been captured, you receive confirmation from the paying agency that the money has been deposited to your account and is available. At this time, you use the Mark as Settled option to inform the eCommerce feature that payment has been received. This changes the order status to Complete. Confirmation occurs:
See Also: Configuring Payment Options
When an order is shipped, the shipping provider typically provides a tracking number to help locate the shipment within the delivery chain. Use the Enter Tracking Number option to enter this part of the order information.
After entering the tracking number, you can indicate whether the order has shipped.
You can display an order’s tracking number on the View Order screen by clicking the Address tab and looking under the Shipping Address.
When you enter an order's tracking number, the screen lets you mark it as shipped. See Also: Entering a Tracking Number
If you did not mark the item as shipped at that time, a Ship Order option appears on the Action menu. To denote that such an order has shipped:
NOTE: If that order has not yet been captured, it will be captured as part of the shipping of the order.
After selecting an order, you are allowed to submit a note about it. You can use the note to record information about the item, the buyer, shipping irregularities, and so on.
Only one note can be saved per order. If you edit and save a note, the previous note text is permanently removed.
Ektron’s eCommerce feature provides a messaging feature that can notify a purchaser or the Ektron administrator when the following events occur. Each message has a unique type that corresponds to an event and, in one case, a recipient.
You can create any number of messages for each event, assigning one as the default. Only the default message is sent when the corresponding event occurs. Here is a sample message as set up within Ektron.
Here is a portion of the same message as delivered to a recipient’s inbox.
Ektron provides sample text for each type of message. To view and edit a message, go to the Workarea > Settings > Commerce > Configuration > Messages.
The Message Type determines the event that causes a message to be sent. For example, the Orderreceived message is sent to a purchaser when the order is submitted.
If content notification emails are being generated, the site visitor provided an email address, and a message is defined for the event, emails are sent when eCommerce events occur. No additional set up is required.
NOTE: eCommerce messages are distributed in the same way as content notification emails. For information on setting this up, see Installing Ektron.
An eCommerce message can include the following variables, which pull order information into the message:
The markers show no information by themselves. Instead, they repeat the variables between them for every item on the order.So, for example, assume an order has 10 items, and your message looks like this:
@OrderItemStart@
@OrderItemTitle@
@OrderItemQuantity@
@OrderItemSalePrice@
@OrderItemTotal@
@OrderItemEnd@
The message prints the title, quantity, sale price, and total for each item on the order.
orderItemSalePrice
= $10 and orderItemQuantity
= 2, orderItemTotal
= $20.The OrderReceivedToAdmin message type requires additional setup. Specifically, you must update the following values in the web.config
file.