NopCommerce-E21 Integration Supplemental Users Guide

Table of Contents Product Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 3

Website Customization ................................................................................................................................. 4

E21-nopCommerce Feature Integration Status (nopCommerce v3.3) ......................................................... 5

Dashboard ................................................................................................................................................. 5

Catalog ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

Sales .......................................................................................................................................................... 6

Customers ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Promotions ................................................................................................................................................ 8

Content Management ............................................................................................................................... 8

Configuration ............................................................................................................................................ 8

System ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Help ........................................................................................................................................................... 9

TGI nopCommerce Plugins .......................................................................................................................... 10

Discount Requirements: Customer has x.xx amount in cart .................................................................. 10

Pricing Options: Dynamic Pricing for TGI Products ................................................................................ 10

Shopping: Quick Cart .............................................................................................................................. 10

Payments: ManualTGI ............................................................................................................................ 11

Contact Us: Custom Forms ..................................................................................................................... 11

E21-nopCommerce Settings ....................................................................................................................... 12

E21 Settings ............................................................................................................................................. 12

nopCommerce Settings ........................................................................................................................... 12

Frequently Asked Questions ....................................................................................................................... 16

Order & Checkout FAQs .......................................................................................................................... 16

Category FAQs ......................................................................................................................................... 17

Product FAQs .......................................................................................................................................... 18

Customer FAQs ....................................................................................................................................... 20

Adding Content FAQs .............................................................................................................................. 21

Miscellaneous FAQs ................................................................................................................................ 22

Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................................................... 23

Product Overview TGI has created an Ecommerce solution fully integrated with E21 built upon the open source

nopCommerce platform. All pertinent e-commerce data: orders, customers, product info (including customer specific pricing and real time inventory data, etc.) are shared seamlessly between nopCommerce & E21 without any user intervention required.

NopCommerce has a built-in content management system allowing users with little or no web expertise to modify / maintain certain website content such as product information, images, social media, marketing info, newsgroups, blogs, etc. via the nopCommerce admin panel.

NopCommerce is built to maximize Search Engine Optimization metadata allowing for maximum exposure to search engines.

NopCommerce will run in both a self-hosted and an ISP-hosted environment, however, the initial rollout of the product (Phase 1) will focus on self-hosted solutions. Additional implementation charges for ISP-hosted solutions will also apply. Self-Hosted solution is expected to rollout Q4 2014. ISP-Hosted solution (Phase 2) is expected to rollout Q2, 2015.

NopCommerce allows for full integration with various 3rd-party e-commerce-related sites such as FedEx, UPS, USPS, Authorize.NET, PayPal, Google Analytics, etc.

NopCommerce comes with customizable email message templates sent at various system events (Order Acknowledgements, New User Registrations, etc).

NopCommerce is included for free for all TGI customers, however, all services necessary to implement nopCommerce including (but not limited to) software design, setup, modification, training, etc. are billable at our standard rates. Website implementations vary, but TGI customers should budget no less than 40 billable hours for a non-modified, self-hosted implementation. Customers who wish to have their nopCommerce solutions hosted offsite (ISP-Hosted) should expect additional implementation charges (+ ISP monthly charges).

nopCommerce is a “black-box” solution with full integration for E21 versions 81 and above. TGI does not intend on modifying the NopCommerce core functionality for each customer implementation. That said, TGI will incorporate E21 customer-specific modifications at the necessary touch points (product pricing & availability, order posting, etc.)

TGI has licensed a number of website "themes" to freely distribute to our customers offering a wide array of designs to suite every business. Themes can be modified (images, colors, etc.), however TGI will not deliver custom themes for each NopCommerce implementation. Customers must choose from the existing theme library, or work with a qualified 3rd party nopCommerce web developer to create custom themes at their own expense.

Not all base nopCommerce functionality is guaranteed to work with E21. Only “TGI Verified” features should be enabled within the nopComemrce administration panel. Please review the E21-nopCommerce Feature Integration Status section of this document for more information on which base nopCommerce features are supported.

Website Customization Website needs vary greatly from customer to customer. Additional website customization may be

required based on your individual needs. In most cases this customization can be performed by either a

TGI developer or even in-house. In other cases, a professional web design specialist may be required.

Please schedule a review session with a TGI representative for additional information. All

NopCommerce customization performed by TGI personnel is billable at our standard rates.

TGI has licensed a number of professionally designed responsive website themes for our customers to select from free of charge.

TGI will work with our customers to help them select the website theme that is most suited for their business. If necessary, we will then work with our customers to implement specified color patterns, text fonts, background images, etc., over the selected website theme. TGI will NOT be responsible for creating or maintaining any product images, page artwork or major theme redesign. Any logos, images, artwork, etc. must be supplied to TGI.

TGI will work with our customers to customize menu items and topic pages to your NopCommerce website. TGI will NOT provide content or maintain the content on these pages. All page content (excluding those pages which are fully integrated with E21) and content maintenance will be performed by the customer within the supplied content management system.

If requested, TGI will aid our customers in locating a qualified nopCommerce web design specialist, however, all work performed by any 3rd-Party (including in-house changes) is not guaranteed by TGI and any pages effected by 3rd-Party work voids any warrantees covered by your TGI software maintenance contracts. If a 3rd party designer is required expect significant delays in the project turnaround.

The base nopCommerce platform offers the ability to add many website features by simply downloading and installing various 3rd-Party plugins. That said, only those plugins approved by TGI are guaranteed to work. TGI will test and approve any requested plugins you may require on your site. Please note that 3rd-Party plugins may make updating your site difficult / impossible and any pages affected by 3rd-Party plugins voids any warrantees covered by your TGI software maintenance contracts.

E21-nopCommerce Feature Integration Status (nopCommerce v3.3) The following lists the “official” integration status of all base admin features for nopCommerce v3.3.

Dashboard

All nopCommerce dashboard features work as designed. Check your standard nopCommerce

documentation for more information.

Catalog

Categories should be added and maintained entirely in E21 via standard E21 Product Group Structure

programs. Once categories are imported, there are nopCommerce-specific category attributes which

may be maintained within the nopCommerce admin panel. These include: Display Order, Long

Description & Show on Homepage (featured categories). All other category data will be overwritten

each time E21 is synced with nopCommerce and as such should only be maintained within E21.

If you wish to maintain Product Categories directly within the nopCommerce admin panel, check with

your TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Manufacturers are not integrated with E21 at this time. Manufacturer data may be maintained within

the nopCommerce admin panel, however it is untested and as such not “officially” supported.

Products should be added and maintained entirely in E21 via the standard E21 product master program.

Any product data modified directly from within the nop admin panel (including product images, product

tags, and changes made from the nop Bulk Edit function) will be overwritten the next time E21 product

data is synced with nopCommerce. That being said, certain product data, especially fields which allow

HTML editing, may be easier to maintain within the nop WYSIWIG editor than the E21 product master.

NopCommerce give you the ability to maintain any of the following information directly within

nopCommerce:

Product Name

Product Short Description

Product Long Description

SEO Data (including seo friendly URL and meta description & keywords)

Product Images

If you wish to maintain any of these fields directly within the nopCommerce admin panel, check with

your TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Related Products should be added and maintained entirely in E21 via the standard E21 Similar Product

and Complimentary Product programs. Any Related Product data modified directly from within the nop

admin panel will be overwritten the next time E21 product data is synced with nopCommerce.

If you wish to maintain Related Products directly within the nopCommerce admin panel, check with your

TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Product Reviews can be enabled for individual products within the E21 product master. All other

Product Review data, including review approval / disapproval when applicable should be maintained

within the nopCommerce admin panel.

Product Attributes are not integrated with E21 at this time. Product Attribute data be maintained

within the nopCommerce admin panel, however it is untested and as such not “officially” supported.

Specification Attributes are not integrated with E21 at this time. Specification Attribute data be

maintained within the nopCommerce admin panel and are verified and officially supported. Once

created, Specification attributes can be assigned in the Specification Attributes tab of the Manage

Products section of nopCommerce admin panel.

Checkout Attributes allow misc data from the website such as Order Notes or other custom field data to

post to E21 when orders are submitted; however, they require setup by a trained TGI E21Ecommerce

administrator.

If you wish to add Checkout Attributes, check with your TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist

for more information.

Product Reports – Although not integrated with E21, all nopCommerce reports (Low Stock Report, etc)

work as designed and may be viewed within the standard nopCommerce admin panel. Note that these

reports may only reflect nopCommerce product data and will not reflect actual E21 product information.

Check your standard nopCommerce documentation for more information.

Sales

Orders placed thru NopCommerce are fully integrated with E21. All standard website order information

is collected during checkout including but not limited to billing and shipping contact info, shipment

requests, payment info, special order notes, product data, etc. During checkout, existing customers with

NET terms assigned can choose their payment methods (new registrants must pay by credit card). For

credit card orders, card information is authorized prior to posting using the same gateway processes as

E21. As such, only the approval is required at the time the order is placed and funds are collected during

the E21 group and post procedures. Both E21 and NopCommerce can be setup to be completely

tokenized for PCI compliance so that no credit card information is ever stored in either system. Orders

placed within NopCommerce can be setup to always go on hold for CSR review or can be immediately

released for picking and shipping within E21. Once an order is posted into E21 it should be maintained

(updated, shipped, cancelled, etc) entirely within E21. nopCommerce orders will flow thru E21 as if it

were entered directly in the E21 Order Entry screen by a CSR.

Note: Only orders placed thru NopCommerce will be available for review in the NopCommerce system.

Orders placed directly within E21 or thru other means (EDI, fax, etc) will not be available in

NopCommerce at this time.

Any changes to submitted nopCommerce orders (order updates, shipments, payments, cancellations,

etc) MUST be handled within E21. Changes to orders made within the nopCommerce admin panel will

NOT be reflected in E21.

Shipments of orders placed within NopCommerce are processed within E21. As these orders flow thru

the E21 system, the order status will be updated within NopCommerce as well. Shipment tracking

numbers entered within E21 will be posted to NopCommerce as well when applicable.

Recurring Payments are not integrated with E21 at this time and are not supported.

Gift Cards are not integrated with E21 at this time and are not supported.

Sales Reports – Although not integrated with E21, all nopCommerce reports (Best Sellers, Products

Never Purchased, etc) work as designed and may be viewed within the standard nopCommerce admin

panel. Note that these reports only reflect nopCommerce sales data and will not reflect overall E21

sales information. Check your standard nopCommerce documentation for more information.

Customers

Customers should be added and maintained entirely in E21 via the standard E21 customer programs.

Any customer data modified directly from within the nop admin panel (including names, addresses,

credentials, etc) will be overwritten the next time E21 customer data is synced with nopCommerce.

That should not be confused with new website registrants whose customer data will be immediately

posted and available within E21. Existing customers / contacts within E21 will become available within

NopCommerce once they are properly setup and assigned Ecommerce credentials (Logins and

Passwords can be assigned to E21 “orderfrom” contacts in the Ecommerce module of E21)

Note that Customer data in nopCommerce actually comes from a variety of tables from E21. Customer

Master, Billto, Shipto, Contact and Ecommerce Login data is all used and required in E21 to create a valid

customer in nopCommerce. If any of these setup tables are not completely setup in E21, the customer

will not be available in NopCommerce. Furthermore, “customers” in nopCommerce more closely

correlate with “Contacts” in E21 since a customer in nopCommerce is a single person, not a company.

Customer Roles – Only the Administrators, Guests, and Registered roles are currently tested and

supported in NopCommerce.

Each customer in NopCommerce should only be assigned ONE role (guest or registered). Assigning a

customer as both registered AND as an administrator will cause errors in the system. Due to the fact

that NopCommerce administrators are not actual customers in E21, Administrators cannot place orders

in NopCommerce.

Vendors are not integrated with E21 at this time. Vendor data may be maintained within the

nopCommerce admin panel; however it is untested and as such not “officially” supported.

Customer Reports – Although not integrated with E21, all nopCommerce customer reports work as

designed and may be viewed within the standard nopCommerce admin panel. Check your standard

nopCommerce documentation for more information.

Promotions

Affiliates are not integrated with E21 at this time and are not supported.

Newsletter Subscribers are not integrated with E21 at this time. Newsletter Subscriber data may be

collected within NopCommerce and maintained within the nopCommerce admin panel; however, E21

does nothing with this data.

Campaigns are not integrated with E21 at this time and are not supported.

Discounts are used to allow customers to enter coupon codes during checkout for various orders

discounts. Due to limitations within the base E21 system, this feature is not “officially” supported. That

said, TGI has developed both plug-ins within nopCommerce and modifications to E21 to allow a large

number of integrated discount functions.

If you wish to add discount / coupon functionality to your NopCommerce system, check with your TGI

NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Content Management

All nopCommerce Content Management features work as designed. Check your standard

nopCommerce documentation for more information.

Configuration Not all configuration settings are supported by NopCommerce, others require a TGI Implementation

Specialist to setup and should not be modified. Since nopCommerce has literally thousands of settings,

we will only touch on those settings which are confirmed as NOT supported, or those which should not

be edited after implementation.

Although there is a very good chance that settings not specified here will work with NopCommerce, it is

not guaranteed.

If you wish to modify ANY configuration settings in your NopCommerce implementation, check with

your TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Unsupported nopCommerce Configuration Settings

Settings -> General & Misc Settings -> Full Text Settings -> Using CONTAINS options

Settings -> Catalog Settings – Show the number of distinct products besides each category

Settings -> Customer Settings -> Customer Form Fields -> Date of birth checkbox

Settings -> Customer Settings -> Customer Form Fields -> Gender checkbox

Settings -> Customer Settings -> External Authentication Settings

Settings -> Shopping Cart Settings -> Show Gift Card checkbox

Settings -> Order Settings -> Is Reorder Allowed

Settings -> Order Settings -> Gift Card Activation Order Status

Settings -> Order Settings -> Gift Card De-Activation Order Status

Settings -> Order Settings -> Return Request Settings – Enable Returns System1

Settings -> Shipping Settings – Use Warehouse Location

Settings -> Reward Points

Settings -> Vendor Settings

Currencies2

Measures -> Weights3

Measures -> Dimensions4

Payments -> COD, Check / Money Order, PayPal5

External Authentication Methods

nopCommerce Configuration Settings which should not be modified by anyone other than a TGI

Implementation Specialist

Settings -> Customer Settings -> Customer Form Fields -> Custom Customer Attributes

Settings -> Order Settings -> Anonymous Checkout Allowed6

Settings -> Tax Settings

Shipping

Plug-ins7

System

All nopCommerce System features work as designed. Check your standard nopCommerce

documentation for more information.

The following Scheduled Tasks are specific to NopCommerce implementations and are required for E21

integration: “TGI Import Data,” “TGI Order Status Update From Server,” & “TGI Load tsglobal.xml”.

Check with your TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Help

All nopCommerce Help features work as designed. Check your standard nopCommerce documentation

for more information.

1 Untested

2 Only USD currently supported

3 Only Lbs currently supported

4 Only Inches currently supported

5 Untested

6 Dependant on CC gateway used for authorizations. Not currently permitted for Authorize.net CIM

7 Each plug-in will need individual review and testing

TGI nopCommerce Plugins TGI has resolved various limitations of the base nopCommerce system by creating nopCommerce

plugins and adding new features directly to the nopCommerce core. All TGI plugins & features will be

installed during your initial nopCommerce implementation. Review the following documentation for

maintaining the TGI plugin & feature settings.

Discount Requirements: Customer has x.xx amount in cart This plug-in allows users to setup coupon validation based on the dollar value of their current cart (the

standard nopCommerce plugin only looks at previously completed orders). Unlike other similar 3rd-party

plugins, this TGI plugin also allows for tiered values for a specific coupon. For example, a single coupon

can be created to discount $5 off $25-49, $10 off $50-99, and $25 off orders above $100.

Once the plugin is installed, use the standard nopCommerce “Discounts” setup (Admin Panel ->

Promotions -> Discounts) to create / maintain discounts. “Customer has x.xx amount in cart” will show

as an option in the requirements tab after you have created your initial discount. See your standard

nopCommerce documentation more information on setting up standard nopCommerce discounts.

Note that this plugin only affects nopCommerce. Depending on your E21 build, additional development

may be required on the E21 side to handle importing coupon data from nopCommerce into E21.

Pricing Options: Dynamic Pricing for TGI Products This plug-in is a requirement for all TGI NopCommerce implementations. It is the core logic which allows

all E21 pricing and product data to sync with NopCommerce. Never uninstall this plugin as doing so

would completely disable your system.

Shopping: Quick Cart This plug-in allows users to view all products available within the site on one page allowing for quick

order entry. Users can enter the quantities they wish to purchase for all products and insert them all

into the cart simultaneously.

Settings allow users to determine if product images & stock availability should display in the quick cart

(turn these off for increased performance). You can also set the default sort order of the products.

Quick cart is only to be used for basic products. The following nopCommerce features are NOT available

via the quick cart:

1. Is Gift Item 2. Disable Buy Button 3. Call for price 4. Customer enters price 5. Product with attribute

Products with these features enabled will be filtered from being shown in quick cart.

Payments: ManualTGI This simple plugin is based on the nopCommerce Payments.Manual plugin. The only difference between

the two is that this version allows you to customize which credit cards you accept. This plugin is useful

for customers who would normally use Payments.Manual for their website credit card processing (TGI

Customers using the Authorize.Net CIM gateway) but who do not accept all card types included within

the default (Discover Card, American Express, etc).

Contact Us: Custom Forms This feature has been built directly into the TGI version of the nopCommerce framework. It allows users

to add custom forms directly into the nopCommerce “Contact Us” page.

More on this feature coming soon.

E21-nopCommerce Settings

E21 Settings The following settings are stored in your E21 database in the table “nopSettings”. These settings should

be adjusted separately for each E21 database for which you have a corresponding nop system created

(production, test, etc). E21 Settings should only be modified by a TGI Implementation Specialist.

data_initialized - [0/1] Defines whether the initial data from E21 has been imported into nop. Once this value = 1, the initialization scripts (which clean out all existing nop data) can no longer run. To re-initialize the nop database during implementation, reset this value to 0. Running the initialization scripts will set this value to 1 automatically.

export_triggers_enabled – [0/1] Defines whether the E21 triggers, which automatically load data into the nop system each time a relevant table in E21 is modified, are enabled. For live systems this value must be 1 to keep the systems in sync. During E21 implementation the E21 triggers may cause errors in Base E21 if the underlying data has not been setup properly. In that case, set this to 0 until E21 data implementation is complete.

data_export_type – [DIRECTSQL, FLATFILE] – Defines how E21 data will be imported into the nopCommerce system. Set to “DIRECTSQL” for self-hosted implementations. Set to “FLATFILE” for ISP-hosted solutions.

datafile_export_folder - Defines the folder that will be used for “FLATFILE” exports. This should be a network folder (sample: \\network\nopCommerce\data\e21test\Import-Data) accessible to both admin users, the user which is specified to run the Microsoft SQL Server service and the IIS Application Pool user. Note – This value should match the “tgisettings.data_import_folder”.

direct_export_connectstr – Defines the prefix string required so that SQL statements performed on your base E21 database can access tables in your corresponding nop database. Samples: [nop-e21test].[dbo]. [nop-e21prod].[dbo].

export_all_uoms [0/1] Defines whether E21 exports all UOMs associated with a product, or only the Ordering UOM. Note – This value should match the “tgisettings.import_all_uoms”.

nop_user – Defines the value that will be placed on all records in E21 which store a user ID (customer update user, order CSR, etc). This value does NOT need to be a valid user in E21. Note that if this value is not defined, the user values will default to “WEBSERVICE.”

kit_dirship_stock_override [0/1] – Defines whether or not all products on the partmstr with kit_flag=1 and/or dir_ship_flag=1 should always show as “available” within nopCommerce. When this toggle is enabled (1), the stock quantity imported to nopCommerce for the applicable products will always be 99999.

nopCommerce Settings The following settings are stored in your nopCommerce database in the table “TGISettings”. These

settings should be adjusted separately for each E21 database for which you have a corresponding nop

system created (production, test, etc). nopCommerce Settings should only be modified by a TGI

Implementation Specialist.

company_name – Enter the company name for the site for internal use. This setting must match the Store Name setup in the nopCommerce Admin Panel. - Not Currently In Use

ws_datasource - [e21test, e21prod] - Enter the E21 Database this nopCommerce install with sync with.

ws_secure_key - Enter the full “Secure Key” (sample: XXXXX-3dfi-Hd37-HD92-I33d) for this TGI Web Service installation

ws_url - Enter the URL (sample: [http://localhost/ws) that will be used from the nopCommerce server to communicate with the TGI Web Services. Note that since both nopCommerce and TGI Web Services are typically installed on the same web server, the use of <localhost> instead of an external IP may allow for better performance.

data_import_type- [DIRECTSQL, FLATFILE] – Defines how E21 data will be imported into the nopCommerce system. Set to “DIRECTSQL” for self-hosted implementations. Set to “FLATFILE” for ISP-hosted solutions.

data_import_folder - Defines the folder that will be used for “FLATFILE” imports. This should be a network folder (sample: \\network\nopCommerce\data\e21test\Import-Data) accessible to both admin users, the user which is specified to run the Microsoft SQL Server service and the IIS Application Pool user. Note – This value should match the “nopsettings.data_export_folder”.

data_backup_folder - Defines the folder that will be used for data and image import backups. This should be a network folder (sample: \\network\nopCommerce\data\e21test\Import-Backups) accessible to both admin users, the user which is specified to run the Microsoft SQL Server service and the IIS Application Pool user.

picture_import_folder - Defines the folder that will be used for importing catalog and product images into nopCommerce. This should be a network folder (sample: \\network\nopCommerce\data\e21test\Import-Backups) accessible to both admin users, the user which is specified to run the Microsoft SQL Server service and the IIS Application Pool user.

use_e21_part_name [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Product Name should be maintained from the E21 Product Master (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

use_e21_part_shortdesc [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Product Short Description should be maintained from the E21 Product Master (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

use_e21_part_longdesc [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Product Long Description should be maintained from the E21 Product Master (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

use_e21_seo_info [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Product SEO URL and Meta Data should be maintained from the E21 Product Master (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

use_e21_part_image [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Product and Catalog Images should be maintained from the E21 Product Image Importer (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

use_e21_part_categories [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Product Categories should be maintained from the E21 Product Group Structures (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

use_e21_part_related [0/1] – Defines whether the nopCommerce Related Prodcuts should be maintained from the E21 Similar Products and E21 Complimentary Products forms (1) or maintained directly from the nopCommerce Admin Panel (0)

validate_foreign_zips [0/1] – Defines whether non-US zipcodes will be validated against the E21 zipcode table (1) or if geo validation for foreign address will be disabled (0).

e21_order_instruct [0/1] – Defines how nopCommerce orders are posted into E21:

0=Create all orders using standard E21 system defaults 1= Place all nopCommerce orders on hold for CSR review

e21_cash_terms_code – Defines the terms code for Cash or Credit Card only customers. If a customer’s assigned terms_code matches this value during checkout, they will only be able to select credit card payment options. If the customer’s terms_code does not match they will be allowed to enter their order on PO and the PO payment option will be displayed during checkout.

e21_guest_account – Defines the E21 customer code, typically “UNREGISTERED,” to use on an order when the nopCommerce “Guest Checkout” option is used.

show_guest_orders [0/1] – Defines whether orders placed as a guest will display in a users history once they register. (Default=0)

show_avail_msg [QTY, YES, YN, <number>] – Defines how product inventory will display in nopCommerce: QTY: Display the qty

YES: Always display “Yes” no matter the Qty. Note, when using this setting the system will allow adding items to the cart regardless

of inventory values.

YN: Display “Yes” or “No” depending on whether there is available qty for the selected UOM

<number>: Display “Yes” if qty > <number>, display “Only x Left” If the converted qty <= <number>

For more information see Product Inventory Display FAQ

import_all_uoms [0/1] - Defines whether nopCommerce imports all UOMs associated with a product, or only the Ordering UOM. Note – This value should match the “nopsettings.export_all_uoms”. (Default=0)

price_instruct [0/1] – Defines how nopCommerce line item prices are posted into the E21 order entry detail table: 0=E21 Recalculates Price 1=Use nopCommerce item price (E21 PriceID will be set to OVERRIDE)

e21_noporder_fld – Defines which field on the E21 order header table (ordhead) to be used to store the nopCommerce order ID.

phone_format – Defines the phone format to be used for validation of all phone numbers before posting contact information to TGI web services. This format should match the USA phone format used in the E21 Country table.

allow_multiple_billtos [0/1] – Defines whether users can add more than 1 Billto record in the Addresses section of nopCommerce. (Default=0)

notes_name_fld – Defines the Name to use when settings up notes as a “Checkout Field Attribute” in nopCommerce. Any Checkout Field Attribute which matches this value will have its value stored as an E21 order note. (Default=Notes)

GetPartsInfo_user [ALL, REGISTERED, NONE] – Defines how often the TGI GetPartsInfo() web service is called which returns real-time pricing and inventory from E21. Note: Web Services should only be called when completely necessary since they add significant overhead to each page load. ALL – GetPartsInfo()is called for each page which displays products for all website users REGISTERED – GetPartsInfo() is called for each page which displays products, but only for registered users. This allows us to display customer specific pricing from the E21 price sheets. Guests in the system all see default “retail” pricing.

NONE – GetPartsInfo() is never called. All users see default “retail” pricing.

use_honeypot_validation [0/1] – Defines whether “honeypot” security should be added to the login and registration pages in nopCommerce. This added security measure helps eliminate “spambots” from submitting invalid registrations in your system.

allow_card_info [0/1] – When using the Authorize.Net CIM gateway with E21, we need to use the “Manual.CreditCard” payment method in nopCommerce which by default stores encrypted credit card information in the nop database. Set allow_card_info=0 to override this setting and remove all credit card information from the nopCommerce database. This setting does nothing for all other payment methods.

tgi_release – This field simply defines which tgi nopCommerce build your currently have installed.

GetPartsInfo_CHUNKSIZE – For internal use only. This setting determines how many items are processed within the Quick Cart at a single time. This setting has no bearing on the UI.

Frequently Asked Questions

Order & Checkout FAQs What Order data within E21 is integrated with the website?

All orders entered within NopCommerce will be immediately available within E21 in real-time. Once

orders have been submitted via nopCommerce they should be maintained entirely within E21. As your

order is processed within E21 (order updates, shipments, payments, cancellations, etc) these changes

will be reflected in nopCommerce at set time intervals (typically every 15 minutes).

Note: Any changes to submitted nopCommerce orders (cancellations, order updates, shipments,

payments, etc) MUST be handled within E21. Changes to orders made within the nopCommerce admin

panel will NOT be reflected in E21.

How Does E21 Shipping Carrier and MOS data get integrated with the website?

How Does E21 Shipping sales tax rate data get integrated with the website?

The tax rates used in nopCommerce come directly from the "Sales Tax Code Maintenance" in E21. All

tax rates created within E21 are imported into nopCommerce, however, there is a difference in how this

data is stored. E21 allows the setup of various tax rates by tax code. Within those individual tax codes,

E21 allows you to assign tax regions by state, county and city. nopCommerce assigns all tax rates by zip

code only. When the established E21 tax rate codes are imported into nopCommerce, we look up the

zip codes associated with the E21 tax code regional data. If this data is incomplete or inaccurate, the tax

rate data which gets into nopCommerce will be compromised.

This difference in how the 2 systems calculate tax rates can get problematic for some installs with

detailed tax code data. You MUST have 1 (and only 1) tax rate for each region in which you will charge

sales tax or the 2 systems will not calculate sales tax using the same rates.

How Does nopCommerce determine which orders are taxable?

There IS a difference on how E21 and NopCommerce determine sales tax so it's important that the

underlying data is setup correctly.

1. Both systems look at the Taxable checkbox on the order's E21 Billto record. If the Billto is not taxable

no taxes will be charged regardless of where the order will be shipped or in which states your company

has nexus. If the Billto IS taxable we then look at the Shipto information.

2a. E21 ONLY looks at the associated "Tax Code" on the order's shipto record. If there is a Tax Code

assigned, that is the tax rate that will be used on the E21 order (regardless of orders shipping zip code).

2b. NopCommerce ONLY looks at the orders shipping zip code. The tax rates associated with the

shipping zip code is the tax rate that will be used on the nop order (regardless of Shipto Tax Code)

Since each system determines sales tax using a slightly different methodology, its very important to

make sure your underlying Billto, Shipto & Sales Tax data within E21 is properly setup. Otherwise it’s

possible that orders can be taxed differently when posted into E21 than they were from the website.

Category FAQs The following questions all pertain to adding and maintaining product categories within NopCommerce.

How do I add categories?

NopCommerce categories are integrated with the product grouping structure created within E21. As

such, existing E21 product grouping data (Product Group, Sub Group, Line & Sub Line) are all used to

automatically create the NopCommerce categories. To add new NopCommerce categories, create the

proper group structure within E21 and then assign that structure to your applicable E21 products. Any

product group structures associated with a valid Ecommerce enabled product will be created as a

category in the NopCommerce system.

Product grouping setup is typically found in the E21 menus via Inventory Control -> Table Maintenance -

> Base Table Maintenance -> Product Group Sales Definition

Can I add additional categories to my website which aren’t included in my E21 product grouping

structure?

Yes. To add additional categories just use the nopCommerce admin panel and add your new categories

manually. You will have to link the products that fall under these custom categories manually as well.

Note that whereas products in E21 will only be associated with a single category, manually created

categories do not have this same restriction. In other words, you can have 1 product appear in multiple

manually created categories.

Can I turn off E21 product group integration entirely and create ALL of my NopCommerce categories

manually?

Yes. Inform your NopCommerce TGI developer that you wish to go this route and they will turn off the

E21 Product Group integration. Note that in this environment all products will need to be linked to the

appropriate custom categories manually within the nopCommerce admin panel.

How do I add category images?

After the initial NopCommerce implementation you will be assigned a shared “Import-Pictures” folder

on your network. This folder is used by the TGI Image Importer which will convert these images to “blob

files” (binary large objects) and upload these blob files into the NopCommerce database. Once the

images are in the database they are available for display in NopCommerce. Once you have this folder

assigned, simply place the properly named category image files into this folder and the importer will do

the rest.

Note: The TGI Image Importer only works for categories that are created directly from E21 product

group structures. For manually created categories you should add the images manually as well within

the nopCommerce admin panel.

What type of image files should I use for category images?

The TGI Image Importer currently requires all category images to be created in jpg format.

What should I name my category images?

Category Images should be named according to the product group & sub-group codes assigned in E21.

For example, if you create a product group in E21 called “WIG1” with a description of “Widgets1,” your

category image should be named “WIG1.jpg” Product images names are NOT case sensitive so in this

example “wig1.jpg” would also be acceptable. If your E21 product group includes spaces in the group

code, include those spaces in the image name as well.

Note: The TGI Image Importer only works for categories that are created directly from E21 product

group structures. For manually created categories you should add the images manually as well within

the nopCommerce admin panel and in these cases you can use any naming convention you wish.

What size should I make my category images?

Each theme has a unique format and as such it is impossible to answer this question until a theme is

selected. Generally speaking, category images should be square (same height and width) and should fall

between 225X225px and 300X300px.

How can I sort my categories so they display in the menus and navigation panes like I want?

All category sequencing, even for those categories imported directly from E21, must be assigned within

the nopCommerce admin panel.

How do I add categories to the “Featured Categories” displayed on my homepage?

All “Featured Categories”, even for those categories imported directly from E21, must be assigned

within the nopCommerce admin panel.

Note that not all themes will have a “Featured Categories” option on the homepage.

Product FAQs The following questions all pertain to adding and maintaining products within NopCommerce.

How do I add products?

Ecommerce enabled products are imported into the nopCommerce database automatically. To be

Ecommerce enabled a product must meet the following requirements:

It must be an active product and have the “Ecom Include” flag on the product master checked.

The product must be on the nopCommerce default customers’ base price sheet with a valid price and active date.

The product must have a valid UOM conversion record setup for the Ordering UOM.

How do I add product images?

After the initial NopCommerce implementation you will be assigned a shared “Import-Pictures” folder

on your network. This folder is used by the TGI Image Importer which will convert these images to “blob

files” (binary large objects) and upload these blob files into the NopCommerce database. Once the

images are in the database they are available for display in NopCommerce. Once you have this folder

assigned, simply place the properly named product image files into this folder and the importer will do

the rest.

What type of image files should I use for product images?

The TGI Image Importer currently requires all product images to be created in jpg format.

What should I name my product images?

If you only have 1 image for a particular product you should name the image "<part_code>.jpg" where

<part_code> is the main Part Code (Item No, Sku, etc) from the product master in E21.

If you will have multiple images for a product (or if you *may* have multiple images in the future) you

should use the <part_code> along with the following numerical suffix: "<part_code>_001.jpg",

"<part_code>_002.jpg", "<part_code>_003.jpg", etc. <part_code>_001.jpg will be the main image on

the nopCommerce product page.

Finally, if you want to share 1 image for multiple products, instead of using <part_code> for the prefix,

you can use the "Image File Name" value on your E21 Product Master. This comes in particularly handy

if you sell products in sizes since those product images would be the same for multiple products.

What size should I make my product images?

Each theme has a unique format and as such it is impossible to answer this question until a theme is

selected. Generally speaking, product images should be square (same height and width) and should fall

between 500X500px and 1000X1000px. Keep in mind, the larger the images, the longer they may toake

to load on slower network connections.

How does nopCommerce determine product inventory values?

NopCommerce displays real-time inventory directly from E21. Each time the Available inventory value

for a given product in E21 changes, the “Stock Quantity” value in nopCommerce is immediately updated

to the same value. Note that E21 will allow orders to be created even with negative available inventory,

but nopCommerce will not. When Stock Quantity values are <= 0, the user will see the “Out Of Stock”

message for that particular product. The only exception to this rule is for Kit items and Direct Ship items

which can be configured to always simulate inventory even if none is actually available in E21.

If you wish to modify ANY configuration settings in your NopCommerce implementation, check with

your TGI NopCommerce implementation specialist for more information.

Can I control how the product inventory values are displayed back to the user?

Yes. In the TGI Settings you can define how you wish to display the product inventory back to the user

(actual quantities, yes or no values, etc). Furthermore, you can combine these settings with “local string

resources” to further customize how this information is displayed:

Local String Resources: TGI.UOM.Availability.Label, TGI.UOM.Availability.YES, TGI.UOM.Availability.NO

For TGISettings.show_avail_msg = <number>, provide “Only x Left” message in TGI.UOM.Availability.NO

resource as “Only {0} Left” where {0} will be parsed with the actual inventory value

For more information see TGISettings.show_avail_msg

Customer FAQs The following questions all pertain to adding and maintaining customer within NopCommerce. This

includes questions regarding customer registrations, logins, account information and address

information.

How do I add existing E21 contacts to nopCommerce?

Ecommerce enabled contacts are imported into the nopCommerce database automatically. To be

Ecommerce enabled a contact must meet the following requirements:

The E21 contact (tmcontact table) must be active, must be type = ‘O’ (Orderfrom), and must contain an email address.

The E21 contact must be associated with an active customer in E21. A valid Customer Master record must exist with linked billto and shipto records.

The E21 contact must have a valid login and password setup in the Ecommerce Login Maintenance program.

How do I register new customers to both E21 and nopCommerce?

The easiest way to register new customers to both E21 and nopCommerce is to simply use the

nopCommerce registration page. The nopCommerce registration process will create all of the valid

customer data in both systems in real-time.

When new customers register in nopCommerce, how do I define the E21 customer information not

included in the registration pages (customer groups, sales types, etc)?

During your nopCommerce implementation your TGI Implementation Specialist will assign a default

customer (typically “NOPDEFAULT”) which will be used to “fill in the blanks” for new registrations. If you

wish to alter the data that gets inserted for new registrations, just update this default customer record

and all subsequent registrations will use the new settings.

How do I setup a customer as tax exempt in nopCommerce?

Update the “Taxable” checkbox on the customers linked Billto record. The next time this data is

imported into nopCommerce the customers’ tax exempt status will be updated accordingly.

Adding Content FAQs How do I add new content pages to my site?

Non-product related content is maintained and edited via the standard nopCommerce Topic manager.

To add new pages:

Login as your admin user and click the administration panel at the top of the site (admin credentials will be supplied by your TGI Implementation Specialist)

Locate the Content Management menu option and click the "Topics (Pages)" link. This will take you into the topic manager. Hint: The words "topics" and "pages" are synonymous in nopCommerce.

In the Topic Manager click "Add New" in the upper-right section of the page to create a new page in your system.

Give the page a Name, Title (the title will be used to define your SEO friendly page URL) and add your content. You can refer to your standard nopCommerce documentation for additional information. Once you save your new page you can open it by *manually* typing the URL in your browser (the URL will be displayed in the topic manager). No links to your page will exist yet.

Hint - If you know HTML / CSS you can click the "Tools -Source" option to have complete control over the

topic content. If not you will be limited to the options available in the WYSIWIG editor. Refer to your

nopCommerce documentation for help using the WYSIWIG editor.

How do I add new content pages to my menus or homepage?

Unfortunately, nopCommerce give you very little control over the menus and homepage thru the

administration panel. Typically during implementation, TGI will install a 3rd-party plug-in called the “nop

Mega Menu” which allows you to add new pages to the standard nop menus (via a single main menu

option) thru the nopCommerce Topic manager. When this option is sufficient, edit the

“MegaMenuTopic” to add links to your new pages.8

If you wish to add page links in other locations (your site footer for example) programming is required.

As such, your TGI Implementation Specialist must make these modifications for you. Note that

depending on your modification requests, standard billing rates may apply.

8 See your nopCommerce documentation for maintaining topics

How can I add “Forms” to my site for collecting various data from my users?

Unfortunately, nopCommerce give you no way to add form markup to either existing pages or to create

new pages with form markup. To allow for *some* some form functionality, TGI has created a plug-in

which allow you to add custom form data to the existing nopCommerce “Contact Us” page.

For more information on creating custom Contact Us forms, see the section

FormsContact Us: Custom Forms

Contact Us: Custom Forms

Contact Us: Custom Forms

Miscellaneous FAQs How often does E21 import data into nopCommerce?

All E21 data (Customers, products, order status updates, etc) are imported into nopCommerce using the

same import “TGI Import Data” procedure. By default this is setup to run every 5 minutes, however this

interval can be modified (or run manually) in the “Scheduled Tasks” page in the nopCommerce Admin

panel.

How can I setup my search to use similar words / synonyms?

A typical issue in website searches is that users either spell the products incorrectly, or search for similar

but incorrect terms for matching your product catalog. To resolve this issue we have set nopCommerce

to use the “Microsoft Search Thesaurus” capabilities already built in to your SQL Server engine. To add

new thesaurus terms to the Microsoft Search Thesaurus perform the following steps:

Warning: Corrupting the tsglobal.xml file can cause major issues. Always backup working files and test

your changes.

Access to your SQL Server box.

Locate the "tsglobal.xml" file typically found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\FTData

Use notepad to edit "tsglobal.xml" (Always back it up before making changes)

Add new thesaurus items by duplicating existing <expansion> tags. (See below for reference / examples)

Save your changes.

Your thesaurus items will become available within nopCommece the next time the Thesaurus data is

imported. You can import the Thesaurus data manually after making your changes by running “TGI Load

tsglobal.xml” in the nopCommerce Scheduled Tasks manager.

Here is a sample current tsglobal.xml file for reference. You will cut / paste an existing <expansion>

…</expansion> tag and add any new thesaurus items in the _.. tags.

<XML ID="Microsoft Search Thesaurus">

<thesaurus xmlns="x-schema:tsSchema.xml">

<diacritics_sensitive>0</diacritics_sensitive>

<expansion>

_seuss

_suess

</expansion>

<expansion>

_spongebob

_{sponge bob}

</expansion>

</thesaurus>

</XML>

How can I change my default price sheet used to determine which products are published in

nopCommerce?

The following steps will update both your default price sheet and also your published products in

nopCommerce. Only users with SQL expertise can perform this task.

Step 1 (nop db): update Product set published = 0

Step 2 (E21 dB): update nopsettings set Value = '<NEW PRICE SHEET>' where Name = 'list_pricesheet';

Step 3 (E21 dB): update custprice set end_date = '<Expired Date>'

where (price_id = '<OLD PRICE SHEET>') and

(cust_code = 'NOPDEFAULT' or cust_code in (select cust_code from weblogin))

Step 4 (E21 db): update partmstr set ecom_incl = ecom_incl

Step 5 (nop db): EXEC tgi_ImportDataToNop

Step 6 (E21) Run Recalc web

Troubleshooting The sales tax being charge in nopCommerce is different than the orders being created within E21

The process for calculating sales tax is different between nopCommerce and E21. As such, it is

imperative that your sales tax data within E21 be setup properly. This data includes: 1) Creating Sales

Tax Codes with detailed regional information when applicable; 2) Properly assigning the “Taxable”

checkbox to all Billto records; 3) Properly assigning the “Tax Code” value to all Shipto records.

If these 3 data elements within E21 are setup properly, both systems will assign tax identically. If not,

there will be differences in the sales tax calculations.

For more information on sales tax integration between nopCommerce and E21, see the following FAQ

entries:

How Does E21 Shipping sales tax rate data get integrated with the website?

How Does nopCommerce determine which orders are taxable?

We are sometimes seeing the following error (or something similar) during checkout for specific

customers and we cannot complete orders for these users:

Null or Invalid BillLastName. (BillInstruct=3)

This error is caused by incomplete data during your initial data conversion process. NopCommerce /

E21 requires specific data for checkout that may not be available when importing customer data from

legacy systems. If this data is incomplete, the following SQL (or one similar to it) can identify the records

with missing data. This data should be identified and cleaned up prior to go-live if possible.

select t.cust_code, t.contact_id, t.record_type, t.first_name, t.last_name,

t.phone1, t.internet_addr from tmcontact t inner join custlink L ON

t.cust_code = l.linked_code and l.bill_ship = 'B' inner join weblogin w ON

l.cust_code = w.cust_code

where t.record_type = 'B' and t.last_name is null

order by cust_code

The totals in the nop Order Confirmation emails are not always adding up properly

Nop rounds the subtotal values to 2 decimal places (USD) for display purpose in its reports, however for

real calculation it use the original values which may go beyond 2 decimal places. This may on rare

occasions cause the reports to appear as if they are adding up incorrectly:

In the above example, the real discount value = 50.375. (503.75 - 50.375) = 453.375, but nopCommerce

rounds this value to $453.38. Although the report appears wrong, the underlying data is OK.

I am getting a significant number of declines during checkout from my AUTHORIZE.NET Credit Card

authorization

Check your AVS (Address Verification System) setup in your Authorize.net admin panel. TGI suggests the

following AVS settings: