12. Administration

The administration tab is an area to take care of the many Interchange management and organization tasks. You can set up the look and feel of the UI, set up things like Interchanges International settings, tax settings and much more. There are many things to explore here, so lets start in with the Preferences tab.

12.1 – Admin – Preferences

The Admin Preferences tab consists of 4 major sections:

Edit Preferences – Access to 17 different links that allow you to adapt your Interchange site to your particular needs.
Table Editor Control – Control Meta link display, and set up base behavior for the table editor.
Register – Link to register your copy of Interchange
Personal CSS – Set the look and feel of the UI to your specifications!

12.1.1 – Admin – Preferences – Edit Preferences

The Edit Preferences section contains several links to the different Preferences that are configurable. These are variables located in the variable.txt table, and are grouped by Preferences area in variable.txt. Just click on the link you want and you will be taken to an area where you can change the setting for the Preference(s) you have chosen. You can also use the check boxes on the left to select multiple variables for edit or deletion. Just place a check in each box next to the variables you want to select, then use one of the buttons, Edit Checked, or Delete Checked to perform the desired operation. WARNING: Deleting a variable can have system disabling consequences, use with caution.

12.1.1a – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Admin colors

Set the variable bar_link_template – I have no idea how to explain this.

12.1.1b – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Admin control

Admin Control configures many of the variables that allow Interchange to run properly in the current environment. Warning: These settings can affect or even prevent the Interchange server interaction with its environment. These settings should not be changed without EXTENSIVE knowledge of both Interchange, and the current operating environment. I will give a brief description of each variable setting shown:

CGIWRAP – Setting for Interchange to interact with the CGIWRAP gateway program. (would like a link to somewhere that may provide more info)
CGI_DIR – Directory where the link program is located. This is a path, not a URL. The example is /var/www/cgi-bin notice there is NO trailing / .
IC_DIR – Directory where the Interchange software is located. Again, this is a path, with no trailing /.
LINK_HOST - From IC Docs: “Set this to the IP number of the host that should be contacted. The default of 127.0.0.1 (the local machine) is probably best for many installations.”
LINKMODE – Set to either UNIX or INET. From IC Docs: “Both UNIX-domain and INET-domain sockets can be used for communication. INET domain sockets are useful when more than one web server, connected via a local-area network (LAN), is used for accessing an Interchange server.”
LINKPORT - From IC Docs: Set this to the TCP port number that the Interchange server will monitor. The default is7786 (the decimal ASCII codes for 'M' and 'V') and does not normally need to be changed.
UI_ADMIN_TABLES – This sets which tables will be located in the “Hidden Admin Tables” area of the Table Manager.
UI_IMAGE_DIR – Set this to the directory that contains images for the UI. This value is appended to your server name so all you want here is the path from your web server root directory.
UI_IMAGE_DIR_SECURE – Normally the same as the UI_IMAGE_DIR but there if you need it.
UI_META_LINK – Set to 1 to enable meta links. Meta links look like this and they enable the user to alter the appearance and functionality for the related cell that you are operating on. This is more of a developer tool and as such, will not normally be used by a day-to-day Administrator.
UI_ORDER_VIEWNEXT_MAX_SKIP – When you are viewing Individual Orders in the View Orders tab, you may want to use the View Next Order Button. This button will normally take you to the next Order in line. However, if there is a missing or deleted order, if you have not set this variable, you will be sent back to the View Order List. This variable allows Interchange to skip any missing or deleted orders when using the View Next Order button.
UI_SECURE – Forces the administration area to use the secure server. That is if one is configured. When UI_SECURE is set to 1, it uses the value of SecureURL (variable SECURE_SERVER) instead of VendURL (variable SERVER_NAME).

12.1.1c– Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Admin layout

UI_ABOUT_LOGIN_URL - Could not grep this anywhere…?
UI_ABOUT_NORMAL_URL - Could not grep this anywhere…?
UI_BOTTOMIMG – Could not grep this anywhere…?
UI_HELP_HEIGHT – Sets the height for the Help window that is opened by clicking on the Help link at the top of the UI. This variable is inserted into the JavaScript function open_help, which opens the help window. (Located in one of the lib/UI/pages/include/templates/ files) The same function is used in the window that is accessed by clicking the “edit this help topic (flex.select) link from the Help window.
UI_HELP_WIDTH - Sets the width for the Help window that is opened by clicking on the Help link at the top of the UI. This variable is inserted into the JavaScript function open_help, which opens the help window. The same function is used in the window that is accessed by clicking the “edit this help topic (flex.select) link from the Help window.

12.1.1d – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Company

The Company preferences tab is designed so that you can enter your company information in one place, and it will be disseminated across the web site automatically. No more changing 300 pages because the phone company gave you a new number, or the post office changed the zip code!

Address – Address line for your company, do not include City, State, etc, just street address
City – Yup, City your company resides in.
Company – Company name to be displayed.
EMAIL_INFO – Will be used in the Contact page, among others where company information is requested or displayed.
EMAIL_SERVICE – Will be used in the Get Password page, among others where service is requested.
FAX – Your fax number
PHONE – Your phone number
TOLLFREE – Your toll free number. Will be replaced with PHONE if you do not enter a value here.

12.1.1e – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Database

The database preferences area allows you to configure Interchange to use external database programs, such as Postgres, MySQL, Oracle and others. You will need to first make sure that any required modules are installed; (Need to link to an area describing database module requirements) depending on which database you want to use.

MV_DEFAULT_SEARCH_DB – Use this setting to default all searches to database searches, as opposed to the text file searches.
MYSQL – This is a database selection variable, set to “1” if you wish to use MySQL.
MYSQL_TRANSACTIONS - Variable to allow creation/use of MySQL InnoDB type tables for order transactions. InnoDB is a utility used with MySQL to increase multi-user concurrency and performance when processing large data volumes. For more information on this feature, contact your Interchange Developer.
ORACLE - This is a database selection variable, set to “1” if you wish to use Oracle.
PGSQL - This is a database selection variable, set to “1” if you wish to use Postgres.
SQLDSN - A specification of the DBI driver and its data source;

dbi:Pg:dbname=testor

where “Pg” selects the driver (case IS important), and “dbname=testor” selects the database.

SQLITE - This is a database selection variable, set to “1” if you wish to use SQLite
SQLPASS – Your SQL password, if applicable.
SQLUSER – Your SQL username, if applicable.

12.1.1f – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Directories and Paths

The Directories and Paths area is for setting the proper locations of various groups of files needed by Interchange to run the catalog. As such, this area is critical to the operation of Interchange. Do not change settings in this area if you are not sure of the effect.

CGI_URL – Location of cgi directory, this is where the link program will be located. Will be appended to base url ie : http://__SERVER_NAME____CGI_URL__ Note that the leading / is required.
DOCROOT – Your Document root for non-catalog html pages. When using Apache, normally will be the same as DocumentRoot value found in httpd.conf. This will be a path.
IMAGE_DIR – URL based location for main images directory. Will be appended to base url ie : http://__SERVER_NAME____IMAGE_DIR__ Note that the leading / is required.
SAMPLEHTML – This will be the main directory for non-catalog html pages. It will normally be located just under DOCROOT. It is a path. It will be where you locate your index.html file, which is NOT part of the catalog pages.

For clarification, if you use the following URL http://www.your_website.com/ then the index.html file located in the SAMPLEHTML directory would be displayed. If on the other hand you entered http://www.your_website.com/cgi-bin/your_catalog_name/ then you would see the file located at catalog_name/pages/index.html.

SAMPLEURL – This is a URL, it should be a complete with http:// . This will direct the user to the index.html located in the SAMPLEHTML variable described above.
SECURE_SERVER – This is a URL, should point to the location of the SSL server, sometimes “https:// “ in place of the “http” will do it. If not, contact your Interchange Developer.
SERVER_NAME – The name of your server. This is one of the most important settings in Interchange. If this one is not correct, you will NOT be able to access your website. Should simply be the name of your server, such as www.yoursite.com. Do not include http:// or any trailing slash /
UI_COMPONENT_DIR – Directory path. Location of the root directory for the UI components. Will be appended to /interchange_software/lib/UI/pages/include/. Note that there is no leading or trailing slash. ? I could not find a components directory for the UI??
UI_PAGE_DIR – Directory path. Location of the root directory for the UI admin pages. Will be appended to /interchange_software/lib/UI/. Note that there is no leading or trailing slash.
UI_TEMPLATE_DIR - Directory path. Location of the root directory for the UI templates. Will be appended to /interchange_software/lib/UI/pages/include/. Note that there is no leading or trailing slash. ?
UI_TRAFFIC_STATS – Location of file to be used for tracking statistics. Will be appended to your_catalog/ location. Default location is your_catalog/logs/usertrack. No leading or trailing slash. This file is used in the reports section.

12.1.1g – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Encryption

Neither of the variables above should need to be set with the newer versions of Interchange. If you used the Add GPG key function , you will not need to change these settings. These are primarily here for backwards compatibility.

Encryptor – This is the command to be used to encrypt data on your system, again this should normally be blank if you use GPG and you have one or more key files in your Interchange users directory. For older systems, a command line similar to: /usr/local/bin/pgp -feat sales@company.com the old entries will work, but you do not need them any longer.
PGP Key – You can use this to select a key to use for encrypting your data. If you have not already selected the key in the add GPG key function, the format for this entry is something like

joe@shcmo.com You can normally use the email address associated with the key, or you can use the

Key Id which will look something like this: 0x692DD04A

12.1.1h – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Forums

From the Interchange Wiki Docs: “Interchange forums allow your customers to comment on your products, or allow you to sponsor discussion threads on an interchange catalog. They maintain their content in a single database table named forum.”

FORUM_ANON_NAME – Name to use when a user posts anonymously to the forum.
FORUM_PRODUCTS – Enables user comments on products in the flypage. Only enabled by default if using MySql or Postgres. Does not work well with DBM and has not been tested with Oracle.
FORUM_EMAIL_NOTIFY – An email address to send copies of comments on products made by users.

Forums can be useful tools to create additional ‘stickiness’ for your web pages. It can also help increase dialogue with your customers regarding your products and services. For help in setting up an effective Forum for your website contact your Interchange Developer.

12.1.1i – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – General

General preferences currently only has 2 entries, MV_DEMO_MODE and SECURE_ENABLE.

MV_DEMO_MODE – Allows several links to become visible when logged in as admin. You can use the “Go to Catalog” link, and from many areas within the catalog return to the admin. Some of the links are direct “Admin” links, that just take you back to the Main Menu in the Admin, and others such as “Edit Page” or “Edit Menu” which allow you to link directly to the respective edit areas and work on a page or menu. Make sure and disable this by setting it to “0” or “No” when you want to take your site live.
SECURE_ENABLE – Allows the catalog to use a secure server if one has been defined and is available.

12.1.1j – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Internationalization

Interchange allows for a very complete Internationalization feature set. Several country locales are available currently, and in addition Interchange is set up to accept input for virtually any language and monetary set. The following are simply 2 of the settings that allow you to use Interchanges capacity for different locales.

DEFAULT_LOCALE – Set this to your default locale. If not set, the default is English, or en_EN.
LOCALES – Locale.cfg file to use with ????

12.1.1k – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Item Display

Interchange provides an extensive product options implementation. You can choose from simple, matrix, and modular options. We have described somewhat how options work in Item List Options. The IC Documentation defines options as follows:

“Simple options are options that a customer can combine arbitrarily, such as size and color. The selected options might affect price. See the accessories tag for more detail on option values for simple options.”

“Matrix options are preconfigured combinations of options.”

“Modular options are like a structured bill of materials, where one product is a master item and other products are subitems for that master item. The subitems can also be master items to subitems at a lower level. In addition, subitems may be designated as 'phantom', which means that they are placeholders in the hierarchy of the structured bill of materials with their own subitems, but are not actual items themselves”

As you can tell from the above descriptions, there are quite a few options.  This should give you an idea of the types of things you might want your Interchange Developer to create for you. Here are the settings shown above:

MV_OPTION_TABLE – Which table will be designated to be the table that contains the product options. The default setting is “options”.
UI_CLONE_TABLES – Setting which allows you to define which tables will automatically be cloned when what happens?
UI_ITEM_TABLES – Setting which allows you to define which tables will automatically be cloned when what happens?

12.1.1l – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Mailings

As described in the Customers – Customer Mailing section, Interchange has the ability to create emails for distribution to mailing lists that have been assembled from Customer input. Some of the configuration parameters are set here.

CHECKOUT_MAIL_LIST – Set this to 1 if you have mailing lists that you want to allow the customer to subscribe to during checkout. Lists can be set up by accessing the Userdb table in the tables tab, and using the meta information edit for the mail_list field. If this is confusing, call your Interchange Developer, they will be happy to set it up for you!
MAILING_FROM – The default From address that will be inserted into the From field of the automated customer mailing.
MAILING_MAX_DIRECT – Set the Maximum number of mailings that will be allowed from the Customers – Customer Mailing area. The default is 50.
MAILING_TO – The default To address that will be inserted into the To field of the automated customer mailing. The default is {FNAME} {LNAME} <{EMAIL}> These are fieldnames from the userdb. You can create your own MAILING_TO using any of the userdb fieldnames, formatted similarly.

12.1.1m – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Order

The Order Preference edit area contains 3 variables that relate to orders and how they are handled.

Decrement Inventory – Set to one if you want inventory levels to be affected by orders. If enabled, will decrement inventory for every item ordered. See yourcatalog/etc/log_transaction.
ORDERS_TO – Email address of person or entity that should receive emailed orders from your site. You can put more than one, simply separate by space or comma?
ORDER_ROUTES – Set the treatment that an order will receive with regards to who, where, why, and how it will be handled when a customer (or an administrator from the UI) places an order. There are routes included with the demo version, and the default routes: log, main, and copy user are already configured. They are seen here, separated by a space between each. There are others included, and you can create custom routes. Put simply, a route will determine what will be done with the order. It can be logged to a database, a receipt email can be sent, a notification email can be sent, a fax could be sent, and so forth. Ask your Interchange Developer if you wish to have more options on how your orders are handled.

12.1.1n– Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Payment

The Preference Payment tab displays a multitude of settings for various payment structures that Interchange supports. For most Interchange Administrators, the Administration – Commerce – Payment tab will be much easier to use and more relevant. But we will describe the following as much as possible, as this manual may eventually include developer’s information as well. Remember to set any of these variables, you simply click on the variable name link and you will be taken to the edit screen. Variables preceded with * carry description from the Interchange Demo.

CHECK_ACCEPTED – Enable with “1” or “YES” if you accept checks as a form of payment.
COD_ACCEPTED - Enable with “1” or “YES” if you accept COD as a form of payment
CREDIT_CARDS_ACCEPTED – Select applicable credit cards by putting a check mark into the box to the left of the card name. (You of course first have to click on the CREDIT_CARDS_ACCEPTED link to get into the edit mode for the variable)
*MV_PAYMENT_HOST – Many payment processors allow setting the host that the transaction is sent to, but most provide a default. This need not be set for most gateways.
*MV_PAYMENT_ID - The account ID for your payment gateway.
*MV_PAYMENT_MODE - Which payment processor module you wish to use. You always have to sign up with your merchant bank and their credit card processor to enable this, without fail. The TestPayment module is just for testing purposes. An example might be “AuthorizeNet”.
MV_PAYMENT_PARTNER – Some payment gateways require a “partner” value, i.e. Signio and Skipjack.
*MV_PAYMENT_REFERER - Some payment systems (notably AuthorizeNet) want to know that the REFERER value is correct. Most don't need this.
*MV_PAYMENT_SECRET - Some payment gateways require a password or "secret". Many don't, so this may not be necessary.
MV_PAYMENT_VENDOR - Some payment gateways require a “vendor” value, i.e. Signio and Skipjack.
POSTAL_ACCEPTED – Enable with “1” or “YES” if you accept Postal orders.
PO_ACCEPTED - Enable with “1” or “YES” if you accept Purchase Orders as a form of payment
*SETTLE_TRANSACTION - If you ship hard goods and only do an authorization at order time, you may choose to settle the transaction automatically via the Order manager. This needs to be set to Yes to enable this.

12.1.1o – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Shipping

The Preferences Shipping link provides you with guess what, shipping default settings. For Administrators there is a more appropriate area to configure basic shipping options, Administration – Commerce – Shipping . Shipping can be a complicated area, and there are literally hundreds of ways to set up shipping structures for Interchange. Each company, in each city and country, with different types of products and shipping methods, can make for shipping options that simply cannot be handled by other ecommerce programs. Interchange however can be made to handle just about ANY shipping requirements that are necessary for your situation. Contact your Interchange Developer if the default set up is not adequate for your needs.

SHIP_DEFAULT_COUNTRY – The country that your orders will be shipped from.
SHIP_DEFAULT_MODE – The default shipping mode, such as UPS ground, that will populate the shipping mode field in the order checkout page.
SHIP_FLAT_DOM_RATE – A flat rate that will be charged if a Domestic Flat Rate shipping mode is chosen. See Administration – Commerce – Shipping.
SHIP_FLAT_INTL_RATE - A flat rate that will be charged if an International Flat Rate shipping mode is chosen. See Administration – Commerce – Shipping
UPS_COUNTRY_FIELD – Sets the country field for UPS and FedEx queries.
UPS_ORIGIN – Zip code of where you are shipping from.
UPS_POSTCODE_FIELD - Sets the zip code field for UPS and FedEx queries.

12.1.1p – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Tax

For Administrators there is a more appropriate area to configure basic tax options, Administration – Commerce – Tax.

TAXAREA – Space separated list of areas to use when taxing. In the example above there is a list of states that are used. If a customers shipping address has one of these states, then the proper tax will be applied.
TAXFIELD – Which field should be used to determine if the TAXAREA applies. In the example the field specified is “state”. You might have used “zipcode”, or “city” depending on your needs.
TAXRATE – A list formatted in this manner: TAXAREA=rate, and if multiple rates specified a comma between values. There is a small quirk with this field; you can enter tax rates greater than 1% as an integer, such as 4.5% can be entered as 4.5. However, for tax rates less than or equal to 1%, you must specify them as a decimal, for example 1% needs to be entered as .01, ¾% needs to be entered as .0075 and so forth. Actually, all TAXRATEs can be entered as decimals, so 4.5% could be entered as 4.5 OR .045.
TAXSHIPPING – Space separated list of areas that require shipping charges to be taxed. In most states shipping charges are not exposed to taxing, however in some areas this is required. This field should be formatted in the same way that TAXAREA is formatted.

12.1.1q – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Template

CONTRAST – This setting will affect most error type messages font colors. For example, when there are errors in the checkout page, and the customer attempts to place the order, an error message will be displayed notifying the customer that there were errors. The font color of this (and many other warning or error messages) message is set with the variable CONTRAST. NOTE to MIKE: The error tag hard codes the color RED into the std_label, and it probably should have the CONTRAST variable. Currently if someone sets the CONTRAST variable to blue, on the checkout page it the message says “The areas you need to correct are shown in this color below”, and the errors are actually displayed in RED.
LOGO – Enter the name of your company logo or other graphic. In the demo, you can see where the Logo is located by looking at the top left of the index page, there is this graphic: You should put the image into the yourcatalog/images/ directory. When you enter the name here it should simply consist of the name of the file i.e. “mylogo.gif”.
STYLE – This selection will change the look and feel of your catalog. There are several preconfigured styles provided by Interchange,

Foundation Red
Purple and Yellow
Gray and Orange
Fixed Width
Green
Gray
Blue and Yellow

In addition to these choices, you can create your own styles from scratch, or simply improve on existing templates. The files that make up these different styles and templates are located at yourcatalog/templates. Each Template or Style has a theme.cfg file which defines the various items for the template. You can create or adapt a CSS style sheet which is defined in the theme.cfg, or you can define your CSS outside of the theme.cfg by using the next variable we will discuss, THEME_CSS

THEME_CSS – This is a variable that can be defined and will be used throughout the site. While you can define a CSS from scratch, it is normally easier to simply adapt an existing one to your needs. This is because many of the classes already defined in existing CSS’s are used throughout the pages of the demo catalog. Rather than go through and replace each class name on the html pages, it is much simpler to just redefine them in the CSS.

12.1.2 – Admin – Preferences – Table Editor Control

12.1.2a – Admin – Preferences – Table Editor Control – Turn off meta links in db edit

This is not a separate page, but rather a link. When you click on this link, it will toggle the meta links in the UI, from visible to invisible. A page with meta links visible is show below:

And the same page without Meta links:

12.1.2b - Admin – Preferences – Table Editor Control – Configure defaults for table editor

Will have to go over with Mike, could not get most functions working.

12.1.3 – Admin – Preferences – Register

This is simply a link that will take you to the IC Devgroups web site, http://www.icdevgroup.org/i/dev/register.html where you can register your copy of Interchange. It is free, and your information is not released to anyone.

12.1.4 – Admin – Preferences – Personal CSS – NO LONGER USED? ENTERING A STYLE AND CLICKING ON THE SET STYLE DOES NOTHING.

12.2 – Admin – Info

The Admin – Info area is just that, an area to look up information about your Catalog, the Interchange Server, which version of Perl you are running and its location, and information about what databases you can use and so on. There are no settings that can be controlled from the Info area. However there are links in the various tabs that will lead you to areas where changes can be made. The Admin Information tab contains 4 sub tabs.

Catalog Information – Catalog information regarding location of URL’s, Error logs, access to sessions and Last order number.
Interchange Server Information – Version, server, PID and more information.
Perl Information – Perl version and modules.
Database Information – Database Interfaces and Database table information links.

12.2.1 – Admin – Info – Catalog Information

The Catalog info tab displays some basic location, session, and last order links.

The location of both the catalog, and secure catalog are displayed first. These are simply links to the catalog.

Next is a path to the global or Interchange error.log, and under that a link to the local or catalog error.log. You will want to be careful with the use of this link, the error logs can get quite large and take a significant amount of time to access!

Next is a link to active sessions for the last 60 minutes. This shows all active sessions for all users, both admin and customer for the last 60 minutes. Each session is displayed as a link, which can be followed to reveal all related information for the session. This is for advanced users.

Finally, there is the Last Order Number, which is simply that. The order number of the last order placed. This is also a link that will take you to the screen below:

Here you can “reset” the order number sequence. This setting will allow you to set or reset the starting number for orders. When you first set up your catalog, you may want to use this to set your starting order number. Or if you have high volumes of orders, you may want to reset this at some point to keep the numbers manageable. You will very seldom need to use this option, however if you need it, it is here to use. Remember, this will reset, permanently, the order sequence for your catalog. Please use with caution.

To use this function, simply put a number one less than the desired number into the window. So if you want your order numbers set or reset to start with 100, put 99 into the window.

12.2.2 – Admin – Info – Interchange Server Information

The Admin – Info – Interchange Server Info tab shown above provides information about your Interchange server. If you require assistance from your Interchange Developer chances are that he or she will ask you for information provided on this page. Here is the information that is currently provided:

Interchange Version – Current version of Interchange running on your machine, in the example it is 4.9.8.
Server hostname – This is the hostname of the machine that the Interchange server is currently running on.
Interchange PID – This is the ID for the Interchange process that is running this catalog on your machine.
Interchange SUID User – This is the User that Interchange is running as on your machine, the default is interch, in the example Interchange is running as greg, and greg’s UID is 501. Remember, Interchange has to run as a user other than root, and will assume all permissions of that user.
Server Mode – Either Unix or Inet.
Last Time server restarted – Simply the date and time that the Interchange server that is running this catalog was restarted.
Last Time changes applied – The date and time that the catalog(as opposed to the server) was “refreshed” or had changes applied
Environment Variables passed. – If you click on the linked word Environment, you will be taken to a page with a list of current Environment Variables that have been passed by Interchange during the current session. Mike is this an accurate description?

12.2.3 – Admin – Info – Perl Information

Perl information tab contains:

Perl Version – Displays the version of Perl being used on the server, as well as its location. In addition you can follow the link and view a plethora of information about Perl on your system.
Optional Module Information – Gives you the modules that are or are not installed on your system and the version of each. If not installed gives a brief description of modules use with Interchange and if the module is necessary.
Safe Operations untrapped – Defines which Perl operations have been untrapped by the global directive SafeUntrap located in the interchange.cfg.

12.2.4 – Admin – Info – Database Information

The Admin – Info – Database Info tab shown above provides information about your available database capabilities and current tables in use.

Database Interfaces - Interchange has the capability to interface with many databases, and this section will show you what drivers are currently installed and available for use.
Database Tables – List of currently defined tables. Each table name is also a link to a details page that contains valuable information regarding each table. You may need information from this page if you need to contact your Interchange Developer with regards to table activities or problems.

12.3 – Admin – Commerce

The Admin Commerce section is an area that most administrators will use to set up their catalogs to meet the business needs of their particular Company and geographical location. There are currently 4 main tabs for the Admin Commerce section, and the title for each indicates its use.

Tax – Set up taxing preferences for various locations.
Shipping – Configure shipping options.
Payment – Select Payment options that your company accepts.
GPG Key Add – Add a GPG or PGP key that will be used to encrypt orders and/or credit card information.

12.3.1 – Admin – Commerce – Tax

The Admin – Commerce – Tax area lets you set up tax requirements for your company, products, and geographical location. For example, if your company is located in Ohio, items sold from your internet site may require that taxes be applied for customers with a Ship to address in Ohio. On the other hand, customers that live in Minnesota and order from your internet site may not be taxed for their purchase.

To edit existing entries, simply type into the appropriate window, and then press update. Remember to use standard state abbreviations for location. For tax rate, there is a small quirk with this field; you can enter tax rates greater than 1% as an integer, such as 4.5% can be entered as 4.5. However, for tax rates less than or equal to 1%, you must specify them as a decimal, for example 1% needs to be entered as .01, ¾% needs to be entered as .0075 and so forth. Actually, all TAXRATEs can be entered as decimals, so 4.5% could be entered as 4.5 OR .045

In some states, shipping charges must be included when calculating taxes. If you need that function enabled, simply place a check into the appropriate box.

See 12.1.1p – Admin –Preferences – Edit Preferences – Tax for additional tax setting information.

12.3.2 – Admin – Commerce – Shipping

The Admin Commerce Shipping tab allows you to configure different shipping options for your customers. Because there are such a wide number of potential shipping variations, it would be extremely difficult to cover them here. We will describe one of the more popular configurations below. Please contact your Interchange Developer for more information.

First we will select a method to Edit, for our example we will use UPS Ground Residential, or GNDRES.

Now once you have highlighted the desired Method, in this case GNDRES:UPS Ground Residential, click on the Edit Method button.

Name of this Method – If you are creating a new method, enter a descriptive name, must be letters or digits only. If editing existing method is best to leave this alone.
Label for this Method – A user-friendlier name for the method, can be a short descriptive sentence.
Total based on this criteria – Choose a criteria to determine the shipping charges. For example, UPS generally calculates your shipping charges based on the weight of the box.

Price – Set a shipping charge based on the total price of the items ordered.
Weight – Set a shipping charge based on the total shipping weight of the items ordered.
Volume – Set a shipping charge based on the total volume of the items ordered.(Where are we getting this number if this option is chosen? I.e. we have weight and qty fields, what about volume?)
Item quantity – Set a shipping charge based on the total quantity of items ordered.
Custom -> - Set a custom-shipping criterion; place the formula in the text box to the right of this window. Contact your Interchange Developer for help with this function.

Calculate based on this algorithm – Choose one from the list of the pre-configured algorithms. There are algorithms for

Standard – Combined with criteria field above, choose a standard, in house determined rate for shipping based on Price, Weight, Quantity, or Volume.
Internal – Use the supplied UPS internal tables for UPS style lookup. This uses the internal UPS tables to calculate shipping charges based on weight and other configured options.
UPS – Looks up rates at UPS.com based on total weight, UPS origin zone, and UPS destination zip.
FedEx - Looks up rates at FedEx.com based on total weight, UPS origin zone, and UPS destination zip.

Mike, please confirm descriptions above.

Apply this method by country – If you allow international shipping, you can apply the currently selected shipping method to one or more of the listed countries.
Minimum shipping charge – The minimum charge that will apply regardless of other configurations.
Additional shipping Calculation – Put a number in here, and it will be added to the shipping charges defined in this section. You can also put a multiplier here, such as * 1.5 to multiply the total shipping by 1 ½ . (Mike, is that correct?)
Round up to nearest even - If set to 'Yes,' will round the cost up to the next integer monetary unit.
Allow to be zero cost – If set to Yes, will allow a product or products to be shipped free. Otherwise if the cost determined by previously described criterion settings is equal to zero, will return an error message (configured below) and the order will not be allowed to process. (Mike, is that correct?)
Message when zero – Message to be delivered when the cost determined by the above described criterion equals zero. (Mike does this still have to start with the “e”?)
UPS Origin Zone – The zip code that will be used as the Origin zone for all shipping calculations. Default is a zip code in Ohio, so if you do not ship from Ohio, and would like to have your shipping charges as accurate as possible, replace this with the zip code from your shipping location!
Field that chooses UPS Destination – The default for this one should normally work fine. This setting will be the field that Interchange uses for calculating the destination to be used for shipping charges. For example if a customer orders a product, and he enters a zip code into the “Shipping Address” zip code field. The default setting will use that zip code to calculate where the destination is for the order.

Now click on the Next -> button…

Finally, we are at the last page. It feels like we shipped these directions via UPS Ground!

First of all you will see the Name of the Method and the Label for the Method you have edited or created.
Next you will see the standard message stating that all Borderline values will be rounded up.
Next is a message with regards to the choice you made for “Total based on this criteria”, in this case the total weight of the items in the cart.
Next is a start and end range for your criteria choice, in this case a minimum and maximum weight allowed, which is set from 0 – 150 in the example.
Next is Charge Type, which in the example is set to UPS/FedEx WWW Lookup, which will use the criteria you have set for this method and look up the resulting charges at either UPS or Fedex.com depending on which method is enabled.
Charge amount – The actual query In the example: [ups-query zip="[either][value zip][or][var SHIP_DEFAULT_ZIP][/either]" mode="GNDRES" weight="@@TOTAL@@"] . Don’t worry, your Interchange Developer knows exactly what all that means. Actually, this is the UPS query that will give you a price from UPS.com based on the criteria your customer provides.
OK, Back, Finished. Click on the appropriate button and you are done.

12.3.3 – Admin – Commerce – Payment

The Admin – Commerce - Payment page is quite straightforward, it allows you to specify the payment options that your business accepts.

Choose the payment acceptance status for each of the payment options listed; then click Update. Click Back to return to the previous screen, without saving your changes.

Remember, you may need to have other settings enabled to accept credit cards, use a gateway and so on. Some of those settings are discussed here. Contact your Interchange Developer for further help.

12.3.4 – Admin – Commerce – GPG Key Add

In order to use this area you need to have GPG or PGP set up on the server that Interchange is running on. Once you have GPG or PGP set up on the server, you can select which public key you would like to use when encrypting payment information.

PGP/GPG key selection - If you have GPG set up, and an active Key Ring owned by the Interchange user, the available keys would be displayed in this drop down window. It will either display the Key ID, or the email address associated with the key. In the example above, both a Name and an email address are displayed.
PGP/GPG Upload file – If you have a Public key on your computer, usually stored as a simple .asc file, you can use the Browse button here and select it for upload.
PGP/GPG Public Key – By far the easiest if you have the proper GPG or PGP program on your desktop, is to simply drag and drop the selected key into this area. In the example, that is exactly what has just taken place. We clicked on the Greg Hanson key, and dragged it to the GPG/PGP Public key window and dropped it there. We then clicked on the Import GPG/PGP key and the key was installed.

If any of the functions above do not work, you will need to contact your Interchange developer for assistance.

12.4 – Admin – Access

NOTE: The Admin Access area is currently undergoing a large ‘rewrite’. Because of this, many areas either will not function, or will function with limited effectiveness. As such, this section will be re-written to reflect those changes when the changes have been tested and committed. Please keep that in mind as you view this section of the documentation, and when you use this section of the catalog. You can contact your Interchange Developer for specific help with areas that you may require for your business.

The Admin – Access area allows the Administrator to do a number of things with regard to allowing access to other users to the UI. In a large company, several different people may need access to the UI, and for different reasons. Interchange allows you to control this access to a rather fine degree.

There are six buttons on the main Admin Access screen shown above. We will list them with a brief description, and then discuss each on its own.

Create New User – Allows you to create a new User.
Edit User – Select an existing user and edit their access and permissions.
Show Permissions – Show permissions for currently selected user.
Change password – Change password for any existing user.
Delete user – Get rid of the pest! 
Switch to user – Switch to user without logging out and back in.

12.4.1 – Admin – Access – Create new user

When you click on the Create New User button, you will be taken to the screen shown above. We have filled in the blanks to give you an example of how to Create a new user. We will create a user Joe, who resides in the sales department of your company. We are using a specific area, Sales, in order to display some of the ways you can configure a new (or existing) user. Once you are at this screen, you will have the option to fill in the following:

Real name – You can put the users real name here, such as Joe Smith, or you can put something that relates to your company hierarchy, or really whatever suits your purpose.
User name – This should be a short, concise name using alpha characters or digits. We have used sales_joe as an example. This will allow us to add additional personnel from sales at a later date, and using the same format will keep the department grouped for easy access.
Super-user – If you want the person you are adding to initially have all the available permissions, check this box. You can selectively adjust their permissions down at a later time, but initially this will grant the user all available permissions. Not something we want to give to Joe in Sales. 
Groups – These are pre-configured groups or roles that can be assigned to a user. These groups have already been assigned the basic permissions that should allow them to do their respective duties on the website. You can of course adjust these as well, they are simply a convenient starting point.

TIP: You can set up your own groups. To do so, go to the “access” table located in the Table Manager, from the UI. In the Demo there are 3 pre-configured groups, :CONTENT - Content Manager, :MERCH - Merchandiser, and :ORDERS - Sales/Orders. Note that the format required for the name of the group begins with a colon “:” and then the name in all CAPS with no spaces. Click on one of the pre-configured groups and you will be taken to the edit screen. There you can look over how the group has been set up. Once you have an idea what you want, open another browser and go to the Table access, and select the Create New tab. Then just follow the example you just looked up to create a new group. Remember, a group should be considered a starting point, you can add or take away permissions by editing the individual user.

Now click on the OK button, and you will be taken to the Change Password page.

12.4.2 – Admin – Access – Edit user

The Admin – Access – Edit User screen is almost identical to the Create New User screen.

When you click on the Edit User button, you will be taken to the screen shown above. We have selected our previously created user, Joe in Sales, to give you an example of how the edit user screen will appear. Once you are at this screen, you will have the option to edit the following:

Real name – You can put the users real name here, such as Joe Smith, or you can put something that relates to your company hierarchy, or really whatever suits your purpose.
User name – This should be a short, concise name using alpha characters or digits. We have used sales_joe as an example. This will allow us to add additional personnel from sales at a later date, and using the same format will keep the department grouped for easy access.
Super-user – If you want the person you are adding to initially have all the available permissions, check this box. You can selectively adjust their permissions down at a later time, but initially this will grant the user all available permissions. Not something we want to give to Joe in Sales. 
Groups – These are pre-configured groups or roles that can be assigned to a user. These groups have already been assigned the basic permissions that should allow them to do their respective duties on the website. You can of course adjust these as well, they are simply a convenient starting point.

Now click on the OK button, and you will be taken back to the main Admin - Access page.

12.4.3 – Admin – Access – Show Permissions

There are 3 main tabs in the Show Permissions tab. Documentation waiting pending section rewrite.

Editor Functions – Set access permissions for all the various Editors.
Other Functions – Sets permissions for all non-Editor and Table functions.
Table Permissions – Sets permissions and access for each table individually.

12.4.3a – Admin – Access – Show Permissions – Editor Functions

Documentation waiting pending section rewrite.

12.4.3b – Admin – Access – Show Permissions – Other Functions

Documentation waiting pending section rewrite.

12.4.3c – Admin – Access – Show Permissions – Table Permissions

Documentation waiting pending section rewrite.

12.4.4 – Admin – Access – Change Password

On the Admin – Access – Change Password page, you can set a password for a new user, or change one for an existing user. The User Name will be show at the top of the table, then there is a window labeled New Password. Enter a password (preferably a mixture of alpha characters and digits 8 – 12 characters in length, but a minimum of 4 characters). Then type the same thing into the Verify window.

Now you have a choice, you can either click on the Set Password to set the password, this will return you to the first access screen, or you can click on the Permissions button which will also set the password, but will take you to the Permissions page so that you can fine tune the users access permissions.

12.4.5 – Admin – Access – Delete User

This could not be simpler. Highlight the user in the box to the right that you want to delete, and press this button. The user is gone. Please use with caution, as with any delete action this is permanent. You could of course recreate the user at any time.

12.4.6 – Admin – Access – Switch to user

The Admin Access Switch to User button allows you to temporarily “become” the selected user. This enables you to check changes you have made to assure that they are what you intended for the user. Simply select the user from the window, and click on the Switch to User Button.

To return to the admin user, click on the Logout link located at the top right of most UI screens, and you will be returned to the admin user that you started as.

12.5 – Admin – Test Code

The Test Code area should be somewhat self-explanatory. You either type or paste the Interchange Tag Language code you would like to test into the window, and click on Run. There is a drop down window at the bottom of the page, in which the selections are Source or HTML. The Source selection will reveal what you would see if you did a view source on the web page, and the HTML will display how you would see the code if it were viewed simply from the browser.

12.6 – Admin – Apply Changes

The Admin Apply Changes tab is really not a tab, but a link. The "Apply Changes" link allows you to "reconfigure" the Interchange catalog, which will in turn allow some changes to become effective. Many of Interchanges administrative tasks are dynamic, or take effect as soon as you make them. These include:

Edits to Database tables (ie change item price, description, size etc.)
Edits to the content of the pages, for example if you edit the index.html in the Page Edit area, once you click on Publish the changes you made are in effect.
Changes to the Menus in Menu Editor. Again, once you Publish, the changes are made active.

Other changes are static, and must be effected by reconfiguring the catalog, which in turn writes your changes to a configuration file(s). Some of the things that you will need to use the "Apply Changes" link would be:

Many of the Changes in the Administration Preferences and Commerce area, such as changes to Variables. These require you to click on the Apply Changes link.
Changes to Shipping, Tax, or Payment preferences. These require you to click on the Apply Changes link.
Any Changes to the catalog.cfg file. These require you to click on the Apply Changes link.

Finally as an aside, you may wonder what the difference between Apply Changes, and restarting the IC server is. When you Apply Changes, only changes to that specific catalog are applied. When you restart the server, changes to ALL catalogs defined in the interchange.cfg file are applied. In addition, when you restart the server all changes to the software module are implemented, such as Global and User Tag definitions, and IC Upgrades.


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