WebStore 400 Shopping Cart - RDC Software - Inventory Database

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WebStore Product Database

WebStore's product database is /Web_store/Databases/outlet.data.

For WebStore, the database filename is defined in $data_file in outlet.setup. For WS Editor, the database filename is defined in $data_file in outlet_editor.setup.

General Information

Database Fields

Importing tab-delimited Excel © Spreadsheets

Conversion Options

Backup Filename Conventions

General Information

Fields in outlet.data 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

All fields for each item must be on one line in the database.

Fields in an item's row are separated by a single | (pipe) character. The pipe character can not be used as text in any field of an item's row.

The first field of each item's row is referenced as Field 0 (zero).
Fields before the Id field may be arranged in any order.

Add as many fields as your application requires before the Id field. When you change the field structure in outlet.data, change the fields defined in %FIELDS in outlet_editor.setup to reflect the modified structure.

Comment lines may be included in outlet.data.
Commented lines must begin with COMMENT: in column one.

Example COMMENT line:

COMMENT: Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Image | Id

COMMENT: tags are case sensitive in WS Editor. Sort and Group functions in WS Editor will remove commented lines beginning with uppercase COMMENT:. Any combination of lowercase characters in CoMmEnT: tags are not recognized as commented lines by WS Editor.

CoMmEnT: tags are case insensitive in WebStore for the product database. WebStore disregards any line beginning with CoMmEnT:, regardless of it's case. If an inventory item is temporarily out of stock, placing lowercase comment: in column one of the item will prevent WebStore from displaying the item. WS Editor will not delete the item when performing Sort or Group functions.

HTML code may be included in fields of outlet.data.
Each field in an item's row is displayed within a table's column:
<TD ALIGN=xxx>DATABASE FIELD</TD>
Where xxx = [ left, center, or right ]. These field alignment attributes are configured by the WebStore administrator using %fields_array and %modify_fields_array in outlet.setup, WebStore's setup file.
All HTML code generated by WebStore is in UPPERCASE. All user-selectable table attributes are in lowercase. All HTML code coming from outlet.data is in lowercase.
If you maintain this UPPERCASE/lowercase relationship, debugging HTML errors in your store's database will be much easier.

Do not include HTML code in database fields displayed in the e-mail to administrator and confirmation of order e-mail sent to the client. HTML code will be printed as text in these messages. The alignment attributes for e-mail fields are configured using %email_fields_array in outlet.setup, WebStore's setup file.

URLs with query string data can be added to the database fields displayed in Category tables allowing clients to link between database categories or out to expanded product information pages without returning to the store's front page or the previous category front page.

The cart_id name=value pair must be included in these query strings or the shopping cart hidden form element will be lost (your client will loose their shopping cart).

Index

Database Fields

Item 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Item Field is optional.

The Item field contains each item's inventory number.

No HTML code is included in this field as it is written to the order e-mail messages.

Index

Shipping 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Shipping Field is required for Database Item Shipping Prices and Database Item Shipping Weights only.

If you do not use either of these shipping methods, the Shipping field is optional.

Fields

Category 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Category Field is required.

The Category field must exist in each item's database row.

A Category consists of a group of similar products in the store's database.

Category names consist of a word or short phrase describing the products placed in the category.

Category names must be alpha or alpha-numeric and must contain at least one alpha character [A-Z a-z 0-9].

All items having the same Category name are printed to the client's web browser in one HTML table.

Fields

Price 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Price Field is required.

The Price field must exist in each item's database row.

The Price field is a fixed point, decimal number.

Do not add currency markers (dollar sign, etc.), commas, alpha characters, or whitespace (spaces or tabs) in the Price field.

Fields

Name 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Name Field is required.

The Name field must exist in each item's database row. The field contains the name of the item.

The Name field is used in View/Modify, Order Form, and Confirmation of Order tables.

No HTML code is included in this field as it is also written to the order e-mail messages.

Fields

Description 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Description Field is required.

The Description field must exist in each item's database row.

The field contains descriptive information about the item.

The Description field is used in Category tables.

HTML code may be included in this field.

Fields

Id 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Item | Shipping | Category | Price | Name | Description | Id

Id Field is required.

The Id field must exist in each item's database row.

The last field of each item's row must be the Id field which is the item's identification number.

Item Id values are numeric only. Item Id's must be unique and can not be duplicated within the database.

When an Id number is detected containing alpha or special characters, WebStore checks the entire database for invalid characters in Id fields and returns an Alpha Characters in Database Id Number error message listing all detected invalid Ids.

When a duplicated Id number is detected during an Add to Cart script process, WebStore checks the entire database for duplicated Id numbers and returns a Duplicate Database Id Number error message listing all detected duplications.

Fields

WS Editor will convert tab-delimited spreadsheets, with or without " (double-quote) text quantifiers, to WebStore's | (pipe) delimited format.

WS Editor's internally defined file extension for tab-delimited spreadsheets is .txt. The spreadsheet's filename is constucted by appending .txt to the database filename defined in $data_file in outlet_editor.setup:

Fields in outlet.data
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

COMMENT:	Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Image	\|	Id

Item
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

Shipping
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

Category
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

Price
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

Name
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

Description
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

Id
0	\|	1	\|	2	\|	3	\|	4	\|	5	\|	6
Item	\|	Shipping	\|	Category	\|	Price	\|	Name	\|	Description	\|	Id

outlet.data.txt

Upload outlet.data.txt to the /Databases sub-directory as an ASCII text file.

Line termination characters will be corrected at the time of conversion if you upload this file in BINARY mode. Records merged into the existing database are corrected. The contents of the original spreadsheet are never altered.

WS Editor checks for the presence of the database's spreadsheet, outlet.data.txt, on each script process. When a spreadsheet is detected with a byte count greater than zero, WS Editor immediately switches to it's spreadsheet conversion page and remains locked on this page until a conversion option is submitted, converting or deleting the spreadsheet from the /Databases sub-directory.

Spreadsheets with a byte count equal to zero are ignored by WS Editor.

Index

Spreadsheet Conversion Options:

The following options are listed on WS Editor's spreadsheet conversion page:

Merge records in outlet.data and outlet.data.txt

Group/Add Maintain existing Item Id's in outlet.data

Group/Remove Maintain existing Item Id's in outlet.data

Sort/Add Assign sequential Item Id's in outlet.data

Sort/Remove Assign sequential Item Id's in outlet.data

Replace records in outlet.data with outlet.data.txt

Sort/Add Assign sequential Item Id's in outlet.data

Sort/Remove Assign sequential Item Id's in outlet.data

File Options

Backup original outlet.data and outlet.data.txt
Example backup filename: outlet.19990907.093025AM.data

Delete outlet.data.txt - Do not merge or replace files
No backup files created

Id numbers present in the spreadsheet are always discarded.

Group/Add and Group/Remove functions maintain the existing database id numbers present in outlet.data, sorts the records according to the ascending/descending selections for the primary and secondary sort fields, and assigns id numbers to merged records from the spreadsheet beginning with the largest id number found in outlet.data, plus 1.

Sort/Add and Sort/Remove functions remove the existing database id numbers present in outlet.data, sorts the records according to the ascending/descending selections for the primary and secondary sort fields, and assigns sequential id numbers, beginning with 1.

Group/Add and Sort/Add functions add COMMENT: Category Name category headers for each category present in the database. Double spacing is added between each category grouping in the database.

Group/Remove and Sort/Remove functions remove all COMMENT: Category Name category headers detected in the database. Double spacing is removed from the database.

Index

Backup Filename Conventions:

The backup filenames for the original database and spreadsheet are constructed by inserting the date and time of conversion into each filename using the following format:

outlet.19990907.093025AM.data
outlet.19990907.093025AM.data.txt

1999 - Year     09 - Hour
  09 - Month    30 - Minutes
  07 - Day      25 - Seconds
                AM - AM/PM

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WebStore Product Database