Configuration: Inventory

Setup Checklist

This section is a comprehensive and high level summary of all tasks and prerequisites required for this feature to function properly. This section is purposed for use after an administrator is familiar with configuring this feature as an “audit” checklist. For detailed set-up instructions, jump down to “Prerequisite Tasks” and “Detailed Setup Guide” and then follow up with this checklist to ensure all steps are completed.

Prerequisite Tasks

This section describes all requirements that must be completed before you can begin setting up this feature. Once these tasks are complete continue to the next section.

1. POS Tasks

• Confirm that Inventory pools in RTP|One or Max4Sale in Siriusware are configured with the correct dates and amounts and that, in RTP|One, the Inventory Pools are configured on the correct component code and, in Siriusware, Max4Sale is configured for the correct DCI.

2. Infrastructure Tasks

• Confirm that the Azure function app is set up and configured to the desired frequency for syncing. Aspenware recommends every 5-20 minutes. More frequent syncs could cause slowdowns on the resort POS, less frequent syncs would extend the time for inventory changes from the POS to be visible on the store. This task must be completed with an Aspenware Representative.

• The following setting is set in Azure on the Inventory Function ‘OrderLockRemovalBufferInSeconds’. This should be set to the amount of time it takes for the inventory function to run in your environment. The default is 60 seconds.

• For multi-store resorts, there’s an Inventory Sync function app setting for StoreID to allow the administrator to specify which season start/end dates to use. If the value is not set, the default storeID 0 (all stores) is used.

3. Commerce Tasks

• Confirm that the Aspenware Commerce products that will have inventory assigned to them are fully configured and possess a properly configured “Start Date” attribute. If attributes change after inventory has been assigned, these assignments will need to be re-done. See the Configuration: Product Attributes documentation for more information.

• If the product you are configuring is a multi-day consecutive product, i.e. a 2-day lesson, ensure that the classification “Is Consecutive Multi-Day” is added.

4. Settings, Language Strings and/or HTML Widgets for this Feature

This feature may require updates to the following settings, language strings and/or HTML Widgets. Learn more about how to update and create Settings, Language Strings, and HTML widgets follow the links to the respective section.

Settings

• If you desire to display an “inventory running low” message on the pricing calendar ensure that the product you are adding inventory for is also configured with dynamic pricing, the pricing calendar display, and that the inventory threshold is set to your desired threshold.

  • See the documentation on setting up Dynamic Pricing and Pricing Calendar View.

  • The inventory threshold can be configured from Configuration>Settings>All Settings (advanced). Search for the setting name ‘catalogsettings.dynamicpricingcalendar.inventorymessagethreshold’. Click Edit, define your desired threshold as the value, and click Update. When configured, if inventory for a date goes below this threshold the “low inventory” message will be displayed on the product’s pricing calendar below the price. (See example below.)

    

• Ensure the setting ‘ecommercesettings.productinventory.cachetime’ from Configuration>Settings>All Settings (advanced) is configured and the value equals the desired product inventory cache time in minutes. When inventory becomes available to the front end through the function, this cache setting defines how long the front end caches the data. Though the inventory function and cache settings don’t rely on each other, to ensure the front end always has the most current inventory data, the cache value is recommended to be set to 1 minute less than your inventory function frequency setting. So if you have set your inventory function to run every 5 minutes, the cache time should be set to every 4 minutes.

Language Strings

• When a guest attempts to add inventory to the cart when and is none available. A “toast message” pop-up will appear:

  

• Optionally, the PDP can display a message below the “Add To Cart” button when inventory on a selected date is below the threshold defined in the inventory threshold setting. To remove this from displaying on the PDP, the language string can be deleted.

Detailed Setup Guide

This section describes all required steps to set up the feature after prerequisite tasks have been completed.

1. Create/Edit Inventory to Product Assignments

2. (Optional) Configure Radio Button Date Selection for Inventoried Products

3. (Optional) Configure Hidden Inventory

1. Create/Edit Inventory to Product Assignments

• Go to the Aspenware Commerce > Inventory Pools page in Admin.

• Select the product in the Product drop-down (in alphabetical order.) 

• If the selected product has attributes, the attribute values will display below as checkboxes. Select the attribute values for the attribute combination requiring inventory pool assignment. Do not select multiple values for the same attribute (e.g. Morning and Afternoon if the customer will never select two options for the same attribute). These combinations should align with the Attribute Combination values on the product.

Example of an inventory pool assigned at the product level

Example of an inventory pool assigned at the product variant level with an inventory location defined

• In the Code(s) field, enter the code that is appropriate for your POS.

  1. For RTP: Enter the product component code for the product variant that is associated with the appropriate inventory pool. (The same inventory pool can be shared across different combinations.)

     1. Multiple codes can be entered as a comma-separated list. If a product has multiple components with inventory, inventory is presented as the lowest amount available across all inventory pools. 

     2. If the product or attribute combination utilizes multiple inventory pool locations, specify the inventory pool location code in the Location field. Only add one location. If a specific product attribute combination maps to a specific location, then all the attribute values for that combination must be checked above before entering the component codes and location.

  2. For Siriusware: Enter the Department, Department + Category, or Department + Category + Item that should have inventory associated to it. Enter the DCI with pipe characters separating Department, Category and Item (i.e. DEPARTMENT|CATEGORY|ITEM) in the code field.

• If the product or product variant utilizes multi-day inventory pools (2-7 units/days), then select the number of days or units from the Number Of Days (Optional) drop-down.

• Define the duration of the inventory cart lock by entering the number of seconds the lock should last in the Lock Timeout field. If set to 0, the system will automatically set to 900 seconds (15 minutes.) Aspenware recommends no less than a 10-minute lock timeout (600 seconds.)

  • In the screenshot below, the Adult Group Lesson, which is mapped to RTP|ONE Product Component Code 2000, has a lock that will expire 15 minutes after the shopper selects it. Below that, the Adult Group Lesson - Dynamic, mapped to RTP|ONE component code 2500, will expire in 10 minutes.
    

    

• Leave Frequency Type blank or set it to once daily if this product should only have inventory synced from the POS once daily. This setting is reserved for inventory pools that have high availability and therefore do not need to be synced as often as products with only a few slots available. For example, if inventory for lift tickets has 50,000 slots available each day, there’s no need to sync it every 5 minutes. Reducing the amount of inventory that needs to be synced with each execution of the function helps reduce the performance impact on the POS database server. If set to “Once Daily,” the inventory sync will run during the first sync occurring after 12:00 AM local time that day.

• Click Add. 

• Associated codes, locations, Number of Days, and lock timeout seconds can be updated, or inventory pool assignments can be deleted. 

2. (Optional) Configure Radio Button Date Selection for Inventoried Products

For products that require date selection but are limited to one to several dates for guests to choose from, such as camps, events, etc. radio button date selection is often a better user experience than forcing guests to locate a specific date in a calendar. 

• Go to Catalog > Products and Edit the desired product

• Next, go to the Product attributes section and expand it if it is collapsed.

• Click Add new record.

  1. Add the ‘Start Date’ Product attribute.

  2. In the Text Prompt field, enter [Date] [Dynamic]

  3. Select Required,

  4. Select the ‘Date Picker’ Control Type.
     

     

• Next, go to Aspenware Commerce > Product Classification and select Add Assignment.

• Select the Category and Product from the dropdowns

• Find the ‘Is Radio Button Date’ product classification and check the box next to it in the Assign column.

• Click Add.

• Optionally, Dynamic Pricing can be used to modify pricing for specific dates.

3. (Optional) Configure Hidden Inventory

Inventory can be added to season products so that the second they are sold out, they are no longer available for online purchase. When inventory is added to a season product, there is little visible change to the UI, meaning a date attribute will not be visible on the PDP, but it will be selected behind the scenes.​ This configuration is called "hidden inventory" or behind-the-scenes inventory. ​

Because inventory requires a date selection to work in the point of sale system and Aspenware Commerce, these products are actually setup is to use a "behind the scenes" inventory configuration with a hidden date– where the inventory is loaded to a single date - typically the first day of the season. 

• Follow all of the steps in sections 1 and 2 above to configure the Inventory and Radio Button Date for the product that will be set up with Hidden Inventory.

• Next, go to Catalog > Products and Edit the desired product

• Next, go to the Product attributes section and expand it if it is collapsed.

• Select to Edit the ‘Start Date’ attribute.

• In the Text Prompt field, enter [Date] [Dynamic] [Hidden]

• Save the change.