Provide your web customers and your sales order takers additional product information regarding the products being ordered. If you are running a web commerce web site, You can create links for products or price lines, which display on the web site product information page. From Sales Order Entry, your employees can select Inquiries > Product Cross-References to display the additional information. You can attach images, product information in PDF files, etc.
Each link that you define contains the common string to access a web address such as http://widgetproducts.com/products, and a unique file path that changes for each product.
Note: Use the Use DDE Agent Description In WOE control maintenance record to determine if the system uses the product description or the DDE agent description as the link text on the web site.
Complete the following tasks to create links:
Use DDE Agent Maintenance to set anagent IDthat identifies the common string in a company's web site address. This address is the prefix for the file path in theParameter Datafield in Product External References. Used together, the prefix and file path create a complete link.
To identify a web site address:
From the Tools menu, select DDE Agent Maintenance to display the DDE Agent Maintenance screen.
Note: If prompted, log on to the character-based system.
In the Agent ID field, enter a code, up to five characters long, that identifies the company, government agency (for example, OSHA), or any other entity whose web site you want to access.
Press F10 to display a list of codes and the New option.
In the Description field, enter a more complete description of the company, agency, web site, or other information contained on the web site. For example, Widget Product Catalog.
In the Subroutine field, enter DDE.WEB.BROWSER, the name of the program used to open and test the link in a browser.
In the Data Prefix field, enter the common string required to access the web site address or other entity. Use as many characters as needed in the following format:
http://widgetproducts.com/products/
This address acts as a prefix to the information entered in the Parameter Data field on the Product External References Maintenance screen to make a complete link to a web site or specific product information.
Press Esc to save the information and exit the screen.
Continue with Setting the File Path to the Specific Web Page.
Define the specific web page link after creating a DDE Agent ID for a web site. The file path completes the link from a product or price line to a web page. Use the Product External References Maintenance window to create a link to a product, or a link to all products in a price line.
Open the window from Product Maintenance to link to a product, as described in the procedure below.
Open the window from Price Line Maintenance to link to all products in the price line. To do this, select Maintenance > Price Maintenance > Price Line, and select Product External References from the Edit menu after entering a price line.
To link to a product or price line web page:
From the Maintenance menu, select Product to display the Product Maintenance window.
Display a product and select External References from the Additional Data menu to display the Product External References Maintenance window.
In the DDEAgent column, enter or select the Agent ID for the web site you defined in Setting the Web Site Address.
After you enter an agent ID, the Description column displays the description you entered in DDE Agent Maintenance when defining the agent ID. Edit the description at the product level, if necessary.
If the... | Then... |
Agentfield is populated | the system uses the description in DDE Agent Maintenance for the agent, even if you change the description in theDescriptioncolumn. The system uses the domain and path for the agent in |
Agent field is not populated | the system uses the description in the Description column and the path you provide in the Parameter Data column to create the link. |
In the Parameter Data column, enter the file path. For example, entering bigwidgetspage.htm in this field completes a link to http://
If the... | Then... |
Parameter Data column is blank | the system uses only the Data Prefix field you entered in Setting the Web Site Address for the complete web site address. |
Data Prefix field in DDE Agent Maintenance is blank | the system uses only the Parameter Data column for the complete web site address. |
Click Test to open the web page in your default browser.
The browser opens using theData Prefixweb address, combined with theParameter Datafile path.
To enter another web site address, repeat steps 3 through 5.
Click OK to return to the Product Maintenance window.
See Also: