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Overview
Log Files
Creating Publishing Codes
Items
Customers
Orders
Publishing Ecommerce Data
Configure ADT
Printing the Publishing Codes Report
Publishing ecommerce data is the primary method of transferring items, orders, customers, and ticket history from Counterpoint to NRO:
Once data is published, NRO will pull in the file for import automatically. For more information about setting up Counterpoint to automatically publish ecommerce data and import order and customer information, see our KB articles named, "
Scheduling an Automated Data Transfer Task.
"
The following publishing tips will help optimize your NRO store and improve daily operations:.
Minimize each import.
Keep in mind that a bulky import file can slow down your store's performance. For optimum performance, only publish what is necessary to maintain your online store.
TIP:
In
Ecommerce / Publish
, save a publication ID named
DAILY
that you will use for every day operations. Publish items using the "update prices and quantities” mode. Only publish customers (using "update changed customers” mode), and orders. Ticket history is not a supported NRO feature. For more information about defining publish codes, please watch our training video.
Perform a Maintenance Import when necessary.
Periodically, you may need to do a "Add/Replace” of your items. You should do an add/replace replacement anytime you:
-
Make changes to Ecommerce Controls
-
Edit ecommerce categories
-
Edit item notes
TIP:
In Ecommerce / Publish, save a publication ID named FULL that you will only use once a day. Add/Replace replacements are most common when you are initially setting up your NRO store.
Ecommerce Data Files
When you publish ecommerce data, Counterpoint writes the ecommerce information to an ASCII text file named CPTOCPOL-nnnn.TXT. In this file, nnnn refers to the Next publish file # indicated in
Setup / Ecommerce / Control
. Counterpoint creates a new file with a sequentially assigned number every time you publish ecommerce data.
CPTOCPOL-nnnn.TXT is the vehicle for getting information from your Counterpoint system to your NRO store. The Integration Agent can process your published data every 30 minutes.
TIP:
To find the location of your NRO directory, go to
Setup / Ecommerce / Control
in Counterpoint. The Ecommerce
directory
is indicated on the
Main
tab. Click on the directory name to open the directory. We recommend placing a shortcut on your Desktop to help you quickly access that directory, for troubleshooting purposes.
After ecommerce data has been imported into Counterpoint, Counterpoint automatically creates a log file for you records. The log file—named CPOLTOCP.log—indicates the date and time of the event, how many records were imported, etc. Log files are located in your company's NRO directory.
Each time a new log file is created, the previous log file is appended with a number (e.g., CPOLTOCP.001.log) and increased by one with each subsequent import (e.g., CPOLTOCP.001.log becomes CPOLTOCP.002.log, etc.)
You will routinely publish your item catalog to:
-
Assign, move, or unassign items in your online store
-
Add, change, or delete category levels in your online store
-
Change the items listed on your
Specials
page
-
Change the items listed on your
New Items
page
-
Update prices and quantities
Counterpoint tracks changes to item data and only publishes changed items to NRO. For example, if only one item in the item range you specify has been updated since the last time you published items, Counterpoint will only publish the record that changed instead of publishing all of the selected items.
Types of activity:
-
Add/Replace items:
To add or replace item and category information without removing any existing items from your online store.
TIP:
Add/Replace items is the most commonly used activity.
-
Full replacement:
To completely replace all items and categories in your online store with the information being published. This is the only way to remove items from your store. (This creates the largest file size, which takes longer to import into NRO than a smaller file.)
Any existing NRO items or categories that aren't included in the export are marked as
Inactive
in your NRO store when you import a
Full replacement
catalog. Though not displayed to your online customers, these inactive items and categories aren't actually deleted from your online store, because the information for these items/categories might be needed to fulfill outstanding orders or to display past order history for your customers.
If you define a publishing code for selected criteria and choose
Full replacement
and then publish the data, all of your existing items will removed from your online store and
only
those items included in the publishing code are added to your store. For example, if your store includes categories
Golf
,
Apparel
, and
Shoes
and you publish a full replacement code containing only the category
Golf
, your store will then only contain the items from the
Golf
category.
-
Update prices/quantities:
To update existing item prices and quantities only.
-
Update quantities only:
To update existing item quantities only. This activity allows you to quickly update quantities in your NRO store to reflect changes due to recent sales, transfers, receivings, or other transactions that occur in your brick-and-mortar store.
-
Publishing Quantities from One or All Locations
Counterpoint: Setup / Ecommerce / Control
You can publish quantities from one location or all locations (provided that the items are normally stocked at the location from which you are publishing).
Select
Setup / Ecommerce / Control
.On the
Items
tab, select the
Qty available
method:
-
Item qty available:
Total of all inventory quantities across
all
locations
-
It
em qty on hand:
Total of all inventory quantities across
all
locations, minus any inventory already committed
-
Location qty available:
Inventory quantities from the
Store
indicated on the
Main
tab
-
Location qty on hand:
Inventory quantities from the
Store
indicated on the
Main
tab, minus any inventory already committed
You should routinely publish customer information to NRO anytime you create new ecommerce customers or update existing ecommerce customer records. If you change a customer's email address in CounterPoint at any point
after
the customer record has been exported to NRO, the change will not be reflected in NRO.
Counterpoint will only publish those customers who are flagged for ecommerce (i.e.,
Ecommerce customer
is checked on the
Ecommerce
tab of
Customers / Customers
).
Types of activity:
-
Do not publish:
No customer records will be published when using this publishing code.
-
Add/Replace customers:
To create new NRO customers from Counterpoint and update existing customers with new information. (This creates the largest file.)
-
Update balances:
To update existing A/R customer balances. (Not available)
-
Update changed customers:
To update only those customers whose information has changed since the last publication and to add new customers.
TIP: Update changed customers
is the most commonly used activity.
You can publish information about the status of NRO orders as the orders are imported and processed. When you publish orders, shoppers can view the current status of their orders online. You can also automatically notify online shoppers by email when their orders are shipped, changed, backordered, or cancelled.
When you publish ecommerce data using
Ecommerce / Publish
, status changes for orders that originated online are included in the export file. However, Counterpoint will only publish orders for which one of the following status changes has occurred:
-
The order was accepted (i.e., imported into Counterpoint)
-
One or more items on the order were shipped
-
The order was cancelled
-
The customer's credit card was rejected
-
One or more items on the order were placed on backorder
-
The order was modified
NRO can be configured to automatically send email messages that each customer receives whenever the status of their online order changes. These messages alert your customers to check the status of their orders in your online store.
Configure ADT
Publishing ecommerce data is the method of transferring items, orders and customers from Counterpoint to NRO. ADT affords you the ability to schedule ecommerce imports and publishes every 30 minutes, which means you can "set it and forget it." Your ADT tab is one that should be configured, just before you go live. Use these articles to help you configure ADT:
Configuring Your ADT Publishing Codes
Configuring Automated Data Transfer in Counterpoint
Scheduling an Automated Data Transfer Task
Counterpoint: Setup / Ecommerce / Reports / Publishing Codes
Select
Setup / Ecommerce / Reports / Publishing Codes
to print the Publishing Codes report which shows you how your publishing codes are set up.
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