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      Creating Product Templates

      Some products you wish to add to your ePayTrak store might have unique or complex requirements, such as collecting specific information from your customers that can resolved by creating a Product Template. For example, your school has band instrument rentals on your site. First, you create the Product Template and then attach it to your product.   

      Creating a Product Template

      1. To begin the process, navigate to Catalog > Product Templates. You'll see a similar screen to the one shown below.  

      2. Enter a name in the Template Name section as shown below. Here I entered Band Instrument Rental, then click the 'Add' button.


       

      1. After clicking 'Add', you will see the screen below. You won't often need to add a Merchant Field, but you will want to create Customer Fields to collect information from your customers.

      1. Click 'Add Field' in the Customer Fields section and you will see a screen similar to the one below.

      1. Select an Input Type for the drop-down list. For this example, I selected a Drop Down List Box.

      1. Enter the name of your field in the Name Box. The Customer doesn't see this field but is used in Forms Reports. I entered StudentFirst. I entered 35 for the Columns which is character space. The Max Length is the amount of characters that will fit in the space. I entered 35. If I entered 30, the customer might have to scroll to enter information.

      2. Enter the Prompt that your customer will see. Here I entered Student First Name.

      3. Click Save when finished.

      4. Follow the same steps for the next field for Student Last Name. (You can copy and edit instead of creating a new field)

      5. The next field type we will use is a Drop-Down List Box which will give customers the choice to select the item. You can not make a drop-down a required field.

       

      1. Select Drop Down List Box, Enter the field name Instrument and add the Prompt that customer will see. Click Next. You will see a box similar to the one below. Click Add Choice to add the musical instruments.

      1. Click 'Save' when finished. Click Add Choice to add your choices individually. I'm adding several musical instruments.

      1. When completed Click Save.

      Note:  Text Area and Text Box are the only fields that are available as required fields in Product Templates at this time!

       

      1. Click 'Finish' when you have completed the field entry.  

      Tip: You will need to make the column and length long enough for your customer to add all text. The Max Length is how many characters can be entered. Columns governs the display column width in character spaces.

      1. Click 'Save' when finished.

      1. Notice that Assigned Products for your newly created Product Template is set at Zero. The next step is to navigate to Catalog > Browse to open the Instrument Rental product and attach the Product Template we just created for that product. Click Product Template on the left menu.

      1. Click Band Instrument Rental from the Product Template drop-down as shown below. Then Click 'Save' after selecting the proper Product Template. Then save the Product.

      Note:  You do NOT want to change a Product Template once it has been used in a transaction. It can possibly create a scenario where you WILL lose data!

       

      What does the Customer see?

      By default, the first option appears in a drop-down box. A nice workaround is adding a choice of 'Select' or Choose and making it your first selection. Then you will know if the customer actually selected the first choice or if they didn't choose an entry!

        

       

      If the word select appears in the Forms reports as a choice, you will then know the customer didn't make any selection. In the example above, I selected Oboe.

      Creating a Product Template with a drop-down menu where a specific amount of items must be selected.

      We recently added a Class Selector to Product Templates that forces a customer to choose a selected number of items. The 'Input Type' to select is Class Selector. You can then input all the classes to include in the list. Note the Required # field. This will indicate how many choices the customer must select.  

      Note: You must input the word Classes in the Name Field for this function to work! Seriously.

       

      The customer will see the template in the figure below. They click the class to select it and then click the right arrow to include that class as the Math 101 class example shows. It is recommended to have some instructions for the customer in the description field to make it more clear for the customer. A customer must choose the required number of classes before clicking 'Add to Basket'. (In this example, the customer must choose six.)

      Then the customer is able to add the product to their basket and enroll for the classes selected.

      Note: You can't use the word Name or Date as one of your fields. Do NOT change a product template after it has been used. This can cause issues where you might lose your data!