How Different Kinds of Articles Are Handled 

Use

Generic Articles, Variants, and Sets

For generic articles, the customer can choose the desired variant (for example, a blue blouse) from combo boxes. The chosen variant will then be displayed, along with pricing information.

For sets, the display includes information about the set’s components.

Configurable Articles

A configurable article consists of several components. In certain cases the customer can choose the desired components; in other cases, there is no choice.

The online store recognizes two kinds of configurable articles:

Each article comprises a specific of components. Customers cannot select components; instead, they select characteristics for the article. The characteristics determine what components are included in the article. Characteristics can be strung together with Boolean logic, and can be either descriptions or components themselves. For example: "camera AND digital" or "hand-held scanner AND printer."

Assume that you sell telephones with or without a built-in answering machine. Article A might be the standalone telephone, and article B is a telephone with built-in answering machine. Customer searching for a telephone select "telephone" along with the characteristic "answering machine" and the system will return only those telephones that include an answering machine. The answering machine may in turn include a cassette tape, fax modem, and other components, but these are automatically included if the "answering machine" characteristic is selected.

The customer selects an article in just one step -- by clicking the desired item.

Customers can build an article by selecting individual components.

An example would be a computer that the customer can assemble from a list of available components: one monitor from a list of different types of monitors, one hard drive, choice of printer, and so on. Prices are shown for each separate component.

So in this case, the customer selects the article (step 1), then selects the desired components (step 2) to make up the article.

Activities

Take the latter case where a customer wants to assemble his or her own computer from components listed in the store and receive a price for the resulting computer. This process involves a configurator, which resides on a separate server: One possible scenario is as follows:

  1. The customer selects an article (for example, a PC).
  1. The online store displays the available components, with radio buttons for each type of component. For example, the customer can choose one monitor from a list of monitors, one keyboard, one hard drive, and so on. Prices are shown for each component.
  1. The user accepts the assembled product and clicks to start the configurator (OK button or icon, depending on the screen).
  1. The configurator calculates total price for the computer, based on the component prices and any pricing conditions that apply (rebates, taxes, and so on). It returns this information to the online store where it is displayed for the customer
  1. The customer either accepts the price and continues, or else modifies his or her selections and reprices the computer.
  1. When the customer indicates that he or she is satisfied with the final product, the system calls BAPI SalesOrder.CreateFromDat2 which creates a standard SD sales order in the SAP system.

Actually, the customer can call up the configurator from any of the following points in the online store:

You must enter the URL for the configurator server in Customizing for the online store.