Syrinx WS Online Ordering allows you to deploy a website to allow your customers to place orders for hire and sales. It is a separate website from Syrinx WS, so you can link to it from Syrinx WS and your website. Orders placed on the web site come into Syrinx as unconfirmed contracts and advice notes. Syrinx Configuration is used to set up your catalog of products that your customers can hire or sell. This guide provides information on how to set up and use the online ordering website. It assumes you have already read the Syrinx WS User Guide, have installed Syrinx WS, and have got it up and running.

Topics included in this article

• Installation

• System Options

• Creating an initial catalogue

• Web Categories

• Product Specifications

• Web Category Products

• Accessory Types

• Delivery Charge Bands

• Customisable Pages

• Syrinx CWA Configuration Options

• User Management/Registration 

• Adding Items to the Basket

• Placing Orders

• Reviewing Orders

• SagePay

• Account Page

• Search Page

• Online Orders 

Installation

Syrinx WS Online Ordering is installed along with Syrinx WS. It is not installed automatically; it will need to be explicitly selected within the installer. 

System Folders

In the online catalog, you can include images of your products and categories and PDF documents (such as product specifications) for customers to download.
Three root folders need to be set up in Syrinx Configuration (Documents / Root Folders):

The Category Images folder will hold images linked to product categories. The Linked Documents folder will hold image files and/or PDF documents linked to products. The Accessory images folder will hold the little icons on the website that appear below the product name to indicate that a product uses certain accessories. See the section on Accessory Types below.
The paths to these folders then need to be set against the corresponding virtual folders within IIS:

The installer creates these virtual folders automatically, but you need to use the ‘Basic Settings’ link in IIS to set the paths to point to the same folders defined in the ‘Document Root Folders’ screen in Syrinx Configuration.

A Shared virtual folder is also set up in IIS, which should point to the shared folder in the Syrinx CWA folder (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SyrinxCWA\Shared). This is the area where any images used by the customisable pages are held (e.g. Contact Us page, Site Header, Landing Page, etc).

All of these four folders need to allow the IIS_ IUSRS group account read access:

The Shared folder also needs to allow the IIS_ IUSRS group account write access

System Options

In Syrinx Configuration, use the ‘System Options – Syrinx WS’ screen to enable or restrict certain features in the online ordering site:

Allow Browsing?	Allow users to browse the catalogue without logging in
Display Hire Rates?	Show Hire Rates to the user prior to logging in.
Display Sales Prices?	Show Sales Prices to the user prior to logging in.
Show Availability?	Should the number of available hire/sales stock be displayed on the product pages?
Unavailable Text	If we are showing availability, then the text to display for items whose quantity in stock is zero (instead of the default display of zero items).
Alternative Text	If availability is not displayed, then the alternative text to display in place of Availability.
Can Order More Than Available?	Can customers order more items than are in stock?
Hire Rates Display	The rates to display for hire items, comma-separated. The order of the rates listed is reflected on the product page. You can choose from PARTDAY, 1DAY, 2DAY, 3DAY, 4DAY, WEEK, WE, HOUR, DAY, SC, UNIT
Accessory Hire Rates Display	The rates to display for accessory items, comma separated. The order of the rates listed is reflected on the product page. You can choose from PARTDAY, 1DAY, 2DAY, 3DAY, 4DAY, WEEK, WE, HOUR, DAY, SC, UNIT
Alert On Hold	Should your customers receive an alert when placing an order if they are on hold? If this is set, then if an ‘old hold’ customer goes to the basket, then will see the text:
On Hold Email	An email is sent to this address if an on-hold customer requests a quote (note that on-hold customers do not have the option of raising orders).
Sagepay Vendor Name	If Sagepay is taking payments, then your SagePay vendor name. Sagepay provides this.
Cash Orders Generate	Do Cash Orders generate an email enquiry or a hire contract / advice note in Syrinx?
Order Confirmation Email	If ‘Cash Orders Generate’ is set to ‘Email Enquiry’, then this is the email address to send details of orders that have been placed. It is also the email address used to email details of quotation requests from account customers.

Creating an initial catalogue

The following sections describe the screens in Syrinx Configuration used to set up the categories and products of the online site. Rather than setting up the catalogue from scratch, you can create an initial catalogue based on your Syrinx setup.

Categories

To create an initial set of categories that are based on your Syrinx Categories, follow these steps:

1. If you haven't already, set up category groups in Syrinx. These will be used for the website's top-level hire groupings.
2. For any Hire/Sales categories that are not to appear in Syrinx WS and the online ordering site, untick the 'Show In WS?' flag on the category. For example, hire categories that contain your vehicles or other internal assets.
3. Use the ‘Export Select Statement to File’ option in Syrinx Configuration to run the file ‘Web Categories.sql’. This will produce the .csv file containing the web categories, which is ready for import.
4. Amend the spreadsheet to set the relative paths for your image files. These files need to be held in the ‘Syrinx WS Category Images Folder’ system folder (see above).
5. You can also add descriptions of the categories if required (shown under the category name on the website)
   
      
6. Use the Import Data option to import the spreadsheet

Products

To create an initial set of products based on your Syrinx setup, follow these steps:

1. Import the Web Categories from your Syrinx setup if you have not already done so (see above).
2. Use the ‘Export Select Statement to File’ option in Syrinx Configuration to run the file ‘Web Products.sql’. This will produce the .csv file containing the products that are ready for import.
3. Amend the spreadsheet to add product descriptions if necessary or to remove any products that you do not want to appear on the website.
   
    
4. Use the Import Data option to import the spreadsheet

Web Categories

Web Categories are used to organise the display of your equipment and products on the website. The category set up is separate from the regular hire/sales categories that are set up within Syrinx, so the organization of the online catalog can be done independently of how Syrinx is set up.

The categories are set up in the ‘Web Categories’ screen in Syrinx Configuration:

The top-level categories are displayed down the left side of the website, organized by Hire categories first, then Sales. The sub-categories for the selected category are shown in the pane on the right.

The Web Categories screen initially shows the top level categories. To drill further into the sub-categories, double-click on the category name:

You can add categories at any level by using the Add New button. A category can be removed provided that it doesn’t contain any products or sub-categories.

To traverse back up the tree, use the ‘Up’ button next to the parent category name

Use the Show Detail button to amending details of a web category. From here you can add products to the category, add child categories, change the parent category and alter any property related to the category.

Product Specification

Use the Product Specifications screen in Syrinx Configuration to set up the different types of specification entries that you want to list against your products on the website.

Web Category Products

Web Category Products are used to set up the equipment available for hire or sale. The hire products are linked to either a hire rate name in Syrinx (individually numbered items) or a bulk item stock number. Sales products are linked to Syrinx sales item stock numbers.

Use the ‘Web Category Products’ screen to view, add and amend product details:

You can use the Find or Category boxes at the bottom to filter the list.

Use the Add New button to add a new product:

The Amend button lets you set up the details for a product.

The List Description is used when displaying the products in a list on the website:

The Full Description is used on the product detail page:

Use the Categories tab to add the product to one or more categories:

Use the Accessories tab to list any other products that are normally hired or sold with this one:

Accessories are also products in the system, so you can link other products as accessories to a product one by one or you can choose to “Add Included Items” to a product. Adding Included Items will look at the category/stock item that the main item is linked to and find all of its included items (in Syrinx). It will then add these as products in Syrinx WS (if they don’t already exist) and then link them to the main product as an accessory.

Use the Specifications tab to add any characteristics of the product that you want to be viewable on the website:

These are shown on a separate tab on the product detail page on the website.

Use the Linked Documents tab to add the product photos, plus any PDF files associated with the product:

PDF files are shown on the ‘Additional Documentation’ tab on the product page on the website.

Accessory Types

The Accessory types screen in Syrinx Configuration can be used to set up the little icons on the product web page to indicate that this product uses these accessories.

Once the types are set up, you can then indicate that a particular product is of a given type:

If a product has any accessories that have been given a particular accessory type, then the main product’s page shows these icons: 

Delivery Charge Bands

If cash customers are going to order sales items from the website, you can set up delivery charges based on the total weight of the items on the order.

These are set up in the Delivery Charge Bands screen in Syrinx Configuration.

Each charge band should be exclusive of one another, although you can set weights for 0-100 and 100-200, for example. When the delivery weight falls exactly on 100, it will take the lower band's charge rate.

If the weight upper is left blank, then the charge will be applied to any weight that is over the weight lower of that charge band.

Pressing Validate Bands on this screen will do some basic validation to ensure they have set up their charge bands correctly.

Customisable Pages

In Syrinx CWA, use the CMS / Online Ordering menu option to amend the various pages/content that appears within the online ordering site:

The following pages can be customised as required:

The standard CMS functionality is provided. Allowing for the insertion of CMS Images already in the system and links to existing pages and content. 

Syrinx CWA Configuration Options

Found under Options -> Configuration, some configuration settings are shared with Syrinx CWS. See the section ‘Setting Configuration Options’ in the Syrinx WS User Guide for further details on these options.

User Management/Registration

The online ordering site and Syrinx CWS use the same login and membership system. The Syrinx CWA ‘Manage Users’ page can be used to amend user contact information as well amending usernames and resetting passwords. 

Existing Syrinx WS users can log into the online ordering site using their existing username and password. If an existing customer wants access to the online ordering site and does not yet have a Syrinx WS login, they can be added as a new user from within Syrinx CWA.

New cash customers can register themselves in the system through the registration page. This can be accessed from the Register link found either at the top right of the header or on the login form. The registration process is three steps long.

1. The new user provides an email address and their chosen password.
   
     
2. They are then emailed a confirmation code that they enter on the registration page to validate their email address.
    
     
3. They then provide their name and address. Once submitted, a new cash customer is created in Syrinx, and they can begin to use the system to place orders.

Adding Items to the Basket

When selecting a category that contains products (rather than subcategories), a list of products in that category is displayed:

Clicking on View Product displays the product page, and the customer can enter the quantity required, plus what accessories are required, then press the ‘Hire’ button to add the item to the basket:

A confirmation page then lists the product(s) added to the basket:

Sales Items can be added to the basket using the ‘Purchase’ button on the product page:

Placing Orders

After selecting the required hire/sales items, you can click on the basket icon in the header to view the basket  and place the order:

If the basket contains both hire and sales items, then the ‘Order Separately’ button can be used to split the hire and sales items our into separate orders that will generate a distinct Contract and Advice Note.

Note: This option is only available for account customers.

The ‘Place Order’ button will take the user to the order submission page:

 
Once the order is submitted, a confirmation page is displayed with the order reference number:

The ‘Request Quotation’ button also lets you enter the order details. It will create a quotation in Syrinx and send an email to the address specified in the configuration, letting someone know that the quotation has been created.

 
Reviewing Orders

The ‘Orders’ link at the top of the page can be used to view the orders that have been submitted:

The View button shows the details of the order.

SagePay

If a Cash sale is being made and a Sage Pay vendor Name has been provided, then the Sage Pay payment process will be started:

You then provide the payment details:

And you can then review the order details before submitting the payment:

Account Page 

The Account link in the header allows the user to update personal information and change their password. Cash customers can also update their address details. A setting determines whether VAT breakdowns are shown on product pages. By default, this is turned on for Account customers and off for Cash customers.

Search Page

The search box in the header can be used to search the entire product catalog:

Pressing the magnifying glass or pressing Return will show the hire/sales items that contain the given text in the name or description:

You can then view the product and add it to the basket.

Online Orders

As a user creates a basket within Syrinx WS, an order is created behind the scenes. These unconfirmed orders and other submitted/cancelled orders can be seen from the Online Orders screen in Syrinx Configuration:

The Show Detail button shows all the details that were captured in the online ordering site:

Tabs show any related hire contracts or advice notes that have been auto-generated from this order. The details of any Sage pay Transactions are also visible here.