Presentation Themes

This utility maintains the settings controlling the functionality and image of your firm's Portal website, once the customer assigned to this theme has signed in successfully, including welcome words, messages, Shopping Cart features, search settings, etc.
Multiple themes can be designed, and then can be assigned to specific customers in the Associated Customers window.

A Default Presentation Theme is supplied by SRM software that can be utilized as is, or can be customized a lot or a little to suit your company's flavour and style.
Unique Presentation themes can even be designed further for specialized customization at the customer level.

The parameter prompts include:

PRESENTATION THEME

Leave this field blank to access the settings for the Default Presentation Theme, or enter the code for a customized Presentation theme, or to view an existing theme select one from the Theme Search window.

Some of the appearance settings for the Default Presentation Theme, default from the Global Portal Settings.
e.g. Background image

DESCRIPTION

This is the name of the Presentation theme.

THEME COMMENT CODES

Multiple comments can be displayed on the Portal website according to theme and during the pre-determined date range.
A window is provided to list the codes that control the comments and dates.
In the Theme Comment Codes window, a Theme Comment Code Search window is provided to view and select from available codes.

Note: Any changes made to the comments or dates of a code in Portal Comment Codes, are immediately reflected in any customer's Presentation theme to which the code has been assigned.

SHOPPING CART

This setting controls how On Account customers that are assigned this Presentation Theme are able to use the Portal Shopping Cart feature.
Select one of the following options:

• Select Disabled if these customers should only have the ability to review their account information, and should not be able to generate any rental or sales requests.
• Select Rentals if the shopping cart is accessible from the Portal for customers with this theme, but should only display and allow bookings for Rentals.
• Select Sales if the shopping cart should only display and allow Sales.
• Select Both to allow the shopping cart to be used for both Sales and Rental transactions.
  This is the default value.

SAVE SHOPPING CART AS

When the shopping cart is completed it can be converted to an Portal request for a Reservation or a Quotation.
Select one of the following options to apply to customers using this Presentation Theme:

• Select Reservation to convert the items to a Reservation request for On Account customers.
  This is the default value.
• Select Quote to convert the items to a Quotation request for On Account customers.
• Select Both to allow the On Account customers to convert the selected products to either a Reservation or to a Quotation request.
• Select Neither to allow view-only of the shopping cart and allow neither Reservation nor Quotation requests to be made via Portal by customers using this theme.

AUTO CONVERT TO DOCUMENT

This option controls how a Portal request is processed in SRM.

Uncheck this box if Portal requests submitted from this Presentation Theme always need to be processed through Portal Confirmations to create the Reservation or Quote.
When the Shopping Cart is submitted for a Portal request, a confirmation email is sent to the customer and an email alert is also sent to associated staff at the rental store as outlined in Portal Confirmations.

Check this box if Portal requests from this Presentation Theme should automatically be converted directly to a Quote or Reservation when the customer submits the Shopping Cart.
A Portal Confirmation record is still created in SRM, but it is flagged as already processed without requiring any processing action by your staff and it is moved to 'History' as the document has already been created.
When the Shopping Cart is submitted to immediately create a Reservation or Quote, a confirmation email is only sent to the customer as no action is required by staff.
The new document number is included in the confirmation email sent to the customer, as well as the confirmation number.

Note: When Portal requests are automatically converted the following parameter controls apply:

• The option to Invoice Sales On Separate Invoice in the Global Portal Settings is not respected because the Portal program can not utilize operator security to control creating the invoice.
  Instead Sales are included in the document, and must be dealt when the reservation or quote is converted.

• The Allow Override On Location Quantities For Reservations in the Company Security Parameters will be assumed yes, and then Locations quantity availability must also be dealt when the reservation or quote is converted.

USE ALTERNATE LIST FOR SALES

Products can carry an alternate list price in Sales Inventory.

Check this box to display and to charge the alternate prices for customers having a currency other than the company currency identified in Company Information.
This provides the ability to automatically maintain separate pricing for out of country customers to accommodate international costs.
e.g. U.S. and Canadian pricing.

Uncheck this box to always charge the regular prices.

DISPLAY HISTORY INVOICES ONLY

Check this box to only include invoices posted to history in the "List Invoices" and the "View Invoices" APIs for customers using this theme.

Uncheck this box to list all invoices in these APIs including unposted invoices.

WEB APPEARANCE SETTINGS

A window is provided to customize the right portion of your web page for this Presentation theme with colors, fonts, and image path, as follows:

IMAGE FILE DIRECTORY

Enter the path to be used for image files used on the website.
e.g. images/

If Texada is hosting your website, then Texada will assign this directory.
If your firm has its own website, then use your website address.

Note: The actual product and Group image file names are entered in Inventory/Division Settings.

PAGE BACKGROUND IMAGE

To display a tiled picture as the background for your website, enter the name of the image.
This image could be a bmp, jpg, or gif, and it must reside in the Image File Directory defined above.

CSS NAME

The design and layout of the website including colors, and fonts are controlled by the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
A default CSS is supplied by Texada Software and mapped in this field.
e.g. css.tsi_portal.css

Style sheets can be customized by your web designer to present the appropriate unique designs, logos, and images for your different customer groups.
If your firm does use customized style sheets enter the path and name of the unique style sheet for this Presentation Theme.

COMPANY TITLE

Enter your firm's company or store name that should be displayed at the top of each page on the website for customer's logging in using this Presentation Theme.

If this field is left blank, the default name displayed is The Rental Store.

COMPANY URL

Enter a preferred URL link to be accessed if the customer clicks on your Company Title on the Portal website for customer's logging in using this Presentation Theme.

If this field is left blank, the default link is to the displayed is Portal sign in screen.

Finished?

Click OK to accept the values and exit.

LOGIN ATTEMPTS ALLOWED

For security purposes, the number of consecutive failed login attempts permitted by a customer or salesman are tracked.

Enter the number of consecutive unsuccessful attempts to be allowed before the account becomes locked and the user is denied access and is sent a warning message.
The wording of the warning message can be modified as required in the Portal Errors window in the Global Settings.

The account can be unlocked if the customer contacts your rental store and staff (i.e. web administrator) changes the Login Attempts count back to zero for that customer in Portal Customers or for a salesman in the Failed Logins field of the expanded record in the Salesman Codes table.

WELCOME WORDS

Enter the text to be displayed for this Presentation theme on the Web Welcome screen after the customer signs in.
e.g. Welcome to Texada Portal

Note: Additional date specific comments can also be displayed on this screen, as setup in Portal Comment Codes and assigned to the theme in the Theme Comment Codes field above.

SHOPPING CART SETTINGS

This window is provided to customize your web shopping cart controls and settings, as follows:

SORT GROUP/CLASS/PROD BY DESC

This parameter can control the sorting sequence by Presentation Theme, for the Product Classes, Groups, and Products, when they are displayed on the Portal Shopping Cart selection screens.

Check this box to display the Product Classes, Groups, and Products in description order.
Uncheck this box to display the Product Classes, Groups, and Products in numeric order.

RENTAL RATE TO SHOW ON CART

The rate codes flagged in Company Default Rates to show on Rate Book are displayed if also set for the Group, when the rental Group is displayed in the Shopping Cart page.
If the Group rates do not fit with the Company Default Rates, a message can be displayed as designated in the Suppress Rates Message field below.
e.g. Please call for rates.

This field determines the single rate that continues to be displayed, once a Group has been added to the Shopping Cart.

Note: This is NOT the Rate Code number. This is the numeric position of the rates flagged to show in Rate-Book in Company Default Rates.
To choose the single rate code to be displayed, count down the records with a check in the Rate Book column and enter the count number of the preferred rate.
For example 3 would cause the third rate level flagged to show in the Rate Book in the Company Default Rates to be the one displayed in the Shopping Cart screen. (e.g. Hourly, Daily, Weekly) A window is also provided in the Shopping Cart screen to still display all rates for the group.

SALES SEARCH LIMIT

The default maximum number of sales products to display in the SEARCH utility is 100.
This can be changed by entering the preferred limit.

PROCESS KITS AND SSL'S ON WEB

Check this box to display Kits and Suggested Sales List items on the Portal web page when linked to sale products or groups that are added to the Shopping Cart.

The rules for accepting Kit and SSL items and their quantities are as follows:

• Only items on a Kit or Suggest Sales List that are flagged to show on Website are considered.
• Items on a Kit or Suggest Sales List that are flagged to Add are automatically added to the Shopping Cart and the quantity can not be changed individually unless the primary product quantity is changed.
• Items on a Kit or Suggest Sales List that are NOT checked to Add are considered optional so that when the primary sales product or group is added to the Shopping Cart these additional items are listed on a "Suggested Items" screen and the customer can select optional items and then specify the quantities.
  Quantities of any No Charge optional Kit items cannot be changed.
• All quantities for Kit or SSL items listed on a Shopping Cart are updated in proportion, according to any change made to the quantity of the primary sales item or group.

Uncheck this box if the customer does not need to see Kit and SSL details on the web page.
Staff can select any supporting Kit and SSL items later at the time the Portal request is converted to a reservation or quotation in Portal Confirmations.

Finished?

Click OK to accept the values and exit.

WEB SEARCH/LIST SETTINGS

Window to customize the search and list parameters on your website for customers using this theme, as follows:

LINES PER PAGE ON SEARCH

Accept the default of 20 lines per page or enter a preferred maximum number of lines to display on each page.

MAXIMUM # OF SEARCH RESULTS

Accept the default of 1000 maximum number of records to be returned from a search, or enter a preferred maximum.

RETURN IMAGES ON SEARCH

Check this box if an image is to be displayed on a selection search.
Uncheck this box if pictures are not required on search lists.

MAXIMUM # OF LIST RESULTS

Accept the default of 1000 maximum number of records to be returned in a list search, or enter a preferred maximum.

Note: If the list of matching records exceeds the maximum, the list is too big and nothing is returned.
The operator should be more specific to narrow the search results.

SEARCH BY DROP-DOWN LISTS

This choice of using drop-down lists or a key word search applies only to the larger files searches, such as Groups or Product Classes.

Check this box to always use drop-down lists to make a selection, if your web page only offers a few groups and product classes.

Uncheck this box to search using a key word if your web page offers many groups and product classes, and because of the speed issues it might be more efficient to utilize the word search method.

Finished?

Click OK to accept the values and exit.

SUPPRESS RATES FOR GROUPS

Product Groups for which rental rates should NOT be displayed to the customer, on the Portal website, can be determined by Presentation Theme.
Window to enter the Groups that should not display rates on this theme.
A window is provide to search and select the groups.

SUPPRESS RATES MESSAGE

When rates are not available per Groups or are flagged to be suppressed for this theme in the Suppress Rates For Groups window, a message can be displayed to notify the customer to contact your store for rate information.
Enter the text that should display for this theme when no rates are displayed.
e.g. Please call for rates.

ASSOCIATED CUSTOMERS

A window is provided to view and maintain a list of customers that see this Presentation Theme when they access the Portal website.
Customer records can be added and deleted from the list.
The prompts in the window include:

SEQ

The sequence number tracks the number of customers in this table.

CUSTOMER#

Enter the customer that uses this Presentation theme, or select one from the Portal Customer Search window.
The customers must have access to the Portal as assigned in Portal Customers.

Note: The themes can also be assigned and updated for individual customers in the expanded record in Portal Customers.

NAME

The customer's name is displayed.

PHONE

The customer's telephone number is displayed.
A window is provided to view the customer's additional phone numbers as outlined in Alternate Customer Phone Numbers.

Finished?

Click ACCEPT to accept the customer list and exit, or CANCEL to abort.

Finished?

Click ACCEPT to accept these values, or CANCEL to abort.

ACTIONS:
Additional actions provided by buttons on the Presentation Themes screen include:

• Delete an Unused Presentation Theme:
  Select a theme in the Presentation Theme field and click the DELETE button to permanently remove an unused theme.
  Confirmation is required.
  Only themes that have not been assigned to a customer can be deleted.

• Create a Duplicate of a Theme:
  Click COPY to create a copy of a theme as outlined in Theme Copy Utility to facilitate easy customization on versions of existing themes.