on 02-12-2025 09:39 AM
Release 7.8 focused on backend improvements that will affect storesite administration and frontend cleanup, user permissions, item rule creation, account editing, supplier purchase order updates, and other minor enhancements. Find out more about the latest features, changes, and fixes in ChannelOnline.
Storesite
Access Rights and Permissions
Catalog & Pricing
Accounts
Documents
Admin
Integrations
Supplier Updates
Import/Export Updates
Additional Improvements
Bug Fixes
Continued improvements have been made to existing store site themes. Main updates include:
Other additions:
| Column Layout: drag and drop components to desired columns. | Mobile View: use responsive settings to enable. |
|
|
Sample Use Case 1: There is a user that is not part of your user group in the system, they are in Other Groups. Because you don’t want all other users outside of your group to be able to access your account or document information, previously you were stuck. Now with Access Keys you can assign that one user, say it’s a back up rep or support rep, access to your accounts, documents or price profiles with the correct level of permissions.
Sample Use Case 2: There are four regional sales teams that are overseen by two sales directors. Each director needs access to create, modify and delete for all price profiles, accounts and documents in the two groups of sales users that they oversee. But they only need view access into the other two groups for accounts and documents.
How keys work
Access Keys are based on the existing system permissions that get assigned to group users and other group users. The key difference is that these permissions can now be applied to a single user. Use a combination of area permissions when creating a key. Keep in mind that a user will still need to have the Access Right permission to perform that action that gets assigned through the Access Key. For example A user needs to have “Create / Edit Accounts” access right to edit an account they have access to through a Read + Modify setting on an Access Key. Users without the “Create / Edit Accounts” access right in their access right profile will not get permission even if they are assigned it through an Access Key.
Permission areas: these are areas that a personnel user owns, and where others can be provided or denied access to.
Permission setting options: these are the permission options that are used to provide or deny access to permission areas a user owns. Only one setting can be selected per permission area.
Administration
Users with default access rights with Admin capabilities will have access to create and manage Access Keys automatically. Other users can be assigned an Access Right that has this ability enabled. All users can create their own Access Keys for other users.
Access Right settings to allow users to create and/or manage Keys are located in Admin > Personnel > Access Rights. The first setting, “Set Read / Modify / Delete My Group permissions and create user’s own Access Keys to share information (i.e. Price Profiles, Customers, Documents)”, is for individual users to create Keys on their own. The second setting, “Create, edit, copy or delete Access Keys for other users (Admin > Personnel)”, relates to administrative rights to Access Keys.
Create / Edit Access Keys. Users with the ability to create, copy, and delete Access Keys for other users will be able to set up keys within the Personnel section of Admin. To reach the Access Key management section go to Admin > Personnel > Access Keys. Within the Access Key Management page, you can sort by key owner, view/edit any existing group keys, or create new ones. In the key editor the following settings are available:
My Account
Users can see which Access Keys they have created, or have been assigned to them. To see these keys a user must go to their My Account page and switch between the two newly designed sub-tabs at the bottom of the page. This section has been redesigned for the assignment of multiple keys.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Activation of Access Keys in the system will automatically create multiple entries under the Other’s Access Keys sub-tab.
A new method has been introduced called Item Rules that allows a set of products to be defined by using multiple criteria for selection. These saved item filter rules are for use in catalogs and price profiles. To access this new section go to Admin > Items Admin > Rules.
Users build rules by selecting from the options in the Available Filters dropdown. Select from one of four options to begin the process. Multiple filters can be used but they must be added one at a time. Selected filters will appear in the right column titled Selected Filters. Choose from the options that are contained within the filter results provided from your selected filter for (example: choose a category, like Audio, from the category filter). Some filters allow for multiple options to be selected. Once the options are chosen, click the Apply button. At this point, another option from the Available Filters can be selected and added to the rule being created. Be sure to click Save to finish the creation process. Things to know about creating item rules.
Creating Item Rules
Using Item Rules
To use Item Rules, new sections have been added for entry and display to both the following administrative areas. Those sections refer to them as Attribute / Tag Rules.
NOTE: The “Create New Rules” button will allow you to create a new one that will be instantly available to be added to the catalog or price profile.
Items that qualify for electronic disposal fees for both the US (California) and Canada have been programmed into ChannelOnline. When items that qualify for an e-waste fee are added to a quote, a separate line with the appropriate fee will be added along with the item. On the product page users will see the e-waste notification below the Customer Price in the header and the Additional Details section of the overview sub-tab. To activate the automated E-waste Fee, select the “Enable E-Waste for states and provinces that charge E-Waste.” checkbox at the bottom of the Tax Profile page in Admin.
Linked to the item product line.
Product Page Updates
Header: Below the Customer Price on the right side of the header was added the E-waste Fee, MSRP, and Discount off MSRP (when in use).
Product page Overview sub-tab: Additional Details section.
Item Condition
Implemented the condition attribute that can be applied to custom and supported products. This condition can be added to products through the item edit page or imported with custom items. Condition options include: New, Used, Refurbished, and Damaged.
Product Selectors
Product Selectors have an upgraded look and feel. Plus, they now closely reflect the items available in each specific user’s selected catalog. No more listings of products that are not purchasable.
Service & Labor Items
In continuation of the advancement in service and labor items, old service and labor items have been migrated to be supported by our newer system. All of these items (old or new) will take advantage of the new fields associated with each item type. For service items, the product page will display Svc Qty, and start and end date fields. Service and labor items can only be associated with a single supplier. If more than one supplier can be used for the same device, the item will need to be entered twice.
There is now a way to set certain manufacturers for a selected category, or categories for a selected manufacturer so that they appear in the top portion of the catalog search results. These global settings will allow a manufacturer, like HP to rank higher than other manufacturers in specific categories for all users. To set these up you need access to Admin > Items Admin. Once there, go to the Global Search Results Ranking section at the bottom of the page, and click Add New Rule. In the lightbox:
Up to ten global ranking rules can be applied.
Launched a preview of the new three-level categorization structure that will be used throughout ChannelOnline in our future releases. To accommodate the higher degree of detail in the categories you will now start with a collapsed view that presents only the top level, expand, and drill down as needed. If you are having trouble finding something the new way, just click on the “Category: New” button to toggle back to the old category browse structure. Once on a product page,e you can compare the old values with the new but looking at the breadcrumbs along the top of the page.
| Alternative Browse View | Breadcrumbs |
|
|
Account edit and create pages have been refined to better align with the content widgets displayed on the account view. When clicking on an edit icon on the account view page you will be taken to a lightbox that pertains to the section you want to edit. There is no longer the need to scroll through a long page to find what you are looking for. The edit lightbox has built-in navigational aids to move the next or previous edit page. Plus a dropdown to jump to a different edit page if needed. This modification spans all Account types (except supplier): Lead, Prospect, Customer, Vendor, Partner, and Other.
Account Edit Lightbox (with select page dropdown)
Parent and Child Accounts
Custom fields created at the parent level will now flow down the child accounts without having to recreate those fields at the child account.
New account rights for creating and converting Leads, Prospects, and Customers. Now you can designate specific users the ability to create and edit certain account types and others the ability to convert them. Account types are grouped as:
The conversion setting controls who can convert leads and prospects to customers and other account types.
DOCUMENTS
Broadened the use of document prefixes and suffixes for the following document types.
Sales Orders
Instead of inheriting the value from the quote, it is now possible to set a separate value on the sales order that can be different than that of the quote. The set number of characters will remain the same but the value may be different. Example: You have set up the system today to use “Q-” as a prefix for all your quotes and sales orders (because they are shared). In 7.8 you can set the quote to have the prefix “Q-” and the sales order to have a suffix “-SO” because they can be different.
Purchase Orders
Like with quotes and orders, purchase orders can be set up to contain a prefix or suffix and have a fixed character field length. NOTE: The purchase order section is new for 7.8.
To enable prefixes and suffixes, go to Admin > Company Settings > Documents and select the document type that you want to enable. In that section go to start with “Use a static five-character alphanumeric prefix or suffix on…” and follow the instructions on the page.
Updated the footer and electronic signature actions to function the same as on a quote document.
Autotask: Inserted the ability to send line item fees (including e-waste) to Autotask. To enable this, go to Admin > Integrations > Autotask > Settings, and click on “Map Payment Terms, Delivery Methods to Autotask Items”. In the first section there is a setting for Default Fee Type, select Non-taxable Products from the dropdown in the right column.
ConnectWise: Creating catalog Items in Connectwise to handle mapping or line item fees into a specific category. To do this, go into Admin > Integrations > ConnectWise, Map Product Info, and set Product Type Fee as “Other Charge”, then for Product Class Fee select one from the dropdown, In the Fee Category Mapping section enter “Fees” (or something equivalent) as the value for both category and sub-category.
QuickBooks: Resolved trouble with some documents not syncing because of non-document-related issues.
Salesforce: now capable of mapping a quote SalesRep from ChannelOnline to a Salesforce custom field.
Duplicate PO Submissions: To prevent the possible submission of duplicate autofulfill POs we have added a thirty-second timer before the submit button can be clicked again. This timer is in place for all suppliers with autofulfill capabilities.
Tech Data: When importing Tech Data Quotes into a ChannelOnline quote, it can be done by entering a date range or by entering the quote # into the search field in the import window.
SYNNEX: Employing validation on password entry for the use of characters that are not allowed in their XML passwords ( < > & % ‘ ” ). Fixed a Status Check & Update button condition where it was not updating the items shipped and submitted statuses correctly at the line level resulting in additional submitted tracking containers being generated.
There are minor XML schema updates for 7.8 (see store custom fields). The link to the current schema is https://xml.channelonline.com/schema/7.8/schema.zip.
Refinements to Update Entity transactions include: