Accessing the Admin Area
To manage your store you, will need to login to your admin area, which is
located at
"www.yourcompany.com/admin". Basically, just go to your domain
name and add the "/admin" to the address bar in your browser. Once
you go to that URL, you'll be prompted to login with your e-mail address
and password. After logging in, you will be taken to the home page of your
admin area where, you may begin managing your store.
Browser Requirement: This manual and the Volusion Admin
Area require Internet
Explorer 6.0 or
higher.
The customer-side (front-end) of the website, however, is designed to be compatible
with all browsers. Please visit the following website to download a copy of the
newest Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/
Screen Size: It is recommended that you have your screen
size set to 1024 x 768 or higher resolution when using the admin area.
This allows you to view more data on-screen at one time without scrolling.
To view/change your screen size, minimize your windows, right-click on
your desktop and choose "Properties". A "Display Properties" window will
pop up. On this window, click on the "Settings" tab. This is where
you may change your screen resolution.
Navigating the Admin Area
From the home page of the admin area, you will be able to navigate to all
the various sections by clicking on the relevant links. You'll notice that
all of the links are grouped into sections complete with visual representations. For example, if you're working with products (adding/editing products), you'll find most of the links you need right there under
the "Products" heading. Once you click into a section (such as "Products"),
usually you'll be taken to the "Table Viewer" page, which by default lists
all records for that table. In this example, since we've clicked on the
"Products" table, the "Table Viewer" would list all products in that table.
"Using the Table Viewer"
Whenever you browse through the records of your table,
you're most likely going to be using the "Table Viewer" page. This
page allows you to browse through 25 (up to 500) records at a time,
giving you the option of editing each record by simply clicking on
the first field listed on the left side of the record. Clicking on
that link will take you to the "Record Editor" page, where
you may edit the existing record, add a new record or search your
table based on any fields.
The light blue tabs at the top-left of the "Table Viewer" each provide
the following functionality:
SEARCH: Allows you to search the table by any field
or multiple fields.
EDIT: Allows you to edit a single record.
ADD: Allows you to add a new record.
VIEW ALL: Displays all records in that table, X
at a time (i.e., 50 at a time, with next and previous page buttons).
MY LIST: Allows you to return to your search. For
example, if you search for products, it returns a list of 25 matching
records and then you click to edit one of them, you may click "My List"
to return to your search results.
There are often tan/peach-colored tabs in the top-right
of the "Table Viewer" as well. These tabs take you to a new table
or view of records. This is basically just a quick way to navigate to
a related table.
Editing Records in the "Table Viewer":
An easy way to edit your products (after you've added them) is to
access the "Table Viewer". First click the "(edit)"
link at the top of the column you wish to edit. This will make the
entire column editable. Now you may change the data as you see fit,
then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the SAVE CHANGES
button to save the changes you've made to the page.
When editing fields in the TableViewer, please note how many columns you have in view that are editable, and how many records you're showing per page. If you have 10 columns editable, and 500 records showing per page, this means there are 5,000 form fields of information that must be passed to the server when you click Save Changes... however there is a limit within your browser that does not allow this. Therefore we recommend that if you need to edit 10 columns at one time, first set your Rows Per Page to less than 50.
Modules Within the "Table Viewer":
BULK DATA UPDATE - This module allows you to build
SQL statements to update thousands of records in your table quickly.
For example, if you want to hide all products with manufacturer "SONY",
you could utilize this module to run a quick bulk data update on
your table. This feature is very dangerous to use because it has
the ability to erase or change data in your ENTIRE TABLE with a
single click. Therefore, before using this tool it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
that you first export all of your records for the table you're working
with. To export data, please refer to the "Import/Export" section
of this manual.
NOTE: Be careful what you do with this tool, as a simple mistake can change/erase tons of data.
VIEW PREFERENCES - This module allows you to show or hide any columns
of the table. For example, if you're looking at the "View All Products"
page and wish to show the column "SalePrice", do the following:
(1) In the first dropdown, choose "show"
(2) In the second dropdown, choose the column "SalePrice"
(3) Now hit the "Apply Preferences"
button. The selected column should now be showing on this page. PLEASE NOTE:
Not all columns can be shown on this page; some tables / columns
cannot be displayed in the "Table Viewer"; as they may only be displayed
for individual records.
Using the QueryBank:
The QueryBank (at the top of the "Table Viewer" in the light yellow
section) is used to remember common searches that you might run.
For example, if you do a SEARCH of the Products table every day to
pull up a set of 50 products for whatever reason, normally you'd
go to the SEARCH page, type in your search parameters and hit search.
Now with the QueryBank, you only have to run your search ONE TIME.
After performing the search, just type
the following into the QueryBank:
1) A name for your new Query (such as "My XYZ Search").
2) Leave the "Global" checkbox checked if you'd like for ANY administrator
to be able to view and run this query. Otherwise, uncheck it if
you only want this query to be displayed for YOUR admin account. For
example, if you're the accountant, you might want a bunch of queries
that are only useful to you, and therefore you don't want to waste
space on other administrator's screens.
3)
Lastly, just click the "add" button right next to this to add the
new query. The new query will then show up at the top of the "Table
Viewer" inside this small QueryBank section. So to run the query
anytime, just click on the query ("My XYZ Search" link,
for example).
Export to QueryBank:
The "Export to QueryBank" feature on the right side of the screen above the list
of records is used to quickly export the results currently displayed-to an Excel
spreadsheet, for example. This saves the current search query to the QueryBank,
which is integrated into the "Import/Export" system. This is
also referred to as "SAVED EXPORTS", which you may read more about in
the "Import/Export" section of this manual.
Using the "Record Editor"
Whenever you arrive at a page that allows you to edit a single record, you'll
be using the "Record Editor" page. This page can be used to do three things: SEARCH,
EDIT or ADD records. It is important to realize which mode you're in by looking
at the top of the screen to see which of these tabs is selected.
SEARCH
To search for a product for example, you would first go to the "Table Viewer" by
clicking on "View All Products" from the home page of the admin area.
Next you would click the "SEARCH" tab at the top of the page. That
will bring you to the "Record Editor" in SEARCH mode. When in SEARCH mode, you can
type in any criteria you wish to search for, then scroll down and click the "Search" button,
and it will perform the search and display the results in the "Table Viewer".
EDIT
To edit a product, you would first go to the "Table Viewer" by clicking on "View
All Products" from the home page of the admin area. Next, you would click
on whatever is the very first field on the left side of the record you wish to
edit. The first field on the left is always a clickable link that takes you to
the "Record Editor" in EDIT mode. So from this page you can now edit this single
record. After changing the data on this page, you will then scroll down to the
bottom of the page and you'll see a "SAVE CHANGES" button plus two
radio buttons below it. The radio buttons are:
Save + View Record - This radio button means that
after the changes are saved, you'd like to stay on this page, viewing
this record.
Save + View List - This radio button means that
after the changes are saved, you'd like to return to the Table Viewer.
ADD
To add a product, you would first go to the "Table Viewer" by clicking on "View
All Products" from the home page of the admin area. Next you would click
the "ADD" tab. Next you would begin filling in all the fields necessary.
You will then scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you'll see an "ADD
NEW RECORD" button plus three radio buttons below it. The radio buttons
are:
Add + View Record in edit mode - This radio button means that
after the changes are saved, you'd like to stay on this page, viewing this record
in edit mode.
Add + View Record in add mode - This radio button
means that after the changes are saved, you'd like to stay on this
page, viewing this record in add mode, with all the fields pre-filled
with the same data as the previously added product. Therefore, if
you're going to be adding many products with lots of the same information,
this makes it VERY EASY to keep adding products quickly without having
to re-type the same information over and over.
Add + View List - This radio button means that after
the record is added, you'd like to return to the "Table Viewer".
Helpful note: An easy way to duplicate a product, or add a new product with many
of the same attributes of an existing product, is to do the following:
1) Go to "View All Products".
2) Click to edit the similar existing product.
3) Now click the "ADD" tab at the top of the page. This will take you
to "ADD" mode with all of the fields pre-filled with the same information
as the existing product.
This idea works for any table/record, not only products.
"QuickEdit Toolbar"
Information on using the QuickEdit Toolbar can be found here.
Configuration Variables
Throughout this documentation, as well as throughout your admin area you'll run across references to configuration variables, commonly called "config variables". Anytime you see a word beginning with "Config_" this is a config variable. For example "Config_EnableCoupons", "Config_WebsiteTitle". So it is assumed throughout the documentation that you'll understand where in the system you'll go to edit the value of a configuration variable. Here's how:
1) From the home page of your admin area, click on "All configuration variables".
2) On this page you'll be able to edit the value of any configuration variable.
Using the Find dialog box:
To quickly find what you're looking for on a large webpage on ANY website, try this:
1) Press CTRL + F on your keyboard. (Or go to EDIT > FIND in your browser's menu)
2) A Find dialog box will popup where you can type in a word or phrase that you're searching for. This tool comes in VERY handy. |
