Document Links
WebAlliance allows hosting space of 1GB or up to 10,000 documents (whichever comes first). Additional fees will apply beyond those limits.
WebAlliance makes it easy for you to offer downloads of product information, like MSDS pages, instruction manuals, etc. on a per-item basis.
Supported file types include PDF, XLS, XLSX, CSV, DOC, DOCX, IES, DXF, DWG, ZIP and TXT files.
When creating your links, use file names that contain only the following characters: 0-9 a-z A-Z : _ - . % or a space character. Any other characters will cause problems, and will potentially result in a link that doesn't work.
NOTE - If your website uses the PIM-Enterprise, Custom Fields are supplied there. It's not necessary to create them in the ERP system.
If you need to attach a file type that isn't in the list of supported file types above, compress that file into a .ZIP folder, and link to that. WebAlliance makes .ZIP folders available for download, regardless of their content.
Step 1 - Link the document to the associated item
If you attach multiple documents using multiple methods shown below, all of those document links will be displayed on the website.
The simplest way to associate a file with an item is to name the file with the associated item code. For example, Item # ABC123 would automatically display a link to an uploaded file called ABC123.pdf on the website. This is the same automatic association concept as with item images. The item's page on the website would then display the text 'ABC123.pdf' as a link, which directs the user to download that file.
To take it a step further, name the file ABC123_Instructions.pdf. In this case, the website will display the text 'Instructions' (dropping off the Item Code and _ from the file name) as a link, which directs the user to download the file ABC123_Instructions.pdf.
This method is most effective if the file/item relationship is one-to-one, and you don't want to add any additional information to your ERP system.
This is an effective method if you have a copy of the file on your network, and you want to be able to access it from P21. It does have the disadvantage of being a little more time-consuming to create, as opposed to the first two methods.
In Item Maintenance, click the "Document Links" tab, right-click in the blank window and select "Add Item Maintenance Link"
Configure the link as shown in the above screenshot.
- The Link Name is the clickable text on the website. This should be the "friendly" name of the document (Instructions, MSDS, Our Catalog, etc.)
- You can use a local path to the file, if the file is available on your network (\\FileServer\Documents\ABC123.PDF) or you can use a URL path (as shown in the screenshot) if the document is not available locally. NOTE: Do NOT enter your WebAlliance beta site address here (xxxxx.sites.aes2.com) as this will be the link that your users will click on the live website.
- The link Status must be set as Active in order for the website to recognize it.
- The "Outside Use" box must be checked in order for the website to recognize it.
Bonus: WebAlliance can use documents linked via the P21 Item Maintenance "Links" tab as well.
WebAlliance uses only the filename by default. The path to the file does not matter, so you'll want to be sure that each file has a unique name.
As part of the initial website setup, several Custom Fields are created. 5 of those fields, Field1 - Field5, are 'wildcard' fields that can be used in a variety of ways. In this case, you can use any of the 5 fields to define links between items and documents.
This is an effective linking method if you don't need access to the documents through the ERP application, and if several items will offer access to a single document.
The first step in linking via Custom Fields is to decide on which of the 5 available 'wildcard' fields you want to use for document links. Once you've selected one of the fields, you must use that field to show document links for all applicable items on the website. Then, notify Aldrich Web Solutions as to your field selection. We'll configure your site to utilize the data from your selected field.
To associate a file with an item, simply enter the file name (rather than the entire path) in the chosen field. For example, the file name is ABC123Instructions.PDF. This will result in the item displaying 'ABC123Instructions.PDF' as a clickable link on the website.
To associate a file with an item, and define a "friendly name" as the linked text, enter [LinkedText]|{FileName].[Extension] in the chosen field. For example, Instruction Manual|ABC123Instructions.PDF. The website will display 'Instruction Manual' as a link to download the file ABC123Instructions.PDF.
To associate multiple files with an item, with or without defined link text, follow the formats described above, and separate with a semicolon. For example, to display 2 links where the file names are the clickable text, enter ABC123Instructions.PDF;ABC123Brochure.PDF. The website will display 2 links: ABC123Instructions.PDF and ABC123Brochure.PDF. Be sure to separate the file names with a semicolon, and do not use a space between the semicolon and the file name that follows it.
You can use the custom field method to attach externally-linked documents to your items. Be sure to include the "http://" or "https://" prefix with the link. For example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/a/documentLink
The "friendly name" convention still applies here, so if you want to name your externally-linked document, do this: Instruction Manual|https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/a/documentLink;MSDS Page|https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/a/documentLink2
You can use the PIM-Enterprise to attach documents to items. Check out the Attaching Documents to Items article in the PIM-Enterprise book for details.
NOTE: If you use the PIM-Enterprise to attach documents to items, you do not need to complete "Step 2 - Upload the Document" below. The PIM-Enterprise handles the whole process for you.
Step 2 - Upload the Document
File Manager Method
This is the preferred method of uploading documents to your site if you do not have PIM Enterprise.
To upload documents to be used on linked items through the site you will need to visit your site's File Manager.
This can be found in your site admin under the Content tab > File Manager or by going to https://www.yourdomain.com/admin2/content/filemanager.
For documents to be used on items you will need to navigate to the "Docs" folder and then to the "SKUDocs" folder. The "Current Dir:" path should look like "/customer/docs/SKUDocs" if done successfully.
Once you are in this directory, you can use the "Add File(s)" button or drag and drop from a File Explorer window to directly add files to the site for your items. You can add multiple files at one time but each file must be under 10MB in order to be uploaded.
FTP Method
When uploading documents using the FTP method below, be sure to put all of your documents directly into the FTP folder. For best results, do not use subdirectories to store your item documents.
In addition to setting up the links, you must also make the documents available to the website. To do so, use a standard FTP client (we recommend FileZilla, free and available at this link) to upload the files to the web server. Contact Aldrich Web Solutions to obtain your FTP credentials.
WebAlliance allows hosting space of 1GB or up to 10,000 documents (whichever comes first).
Upon connecting to your FTP account, you'll be sent to the correct folder for uploading documents. The folder path you'll see is /content/customer/docs/SKUDocs. Using FileZilla, uploading documents is simple:
- Enter the Host address: stlftp.aldrichsolutions.net (if you aren't set to use SFTP by default use sftp://stlftp.aldrichsolutions.net)
- Enter the FTP Document Upload username you received from Aldrich Web Solutions.
- Enter the FTP Document Upload password you received from Aldrich Web Solutions.
- Click the Quickconnect button. When you click the button, FileZilla will attempt to connect to the server and you’ll be ready to start uploading your files. If your connection causes an error, you may have to adjust your settings. Contact support for assistance.
- The left side of the screen shows the files on your local machine. These are the source files that reside on your local computer or server. Browse in this box to the location where you have stored the documents you want to upload.
- The right side of the screen is a listing of files that are on the server. This is the destination folder on the web server. You can drag files from the left section to the right section to transfer your documents to the server.
Once the files are in place on the server, the document links have been created, and your website data has been updated via the 4-hour schedule, your links will populate on the website.
Keeping Track of your Document Links
At some point, you may want to run a report to find out which items have been assigned document links. The WebAlliance system isn't intended to provide this type of report, but depending on your document linking method, you can find these document/item associations through your ERP system fairly easily.
Because the Automatic Link method does not involve the ERP system, there isn't really anything to report on. It's less work than the other two methods to set up initially, but much more difficult to report on later.
The other two available methods, Item Maintenance - Document Links tab and Custom Fields, do leave a data trail in the ERP system. Because of that, it's easy to generate a report that can tell you which items have document links.
The PIM-Enterprise makes it easy to keep track of document/item associations. You can simply export a CSV file containing all of your item information from the PIM-E.