Community Owners can determine the details suppliers provide when sharing location data. These details are collected through the attributes within each location type. To create a new location type or view existing location type(s), navigate to the Admin area by clicking the cog wheel in the top right corner or the cog wheel next to Locations in the left-hand navigation. Then, select Locations.
Note: A location type must be associated with a business requirement group in order for it to be available for the supplier to use. See the article Assigning Requirements for more information.
Creating a New Location Type
First, name the location type and choose an approval flow (visit the Configuring Location Flows article for more details). For each of the location types, supplier(s) may share multiple locations that fall under the same type; for example, “Distribution Facility” or “Processing Facility."
Default Attributes
Location Name is the only fixed required attribute, while Category, Internal ID, Address, and Description are fixed as optional. As community owner, you can specify which of the other 7 default attributes are required.
Supplier view of adding a location with the type Corporate HQ we’ve created.
Custom Attributes
Custom Attributes are completely user-defined and may be specific to your own business.
"Attribute Name" vs "Key"
- Attribute Name is the user-friendly value that will be displayed to the supplier who is entering the information.
- Key is intended for the database name if you are importing using our .csv template or using APIs to share the information.
When adding a custom attribute, there are 10 field types to choose from. When entering data, if a supplier tries to enter a value that is inconsistent with the expected response(s), there will be an error message. Listed below are the 10 possible field types:
- Combination: You can associate two list fields together. For instance, perhaps you want suppliers to identify a distributor (select "Businesses List") they ship to, then the distributor location (select "Locations List").
- Contact: This field allows suppliers to associate a contact with specific location(s). Learn more about Location Contacts here.
- Date: Display a calendar within the online submission form for your users to select a date. If importing products using our .csv template, the required format is “mm/dd/yyyy”.
- Decimal Number: Use when requesting a numeric value for an attribute that needs to have the option of recording decimals, such as price per case or case weight.
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Selection list types: Display a dropdown menu of option. Single selection is by default, but you can allow for multiple selections if needed.
- Businesses List : This will pull from the Connections list if you have enabled your suppliers to connect to other members of your community.
- Custom Selection List: You can define your own list of choices. Just add as a comma-delimited list.
- Locations List: Display a list of locations that suppliers have connected with using the Connections feature (if enabled in your Community Information page), or a list of the supplier's own locations.
- Text: Choose this option if you want a free-form text field.
- Whole Number: Use when requesting a numeric value for an attribute that does not require decimals.
- Yes/No: Use when asking a question where the supplier has only these two options
Click Add Attribute to include the new field within the location type.
Editing Custom Attributes
Once you create your attributes you have a few options to edit them.
- Modify the order: If you want to adjust the ordering of your attributes, click on the row and drag and drop the attribute to the desired placement. This might come in handy if your suppliers are bulk uploading this data in a spreadsheet and want to be consistent with the ordering of the data in that template.
- Required vs. Optional: To change an attribute from required to optional or vice versa, simply check or uncheck the Required checkbox.
- Remove attributes: If you no longer need the attribute, click the trash can to delete it completely.
- In-attribute editing: Click into any attribute to edit its Name, Key, Field Type, Help Text, or Required status.
Document and Assessment Requirements
After defining the default and custom attributes, document and assessment requirements can be assigned to each specific location type. To-dos will be automatically generated on the supplier dashboard for each document and assessment requirement once a supplier adds a location of this type. For details and instructions on these requirements, see the article Defining Document and Assessment Requirements on a Product and Location Level.