Products
A "product" in Stratosphere can be a part, material, or product. It is important to have a complete and accurate Product Catalog, so that when individual items are added to Stratosphere, the barcode regex can quickly tie the item to its product name and number.
If your product is GS1-compliant, you will want to enter the products global trade item number (GTIN) in the Product # field. Your organization may instead choose to enter a part number, catalog number, material code, or something else entirely into the Product # field. If your company uses a product-identifying number in the barcode, you can pull this information out of the item’s barcode, automatically identifying it when adding it to Stratosphere.
See the Barcode Regexes article for more information on how to add items to Stratosphere in seconds, leveraging the Product Catalog.
Viewing products requires the "Product Management" role to be granted in your user record. Contact your system administrator to add this capability.
Products are viewed and managed on the Product Catalog page available from the side menu.
If the Kanban Inventory Management feature is enabled, products can be viewed and managed by selecting Products > RFID Product Catalog from the side menu.
To view a product's details, click the name of the product. The details page will display all the available information for that product, including:
- Product Name* - An easily recognizable description of the product.
- Product #* - The unique product code or number used to identify the product, usually present in the product’s barcode. Your organization may refer to it as a GTIN, part number, catalog code, or material code.
- Items in Stock - The number of items of this product that are currently being reported by Stratosphere devices.
* = Required
The Inventory Pricing feature enables a Unit Price to be set for products in your RFID Product Catalog. See the Stratosphere Inventory Pricing article for more information on the premium feature, or contact us to learn more.
The Product Catalog Additional Fields feature enables 2 additional fields, Product System and Product Category, to be set for products in your RFID Product Catalog. See the Product Catalog Additional Fields article for more information on the premium feature, or contact us to learn more.
Adding products requires the "Product Management" role to be granted in your user record. Contact your system administrator to add this capability.
Products are added to Stratosphere in order to identify items. Without a Product Catalog to reference, each individual item would need to have identifying product information entered manually.
There two methods to add products: manual entry and bulk import.
- Select "Add Product" in the top left of the Product Catalog page.
- You can also "Add Product" from the master add menu located in the top right, from any page.
- Enter a Product Name.
- Enter a Product #.
- Click Save Changes to finish adding the product.
There is no way to undo a bulk import, other than to edit or remove products from the Catalog individually. When bulk importing, take every opportunity to verify the accuracy of the import. Double-check to ensure that the data in the uploaded file is accurate. After importing the file, but before saving the imported records, open the "ready to Import" section and verify that the columns are mapped appropriately and the data is exactly as you want it.
Many GTIN (Global Trade Identification Numbers) that should imported in the Product # column as the Product # contain leading zeros. Many spreadsheet programs, including Excel, will remove these leading zeros by default. To prevent this, convert the Product # column to a number format of Text, and the leading zeros will be preserved for accurate import from CSV.
- Select "Import Catalog" at the top of the Product Catalog page.
- "Choose File" and select a file containing the products you want to import. The file must meet the following requirements:
- .CSV file format
- less than 1 MB file size
- Contain columns titled "Product Name" and "Product #"
- Once a file is chosen, select "Import Product Catalog"
- Before saving the import, validate that the import was completed as expected by reviewing the three lists:
- Ready to Import - These products were successfully read from the file. Verify that the Product Name and Product # are displaying as expected.
- Already in Catalog - These products were successfully read from the file, but already exist in your Product Catalog and will be skipped in the import to avoid duplication.
- Errors - These products were not successfully read from the file. It could be due to in invalid character, excessive length, blank fields, or an unknown reason. Where possible, the reason for the error will be explained in this list.
- If you are happy with your import preview, click "Import Products" one last time to save all the Ready to Import products into your product catalog. Any errors can be handled individually and uploaded in a subsequent bulk import.
You can review the last 10 product imports, including the list of Already in Catalog Products and Errors, by clicking "Import Catalog" from the top of the Product Catalog page at any time.
Editing products requires the "Product Management" Role to be granted in your user record. Contact your system administrator to add this capability.
There are two options for editing a product.
- On the Product Catalog page, open the quick action menu for the product you wish to edit and select "Edit."
- In the Edit Product window that opens, make any desired changes.
- Click "Save Changes" to save the edited record. Clicking "Cancel" or the X in the top right of the window will remove any edits you just made but had not yet saved.
- On the Product Catalog page, click the product name link.
- In the Product Details page, make any desired changes.
- Click "Save Changes" to save the edited record. To cancel your edits, simply leave the product details page without saving.
Deactivating products requires the "Product Management" Role to be granted in your user record. Contact your system administrator to add this capability.
Deactivating a product prevents items added in the future from being linked to that product record, but all current items in the system of that product will continue to be linked to the now hidden product record.
- On the Product Catalog page, open the quick action menu for the product you wish to remove and select "Deactivate".
- In the "Deactivate RFID Product" confirmation window that appears, click "Deactivate" to confirm the deactivation of the Product. This can be undone by activating the product. Clicking "Cancel" or the X in the top right of the window will not deactivate the product.
- On the Product Catalog page, click the product name link for the product you wish to deactivate.
- On the product details page, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Deactivate".
- In the "Deactivate RFID Product" confirmation window that appears, click "Deactivate" to confirm the deactivation of the product. This can be undone by activating the product. Clicking "Cancel" or the X in the top right of the window will not deactivate the product.
Activating products requires the "Product Management" Role to be granted in your user record. Contact your system administrator to add this capability.
- On the Product Catalog page, turn the "Show Deactivated RFID Products" toggle on.
- On the Product Catalog page, open the quick action menu for the product you wish to activate and select "Activate".
- In the "Activate RFID Product" confirmation window that appears, click "Activate" to confirm the activation of the product.