Upon first opening DecoNetwork, you will be presented with buttons, navigation bars, and links everywhere. To get the most out of the DecoNetwork support systems its best to understand the terminology used to describe each part of the system, what each part of the system looks like for different users, and how to navigate between the different views
Prerequisites
- You need to know what plan your site is running
The Admin screen
The Admin screen is the main configuration area of DecoNetwork. From here, Fulfillment Centers and Affiliates set up every aspect of their operations. To reach the Admin screen, log into DecoNetwork and click Admin.
You will be presented with the Dashboard in the Work Area, and the Dashboard highlighted in the Main Menu. The Breadcrumb Bar displays your position in the system as well with links available. The Top Bar shows you are in the Admin Area.
The Top Bar
The Top Bar controls the overall view of the system between the Admin area, Business Hub, and your Website. It also contains the Universal Search box, help options, messages, issues, details of the account logged into the system and the View Stores drop-down.
Universal Search lets you find anything that your DecoNetwork service manages or does through a single search box. For details on how to use Universal Search, click here to read the Using Universal Search help article.
Clicking on the question mark icon will display a menu with links to all the help options and support resources available to you in DecoNetwork. If you are not able to find the answers you are looking for in the available resources, you can click on the Raise Support Ticket button to submit a support request.
Fulfillment Centers that are on the Standard plan will not see the View Stores drop-down box as they only have control of a single store. If you are on the Premium or Enterprise plans the dropdown box will let you choose which store to manage and configure.
The Main Menu
The Main Menu gives you access to the main areas within the DecoNetwork Admin area. When first arriving at the Admin page you will have the Dashboard loaded with an overview of system performance. Other menu items have subsections which expand when clicked. Once you have moved away from the Dashboard the Main Menu will change to a compacted mode which reduces the main navigation items to icons and the submenu section is revealed. The main menu generally controls configuration items that affect all stores controlled by the Fulfilment Center.
Main Menu with Dashboard selected
Main Menu in Compact Mode with Website Pages sub-menus exposed.
Occasionally the submenu expands a second time to reveal the Inner Menu.
The Breadcrumb and Action Bar
As you navigate through the system down menus, the breadcrumb bar shows you the trail you have followed to reach your present screen and can be used to go back to an earlier screen in a single click. On the right-hand side of this bar, options may appear relating to the displayed work area.
The Work Area
The work area is the main part of the screen in which the configuration of the system takes place.
What you see depends on who you are
To this point, descriptions have been concerned with where parts of the screen layouts reside, but oftentimes the availability of screens also depends on who you are as well. Further, this can be affected by your DecoNetwork subscription plan as that changes the features you have access to.
Standard Plan is the smaller version of the platform which gives the owner a single website. Consequently, all configurations only ever affect that single website. Premium and Enterprise plans, however, are different. Changes in configuration may be to either a single store or all stores. This requires a change in the way the interface works to represent necessary dialogues.
A Standard site does not have a drop-down box to select which store to configure in the Top Bar. Neither does the Website main menu link take you to a list of all websites under your account. Additionally, you will not see Global Website Settings which are options that Fulfillment Centers configure that affect all affiliate websites.
Top Bar as seen by a Fulfillment Center with a Standard subscription. "View Stores" dropdown menu removed.
Main Menu items as seen by a Fulfillment Center with a Standard subscription. Website configuration link has been clicked. Note the lack of Global Website Options and the ability to select a website to configure. The Sub Menu being white indicates the settings being changed will affect a single website.
Main menu items as seen by a Fulfillment Center administrator with a Premium or Enterprise subscription after clicking on the Websites configuration link. Note the submenu is gray which indicates settings will affect all affiliate sites, and the Global Website Settings title to further draw your attention to this fact. There is also a list of configured affiliate stores in the main work area and the title bar contains buttons to add a new store or campaign, both options which are not available to Standard plan subscribers.
Affiliates with a login to the system will also have a different view. They will not have access to any options that control the Fulfilment Center at all, and no way to change any option that affects any site except their own. For example, an affiliate login does not have a link to the Business Hub, nor could they possibly control settings like shipping, decoration processes, and sales commissions, to name a few.
Affiliate view, no access to fulfillment options. Menu is white - only controls a single site - the affiliate's own site.
In fact, so many options are removed from affiliate logins, that all options are placed directly into the Main Menu. As this menu only affects a single website the menu is colored white.
Precedence of Configuration
An important thing to remember for Fulfillment Centers on the Premium or Enterprise plan is which configuration item will take precedence over another. For example, a store has configuration items relating to the use of the Online Designer, but so does the Fulfillment Center. So which area's setting will override the other? The answer is the Fulfillment Center will always take precedence over any equivalent or similar setting the store may have. This is a good thing to remember if a store's configuration is not quite turning out as you might expect, check both the store's configuration for the screen in question, and the equivalent Fulfillment Center Admin page as well as it may be overriding what you want the store to do. In fact, if an option has been disabled in the Fulfillment Center the setting you are looking for in the store may be completely hidden!
Am I Configuring an Affiliate Store or the Fulfillment Center?
When running a Premium or Enterprise plan, which lets you run an affiliate system with multiple stores, it can be difficult for the administrator of a Fulfillment Center to tell what they are configuring. Practically all options an affiliate has, are replicated in the Fulfillment Center Admin area where it can be turned on or off or have a default value set. This can be made even more complicated if the Fulfillment Center administrator is switching between sites frequently.
The answer to this is found by looking at the color of the submenu. If the submenu is gray, you are configuring options that are Global - they are Fulfillment Center level settings that affect all of your affiliate websites (including your own).
The submenu is gray - you are editing Fulfillment Center settings which are global - they will affect all affiliate sites.
If the sub-menu is white, or there is no sub-menu, then you are making website or affiliate level configuration changes. White menued configuration items will only affect one web store, the one you have selected to manage, and no others.
Sub Menu is white - affiliate website configuration. You can still access the main menu on the far left to get back to the Fulfillment Center level configuration.
All changes to any setting in gray will affect all stores that are affiliates of the Fulfillment Center.
Dashboards
A dashboard is an overview of the system the dashboard is connected to. For a Fulfillment Center, that means an overview of all orders for all of the Fulfillment Center's affiliates.
Fulfilment Center Dashboard
If you are on a Premium or Enterprise plan, once you are managing a particular affiliate store, the dashboard will reveal statistics in terms of orders, visitors, and commissions just for that site.
Affiliate store dashboard, accessed by a Fulfilment Center administrator. Note, the website icon is on, the breadcrumb is showing the name of the store, and the affiliate store alert. As the dashboard is for a website - NOT global - the Sub Menu is also white.
If you access the site using an affiliate login, the main menu items have again largely disappeared and options to select another site have been removed
Affiliate dashboard, no options to navigate or manage another site with a white menu.
This concept is consistent in all areas of DecoNetwork - you can only view and see options or sections that are relevant to your login and the plan to which you subscribe. Not all options will ever be available to you if you are on a Standard plan, or you if you have the Premium or Enterprise plans but log in as an affiliate.
Quickly Switching Between Stores (As the Fulfillment Center)
As a Fulfillment Center on the Premium or Enterprise plan, it is likely that at some point you will need to switch between stores. This can be done in two ways. The first is via the Websites icon, which displays the list of websites the Fulfilment Center runs. Click Manage to configure the corresponding store.
The second, faster way is to use the View Stores dropdown button in the top bar, which lets you jump straight to managing a site without first loading another page that lists your sites.
The size of the list of sites in the drop-down can become limiting for Fulfillment Centers with many stores. If the sites you wish to configure is not in the drop-down box, click All Stores to jump to the website list screen.
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