Create & Format a MarketDirect VDP Product

Please note that this step is for self-hosted (standalone) installations only.

For more information about obtaining a license for MarketDirect VDP, please contact your sales representative, call (412)-690-3050, or fill in the Web form at https://epssw.com/contact-us.php.  

1         Go to Administration > License.

2         Scroll down to PRODUCT OPTIONS and verify the options selected in the VDP Products: VDP section.

If one or more of the VDP Products: VDP boxes are not checked, please contact your sales representative, call (412)-690-3050, or fill in the Web form at https://epssw.com/contact-us.php for more information on obtaining a license for MarketDirect VDP.

Design and properly format the printed piece using VDP and Adobe InDesign.

Once you have verified that you are licensed for VDP, your next step is to set up the integration between MarketDirect StoreFront and MarketDirect VDP.

1         Go to Administration > MarketDirect VDP Configurations .

2         On the MarketDirect VDP Configuration page, Configurations tab, configure the following settings:

●       MarketDirect VDP Server Address: This is the address (URL) to the VDP server.

●        If you are an Graphic Communications hosted (cloud) customer: All hosted customers will get access to a hosted VDP server in the production environment. You do not have to do any configuration.

●        If you are a self-hosted (standalone) customer: Enter the address to the your VDP server (MarketDirect StoreFront technical support or professional services will assist you with this, as needed).

●       Conversion Timeout: Specifies the length of time in seconds that the VDP job is allowed to be in the process of converting before the operation times out and an error is shown to the buyer.

●       Batch Record Limit (Advanced): Specifies the maximum number of records an VDP product can contain.

3         Click Test to test the connection with the VDP server.

4         Click Save.   

Once you have set up the MarketDirect StoreFront - VDP Studio integration, your next step is to design an VDP template if you have not already done so. VDP templates are created using in Storefront Studio (using Adobe InDesign, which you must purchase separately). Please consult the StoreFront Studio documentation that was bundled with your MarketDirect VDP  / StoreFront Studio software for complete details on creating and formatting your template. You will need the compiled template (a zip file) to import to MarketDirect StoreFront in Step 4 below.

AccuZip mailing lists contain an extensive array of data on mail recipients. See the List Codes (PDF) for a comprehensive list of all available data that you can use when creating templates. See the SampleOutput (CSV) for a sample output file.

Once you have designed your template and generated the zip file for processing, your next step is to create the product in MarketDirect StoreFront and associate the MarketDirect VDP template with it and then publish the product on the storefront to make it available for buyers to order.

1         Go to Administration > Products.

2         Click Create Product on the Manage Products page to open the Create Product window.

3         Enter a name for the product in the Name field.

4         Enter a name to display to the customer in the Display As field.

5         Choose MarketDirect VDP from the Product Type drop-down list.

The SKU/Product Id field is optional.

6         Click Create.     

On the Progress 1: Information page:

1         Specify the brief description and thumbnail images (as you would for a product of any other type).

2         Open the Details tab.

On the Progress 1: Details page:

1         Specify the long description and product details image (as you would for a product of any other type).

For information on all fields in the Create Product pages, see the topic Create Products.

2         Open the Settings tab.

On the Progress 1: Settings page:

1         Configure the product as needed (and as you would for any other product) except for the following settings specific to MarketDirect VDP products:

●        Display Priority—Select a priority for the product from the pull-down list.

This will specify the order from top to bottom in which the product will be displayed on the storefront, from Highest to Lowest; higher priority will cause the product to display higher on the storefront product page. If two or more products have the same display priority, they will be sorted alphabetically.

●        Valid Dates:

●        Active: Specifies whether the product status is active (available now or, for instance, is created now to be made active at a later time, such as when a sales promotion begins).

●        Start Date: Use the calendar tool  to specify the date on which the product should start being displayed on the buyer storefront.

●        End Date: Use the calendar tool to specify the date on which the product should no longer be displayed on the buyer storefront.

●        Select Never if you do not want the product display to expire on a specified date.

●        Turn Around Time—If you want to specify a turnaround time for the product (when it will be prepared and ready for pick-up or delivery), type a number and time interval, else select None.

You can choose whether to show buyers the turnaround time for each product in an order in the Shopping Cart at the Print Shop (see Shopping Cart Settings for more information) or the Company level (see Shopping Cart Settings for more information).    

●        Preview DPI—From the pull-down menu, select the resolution for preview of the VDP product.

●        Shipping & Taxes:

●        Exempt Shipping Charges—No shipping calculations will be made on the product.

These settings are available for all product types (except Kits). For Kit products, the configuration of the items the kit contains will govern taxes and shipping exemptions. These settings are available for all product types (except Kits). For Kit products, the configuration of the items the kit contains will govern taxes and shipping exemptions.

●        Exempt Taxes—No tax calculations will be made on the product.

●        Taxes—(This field will be available only if you have enabled product level taxation, e.g., to accommodate multiple tax levels, such as VAT and regular taxes.

●     From the Tax pull-down menu, select the tax to assess on the selected product.

Available options will include Use Print Shop Setting, Tax Exempt, and the various tax rates you defined on the Print Shop page.

●        Supported Print Shops: If you want to restrict availability of the product to a specified Print Shop(s), click Add Supported Print Shops and then select the Print Shops that will support the product on the Assign/Edit Print Shops window.  

●        Record Entry Mode:

●        Single—This option is for VDP products that use a single record (e.g., a single buyer's business card).

If you select both Batch Mode and Single Mode this is a hybrid mode for VDP that enables buyers to order the product either as a single job or a batch job. Single mode will be the default on the buyer side, but buyers can select batch. Buyers will be prompted to upload a CSV file. The file’s records are viewable and a preview document (showing the user’s personalized data on the document) can be generated to spot check each record’s content. This is useful for preventing printing a job that has formatting issues, such as a name too long for the allotted space.

●        Batch—This option will prompt buyers to upload a multiple record data file (in comma separated value, CSV, format) or to use multi-column data sets (pre- created in the system; for more information, see Multi-Column Data Sets). For instance, batch would be used if a customer wanted to order business cards for all members of a department.

Notes on Batch Mode: Buyers will be prompted to upload a CSV file with multiple records for their VDP product on the storefront. MarketDirect StoreFront will create a sample CSV file for the template that you can use to format the CSV you use to port data to the system. A “Sample.csv” file link will appear. Buyers will be able to open the document in a text editor such as NotePad or WordPad and save it with a name of their choice. This sample document, created on the fly, serves to show users what data and in what format it is needed for the selected variable template.

Note that the first line is the header line and is mandatory, meaning it must be the first line in the CSV file because it establishes the format for the table. An hourglass icon will indicate that the operation is in process. An exclamation point icon will indicate any errors that occurred during the mapping process.

MarketDirect VDP Templates Products: Combo Mode
A batch VDP product in MarketDirect StoreFront can have both common (single) and versioned (batch) data. The term "combo" (combination) refers to a mix of common and versioned data in a VDP job. For example, a batch of postcards that a realtor distributes can combine common elements (all the postcards have the realtor's photo and address or a photo a property for sale; same for all records) and versioned elements (recipient customers' names and addresses; unique for all records). The buyer experience has the buyer entering the common information into form fields (i.e., the web form) and assigning a data source for the versioned information.

IMPORTANT Please note that it may take 10 minutes or so for the MarketDirect server to generate the VDP artwork and make it available for processing via the job ticket. The length of time will be based on a number of factors, including the record count, complexity of the template (number of variables and rules), use of image personalizations, number of jobs awaiting artwork generation, etc.

●     Direct Mail Jobs:

●        Support Direct Mail: Select this option to enable buyers to order a direct mail campaign featuring the personalized product. Buyers will be presented with options for procuring and maintaining a mailing list with the mailing service providers you have set up on the Mailing Service Providers page.

●        Support EDDM: Select this option if you want to support Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) services for the product mailings.

For information on EDDM, visit https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm.

●        Support List Purchase: Select this option if you want buyers to be able to purchase a mailing list for the product.

AccuZIP mailing lists contain an extensive array of data on mail recipients. See the List Codes (PDF) for a comprehensive list of all available data. See the SampleOutput (CSV) for a sample output file.

For more information on setting up and managing mailing service providers such as AccuZIP, see the topic Mailing Service Providers.  

 IMPORTANT The direct mail automation workflow is optimized for 50,000 records or fewer.

●        Allow Opt-Out of Direct Mail: Check this box to give buyers the option of not using a direct mail provider to provide mailing service (e.g., bulk mail) to recipients (and instead have all copies shipped to the buyer who will then handle mailing and distribution to recipients).

●        Override mailing service class: Select this option if you want to allow buyers to override the default mailing service class for the product.

●        FIRST CLASS: Select this option if you want to allow the buyer to choose First Class for the product.  

●        STANDARD MAIL: Select this option if you want to force the buyer to choose Standard Mail for the product.

●        Default Mailing Service Class: Select the default mailing service class for the product.

You will probably want to allow buyers to override mailing service class only if the default mailing service class is Standard; buyers would thus be able to upgrade from Standard to First Class for better service at a higher cost. If the mailing service class is First Class, allowing buyers to override with Standard would result in lower cost but slower service, which would be a downgrade.

●     Sample VDP Data: Check this box to show default sample data settings (in the default file you will upload below) to the buyer.

●     Default File: Click Browse... and select a file (in csv format) with sample data to populate the template and then click Upload.

●     Default Encoding: From the pull-down list, select the default encoding for the data: Western European (Windows), Unicode UTF-8, or Unicode.

●     Default Delimiter: From the pull-down list, select the default delimiter for the data: ,, I, Tab, ;.

●        Use MCD: Check this box to enable multi-column data sets with this template and to let the company address book be available for buyers to map fields to.

How buyers will use multi-column data sets: Buyers can also use an MCD along with an uploaded CSV data file. The buyer can select the Select Data & Create Data Source option then choose which records in the MCD should be used in the VDP job.

●        Enable Low Resolution PDF: Allow buyers the option of viewing and downloading a low resolution PDF (of diminished file size and quality compared to the production PDF).

●        Enable Imposition: Select this option if you want to specify how the printed pages are imposed.

●    Imposition: Select an imposition option (if any) from the pull-down list.

Imposition settings are defined in the VDP Storefront Studio and are included as DIMP files in the product template zip file that you will upload to MarketDirect StoreFront on the Progress 2: VDP Web Form page (discussed later in this help topic). If no imposition options were defined for the product, this list will be empty.

●        Dynamic Preview—Select to enable or disable a dynamic preview of the product. A dynamic preview provides buyers with a virtual display of the product based on the print and finishing options and features they select.

●        N-Up—N-up stands for Number of pages up (2-up, 3-up, 4-up, etc.) printing. N-up printing is printing multiple buyer-submitted pages onto a single physical sheet and then cutting them to a specified finished size. For example, instead of using letter paper (8 1/2 by 11-inch paper), a job can be printed with a left-side page and a right-side page on tabloid (11 by 17-inch paper) and then cut down the middle with an industrial paper cutter.

N-up printing accommodates your production processes that print multiple pages on a single sheet then cut to final size (the “cut and stack” model). The savings can thus be passed on to the buyer as the MarketDirect StoreFront pricing engine will take into account the number of sheets and impressions involved in printing N-up. For example, say a buyer orders 400 copies of a 16-page document. Without N-up, the pricing would be calculated on 400 x 16 = 6,400 impressions and 400 x 16 (simplex sheets per job) = 6,400 sheets. But if the product is set up for 2-up printing, only 3,200 impressions and 3,200 sheets are used (i.e., the number of sheets and impressions is halved). The model indirectly correlates the product cost to your cost of production with N-up capabilities (e.g., where lower impression cost is passed on to the buyer).  

N-up outputs the N-up information to Hagen, Logic, Pace, and the External System Connector (ESC).   

N-up should only be used for products that are very well-defined, i.e., those that have only one choice of Media size and a known finished size.   

●     Enabled: Check the box to activate N-up printing for the product (catalog item).

●     Type: Select an option:

●        Booklet (2-up across, duplex): A Booklet is a multi-page document with a wraparound cover that is typically printed 2 pages-up per side, folded in half, and saddle-stitched. An N-Up job is typically a document printed with two or more pages per side, cut, and stacked.

Warning: Ticket Template Requirements for Booklet Products: "Rules for Booklets"
For a booklet product to work properly, the ticket template on which it is based must meet very specific conditions.
1. The ticket template cannot contain special pages.
2. The ticket template must have duplex option selected. No simplex.
3. All Media must be of the same physical size (e.g., for an 8.5 x 11 booklet, the interior and cover Media would all need to be at least 11 x 17; they could be 12 x 18 if, for example, the pages had full bleeds and the final booklet product will be trimmed).
4. The ticket template cannot use tabs/tabbed Media.
5. The ticket template must be set up for a wraparound cover if you want to give buyers the option of having a separate cover for the booklet. Cannot have front or back cover options, only wraparound cover option.

●     N-Up Preview Size: Select a preview size from the pull-down list; can be set to None or to any of the standard final sizes as defined on the Administration > Media >Standard Final Width and Height page. For example, the width and height of a single finished and cut business card.

For more information on defining standard final width and height dimensions for a product, see Setting a Final Width and Height for Printed Products and Dimensions below.

●        Mobile Supported:

●     Select Yes if you want the product to be shown / available to buyers accessing the storefront on a mobile device.

●     Select No if you want the product to be hidden / not available to buyers accessing the storefront on a mobile device.

●        Pre-Selected Services—(For Ad Hoc Products only) Pre-selected services are those that have been set as non-configurable options for the product (e.g., print services with only one option on the ticket template): Show / Hide.

Selecting to show pre-selected services will let buyers see all options (e.g., for features and services), including those that they cannot change.

●        Manage Inventory:

MarketDirect StoreFront provides a simple product quantity / reorder point to manage inventory of non-print-related (e.g., Non Printed, Static).

●     Enabled: Enabling inventory management lets you manage non-printed and static product inventory (e.g., finished goods).

●     Inventory: Set the initial inventory of the product.

●     Threshold: Sets the reorder point (i.e., when inventory level reaches 10, send email notification to recipient specified below). This number must be smaller than the Inventory value you entered above.

●     Notification Email ID: Specifies recipients to be notified by email when the inventory threshold is reached. You can enter multiple recipient email addresses separated by a semi-colon ( ; ).

●        Order Quantities—Specifies the quantities of the product buyers can order:

●     Any quantity: Lets buyers order any quantity of the product.

●     Fixed quantities: Specifies the fixed quantities of the product that buyers must order. For example, you might offer the product only in the fixed quantities 100, 200, and 300.

●        Use the fixed quantity editing tools to set up your fixed quantities:  

	Lets you enter a fixed quantity in an entry box: . After entering a fixed quantity, click Update.
	Removes the fixed quantity.
	Adds another fixed quantity. Click to add an additional fixed quantity. Edit the quantity using the quantity editor if needed.

●        Example: If you set up the fixed quantities 100, 200, and 300, your fixed quantities will appear as follows:

●        This will present the buyer with a quantity pull-down list containing the options 100, 200, and 300 on the storefront.

●        Click Update.

●     By Multiples:

●        Allow buyer to edit quantity: Check this box to allow buyers to override the specified quantity for the product. 

If you select By Multiples for Order Quantities, check the Allow buyer to edit quantity checkbox, and enter quantities in the Mininum, Maximum, and Multiple fields, the buyer will be presented with a text entry field to enter desired quantities.

For example if you specify Minimum = 1, Maximum = 800 and Multiple = 50, the buyer would be presented with a tool tip in the Quantity field that reads Number should be multiple of 50.

●        Minimum: Specify the minimum number of the product that buyers must order.

●        Maximum: Specify the maximum number of the product that buyers can order.

●        Multiple: Specify the multiples in which the product must be ordered. For instance, you might only want to sell the product in sets of two, so you would set: Minimum = 2 and Multiple = 2, allowing buyers to order 2, 4, 6... of the product.

●        Advanced: Enables you to specify a more complex quantity option, for instance to match a pricing structure for the product. This calls for using regular expressions. Enter the quantity pattern using regular expression (or regex) recipes.

For more information on regular expressions, see Quick Reference on Regular Expressions.

Example: You want to let buyers order the following quantities of the product: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 50, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000. So you want quantities for 1 to 5, then 10, 20 and 50, and finally 1000 to 4000 in steps of 1000. The Advanced quantity tool enables you to do this by entering the following rule in the entry box: 1..5-10|20|50|100-1000..4000[1000] which is a combination of three simple syntaxes.“1..5” is the Begin..End[Step] syntax, followed by “10|20|100” which is a Values syntax, followed by another Begin..End[Step] syntax.

This will present the buyer with a quantity pull-down list containing the options on the storefront.

●     Click Done.

●     Multiple Recipients (SmartStores only): This setting determines how the total quantity is handled for split orders buyers place in SmartStore storefronts.

Please note that you do not need to enable multiple recipients for products that will use Direct Mail because Direct Mail jobs do not include a shipping step (because they are mailed not shipped to the buyer.

This setting will be available only if you selected one of the following order quantity options above: Fixed, Multiple, or Advanced.  

●        Each recipient set to a valid quantity: Choose this option if you want the minimum order quantity to apply to each recipient. For example, if the product has a minimum order quantity of 100, each recipient in a split order (one with multiple recipients) must be set to receive a minimum of 100 units of the product. Thus, this option enforces the minimum order quantity for each recipient in the order.

●        Total quantity must add up to a valid quantity: Choose this option if you want to enforce the minimum order quantity only for the total order amount for a split order. For example, if the minimum order quantity for the product is 100, as long as the total units of the product shipped meets or exceeds the minimum quantity, all is well. Thus, for an order with two recipients, if recipient one receives 25 units of the product and recipient two receives 75 units of the product, the order will be acceptable because the minimum order quantity of 100 was met.

●        Production Notes—Enter any production notes for the operator who will produce the job. These notes will be displayed on the production job ticket when the product order is ready for production and on tickets sent to output devices.

●        Keywords—Enter any descriptive keywords that will help buyers searching for the product to find it.

Separate keywords with a comma ( , ), spaces are not necessary, and note that your total character count for keywords cannot exceed 500.

●        Dimensions:

To ensure that the product previews correctly, it is strongly recommended that you associate the product with ticket template that includes the Final Width and Height print service and also specify a default size in the Settings on this page. If you do not do this, the preview will likely show the document on the wrong size Media (e.g., a business card or postcard on a 8.5 x 11 document will have too much white space).  

If you are using direct mail with AccuZIP, see Direct Mail Guidelines for additional guidelines on setting up direct mail pieces in MarketDirect StoreFront.

●        Standard Final Width and Height: You can set a standard final width and height dimensions for the product by selecting a standard final width and height based on the Media options in the Media catalog that you want to use for this product.

For more information on defining standard final width and height for Media, see Setting a Final Width and Height for Printed Products. This feature will work only if the product is associated with a ticket that uses the final width and height option.

●     Check the boxes for each standard final width and height option you want to offer for the product. (You do not have to offer any pre-defined sizes.)

●     Default: Select the standard final width and height option to use for the product.

●     Custom Width and Height:

●        Allow Buyer to Enter Custom Sizes: Select if you want to enable buyers to specify custom sizes for the product.

Optional Fields: Use the fields below to restrict the range of values buyers can enter when specifying custom sizes during the order process. If you do not limit the values, buyers will be able to define products of any size.

Please be aware that the information you supply here will define minimum, initial, or maximum permitted sizes using a unit of measure that you choose. This information will be used to control the buyer experience and will be converted to equivalent sizes for any of the buyer’s units in their unit system. This allows administrators who prefer to use metric to enter sizes in a unit that they are most comfortable with (such as meters or centimeters). The choice of unit that a buyer will see is evaluated based on other settings and may not be the one shown here in this product setting.  For example, a buyer who may be using a non-metric (e.g., US) system will be given equivalent choices in their set of available units (inches, feet, and yards).  So the information that you supply here does not in any way establish a default choice of units for buyers.

●        Units: Select the unit of measure that you wish to enter the size information in.

Note that this does not imply any default setting to buyers or other users; this is simply your choice based on what you are most comfortable for entering any widths or heights.

●        Width (optional): Type values for Lowest, Highest, and Default for the unit you have chosen for data entry.

●        Height (optional): Type values for Lowest, Highest, and Default for the unit you have chosen for data entry.

Products that will use direct mail services (i.e., AccuZIP) should be set up so that the shortest dimension is used as the height of the mail piece. This is important because when the label is affixed to the mail piece it needs to be oriented lengthwise so that the bar code can be read automatically.

●        Weight (single copy or item):

●        Optional: Before checking this box, be aware that the system will automatically compute an estimated weight based on Media (type, size, and weight), finished size, simplex/duplex, special pages, tabs, and printed covers. To override this calculation with a specific weight value, enter the weight here.

●        Weight: MarketDirect StoreFront will automatically calculate a weight estimation for the product based on the Media (weight, size), finished size, tabs, printed covers, finished size, etc. Check this box and enter a weight for the product if you want to override the automatically-calculated weight with a specific weight value for the product (note that you should enter the weight of each unit that goes in a sub-container; for example, the weight of each business card in a set of 250 or 500 business cards).

Important Notes: This is not used in calculating weight for direct mail postage.

If you do not specify a weight, the shipping cost will be determined from the weight of the Media but will not include the weight of any non-Media components (such as binding coils and cover materials) in the product, so you might want to specify a “per unit” weight to cover non-Media elements in the product.

2         Open the Pricing tab.

On the Progress 1: Pricing page:

1         Enter pricing for the product as you would for a product of any other type with the following exception for postage.

2         If you are using AccuZIP mailing service, you can now specify Additional Charges (e.g., to cover handling and materials) when pricing any product set up for direct mail.

●        You can choose from the following options to mark up or mark down the AccuZIP-calculated postage:   

If you are using AccuZIP, any value in the Postage Cost: Regular Price field will be disregarded (i.e., only the Additional Charges field will be used) in the postage calculation.

●        Mark Up: Specify a specific amount to add to the regular price for each piece.   

●        Markup As Percentage: Specify a percentage to add to the regular price for each piece.   

●        Mark Down: Specify a specific amount to deduct from the regular price for each piece.   

●        Markdown As Percentage: Specify a percentage to deduct from the regular price for each piece.  

By design, direct mail pieces are never subject to handling fees. They are governed by Postage and any postage markup fees you specify on the Product | Pricing page.

On the Progress 1: Security page:

1         Configure security rights and permissions for the product as needed (and as you would for a product of any other type).

2         Click Next.

On the Progress 2: VDP Web Form page:

1         Click Browse... and select your MarketDirect VDP template zip file (i.e., created in Storefront Studio) and then click Upload.

●        Associate fields on the template with User Profile fields.

●        Click Click to expand to show all elements that will appear on the page.

●        For each item, define the formatting options by completing the steps below:

Click  to expand each field.

●        Required Item: Check this box to force a buyer input in this field.

●        Show to Buyer On:

●        Check Single Record Jobs box to make the field visible to buyers ordering a single (one record) VDP product on the storefront.  

●        Check Batch Record Jobs box to make the field visible to buyers ordering a batch (multiple record) VDP product on the storefront and enable buyers to enter data into the editable field.  

●        VDP Field Type: Specify whether the field type is Versioned or Common.

MarketDirect VDP Templates Combo Mode
A batch VDP product in MarketDirect StoreFront can have both common (single) and versioned (batch) data. The term "combo" (combination) refers to a mix of single and batch data in a VDP job. For example, a batch of postcards that a realtor distributes can combine common elements (all the postcards have the realtor's photo and address or a photo a property for sale; this is the single mode part) and versioned elements (recipient customers' names and addresses; this is the batch part). The buyer experience has the buyer entering the common/single information into form fields (i.e., the web form) and assigning a data source for the versioned/batch information.

●        Display Name: The name for the field displayed to buyers. This field is view-only but can be changed on the Language Management | Customize Strings page.

For more information on customizing text using Language Management tools, see Customize Strings. Note that the Custom Words and Phrases (added by me) check box should be checked before searching for the string.

●        Display As—There are a number of formats in which buyers can input their own personalized data. For instance, for the item Gender you could use radio buttons Male and Female, pull-down list with the two options, a text box in which the user would type “Male” or “Female,” etc. Select the type of field/control you want buyers to interact with on the storefront from the pull-down list:

●        Text Box: Provides buyers with a free entry of text, as for a name or address.

●        Drop Down List: Lets buyers select an option from a click-expandable list of options.

For this list, you will have to pick a list from the data list manager (see the section Data Lists in this topic).

●        Radio Button List: Lets buyers select one option (a forced-choice list) from a list containing two or more items. For this list, you will have to pick a list from the data list manager.

●        Checkbox List: Lets buyers select one or more options. For this list, you will have to pick a list from the data list manager.

●        Graphic: Gives buyers the option of selecting a default image, uploading an image file, or selecting an image from a gallery.

●        Calendar: Helps buyer select a date using the calendar utility.

●        Multiline: Selecting multiline will cause the field to be displayed to buyers as a multiline text box without scroll bars (you can specify up to a maximum of 10 lines as, e.g., for a paragraph of text). You can make any field a multiline text box. Note that the width value you specify in the Enter Width field sets the line width (i.e., the smaller the width, the quicker buyer-entered text will fill up the lines and reach the line limit, i.e. which will cause the scroll bar to be displayed).

●       Rich Text Area: Please disregard this field.

●       Month and Year Picker: Provides buyers with a month and year utility.

●       RadioButtonPics: Lets buyers select a single image from a small number of images.

●        Image Selector: Lets buyers select an image from a predefined image gallery.

●        Enter width—Enter in pixels the width of the field to display on the storefront (maximum=700 pixels).

●        User Profile Field: Please disregard this field.

●        Order on page—Select the position for the field on the page (with 1 being at the topmost position) from the pull-down list.

●        Show on page—Select the page on which to display this field (e.g., if you are setting the input page for this product to span more than one page).

●        Enforce formatting—Enables you to force buyer input to conform to a particular format. The format can be either a known pattern (e.g., United States Phone Number) or a custom pattern (e.g., using terms in a regular expression).

●        Use known pattern: Select a pattern from the pull-down list.

●        Use custom pattern: Enter the custom pattern in the Pattern text box using a regular expression (or regex) recipe. An Internet search using the search term “regex” will help you locate a glossary of regular expressions for formatting. For example: The regular expression for the U.S. phone number format (000) 000-0000 is: ^\(?\s?\+?\s?\d{3}\s?\)?[-]?\d{3}[ -]?\d{4}$ For more information see Quick Reference on Regular Expressions.

●       Please enter the description of the format you expect: You can add a validation message that will alert buyers if they enter a format that is incorrect and advise them of the correct format for data entered in the field.   

●        Font Treatments—Please disregard the fields in this section as they do not apply to VDP products.

Only those fonts installed on the StoreFront Studio Server will be available to buyer—not those on the MarketDirect StoreFront Server.

—Stand-alone (self-hosted) customers can embed the fonts in their design, export to campaign package, define the font in a rule, add the font to MarketDirect StoreFront by adding it to a corresponding data list as a pull-down selection for the customer and place the font on their server.

—SaaS (Graphic Communications hosted, or cloud) customers are limited to selecting the default fonts listed in the pull-down list.

2         Click Next.

On the Progress 3: Choose Template page:

1         Select the ticket template to associate with the product (as you would for a product of any other type).

2         Click Finish.

On the Progress 4: Product Complete page:

1         Click Manage Products to return to the Manage Products page.

●        To publish the product to your storefront, click Publish It.

●        On the Select Target Category dialog, select the category in which to display the product to buyers on your Web storefront.

●        Click Publish.

●        If you have a license for product-level punchout (to allow buyers to "punch out" to your site from a procurement site (e.g., Ariba) and want to publish the product on the procurement site, click Publish to External Catalog.

For more information on integrating your site with a third-party procurement site such as Ariba, Coupa, or Four51, see Site Settings - PunchOut Integration Tab and Punchout Buyer Management.
For information on licensing the Punchout Buyers option, contact your sales representative.

●        On the PunchOut Buyers dialog, select the external (i.e., punchout) site to publish the product to.

●        Click Publish.

2         Click Finish.

3         Go to your Storefront and review the product as it will appear to buyers. If changes need to be made, click Manage on the storefront and edit the product specifications.