Supplier Portal

A Supplier Portal gives your suppliers and vendors a secure login to the PIMInto Product Information Management System (PIM) so they can view, maintain and import the product information for only the products they supply. Instead of emailing spreadsheets back and forth, suppliers enter and update their own product data directly in the PIM, and your team stays in control of what they can see and change.

A Supplier Portal is not a separate application. It is configrable using three standard PIM features working together:

PIM Feature	What it does in a Supplier Portal
Access Groups	Defines what the supplier can do (view, edit, import, export) through the Roles assigned to the group.
Views	Defines what the supplier can see — which SKUs (products) and which attributes, and which attributes are read only.
Users	The supplier's individual login. Each supplier user is invited into the supplier's Access Group.

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The supplier portal should not be confuse with the a Brand Portal. A Brand Portal is a branded online catalog used to share product information with dealers, customers and partners. A Supplier Portal is a login to the PIM used to collect and maintain product information from the suppliers who provide it. Both use Views to restrict which products are displayed.

Before You Begin

You must be a member of an Access Group with the Access Manager role to create Access Groups and invite users. To create Views you need the Access Manager or Data Manager role. See Roles.
Your products need an attribute that identifies which supplier each product belongs to, for example supplier, vendor or brand. The supplier's View uses this attribute to restrict the SKUs the supplier can access. If you do not have one, create it first. See PIM Product Attributes.
Decide what the supplier is allowed to do. Most suppliers need to edit product content (descriptions, specifications, images) but should not be able to change internal data such as your cost, retail price, margin or channel settings.

Overview of the Steps

1. Create an Access Group for the supplier and assign the role Data Editor.

2. Create a View that restricts the supplier to their own products and attributes, and assign it to the supplier's Access Group. It is critical to restrict SKU to read-only in the suppliers view.

3. Invite the supplier's users to the PIM.

4. Test the supplier's access.

Step 1: Create the Supplier Access Group

Create one Access Group for each supplier. Every user in an Access Group sees the same data, so suppliers should never share an Access Group.

1. Click the Settings Icon to open the Settings Menu.
2. Select the Access Groups menu option.
3. Click the Create Access Group Icon.
4. Enter a Group Name that clearly identifies the supplier, for example Supplier - Acme Tools.
5. Enter a Description of the purpose of the group, for example Supplier portal access for Acme Tools. Restricted to Acme products by the Supplier_AcmeTools view.
6. Click Next.
7. Assign the Access Group permissions by checking the Roles the supplier needs:

Role	Assign it when the supplier should…
Data Viewer	Only look up and review their product information (read only).
Data Editor	Add, edit and update the product information for their products. (Most common for a Supplier Portal.)
Data Importer	Upload spreadsheets or data files to create or update their products in bulk.
Data Exporter	Download their product data in bulk.

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Never assign Access Manager or Data Manager to a supplier The Access Manager and Data Manager roles cannot have Views assigned and automatically have access to all Views and all data in the PIM. Assigning either role to a supplier Access Group removes all supplier restrictions. Only assign the Data Viewer, Data Editor, Data Importer and Data Exporter roles to suppliers.

Creating an Access Group automatically assigns it an API key. It is not nescessary to share this API key with the supplier unless you intend for them to integrate with the PIM API; the API key carries the same Roles and View restrictions as the Access Group.

Step 2: Create the Supplier View

The View is what limits the supplier to their products. Views are the only mechanism in the PIM for restricting product data and SKUs, so this step is required for every Supplier Portal.

1. Click the Settings Icon to open the Settings Menu.
2. Select the Views menu option.
3. Click the Add View Icon.

View Name

4. In Access Group, select the supplier Access Group you created in Step 1. This assigns the View to the supplier's Access Group.

5. Enter a View Name, for example Supplier_AcmeTools. View names cannot contain spaces or special characters.

6. Enter a Comment describing the purpose of the View, for example Supplier portal view for Acme Tools — Acme SKUs only, pricing read only.

7. Click Next.

Adding Attributes to the View

8. Add the attributes the supplier should be able to see. Use Select Group to add a whole attribute group (for example, Specifications or Media), or expand a group and select individual attributes. Use the Attribute Name Filter to find a specific attribute quickly.
9. Leave out any attributes the supplier should not see, such as cost, margin, internal notes or channel settings.
10. Check Read Only for SKU and any other attributes the supplier should be able to see but not change — for example sku, supplier, price or status.

	Always make the SKU and supplier attributes Read Only Mark the attribute used to restrict the View (for example supplier) as Read Only. This prevents a supplier from changing that value and moving a product out of — or into — their portal.

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Caution Include the attributes the PIM interface needs The PIM user interface requires certain attribute data in order to display products. If the View removes those attributes, the View cannot be rendered in the PIM interface and an informational message is displayed. Always include core attributes such as sku and the product title/name in a supplier View.

11. Optionally, use Map to Field Name to rename attributes so they match the column names in the supplier's own spreadsheets. This lets the supplier import their files using this View without reformatting them. See Mapping and Restricting PIM Data (Views).

12. Click Next.

Restricting View Data to the Supplier's Products

13. In the Attribute List, click the attribute that identifies the supplier (for example supplier) to add it to the data restriction.

14. Select the Filter Condition and enter the Filter Value that matches this supplier. Without a wildcard, the value must be an exact match.

15. Click Generate Query. The generated restriction filter query will look similar to:

[[supplier]] LIKE 'Acme Tools'

16. Optionally, add more attributes to narrow the restriction further, for example to limit the supplier to a single brand or product line.

17. Click Create to create the View.

When the first View is assigned to an Access Group it automatically becomes the Access Group's default view. The default view can be changed from the Access Group management screen.

For full details on every field in this dialog, see Create PIM View.

Step 3: Invite the Supplier's Users

Each person at the supplier who needs access gets their own user account. Do not share one login between multiple people.

1. Click the Settings Icon to open the Settings Menu.

2. Select the Users menu option.

3. Click the Add User icon to open the Send Invitation dialog.

4. Enter the supplier contact's Email Address.

5. In Access Group, select the supplier's Access Group created in Step 1.

6. Optionally, add Tags, for example supplier-acmetools. Tags let you assign To Do List tasks to the supplier, such as Complete missing product images.

7. Click Send.

The supplier receives an invitation email from the PIM. They click the Confirm email address button, create a secure password, and can then log in to the PIM. When they log in they will only see the products and attributes allowed by their View, and can only perform the actions allowed by their Access Group's Roles.

See Inviting Users to PIM for more detail.

Step 4: Test the Supplier's Access

Before notifying the supplier, confirm the portal shows exactly what you intended:

Invite a test email address of your own into the supplier Access Group, log in as that user, and verify:
Only the supplier's SKUs are listed.
Hidden attributes (cost, margin, internal fields) are not visible.
Read Only attributes cannot be edited.
Import and export work as expected if those Roles were assigned.
When testing is complete, delete the test user. See Deleting Users from PIM.

Managing an Existing Supplier Portal

Adding new attributes. Once a View has been assigned to an Access Group, attributes created afterward are not automatically visible to that group. To make a new attribute available to a supplier, edit the supplier's View and add the attribute. See Manage PIM View.

Adding another contact at the same supplier. Invite the new user and select the supplier's existing Access Group (Step 3).

Changing what the supplier can do. Open Settings → Access Groups, click Permissions next to the supplier's Access Group, and check or uncheck the Roles. Views assigned to the group remain assigned. See Manage Access Group Permissions in PIM.

Changing which products the supplier can see. Edit the supplier's View and update the restriction filter in the Restricting View Data step.

Removing a supplier's access. Delete the supplier's users from Settings → Users. To remove the Supplier Portal completely, also delete the supplier's Access Group and View. See Deleting Users from PIM, Delete Access Group from PIM and Delete PIM View.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Use one Access Group and one View per supplier. All users in an Access Group see the same data.
Never assign the Access Manager or Data Manager role to a supplier Access Group — those roles bypass all View restrictions.
Importing using field mapping specified by a View is CASE INSENSITIVE. Exporting using field mapping specified by a View is CASE SENSITIVE.
An Access Group with no View assigned has unrestricted access to all attributes and products in the PIM. Always assign the supplier View before inviting supplier users.