Checking inventory availability of an item with variations
Sterling Order Management System Software provides the ability to check inventory availability of an item with variations, based on a specified set of attributes.
This feature includes the following functionality:
- Filtering inventory by attributes and child items
- Maintaining supply and demand for the item with
variations and child items
Note: The behavior of some APIs has changed as a result of the introduction of the Inventory Availability of an Item with Variations feature. For information about behavior changes in these APIs, refer to the Javadoc.
Filtering inventory by attributes and child items
Sterling Order Management System Software allows you to check the inventory availability of an item with variations by specifying a child item or a set of attributes, such as style, size, and color. For example, you can check the availability of open-toe shoes in size seven.
If no children or attributes are specified when checking the availability of an item with variations, Sterling Order Management System Software provides information about the item with variations and all its child items. If you specify a child item or a set of attributes, Sterling Order Management System Software checks availability for only the items that meet the specified criteria.
Filtering by attributes and child items
The following table provides inventory information about child items of the item with variations, Tshirt.
Filtering by Attributes and Child Items
| ItemID | Defined attributes | Onhand quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Tshirt_red_small | Tshirt, Red, Small | 10 |
| Tshirt_red_medium | Tshirt, Red, Medium | 11 |
| Tshirt_red_large | Tshirt, Red, Large | 20 |
| Tshirt_blue_small | Tshirt, Blue, Small | 10 |
| Tshirt_blue_medium | Tshirt, Blue, Medium | 11 |
| Tshirt_blue_large | Tshirt, Blue, Large | 2 |
In this example, if you check inventory availability for Tshirt without specifying any attributes, the system returns the onhand quantity as 64. If you check inventory availability for Tshirt and specify the Red attribute, the system returns the onhand quantity as 41. If you check inventory availability for the Tshirt_red_large child item, the system returns the onhand quantity as 20.
Maintaining supply and demand for the item with variations and child items
The overall availability of the item with variations is equal to the sum of the availability for all child items. Demand is not placed against items with variations.
Supply and demand for individual child items is maintained separately for each item. Thus, the supply for one child item cannot be used to satisfy the demand for a different child item. For example, available open-toe shoes cannot be used to fulfill a shortage in sling-back shoes.
Calculating supply and demand for child items
The following table provides inventory information about the child items of the item with variations, Tshirt.
Calculating Supply and Demand for Child Items
| ItemID |
Onhand quantity | Demand quantity | Available quantity |
Shortage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tshirt_red | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Tshirt_blue | 20 | 11 | 9 | 0 |
| Tshirt_green | 40 | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| Tshirt_white | 80 | 90 | 0 | 10 |
In this example, availability for the item with variations Tshirt is calculated by adding the available quantity for all child items (10 + 9 + 0 + 0), which equals 19 available Tshirts.
This example also demonstrates that the supply and
demand for each child item is calculated separately. Thus, the available
quantity for
Tshirt_red is returned as 10, Tshirt_blue
as 9, Tshirt_green as 0, and Tshirt_white as 0. Additionally, the
available quantity for Tshirt_red or Tshirt_blue cannot be used to
meet a shortage of Tshirt_white.
Tshirt_white returns
a shortage of 10.