Archived what's new in previous years

8 October 2024 (Store Inventory Management update)

The nonproduction environments are upgraded on 8 October 2024. The production environments are upgraded on 16 October 2024.

Enhanced inventory snapshot: The key improvements to inventory snapshot include scheduling and data accuracy to ensure better flexibility and real-time insights. To capture data for multiple stores in one snapshot schedule, you can now pass a comma-separated list of unique store IDs. Also, the inventory snapshot now captures data at the scheduled time and provides a real-time and accurate reflection of the inventory picture for a store. For more information, see Inventory snapshots.

4 October 2024 (Release 24.3.9.1-10.0.2409.1)

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see 4 October 2024 (Release 24.3.9.1-10.0.2409.1).

6 September 2024 (Release 24.3.9.0-10.0.2409.0)

Order fulfillment page is defaulted: When you log in to the application for the first time, by default the Order fulfillment page is displayed.

Log out of the Microsoft™ Entra account: You are now prompted to select your Microsoft Entra account to log out of the applications. For more information, see Configuring Microsoft Entra integration with Liberty.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 6 September 2024 (Release 24.3.9.0-10.0.2409.).

2 August 2024 (Release 24.2.6.2-10.0.2406.2)

Important: As notified on 7 June 2024, the Sterling Store Engagement legacy application that is built on Angular 11 for which the application URL is https://<domain-name>/isf/store/index.html is deprecated.

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see 2 August October 2024 (Release 24.2.6.2-10.0.2406.2).

5 July 2024 (Release 24.2.6.1-10.0.2406.1)

Track inventory based on product class and inventory status: The Lookup inventory page is enhanced so that you can track inventory at each location based on the product class and inventory status. For more information see, Looking up inventory and Implementing inventory lookup.

A home icon is added to the navigation bar: The Home icon is added to the navigation bar so that you can go back to the home page at any time.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 5 July 2024 (Release 24.2.6.1-10.0.2406.1).

7 June 2024 (Release 24.2.6.0-10.0.2406.0)

Important: The Sterling Store Engagement legacy application that is built on Angular 11 for which the application URL is https://<domain-name>/isf/store/index.html is outdated. You cannot access the legacy application when the next 24.2.6.1-10.0.2406.2 minor update is released, which is scheduled in August 2024. Therefore, ensure that you are using the Sterling Store Engagement next-generation application, which is built on Angular 15 for which the application URL is https://<domain-name>/isf/store-frontend/index.html.

If you want to continue on Angular 11, set the property isf.legacystore.enabled=Y before the minor update is released.

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see Upgrading to Angular version 15.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 7 June 2024 (Release 24.2.6.0-10.0.2406.0).

3 May 2024 (Release 24.1.3.2-10.0.2403.2)

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see 3 May 2024 (Release 24.1.3.2-10.0.2403.2).

15 April 2024 (Store Inventory Management update)

The nonproduction environments are upgraded on 15 April 2024. The production environments are upgraded on 16 April 2024.

Reclassify inventory: Store associates can reclassify inventory to ensure data accuracy and streamline inventory management. For more information, see Reclassify inventory.

5 April 2024 (Release 24.1.3.1-10.0.2403.1)

Enhanced the navigation bar extension: The navigation bar now supports both override and differential extensibility approaches. You can choose any of the approaches to extend the navigation bar. For more information, see Modifying application-provided navigation bar.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 5 April 2024 (Release 24.1.3.1-10.0.2403.1).

1 March 2024 (Release 24.1.3.0-10.0.2403.0)

Enhanced advanced search capability: To improve system performance, the advanced search capability is enhanced. When you refine your search in the advanced search option, you must enter at least one search criteria.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 1 March 2024 (Release 24.1.3.0-10.0.2403.0).

19 January 2024 (Release 23.3.9.2-10.0.2309.2)

Customize the list and details page by configuration: You can now customize the list and details page by configuration to show or hide data. For more information, see Customizing by configuration.

Customize the login page: You can now customize the layout of the Login page as needed for your business. For more information, see Customizing the layout.

Hide portlets: You can now write custom logic to hide portlets, if the existing capability to use either resource permission or showPortlet attribute of the isf-persona-config.json file cannot be used for your business. For more information, see Hiding portlets.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 19 January 2024 (Release 23.3.9.2-10.0.2309.2).

7 December 2023 (Store Inventory Management update)

The nonproduction environments are upgraded on 7 December 2023. The production environments are upgraded on 25 January 2024.

Enhancements to the create count tasks for physical or cycle count request API

The Create count tasks for physical or cycle count request API is enhanced to add count tasks to a count request.

The following enhancements are made to the Create count tasks for physical or cycle count request API:

If a cycle count request is in the NOT_STARTED or IN_PROGRESS status, you can add count tasks to a count request. For a single product, you can create multiple count tasks by passing one or more location identifiers.
If any of the created count tasks exists in another count request, the existing count task is canceled, and the corresponding count request status is updated.
You can create count tasks for a physical or cycle count request, even if inventory is not available.

For more information, see the Create count tasks for physical or cycle count request API documentation.

6 October 2023 (23.3.9.1-10.0.2309.1)

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see 6 October 2023 (Release 23.3.9.1-10.0.2309.1).

1 September 2023 (Release 23.3.9.0-10.0.2309.0)

Stack upgrade: Struts version is upgraded from 2.5.30 to 2.5.31 to remediate security vulnerabilities.

7 July 2023 (Release 23.2.6.1-10.0.2306.1)

Customize the home page to display only mini portlets: By default, both main and mini portlets are displayed in the home page. You can now customize the home page to display only mini portlets. For more information about customizing the home page to display only mini portlets, see Displaying only mini portlets in the home page.

19 June 2023 (Store Inventory Management update)

Enhancements to Update Product and Product Overrides API

The following enhancements are made to the Update Product and Product Overrides API:

For the POST method, the MODIFY_PROVIDED_ITEMS header property is added so that the action of updating products and overriding the existing products in takes place. If you set MODIFY_PROVIDED_ITEMS=true, the products and corresponding store overrides passed in the input are updated. Otherwise, the POST method replaces the complete product.
To override the existing products, a PUT method is added.

2 June 2023 (Release 23.2.6.0-10.0.2306.0)

UI upgraded to Angular version 15: The Sterling Store Engagement application UI is upgraded to Angular version 15.

The Include orders being fulfilled by other stores option is permission that is controlled: The Include orders being fulfilled by other stores checkbox in the Advanced search screen of the Find shipments portlet is permission controlled. Users with permission can view and choose to include orders that are fulfilled by other stores.

Note: If you are using this capability, after you upgrade to 23.1.3.2-10.0.2306.0, make sure that you enable the permission.

Update the application-provided background image and literals of the login page: You can update the application-provided background image and literals of the application Login page.

7 April 2023 (Release 23.1.3.1-10.0.2303.1)

Inventory audit service

The Inventory Audit service receives audit-related data from Store Inventory Management through change events, and allows an external request to query a specific set of inventory audit records.

For more information about the Inventory Audit service, see Inventory audit service.

Simplified approach to extend application-provided and custom portlets in a differential manner

A simplified new approach for extending the application-provided portlets and custom portlets is introduced. The new approach is consistent and similar to common components and modals extension process. The new approach also reduces the ownership of maintaining the code as you need not own the home page anymore.

For more information, see Customizing portlets and Extracting customizations.

3 March 2023 (23.1.3.0-10.0.2303.0)

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see 3 March 2023 (Release 23.1.3.0-10.0.2303.0).

17 February 2023 (Store Inventory Management update)

Issues were fixed in this release. For more information, see 17 February 2023 (Store Inventory Management update).

20 January 2023 (Release 23.1.3.0-10.0.2303.0)

Configure the development and QA cloud instances as remote server in your local development environment

The customization developer can now serve micro-front end applications from development or QA cloud instance by providing the appropriate p12 certificate file and certificate password. The developers can configure the development or QA cloud instance as a remote server in the app-config-overrides.json file.

For more information about configuring the development or QA cloud instance as a remote server, see Configuring local development server.

Customize the application-provided functional component

You can now customize the application-provided reusable functional components.

For more information about customizing the functional components, see Modifying application-provided functional components.

Issues were also fixed in this release. For more information, see 20 January 2023 (23.1.3.0-10.0.2303.0).

30 September 2022 (Release 10.0.2209.1 (22.3 Minor update 1))

Install Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation) on premises solution: You can install the Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation) on premises solution. For more information about the installation instructions, see Installing Sterling Store Engagement using command line.
For the list of features that are supported for the on premises Sterling Store Engagement solution, see Key capabilities of Sterling Store Engagement on premises solution.

Deprecated Dojo and AngularJS-based Sterling Store Engagement (legacy)

AngularJS discontinued their support in January 2022. The security patches for AngularJS will not be released anymore, which might result in vulnerabilities. This impacts the IBM Dojo Extension Toolkit (IDX) as well.

As a result of the AngularJS discontinuation, both AngularJS and Dojo-based Sterling Store Engagement (legacy) for SaaS and on premises solutions are deprecated. Ensure that you transition to the Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation), which is built on the latest Angular framework technology, and available for both SaaS and on premises deployments.

For more information about transitioning from Sterling Store Engagement (legacy) to Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation), see Transitioning from Sterling Store Engagement (legacy).

Customize the application-provided navigation bar: You can customize the application-provided navigation bar. For more information about customizing the navigation bar, see Modifying application-provided navigation bar.

Override application-provided modals using CLI command: You can customize the application-provided modals by using a CLI command. For more information about the CLI command, see Modifying application-provided modals.

Enhanced CLI command to customize application-provided screens: The CLI command that is used to customize application-provided screens is enhanced to auto-import components and services in the new application module. For more information about the enhanced CLI command, see Modifying the application-provided screens.

Override application-provided portlets: You can customize the application-provided portlets, or create custom portlets. For more information about creating or customizing portlets, see Customizing portlets.

Deploy customization for Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation) on premises solution: You can deploy customization for Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation) on premises solution. For more information about the deploying customization, see Deploying customization.

26 August 2022 (Release 10.0.2209.0 (22.3))

Override application-provided modals: Sterling Store Engagement provides the capability to override the application-provided modal. For more information about overriding the application-provided modals, see Modifying application-provided modals.

29 July 2022 (Release 22.2 Minor update 2)

Customize the application style: You can modify the application-provided styles and add new styles for customizations. For more information, see Customizing the application style.

Modify application-provided JSON files: You can override the application-provided configuration and translation bundle (i18n) JSON files. For more information, see Modifying application-provided JSON files.

Migrate existing JSON files: You can migrate the existing custom portlet-persona configuration and i18n JSON files to the new structure. For more information, see Migrating existing JSON files.

Draft comment: shailaskumar@in.ibm.com

Transitioning from Sterling Store Engagement (legacy): With both AngularJS and IBM Dojo Extension Toolkit (IDX) having reached their end of support, including critical security fixes, you can transition from the existing Sterling Store Engagement (legacy) application to the Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation) application. For for more information about transitioning to the Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation); application, see Transitioning from Sterling Store Engagement (legacy).

25 July 2022 (Store Inventory Management update)

Enhancements to pickRequestCancelled event: The pickRequestCancelled event is enhanced to include a new cancelledBy attribute to the event message. For more information about the cancelledBy attribute, see Pick Request Canceled event.

Enhancements to Task Exception API

The Task Exception API is enhanced to support capturing of serials that are marked as shortage. For more information about the Task Exception API, see the following APIs:

Draft comment: shailaskumar@in.ibm.com

Inventory audit service: Important: The inventory audit service is available only on nonproduction environments and not available on production environments.

The Inventory Audit service receives audit-related data from Store Inventory Management through change events, thus allowing external request to query a specific set of inventory audit records. For more information about the Inventory audit service, see Inventory audit service.

24 June 2022 (Release 22.2 Minor update 1)

Enhanced manager dashboard: The manager dashboard is enhanced to display the Expand icon. When you click this icon, the corresponding list screen opens. Also, a new widget that displays the incoming shipments status is introduced. For more information about the enhancements made to manager dashboard, see Visualizing data with Manager Dashboard.

30 May 2022 (Store Inventory Management update)

Introduced add bulk inventory API: The Store Inventory Management enables store associates to add inventory in bulk at one or more locations by calling the Add Bulk Inventory API.

Enhancements to count events: The count events are updated and now applicable for physical count as well. For more information about the count events that are generated as part of the Count APIs, see Count events.

27 May 2022 (Release 22.2)

Move inventory in bulk: Sterling Store Engagement provides the ability to move a bulk of inventory from one location to another location, without having to scan every product in the location. For more information about moving inventory in bulk, see Bulk inventory move.

Visualize data with manager dashboard: Sterling Store Engagement introduces the Manager Dashboard that presents at-a-glance the performance of a store. The dashboard empowers store managers to make fast and data-driven decisions based on the latest information. For more information about the manager dashboard, see Manager Dashboard.

Sterling Store Engagement based on micro-frontend architecture: The NodeJS, Angular CLI, Angular, and Bootstrap framework versions are upgraded. Therefore, you must again set up your local environment. For more information about setting up your local environment, see Setting up a local development instance.

29 April 2022 (Release 22.1 Minor update 2)

Sterling Store Engagement based on micro-frontend architecture: Sterling Store Engagement based on micro-frontend architecture is now available in Developer Toolkit. For more information about the micro front-end architecture, see Sterling Store Engagement based on micro-frontend architecture.

31 March 2022 (Release 22.1 Minor update 1)

Cancel move requests

You can cancel an in-progress or not started move request either partially or completely for products or quantities that are not deposited.

For more information about canceling move requests, see the following topics:

25 February 2022 (Release 22.1)

Creating return and exchange orders

As a store associate, you can process returns against customer orders and exchanges on return orders.

For more information about returns and exchanges, see the following topics:

Receiving inventory by serial numbers

You can now receive inventory at the store by scanning the serial number of the SKUs.

For more information about receiving serialized inventory, see the following topics:

Putaway products based on the putaway type

The Putaway list page is enhanced to display the putaway type. This enhancement enables you to view the putaway type and putaway products for the corresponding putaway type.

For more information, see the following topics:

Enhancements to move inventory user interface: For a better user experience, the Move inventory user interface is enhanced.

Enhancements to Store Inventory Management APIs

The putaway-preferences API is enhanced to configure type and putawayRequired attributes at the tenant or store level. For more information about the putaway-preferences API, see Putaway Preferences.
The Location Inventory API is enhanced to search for inventory associated with a product by providing multiple tag numbers, separated by a comma.

Stack upgrade: Struts is upgraded to version 2.5.26 for IBM® Sterling Store Engagement, (next-generation and legacy).
Note: Struts customization is not supported for IBM Sterling Store Engagement (next-generation). If any customization exists for IBM Sterling Store Engagement (legacy) struts.xml, ensure to upgrade the Document Type Definition (DTD) version to 2.5.

14 February 2022 (Store Inventory Management update)

The non-production environments were upgraded on 07 February 2022. The following enhancements are provided in this update of Store Inventory Management:

Canceling in-progress move requests: The Cancel Move Request API is enhanced to support cancellation of move requests that are in in-progress status. Optionally, you can capture the cancellation reason for the canceled quantity or serials by passing the exceptionCode and exceptionReason attributes in the API request, which is applicable for all move request types. Additionally, the cancelAllApplicableProductQuantity attribute is introduced that allows you to cancel the applicable quantity for a product without passing the quantity or serials in requestedProducts of the API request. The cancelAllApplicableProductQuantity attribute is not applicable for ad hoc move requests.
For more information about Canceling Move Request API, see Cancel Move Request.

Physical count: Physical count enables a store to synchronize the physical and system inventory. Physical inventory count in a store is an essential part of keeping inventory records accurate and current. For more information about physical count, see Physical count.

23 August 2021 (Release 21.3)

Enhanced login experience: The login page of IBM Sterling Store Engagement now sports a new look to better align with the expanding capabilities of the next-generation user interface.

Modifying orders

As a store associate, you can modify existing orders to make changes such as:

Add a new product to the order.
Remove a product from the order.
Edit product quantity.
Modify delivery methods.
Capture appropriate payment details for changes in the order total.

For more information about modifying orders, see the following topics:

Support for sort while pick during shipment-based batch picking in Store Inventory Management (SIM)-disabled stores

As a store associate, you can pick the products in a batch, sort them into different totes that are associated with an order in the batch, and stage the totes to a staging location.

For more information about shipment-based batch picking, see the following topics:

Receiving inventory by products

You can receive inventory by scanning a product or SKU instead of by scanning cartons or containers. For more information about receiving inventory by products, see the following topics:

Enhancements to Store Inventory Management APIs

A new Sales location configuration API is introduced to configure locationType and defaultInventoryStatus at the tenant or store level. This configuration is used by the Remove inventory without location API to determine the location from which inventory must be adjusted for non-serialized products with Carry fulfillment option in the sales orders that are placed by using Sterling Store Engagement. This new API supports PUT, GET, and DELETE methods.
The Remove inventory without location API, which was earlier known as Remove serialised inventory without location, can now be used to remove inventory for serialized and non-serialized products.
The Remove inventory without location is also enhanced to read sales location configuration to determine the location from which inventory must be adjusted for non-serialized products. If the following conditions are met, the API reads the sales location configuration for the store, sets the locationId and inventoryStatus attributes (if not passed in the request body), and continues with the processing:
- LocationId or SerialNo is missing.
- Store is configured as a multi-location store.
- Adjustment type is SALE.
Enhancements to support deletion of store-level configurations in Segment configuration, SupplyType configuration, and Purge configuration APIs. You can use the Delete operation in these APIs to delete store-level configurations by passing single or multiple store identifiers (storeId) as the query parameter. Currently, the Delete operation is supported only for store-level configuration. Deletion of tenant-level configuration is not supported.

29 July 2021 (Store Inventory Management update)

New API to search for locations by using comma-separated location IDs: The following Store Inventory Management API is introduced to get all locations of a store and the corresponding information based on the location IDs available in the system:
/{tenantId}/v1/stores/{storeId}/locations

Enhancements to the idempotency-configuration API: The idempotency-configuration API is enhanced to support increasing the time to live (ttl) value for the inventory module.

Note: To increase the idempotency time for the inventory module, you must raise a support ticket with IBM Support.

23 July 2021 (Release 21.2 Minor update 2)

Support for localization: Sterling Store Engagement supports all general localization requirements including currency handling, date formatting, number formatting.
For more information about the localization support in Sterling Store Engagement, see Extending localization.

15 June 2021 (Release 21.2 Minor update 1)

Shipment-based batch picking in Store Inventory Management (SIM)-disabled stores

You can perform shipment-based batch picking in stores that do not have Store Inventory Management (SIM) enabled, that is, either the Store Inventory Configuration settings in Applications Manager is set to SIM not enabled or the manageOrganizationHierarchy API is called with a value of 00 for the StoreInvConfig attribute.

For more information about shipment-based batch picking, see the following topics:

31 May 2021 (Release 21.2)

Capturing omni-channel orders

You can capture orders from customers by searching for or scanning products, choosing appropriate fulfillment options, adding the products to the cart, and capturing payments.

For more information about capturing orders, see the following topics:

Appeasing customers

If a customer is unhappy with a product or order, you can appease them by offering suitable appeasement options such as discounts or gift cards. For more information about customer appeasement, see the following topics:

Tracking shipments

You can track orders from the order placed status till it is shipped, picked, or canceled. For more information about tracking orders or products, see the following topics:

Capturing and displaying customer addresses

Addresses of the customers are required to create, modify, and fulfill an order. You can capture valid addresses of customers and Sterling Store Engagement displays the addresses in appropriate formats. For more information about its implementation and customization, see the following topics:

Capturing payments

As part of order capture and checking out products, you can capture payments for orders. You can also extend the out-of-the-box payment methods to add, edit, or remove payment methods in the Payment capture page. For more information about its implementation and customization, see the following topics:

Switching between stores after logging in and logging in to a default or last-logged in store

As a Sterling Store Engagement user (store associate or store manager) having access to multiple stores or as an enterprise user having access to multiple nodes, you can:

Log in to a default store or log in to the same store that you last logged in.
Switch to a different store anytime after you log in.

For more information, see Switching between stores.

Configuring SLAs for order fulfillment requests: Service level indicators can be configured to be shown for orders on the Sterling Store Engagement user interface depending on the configured threshold and expected shipment date. As a store associate, you can view the SLAs and plan your tasks accordingly.
For more information about configuring the service level indicators, see Configuring service level indicators.

Enhancements to Store Inventory Management APIs

You can now create and delete background job schedules for in-store business operations such as count, batch pick, and snapshot schedule. For more information, see Create count task generator scheduled for the associated store.
A new API is introduced to get the inventory availability for multiple serial numbers in a store. For more information, see Get inventory for serial numbers.

16 April 2021 (Release 21.1 Minor update 1)

Shipment-based backroom pick in Store Inventory Management (SIM)-disabled stores

You can perform shipment-based backroom picking in stores that have Store Inventory Management (SIM) disabled, that is, either the Store Inventory Configuration settings in Applications Manager is set to SIM not enabled or the manageOrganizationHierarchy API is called with a value of 00 for the StoreInvConfig attribute.

For more information about shipment-based backroom pick, see the following topics:

Enhancements to auto staging during backroom pick: In the backroom pick flow, the autoStagingLocationId attribute in pickPreferences can now be configured as the default staging location to be used when auto staging is enabled.
The autoStagingLocationId configuration will be considered when stagingLocationId on the pick request is blank.

08 March 2021 (Release 21.1)

Important:

If you have customized your web.xml file, you must merge it with the newly-released out-of-the-box web.xml file. For more information about customizing the web.xml file, see Customizing the web.xml file.
Post upgrade, to ensure that there is no change in the behavior of your pick flows, that is, if you do not want to see the decimal quantities in pick flows, you must set the value for the decimalQuantity property to N. By default, the value of decimalQuantity is set to Y and will display decimal quantities in pick flows.

Upgrading to Angular 11.0.5: Sterling Store Engagement UI is now on Angular 11.0.5. Before you download the latest developer toolkit, you must upgrade to Angular 11 to ensure that your customizations are compatible with the new environment. For more information about upgrading to Angular 11, see Upgrading to Angular 11.

Picking products in batches

You can now pick multiple orders simultaneously during a pick process to save time and improve efficiency of the pick task.

For more information about batch picking, see the following topics:

Creating outbound transfer orders by scanning products

The transfer order feature is enhanced to enable creating transfer orders based on products. You can now create outbound transfer orders by scanning products.

For more information about transfer orders by product, see the following topics:

Searching for products

You can now easily search for products by keywords or by scanning the SKU or serial number.

For more information on product search, see the following topics:

Searching for shipments

You can search for shipments across all the stores of an enterprise by shipment, order number, or other advanced search criteria.

For more information about shipment search, see the following topics:

Enhancements to the global search capability: You can now use the global search capability to search for products and shipments from any page. The global search icon is available on the status bar of all the pages.

Enterprise user login: You can now log in as an enterprise user to Sterling Store Engagement for a particular store and view the orders, inventory, and tasks specific to the store when IBMid is enabled.
For more information about enterprise user login, see Launching the application.

Extending the navigation bar: To add customizations to the navigation bar, you can use a simple code registry instead of overriding the complete implementation of the navigation bar.
For more information extending the navigation bar, see Extending the navigation bar.

Customizing the brand logo in the application menu: You can now customize the brand logo in the application menu through differential extensibility instead of overriding the application menu.
For more information about customizing the application menu, see Extending the application menu.

Enhancements to the Notes widget: You can now filter notes based on the Important flag and whether it is added by the system or a user.
For more information about the implementation of the Notes widget, see Implementing the Notes widget.

Configuring the count program at the store level: You can now configure the count program at the store level, which could previously only be configured at the tenant or enterprise level. For more information about the count-programs API, see IBM Store Inventory Management APIs documentation.

Configuring the default segment, segment type, and supply type at the store level: You can now configure the default segment, segment type, and supply type for a specific store or a set of stores, which could previously only be configured at the tenant or enterprise level.
For more information about these configurations, see Completing common configurations.

21 August 2020 (Release 20.3)

The following features are added as part of the Sterling Store Engagement 20.3 release:

Support for enterprise or store user login: Enterprise and store users can Log in to the store application for a particular store and view orders, inventory, and tasks specific to the store. For more information, see Launching the application.

Global search: You can now use the global search capability to search for orders and customers from any page. The global search icon is available on the status bar of all the pages.
For more information about the implementation of global search capability, see Implementing global search. For more information about customizing this feature to suit your business requirements, see Extending global search.

Searching for customers

he Customer Service view is enhanced to include customer search. You can now search for a customer by using the phone number, email ID, or name of the customer.

For more information about this feature, see the following topics:

Capturing inventory attributes during recount flow: You can now capture the inventory attributes of products during the recount flow in cycle count for improved inventory accuracy. For more information, see Performing cycle counts.

Capturing inventory attributes during ad hoc move of inventory: You can select inventory attributes of the products that they are moving from one location to another by using the ad hoc move flow. For more information, see Moving inventory on ad hoc basis.

Canceling or resetting a count task

You can cancel count tasks that are not finished and reset in-progress count tasks and assign it to other associates.

For more information, see the following topics:

yfs.isf.ui.enableFrontOfStoreFeatures property: Previous releases required that the yfs.isf.ui.enableFrontOfStoreFeatures property is set to Y for users to be able to access the alerts and order search and cancellation options. It is no longer required to set this property.
Ensure that you assign the required resource permissions by using Applications Manager so that the users can access these features.

Important: A few node-dependent packages are updated. Run yarn update to update your local instance for development after taking the latest 20.3 source code.

24 July 2020 (Release 20.2 Minor update 2)

The following features are added as part of the Sterling Store Engagement 20.2 FP2 release:

Searching for orders

A new Customer Service view is introduced. In this view, you can search for an order by using the order number or the phone number, name, email address, or zip code of the customer, or the payment method used to place the order.

For more information about the configurations required for finding orders, see Configuring order search.

For more information about searching for orders and the actions that you can perform on the search results, see Finding orders.

Canceling orders: You can cancel orders that are in the created status.
For more information about canceling orders, see Canceling orders.

Enhancement to the implementation of custom shortage reasons: The implementation for custom pack shipment shortage reasons is now changed to mark the quantity as short, by default. If you do not want a custom shortage reason implementation to be marked as short, you must set the MarkInventoryShort flag in the recordShortageForPack API to N and customize the user interface to handle these custom shortage reasons.
For more information about configuring pack shipment shortage resolutions, see Adding pack shipment shortage resolution.

Enhancement to the implementation of rule to pack products without first searching for orders: You can configure a rule in Sterling Business Center to allow the store associate to pack products without first searching for orders. When the rule is enabled, item or serial can be scanned to get started.
For more information about configuring the rule to enable item packing, see Configuring packing orders.

Enhancement to the implementation of pick request task: If the quantity of the products is increased or decreased during pick request task, the pick request task is updated with the increased quantity if the picking is not yet started. If the pick request is already in progress or completed, a new pick request task is created to pick the additional quantity. For more information about picking products for orders, see Managing order fulfillment.

Updates to Yarn commands: Few Yarn commands that are required for application development are updated. For a list of Yarn and Angular CLI commands, see Yarn and Angular CLI commands.
For a list of defects that are resolved in Sterling Store Engagement as part of Release 20.2 FP2, see Release notes.

30 June 2020 (Release 20.2 Minor update 1)

The following features are added as part of the Sterling Store Engagement 20.2 FP1 release:

Store inventory configuration: You can now configure a Sterling Order Management System node to enable or disable Store Inventory Management capabilities. You can also configure the store to maintain inventory in the store or as a no-inventory store. For more information about store inventory configuration, see Configuring inventory management capability in stores.
If a store is configured as a no-inventory store, you will not be able to perform some of the inventory-related tasks by using Sterling Store Engagement or Store Inventory Management REST APIs. For more information about the flows and APIs that are supported and not supported in no-inventory stores, see Configuring no-inventory stores.

Alerts

Sterling Store Engagement now displays open alerts that are assigned to you or that apply to the queues to which you have subscribed. You can view these alerts and take appropriate actions to resolve them. To learn how alerts are implemented in Sterling Store Engagement, see Implementing alerts.

For more information about how you can resolve the alerts, see Resolving alerts.

To learn how to set the polling interval for updating the number of alerts, see Configuring the polling interval.

For information about how you can customize the alerts implementation, see Extending alerts.

16 June 2020 (Release 20.2)

The following features are added as part of the Sterling Store Engagement 20.2 release:

Inventory status and product class attributes are now visible across the following flows:
- Backroom pick
- Move inventory
- Putaway inventory
- Lookup and adjust inventory
Sterling Store Engagement now supports single-location store in the following flows:
- Backroom pick
- Pack orders
- Customer pickup
- Lookup and adjust inventory
- Receive inventory
To know more about configuring a single-location store, see Configuring single-location stores.
Sterling Store Engagement is now enhanced to make location scan optional in the following flows:
- Backroom pick
- Putaway inventory
- Lookup and adjust inventory
You can configure whether location scanning is mandatory or not by setting the IS_LOC_SCAN_MANDATORY to Y or N in the store-rules API. The default value is Y. For more information about the store-rules API, see IBM Store Inventory Management APIs.

28 Feb 2020 (Release 20.1)

The following features are added as part of the Sterling Store Engagement 20.1 release:

Sample hybrid application support for peripheral device integration: Support for integration between Sterling Store Engagement and peripheral devices such as bar code scanners. For more information, see Integrating peripheral devices.

Sterling Store Engagement UI is now on Angular 8

Purging transactional data: You can now purge all transactional data related to count tasks after a specific time period. For more information, see Purging transactional data.