Opening the shop

If you help manage Longwood Loop, you can create an order cycle and open up the shop for the week. Instructions for how to create an order cycle are below. At the bottom of the page is a section for frequently asked questions about order cycles.

Creating an order cycle

There are two possible ways to create an order cycle: cloning a previous order cycle or creating a brand new order cycle. In the majority of cases, cloning an order cycle is the best option.

Option 1: cloning a previous order cycle

Log in using Administrator credentials ([e-mail], [e-mail]), then from the menu at the top of the page select Profile --> Administration.

From the blue header at the top of the page, select 'order cycles'.

From the list of orders shown on the page, select the 'clone' button to the far right of the order information.

Clone a previous order cycle

After you have successfully cloned the previous order cycle, you will see the new order cycle appear with the name 'COPY OF [previous order cycle name]' and no open or close dates.

After cloning a previous order cycle

To continue setting up the order cycle, select the Edit button to the right of the newly created order cycle.

Edit a cloned order cycle

Change the name of the order cycle to the date the shop will open in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g. if the order cycle opens on 21 February 2022, you would put in 2022-02-21 as the name). Using this format allows easier identification of order cycles and enables sorting of the order cycle dates.

Select an open and close date and time. Be aware that the times shown in this selection screen are in military time, so if you want to close the order at 4:00 pm, you will need to select 16:00.

Cloned order cycle - general settings page

After you set the order cycle name and opening and closing time, select the 'save and next' button at the bottom of the screen to proceed.

Cloning the previous order cycle will select the exact same produers and products that were available in the prior order cycle. This means if new producers want to participate in the shop this week, or if producers have different products on offer, you will need to modify the order cycle to ensure all of the producers and products are listed.

In the below example, you can see that Annemarie's Veges & Fruit and Hortus Vitae have both added products since the last order cycle, because not all of their products are selected. Annemarie's Veges & Fruit shows 6 / 8 selected, and Hortus Vitae shows 40 / 42 selected. This means each of these producers has 2 new products since the last order cycle.

Cloned order cycle incoming products page

To select all of the items for a producer, click the down arrow for that producer in the Products column. This will open the producer's list of products. From here, select any additional products to add to the shop - or click the 'select all variants' option in the top left-hand corner of the box to select all of the products for this producer.

Selecting all variants for a producer

Repeat this for all producers where there are unselected products/variants.

Next, you will add any producers who have joined since the last order cycle or were not selected in the last order cycle but would like to be in the shop this week. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the box next to the 'add supplier' button to see all suppliers not already selected.

Cloned order cycle - incoming products - adding a producer

Choose the producer you would like to add, and click the 'add supplier' button. The producer will appear at the bottom of the list with none of their products selected. Following the steps above, select the products that this producer would like to have listed for the week.

When all producers and all products for the week have been selected, click 'save and next' at the bottom of the page.

The final step is to select the distributor for all of the products in the shop. Similar to the 'incoming products' screen, when you have cloned a previous order cycle, most of the products will already be selected for distribution. In order for items to be listed in the shop, they must all be selected in this screen.

Cloned order cycle - outgoing products

After selecting all variants for distribution, update the delivery details top text box date to the date that products will be delivered this week. Make sure that the Longwood Loop admin fee is shown under the 'fees' column. If it is missing, click the 'add fee' button and then select 'Longwood Loop' and 'Admin fee' from the dropdown boxes.

When finished, click the 'save and back to list' button at the bottom of the screen. The order cycle will open at the time you specified in the 'general settings' screen. If the time specified for the order cycle opening has already passed, the order cycle will be open immediately.

Option 2: creating a brand new order cycle

If for some reason you do not have previous order cycles available to clone, or if the producers who will be participating in this week's order cycle are significantly different from the prior week, you can create a brand new order cycle instead of cloning a previous one.

To do this, log in using Administrator credentials ([e-mail], [e-mail]), then from the menu at the top of the page select Profile --> Administration.

From the blue header at the top of the page, select 'order cycles'.

Click the '+ new order cycle' button on the top right-hand corner of the page.

Create new order cycle

After creating an order cycle, fill in the 'general settings' page as follows:

• Name - this is the name for the order cycle; we use a date naming convention of YYYY-MM-DD, using the date for the opening of the shop for the given order cycle (e.g. if the order cycle opens on 21 February 2022, you would put in 2022-02-21 as the name). Using this format allows easier identification of order cycles and enables sorting of the order cycle dates.

• Orders open at - select the date and time that you would like the shop to become visible to buyers. Be aware that the times shown in this selection screen are in military time, so if you want to close the order at 4:00 pm, you will need to select 16:00.

• Orders close at - select the date and tiem that you would like the shop to stop being visible to buyers. Be aware that the times shown in this selection screen are in military time, so if you want to close the order at 4:00 pm, you will need to select 16:00.

New order cycle general settings page

Select the 'create' button at the bottom of the page to proceed to the 'incoming products' page.

New order cycle - incoming products

On the 'incoming products' page you will see no selected producers/suppliers or products. For each producer who you would like to add to the shop for the week, select the producer from the dropdown, then click 'add supplier.

New order cycle - incoming products - add supplier

Once the supplier is added, select all products from the supplier that you would like to show up in the shop (usually this is all of their products). You can also use the 'select all variants' option in the top left-hand corner of their product list to select everything.

New order cycle - incoming products - select all variants

Repeat this process until all producers and products are added to the screen, then click 'save and next' at the bottom of the screen to proceed to the 'outgoing products' page.

On the 'outgoing products' page, you will need to associate all products to a distributor to have them show up in the shop. To do this, select 'Longwood Loop' from the dropdown and then click 'add distributor'.

New order cycle - outgoing products - add distributor

Then from the 'products' column, click the down arrow to expand the list of products and click the 'select all variants' option in the top left-hand corner of the expanded box.

New order cycle - outgoing products - select all variants

In the 'Ready for (ie. Date / Time)' field, add the date when the products will be delivered. Then, click the 'add fee' button from the Fees column to add the Admin Fee. From the first dropdown, select 'Longwood Loop'. From the second dropdown, select 'Admin fee'. This fee covers the cost of operating the electric vehicle and administrative fees for the Longwood Loop.

New order cycle - outgoing products - fees

When finished, click the 'save and back to list' button at the bottom of the screen. The order cycle will open at the time you specified in the 'general settings' screen. If the time specified for the order cycle opening has already passed, the order cycle will be open immediately.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) - order cycles

Why isn't an item showing up in the shop?

This is most likely due to one of two reasons:

• In order for items to show up in the shop, they must be selected on both the 'incoming products' and 'outgoing products' screen. An item that is selected only on the 'incoming products' screen will not display in the shop.

• Items with an on-hand quantity of 0 will not show up in the shop even if the items are selected in the incoming and outgoing products pages.

Do I need to de-select items that have an on-hand quantity of 0 to ensure they do not show up in the store?

No. Items with an on-hand quantity of 0 will not show up in the shop even if the items are selected in the incoming and outgoing products pages.