Operate > WebSphere Commerce Accelerator > Business relationship management > Contracts
Create contracts
There are two methods to create contracts in WebSphere Commerce by using WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, or by creating contracts in XML format..
- Create a contract using WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
Creating a new contract using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator creates a contract in the draft state. This contract will then go through any approval process defined for the store.To create a new contract in either the approved or active state, import the contract from an XML file.
- Create a contract using XML
Creating a new contract using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator creates a contract in the draft state. This contract will then go through any approval process defined for the store.To create a new contract in either the approved or active state, import the contract from an XML file. You can also create draft contracts by importing an XML file. Creating contracts using XML allows you to create contracts that are not associated with business accounts. Every store has at least one contract not associated with a business account: the store default contract.
To successfully create a contract using XML, you should be familiar with XML and structure of the DTD or XSD files that defines the structure of contract XML files.
- Create a new version of a contract
Creating a new version of a contract creates a draft version of an existing contract. This new version has the same name as the original contract, but the version number is incremented. When you deploy a new version of a contract, the existing contract is moved to the closed state. You can create a new version of a contract for contracts that are in the approved, active, or suspended states.To create a new version of an existing contract with a different name, you should duplicate a contract. Duplicating a contract does not move the existing contract into the closed state.
- Create a contract that can be referred by other contracts
A contract can refer to another contract. For example, contract A can refer to contract B. Thus, a buyer who is entitled to contract A will be entitled to all the terms and conditions from contract A, as well as to all the terms and conditions in contract B. A base contract must be in active state to allow customer contracts to refer to the base contract. You may not suspend or cancel a base contract if there are active customer contracts that refer to the base contract. Once you have specified that a contract should refer to another contract, you can change the reference, but not the fact that the contract refers to another contract.
- Examples: Contract product selection and pricing
The following examples show how to define the products available for sale under a contract and the prices charges for the products.