(Enterprise)

Create contracts

There are two methods to create contracts in WebSphere Commerce. We can use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator or XML format to create contracts.

• Creating a contract by using WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
  Create a contract using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator creates a contract in the draft state. The contract then goes through any approval process that is defined for the store. If to create a new contract in either the approved or active state, we must import the contract from an XML file.

• Creating 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 we deploy a new version of a contract, the existing contract is moved to the closed state. We can create a new version of a contract for contracts that are in the approved, active, or suspended states. We can duplicate a contract if to create a new version of an existing contract with a different name. Duplicating a contract does not move the existing contract into the closed state.

• Creating 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 is entitled to all the terms and conditions from contract A and contract B. A base contract must be in active state to allow customer contracts to refer to the base contract. You might not suspend or cancel a base contract if active customer contracts refer to the base contract. After you specify that a contract refers to another contract, we 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 that are charged for the products.