Frameworks

This is a guidepost for Developers highlighting important guides and articles to speed up Fluent Commerce's learning process. 

• Workflows that consist of states, rulesets, triggers, user actions, and Modules, used for distributing workflows and it's artifacts, are a key part of the Fluent Commerce platform.
• Settings are used to adjust Workflow execution

Fluent Order Management components are Web Apps, Modules, Order Management Experience (OMX), Orchestration Engine, and Cloud Infrastructure. These components operate within the framework to enable the order management experience on the platform.

The Stores module empowers retailers to enhance their operational efficiency by transforming stores into fulfillment centers and optimizing inventory management, ultimately delivering a superior customer experience through streamlined order fulfillment and improved inventory control. 

The module contains the following configurations:

• All Locations
• Stores
• Warehouses
• Networks

• Stores are transformed into efficient fulfillment centers, ensuring a seamless customer experience through optimized order fulfillment and superior inventory control.
• With configurations for all Locations, Stores, Warehouses, and Networks, the module provides a comprehensive toolkit, enabling retailers to manage their entire ecosystem.

Discover how the Reports page in the Big Inventory Web App enables understanding an account Inventory Position Update and Inventory Position Change usage for selected periods.

• The reports provided enable a user to understand an account Inventory Position Update and Inventory Position Change usage for selected periods of time
• These usage metrics are split into two different reports so the user can analyze the metric that is most important

Fluent Store is an in-store responsive web application that provides store staff with end-to-end order management capabilities.

• Key features of Fluent Store
• Benefits to Retailers
• Module dependencies
• Technical Information (Browser, Device, and Language support)
• Data model
• Further Reading

The Admin module of the Fluent Web app provides comprehensive administrative capabilities to manage the entire system efficiently.

• The module helps in managing users, retailers, settings, etc.
• It contains some or all of the following: Retailers, Carriers, Users, Roles and Permissions, and Settings.

You will learn how to design workflows, what they consist off and what are the best practices. 

• The following topic covered when comes to designing workflows:
  • Workflow Boundaries
  • Workflow Patterns
  • Flow Control
  • Cross-Retailer
  • Cross-Workflow
  • Workflow Versioning
  • Defining Rulesets
  • Workflow Settings

Fluent Commerce can post standard webhooks to a configured endpoint so that the third-party system can be notified or react to the provided event. For example, common webhook scenarios include order status updates and shipping notifications.

• A webhook is a way for Orchestrated Workflow Logic to call back to an external application.
• Fluent Commerce provides some standard webhooks as Rules within the Rule Library for common third-party integrations.
• Since the payload and HTTP request cannot be customised, it is rarely necessary to implement a custom rule to send a webhook

This article describes settings that can be added to a Workflow. 

• Explore the Workflow Settings available

The Inventory module of the Fluent Web app provides comprehensive inventory management capabilities:

• Inventory visibility
• Inventory allocation
• The total quantity of stock for a specific item (stock on hand(SOH)) and the status of that inventory
• Available to promise inventory levels
• Inventory buffers to reduce overselling of products

• The Fluent Web app's Inventory module offers a comprehensive suite of capabilities, including inventory visibility, allocation, total stock quantity (stock on hand), inventory status, available-to-promise levels, and strategically implemented buffers to prevent product overselling.
• The module is equipped with various configurations, such as Inventory Catalogues, Control Groups, Virtual Catalogues, Cross-Catalogue Views, and Location Inventory Views, providing users with versatile tools to tailor their inventory management approach according to specific business needs and scenarios.

The Order Management Experience (OMX) Design System provides guidelines for delivering a user experience tailored to the Omnichannel Order Management space. This article will describe the foundations of the Design System, including color palette and typography which make up the overarching design theme of the Fluent Commerce platform. 

The Fluent Big Inventory Web App is pre-configured with standard functions that provide the interface for managing products, inventory, feeds, and sources and serve as a starting point for your projects.

The default UX templates are hosted on the platform, so you don't have to create the manifest settings unless you need to customize the existing baseline configuration.

• The Fluent Big Inventory Web App comes with pre-configured standard functions, offering a user-friendly interface for effective management of products, inventory, feeds, and sources.
• Default UX templates are readily available on the platform, eliminating the need to create manifest settings unless customization of the existing baseline configuration is required, streamlining the setup process for a seamless user experience.

An overview of how webhooks work in Fluent Commerce, how they are signed, and validated, and what public keys are used.

• For security purposes, Fluent Commerce cryptographically signs each webhook request with a private key before sending it to the target endpoint.
• Every webhook request from Fluent contains two custom headers

  `flex.signature`

  (MD5withRSA) and

  `fluent-signature`

  (SHA512withRSA). 
• You can use standard cryptography (e.g. in Node) or built-in Java functions to verify webhook calls.

The OMX UX Framework delivers configuration-based solution implementation for UIs (Web Apps). Configuration is managed in a JSON document called the OMX Web App Manifest.

• The OMX Web App Manifest document is essential for configuring Fluent Platform web apps and is stored in a setting following the convention "fc.mystique.manifest.<appname>". For instance, Fluent Commerce UIs have settings like "fc.mystique.manifest.oms" and "fc.mystique.manifest.store." 
• The document, configured in the ACCOUNT context, is a specific JSON structure that includes sections like App-Level Configuration, Route-Level Configuration, and Local Development Options. Each web app defined within an account has a unique URL, and the Manifest guides app development, covering aspects like navigation, screen layouts, data sources, and user actions. 
• Manifest updates can be done through Console/settings or directly via the API, with the ability to partition the document for manageability.

This article provides an overview of methods for configuring components within the UX framework. Customization is possible through configuring the various types of components, such as sub-components, wrapper components, and context components. Read on to find out how to use the above approaches.

• Core components are highly extensible through configuration; check if your requirements can be met by updating the manifest or component properties (props in the configuration).

• `DynamicAttribute`

  values in core components allow for the creation of small, specialized sub-components that enhance functionality.
• Wrapper components can be used to modify existing components' props or styles, enabling more complex customizations beyond basic configurations.
• Context components can override default data handling by performing additional queries, but be cautious as this can impact performance.

The OMX UX Component Library contains a suite of UI Components, ready to be configured and used in Fluent Web Apps.  The Library contains Foundation, Content, Layout,  Interaction and Field Components.

• Foundation Components, such as Page Components which form the base of a screen
• Content Components for displaying data and media
• Layout Components for structuring pages
• Interaction Components for capturing user input, and 
• Field Components which are automatically rendered in User Action forms.

Some common types and conventions are used across many component definitions. These items are not directly configurable in the manifest but will often be referenced in other component definitions that use them.

• The Mystique manifest configures icons, cards, and template strings. Icons come from React Icons. 
• Cards have common fields, and template strings allow dynamic values. Dynamic attributes (standard, image, component) offer flexibility based on conditions. 
• Additional options like TextOptions and ImageOptions provide styling choices.

The Fluent Store web app is a preconfigured baseline web app which can be used as a starting point for your projects.

The default UX templates are hosted on the platform, so there is no need to create the manifest settings yourself, unless you need to customize the existing baseline configuration.

• Instructions on how to override the default manifest document
• Details on where to find baseline manifests and configuration guides
• Recommendations for text editors to use when editing manifest documents
• Guidance on saving manifest documents to your account
• Information on adding new fragments to your web app

The OMX UX Framework, or Mystique, delivers configuration-based solution implementation for UIs (Web Apps) that understand the Fluent Platform. It enables UIs to react to changes within workflows and provides best-in-class user experience and design. Web apps can be built using code-free configuration, utilising a rich library of ready-to-use UI Components.  Customising UIs to meet specific business requirements using Component SDKs is also possible.  Configuration is managed in a JSON document called the OMX Web App Manifest.  

• Code-free configuration through the Manifest document.
• Dynamic user management experience.
• Configurable left-navigation menu items.
• Dynamic views, labels, and fields based on configuration and GraphQL queries.
• Dynamic and contextual user actions based on workflow configuration.
• Create and edit all entities, including non-workflow entities.
• Customise UIs to meet specific business needs and processes.
• Configure contextual actions based on roles and process states.

The Wave Dashboard Template is a preconfigured UX Template used within the Fluent Store Web App.

• Provides an overview of Store Waves, including orders awaiting pick, in-progress orders, and completed waves.
• Configurable dashboard tiles and tabs for real-time store performance and bottleneck visibility.
• Supports configuring Pick & Pack SLAs, collection reminders, and exception management.

The Pick by Expiry Template is a preconfigured UX Template used within the Fluent Store Web App.

• Key Features on how to configure the Pick Screen
• Lis of common Use Cases
• Template Configuration details

The Pack Template is a preconfigured UX Template used within the Fluent Store Web App

• Ensure Wave Dispatch User Action is configured in the Location Store Workflow.
• Utilize Wizard Page components from the Component Library.
• Activate Pack screen when Wave is in PACK state.

The OMX UX Framework, or Mystique, delivers configuration-based solution implementation for UIs (Web Apps) that understand the Fluent Platform. It enables UIs to react to changes within workflows and provides best-in-class user experience and design. Web apps can be built using code-free configuration, utilising a rich library of ready-to-use UI Components.  Customising UIs to meet specific business requirements using Component SDKs is also possible.  Configuration is managed in a JSON document called the OMX Web App Manifest.  

• Dynamic user management experience.
• Configurable left-navigation menu items.
• Dynamic views, labels, and fields based on configuration and GraphQL queries.
• Dynamic and contextual user actions based on workflow configuration.
• Ability to create and edit all entities, including non-workflow entities.
• Customise UIs to meet specific business needs and processes.
• Ability to configure contextual actions based on roles and process states.
• Enables centralised management of orders, products, inventory, fulfillments, and locations.

The Returns feature is available for any OMX web apps. The following guide will step through the areas of configuration to enable the Returns reference solution.

• A step-by-step guide to enable reference return functionality.
  • Settings setup
  • Create & Assign the Instore Return Role
  • Workflow Configuration (Order, returnOrder and Billing)
  • Manifest Changes for Fluent Store and Fluent OMS

• Fluent Order Management enables the management of payments throughout the lifecycle of an Order.
• Build custom payment logic into the Order workflow using the OMX Workflow Framework and provided entities.
• This document provides an overview of the Payment Data Model and GraphQL API capabilities and does not include any reference Rules, Workflows, or UX Components.

• Pre-requistes
• Data Model
• Entities
• Explanation of the Entity Relationships through an Example
• Relationship details
• GraphQL queries required for Payments

The Fluent OMS module is pre-configured with certain standard functions that allow the interface to manage orders, product availability, inventory, and order fulfilment and serve as a starting point for your projects.

The default UX templates are hosted on the platform, so there is no need to create the manifest settings yourself unless you need to customize the existing baseline configuration.

The 

`run`

• Rules are the smallest building block for logic, it is important to remember that this method should be implemented to perform 1 simple task
• You may not need all of these steps within your Rule. Some rules produce an action without a condition. Some rules do not need to query additional data. Make sure your Rule is as lean as possible, and simple to read.
• The Rubix Plugin SDK provides a useful Util class to facilitate validation: RuleUtils
• You can retrieve the data by using Context / Entity
• Typically, a Rule will produce an output action.

This page describes the best practice testing approaches for rules and plugins.

• As per standard industry practices, rules should be tested as part of the development cycle, on the developer's local machine.
• Testing on Sandbox after local testing has been completed.

Rule Actions are the single output of a Rule.

Rules do not perform actions directly. Rather, they inform the Workflow Engine what it should do as a result of the rule execution. The Workflow Engine interprets the specific Action produced by the Rule and handles it appropriately.

Most Actions are queued internally within the Workflow Engine and executed at the end of the current process.

• There are 4 types of Actions available to produce from a Rule:

  • `SendEventAction`

  • `MutateAction`

  • `WebhookAction`

  • `LogAction`

Accessing the Workflow Builder

• The Workflow Builder UI is accessible through the Admin Console (not available on Fluent OMS).
•  In order to add or edit an existing WF from the UI, you would need to have the right permissions. 

Handy reference guide on how to display date time value on the UI

For Date format and conversion in UI, two functions can be used:

• `formateDate`

• `dateStringFormatter`

  (if true, then it will leave it as UTC timezone, else, it will convert to the user's browser timezone)

• Examples of how to display date time format in both OMS webapp and Admin Console

User management is a client’s internal process. Your nominated IT team or a partner is responsible for user management.

• Corporate IdP
• Fluent IdP & API Users

Fluent Order Management components are Web Apps, Modules, Order Management Experience (OMX), Orchestration Engine, and Cloud Infrastructure. These components operate within the framework to enable the order management experience on the platform.

The Workflow Engine (aka Rubix) is the engine that drives the Fluent platform. The Workflow Engine enables business process orchestration, workflow automation, and underpins the specific feature sets and functionality for each of the Fluent apps. Additionally, the Workflow Engine is built to be highly scalable, and provide high-performance workflow execution across any domain.

• Cloud-native, high availability, scale-on-demand workflow execution.
• Pre-built, customizable workflows delivering capabilities across each of the Fluent App domains.
• Rich Rule Library containing reusable rules across each of the Fluent Apps.
• Software Development Kit (SDK) and Developer Tooling, enabling the implementation of custom rules and integrations.
• Business Tools to manage, configure, and implement workflow and process automation.

Fluent's Order Management Experience (OMX) framework comprises the UX Framework, Workflow Framework, and Connect Framework, which can be configured and extended (or customised) using software development kits (SDKs).

• Configuration of user interfaces via the UI Builder
• Configuration of workflows Workflow Builder
• Configuration of system integrations via Connector Builder
• Custom Rules (workflows), UI features, and integration are also possible via Rules SDK, Components SDK, and Connect SDK.

This document provides an overview of enhancing visual representation within a system by displaying coloured dots. These dots serve as a quick reference to different statuses of orders or items, making it easier to recognize and prioritize tasks at a glance. You will learn how to customize the appearance of these dots by changing their colour through hex codes and understand the default settings. The guide also includes recommendations for a colour palette to optimize the utility of status indicators.

• Feature Benefits: Utilize colourful dots to easily identify and prioritize different statuses.
• Status Color Palette: Use recommended hex codes to customize dot colours for optimal status indication.
• Configuration Guide: Follow step-by-step instructions to implement coloured status dots in your system. notify and prioritize different statuses.
• Default Settings: The system defaults to a grey colour for statuses that are not configured, ensuring consistency across various status indicators.
• Customization: Hex codes allow for full customization of dot colours to match your company's branding or to signify specific statuses.
• Visual Prioritization: Assign colours to statuses based on the level of urgency or importance, aiding in quick decision-making.
• Colour System Best Practices: Refer to the detailed best practices in the Colour section to effectively apply theming and enhance user experience.

This section covers the fundamentals of the Workflow Engine, provides an overview of the architecture, identifies key concepts, and prepares clients to build and use their workflows.

• How it Works
• Workflow Engine Architecture
• Workflow Builder
• Rules SDK
• Key Concepts of the Workflow Engine

This page provides a high-level understanding of what settings represent within the Fluent platform.

• Settings are leveraged to enable/disable specific features in the platform.   
• Settings are set in a specific context (Account, Retailer, Location/Agent).

A fulfillment represents one or more items in an order that need to be picked and packed for the customer. It is assigned to a location based on the retailer's fulfillment rules and available inventory. A fulfillment will have an origin (from) and destination (to) associated with it. A fulfillment containing unfulfillable items can be moved to the Escalated state. The Escalated Fulfilments page displays fulfillments in the Escalated state.

• Layout
• Fulfilment Details page

• Fulfilment Options page
• Further Reading

• Fulfilment Options page
• Further Reading

The Fluent platform provides a comprehensive user role management system, allowing for the assignment of diverse permissions via roles to regulate platform access and functionalities. Custom roles can be created and fine-tuned, ensuring users only have access to appropriate functionality and data. The system provides flexibility to specify the scope for a role at different context levels, such as Accounts, Retailers, and Locations.

• A role can be assigned to multiple users, and a user can be assigned multiple roles.
• Permissions are granular access controls and protect every GraphQL or REST API operations. GraphQL permissions follow specific naming conventions.
• Context plays a pivotal role in access levels, allowing users to have role-based access to data for specific Accounts, Retailers, or Locations.

OMS Webapp's Users List page allows users to efficiently search and view existing users using a versatile filter component. The Users table provides essential user details, with a clickable Username link leading to a detailed User Details page displaying user information. The paging control at the bottom ensures easy entry management with customizable rows per page and intuitive navigation.

• `Type`

  : Understand the different types of users; ADMIN, RETAILER, API, and AGENT
• User Status: Be aware of the user status options, ACTIVE and INACTIVE, which reflect the user's current accessibility.
• Filtering Users: Utilize the filter component to efficiently search for users based on various criteria like username, status, creation date, and type.
• Roles and Permissions: Assign roles to users to manage permissions within the system, ensuring each user has the appropriate level of access.
• Paging Control: Utilize the paging controls at the bottom of the Users table to navigate between pages and manage the number of entries displayed per page, with options for 10, 25, or 100 entries.
• Deprecation Notice: Be aware that certain user types such as AGENT, SUPPORT, and others have been deprecated and should not be used for new users.

This page describes how Event Execution works.

• When an Orchestration Event is received by the Rubix Orchestration Engine, it initiates the Execution Context. The Execution Context includes the event and the entity specified by the event.
• Rubix will locate the Ruleset within the workflow that matches the signature of the event.

The Pick and Pack feature suiteof the Store Fulfilment app allows stores to pick and pack online orders that are allocated to the store based on store inventory at the time of order creation. The Fluent Store’s interface is used to access the capabilities of the Pick and Pack feature suite.

• Adaptability: The process is responsive, ensuring a seamless experience on screens of varying sizes. Customization options are available through UI configuration or creating new components.
• Process Stages: The wave process involves creating a wave, picking order items, packing them, and booking carriers.Prioritization logic is applied based on factors such as expiration dates, order types, or delivery types.
• Efficient Picking: Picking orders is initiated by creating a wave, followed by selecting orders and using a user-friendly PICK component.Confirmation of picked items involves a final review, confirmation, and automatic rejection of unpicked items.
• Completion Process: The wave-picking process leads to the completion of fulfilling online orders in-store, providing a streamlined approach to order fulfillment.

Federated identity management means establishing of a trusted relationship between separate organizations and third parties, allowing users to authenticate to one domain and access resources in another without a separate login, enhancing security and user satisfaction. Fluent's Federated SSO utilizes protocols like SAML and OIDC for secure data exchange, providing a seamless single sign-on experience across Fluent OMX applications. These open standards enable the secure transmission of authentication and access information across domains

• Federated IdP data storage

This page provides all the information needed to design best practice Rules for your workflows. There are some important things to be aware of, so we highly recommend you thoroughly read through this page, and refer back to it regularly during development.

• providing a guideline of designing your Rule within Fluent
• It is important to keep the best practices and design principles in mind when designing your rules.
• understand types of analogies when come to building rules

Roles & Permissions configuration contains:

• Roles & permissions page
• Role Details page

• Roles & permissions page
• Role Details page

To guide you through your journey of understanding and learning the Fluent Commerce OMS platform, the documentation is modeled according to the internal building blocks of the system, like 🔀Workflow or ⚙️Settings, with other top-level content types, such as 💡Essential Knowledge and 🧭How-to Guides layered on top of it. Dive right into it by starting here.

The Insights module is a comprehensive repository of system Events, representing occurrences or triggers within the Fluent Platform. These Events, like changes in inventory position or entity states, act as notifications, prompting specific workflows and providing a dynamic overview accessible through a user-friendly configuration featuring the Events Search Form, the Events Search Results, and the Event Details Drawer for efficient information retrieval.

• The Insights module is a comprehensive repository providing full information about system Events, representing occurrences and triggers that prompt actions or log activities within the Fluent Platform.
• With a user-friendly configuration, the module enables efficient interaction through the Events Search Form, providing filtered event searches and responsive Events Search Results. The Event Details Drawer ensures users can seamlessly access detailed event information without losing search results or experiencing delays in page navigation.

This config guide refers to version 1 of the UX Framework which is now deprecated

• Mystique Components
• Add/Edit Entities
• Configure Dynamic UIs
• Configure Search or Listing Pages
• Configure Detail Pages
• Add Attributes to Mystique Components

Character escaping and unescaping are crucial for data integrity and security in UX frameworks. This document focuses on the Mustache.js templating engine, which escapes HTML by default to prevent XSS attacks. When special characters like ampersands need to be displayed, the framework offers unescaping methods to ensure correct and secure rendering.

This overview highlights the significance of proper value escaping and the techniques for accurately rendering special characters within the UX framework.

• Mustache.js Templating: The UX framework utilizes mustache.js for templating, which automatically escapes HTML characters. This is important for preventing XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks and ensuring data is displayed as intended.
• Unescaping Variables: To display special characters properly, such as ampersands, you must unescape variables using triple mustaches, e.g.,

  `{{{variable}}}`

  , or the

  `&`

  symbol in the variable tag, e.g.,

  `{{&variable}}`

  .
• Correct Display of Values: Escaping or unescaping variables correctly is crucial for the accurate representation of data within the UX. This ensures that special characters are rendered as intended, maintaining the integrity of the information displayed to users.

A Location represents a physical place, whether a retail store, a warehouse, or even third-party vendor facilities.  A Location page displays the list of existing locations, while a Location Details page displays detailed information about the particular location.

• Locations page
• Location Details page

This page describes how Batch Pre-Processing works, the opportunities available for configuration, and the implementation improvements enabled by using Batch Pre-Processing.

• Batch Pre-Processing optimises the performance of Inventory Batches
• This optimisation reduces the time it takes to process Inventory Batches
• Batch Pre-Processing can be enabled per Account and Retailer as needed

This document will detail how Batch Pre-Processing works. This will allow Partners to understand how their inventory implementation interacts with Batch Pre-Processing.

• Batch Pre-Processing processes batch inventory updates before they get passed onto the inventory workflows
• This processing identifies inventory records that don't need to be processed by the workflow engine
• This will reduce the total end-to-end time to process inventory updates by reducing the load on the workflow engine

Using the Event API