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How do I configure Oracle B2C Service to display different answers for different interfaces?

Environment:

Answers, Interfaces

Resolution:

When publishing answers to your end-user pages, the following conditions must all be met in order for the answer to appear on the end-user pages of a particular interface:

1. the product, category, and access level must be enabled for end-user visibility -- including all sub-levels of products and categories, 
    
2. the language field of the answer must be the same as the language used for the interface, 
    
3. and the status must be a public status type.

With multiple interfaces that use the same language, you can modify the visibility of the product, category, and access level so that answers appear on only certain interfaces. If your interfaces use different languages, you can use the Language field to designate which interface the answer should appear on.

Same Language Interfaces

If your multiple interfaces use the same language, the actual content of the information for each interface is different for each of the interfaces. As a result, to control the display of information for each interface, you can configure different products and/or categories to be used with each interface or you can create custom access levels for each interface.

Option 1: Specifying Unique Products and Categories for Each Interface

Depending on how similar the content is across your interfaces, you might want to create new products and/or categories to correspond with each interface. When you assign a specific answer to the appropriate product and category, it displays on only the interface(s) that have visibility enabled for those products and categories. This option works well when your interfaces display information for entirely different products or services.

For instance, if you have two interfaces, say Interface1 and Interface2, create new products specific to each interface. For example, Products A, B, and C can be used with Interface1 and Products D, E, and F can be used with Interface 2. Similarly, you can also create unique categories to be used with each interface.

To add products and categories to display for a single interface, use the steps below. For more comprehensive information on adding products and categories, refer to Answer ID 645: Adding Products and Categories.
 

1. From Configuration, select Service > Products/Categories/Dispositions. 
    
2. Click in the product, category, or dispositions section and then click the New button on the ribbon. 
    
3. Enter the name of the product, category or disposition. 
    
4. In the Visibility section, enable or disable the check boxes for each interface listed. The Administration box, if enabled, will include the value in the drop-down menus for incidents and answers for that interface. The End-User check box, if enabled, will include the value in the drop-down menus on the end-user pages for the interface.
   
   Be sure the End User check boxes are enabled for the interfaces which should display the product or category value. 
    
5. Click Save or Add. 
    
6. Add additional products and categories as needed. 
    
7. Go to the end-user pages for each interface and verify the values in the Products and Categories drop-down menus.

Publishing from one interface: If you wish to publish answers to multiple interfaces by editing the answer from a specific interface, you need to enable the products and category visibility so that the value is enabled for Admin visibility. If a product or category is enabled to be visible for one of your interfaces, that value displays for all interfaces when working with answers. That is, if a product is enabled for administration visibility for interface A, that product also displays when working with answers in interfaces B or C.

CAUTION: When adjusting visibility on products or categories, removing Admin visibility from a product or category will disassociate the product/category from all answers to which it is tied.  This can cause answers to disappear from the end-user pages, and restoring Admin visibility to the product/category will not automatically associate the prior answers to that product/category.  Instead, the product/category must be manually reassociated to appropriate answers.

Ordering items: In general, it is best to order products or categories together by the interface they are associated with.

In addition, you can include a separator or divider value to the list to make it more clear which products or categories are used with which interface. For example, you can create a product named START OF INTERFACE A that is only enabled for Admin visibility for the appropriate interfaces and then group the interface A products under it:

START OF INTERFACE A
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3
START OF INTERFACE B
Product 4
Product 5
Product 6

Option 2: Specifying Unique Answer Access Levels for Each Interface

If you have two interfaces (Interface1 and Interface2), you can create custom answer access levels for each interface and assign the Answers to the appropriate access level. For instance, if you have two interfaces (Interface1 and Interface2), you can create new answer access levels named Public1 and Public2.

To add a new access level to display answers for a specific interface, use the steps below:

1. From Configuration, select Application Appearance > Customizable Menus > Answer Access Levels.
2. Select System Menus, double-click on Answer Access Level.
3. Click the New button on the ribbon and enter the name.
4. In the Interface Visibility section, enable the Visibility check box for the interface that will display answers assigned to this access level. For example, if you added Public1 as an access level, then enable the check box for Interface 1.
5. Click Save or Add.

To display an answer as public on Interface1: set its access level to coincide with the access level configured to display on the first interface. Similarly, to display an answer on Interface2, set its access level to coincide with the access level configured to display on the second interface.

Note: If you are using products and categories, the answer must be assigned to products and categories visible to the interface you are publishing answers to.

Different Languages For Separate Interfaces

When using multiple interfaces that utilize different languages, you can use the Language field to differentiate which answers will display on which interface. For example, if you have an English interface and a German interface, selecting en_US from the Language drop-down menu when editing the answer will allow that answer to display on the English interface. Similarly, selecting de_DE from the Language menu when editing the Answer allows the Answer to display on the German interface.

If your application uses different language packs for your different interfaces, you can use common fields across your interfaces. You can edit the name of the field for each language pack in your site.

For example, you can specify different language names for the same product, category, access level or custom field. In this way, the overall number of fields is reduced and you can ensure greater commonality across the different interfaces.