Product submissions¶

Let a customer propose a new product for the catalog, then review it, approve it into a real product, or reject it with a reason.

A customer submits the product through the customer portal. Staff review it from the Product Submissions queue: approving creates a real Product record and links it back to the submission; rejecting sends the customer a reason and nothing further happens on its own. This gives customers a self-service way to expand the catalog without giving them direct write access, and gives staff a checkpoint to enforce SKU, dimensional, and handling-class standards before a product enters the system.

Workflow at a glance¶

graph LR
    A[Customer fills<br/>Submit Product form] --> B[SKU availability<br/>check]
    B --> C[Submission<br/>PENDING]
    C --> D{Staff<br/>review}
    D -->|Approve| E[Catalog Product<br/>created]
    D -->|Reject| F[Rejection reason<br/>captured]
    E --> G[Customer notified<br/>APPROVED]
    F --> H[Customer notified<br/>REJECTED]

    style A fill:#e3f2fd
    style C fill:#fff3e0
    style D fill:#fff3e0
    style E fill:#e8f5e9
    style F fill:#ffebee
    style G fill:#e8f5e9
    style H fill:#ffebee

Customer workflow¶

This section is for customer-portal users submitting products for catalog inclusion.

Opening the submission form¶

You submit a product while raising a delivery request — there's no separate Products page in the portal.

1. Sign in to the portal. You land on Delivery Requests.
2. Choose New Request.

3. When you reach a line whose product isn't in the catalog yet, use the submit-product shortcut in the form.

   The submission form opens, and the new submission is linked to the request you're building.

Once staff approve it, the delivery request line is re-pointed at the real catalog product automatically. You don't need to come back and fix it.

Required and optional fields¶

SKU availability¶

As you type the SKU, the form checks it against the catalog and shows one of three states:

If the SKU is taken, change it before you submit.

Submitting¶

1. Review all fields.

2. Choose Submit for Review.

   A confirmation appears and the form closes. The submission is created with status Pending, and both staff reviewers and your own customer account get an in-app notification.

Checking submission status¶

The My Products section on the Delivery Requests page lists everything you've submitted, scoped to your own customer account. Each card shows the product name, its SKU, the date, a status badge, and — if it was turned down — the reason.

The cards are a read-only summary; there's nothing to click into. If a submission was rejected, read the reason on the card and submit a corrected one.

Staff (admin) workflow¶

This section is for internal staff with the manage:products permission reviewing the submission queue.

Reviewing the submission queue¶

Open Catalog → Products. Pending submissions appear in a collapsible Product Submissions panel on that page — there's no separate entry in the sidebar.

Click a row to open the review dialog.

Opening a submission for review¶

Choose any row to open the Review dialog. It shows every field the customer entered — name, SKU, and status badge; unit of measure, weight, dimensions, and cases per pallet; description and notes, if provided; and the customer, submitting user, and submission timestamp.

For a submission that's already been reviewed, it also shows who reviewed it and when, plus the Rejection Reason on a rejected submission or the Linked Product on an approved one.

Approving a submission¶

Approving a submission creates a real Product in the catalog and links back to the submission.

1. Open the submission in the Review dialog.

2. Optionally, expand Show Overrides to adjust any of the following before creating the product:

   Override	Purpose
   SKU	Normalize the SKU to your internal scheme
   Name	Tidy up the display name
   Storage Class	Assign a storage class (e.g., AMBIENT, REFRIGERATED)
   Freight Class	Assign a freight class for rating
   NMFC Code	National Motor Freight Classification code
   Lot Tracked	Enable lot tracking on the new product
   Serial Tracked	Enable serial-number tracking
   Reorder Point / Reorder Quantity / Max Stock	Inventory planning defaults
   Cost / Price	Financial defaults

1. Choose Approve.

   The platform creates the product using the submission's fields plus any overrides, marks the submission Approved with who approved it and when, and re-points any pending delivery-request lines that referenced this submission to the real product. The customer gets an in-app notification, and the change is written to the activity history.

Rejecting a submission¶

1. Open the submission in the Review dialog.
2. Scroll to the Reject section.
3. Enter a Rejection Reason — required.

4. Choose Reject.

   The platform marks the submission Rejected, records who reviewed it and when, and sends the customer an in-app notification with your rejection reason. Any delivery-request lines that referenced the submission stay blocked.

Reason-code guidance¶

There are no hard-coded reason codes — the field is free-form. Common patterns most operations teams use:

Once reviewed, a submission is locked¶

Approve and Reject only work on a submission that's still Pending. If you made a mistake:

• Rejected by mistake — the customer resubmits. You can't "un-reject" from the interface.
• Approved by mistake — deactivate the resulting catalog product through the normal Products admin flow. The submission record itself stays approved, for the audit trail.

API reference¶

This section is for developers integrating with product submissions directly, not for day-to-day use of the screens above. All endpoints are prefixed with the platform API base URL and require a Bearer token.

List filters supported on GET /product-submissions:

• status[eq] — PENDING, APPROVED, or REJECTED
• status[in] — comma-separated list
• customerId[eq] — staff-only scoping (portal users are always scoped to their own customer)
• search — matches name or SKU
• page, pageSize, sortBy, sortOrder — standard pagination and sort (sortBy: createdAt, name, sku, status)

Response shapes follow the standard { data, meta } envelope used elsewhere in the API. Error responses use standard HTTP status codes: 400 for validation, 404 for not-found, 409 for SKU conflict.

Notifications¶

The platform sends an in-app notification on three events:

Choosing a notification opens the submission directly. In the staff UI that's the Review dialog; in the customer portal it's the status view, with the submission highlighted.

Audit trail¶

Every state change on a submission is recorded in activity history: creation; approval, with the status change from Pending to Approved and the new product it created; and rejection, with the status change from Pending to Rejected and the reason given. Each entry carries the acting user and the timestamp.

Troubleshooting¶

Related guides¶

• Order processing — how approved products flow into orders and delivery requests
• Customers — managing the customer accounts that portal submitters belong to
• Users — managing the submit:products, view:products, and manage:products permissions
• Bulk Upload — alternate path for importing large product catalogs (staff-only)
• Activity history — the audit trail behind every submission

Support¶

For product-submission assistance:

• Email: support@zoratech.io
• FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
• Troubleshooting: Common Issues