Fallback Types
By default, EvolutionX falls back to EvoX pricing whenever your Live pricing lookup fails to return a price for a given product. This means the price shown is based on the values and rules stored in your EvoX store.
You can choose what your live pricing fallback is at a store level.
Evolution Pricing
Quote Me
Call for Price
There are two types of Fallback:
Missing Item Fallback Option — If the ERP live pricing endpoint returns a valid response but an item is not found, this option will control the pricing behavior for any item not found in the ERP. The product supplier setting will determine if a response with a zero priced product is treated as a missing item, read more here. Example settings:
Evolution Pricing — this option is used if you are intentionally listing and pricing items in EvolutionX that are not in the ERP
Call for Price or Quote Me — Either of these options are recommended if you expect that all items on the website can be priced by the ERP. This ensures that if a product is not correctly configured it will not be priced incorrectly.
Failed Live Price Request Fallback — If the ERP live pricing endpoint is down or otherwise cannot return a valid response then all items requested are priced using the behavior set in this option.
Call for Price or Quote Me — Either of these options are recommended so that when the ERP live pricing endpoint is down or otherwise returning invalid responses we will prevent all items from being priced rather than showing incorrect pricing. This will also return to normal as soon as the live price endpoint begins working again.
Evolution Pricing — This option is not recommended unless all products are priced in EvolutionX.
Failed Live Price Requests
EvolutionX evaluates the response from the ERP to determine if it is reliable for pricing products. The following are examples that would be treated as failed requests to the ERP:
no response — could be caused by incorrect settings or DNS issues
error response — could be caused by an ERP endpoint issue or malformed request
malformed response — could be caused by an ERP endpoint issue or incorrect settings
slow or timeout response — could be caused by an under-resourced ERP server or other performance issue
Error Handling for Add To Cart
If a page loads with pricing and then the "add to cart" button is clicked but the live pricing endpoint is no longer working, we will return an error to the page and not add the item to the cart. This prevents adding items to the cart with an invalid price.
Live Pricing Store Setup
Store Settings >> General >> Store preferences
Scroll to the Live Pricing section, and select a "Fallback Option".
"Evolution Pricing" is the default behavior.
The "Call for Price" and "Quote Me" options should omit any price and present the selected choice (see below).
Supplier Zero Priced Product Setting
Each product supplier can be set to allow zero priced items.
If the product supplier is set as Buy 0 Priced Items as off (false) then the product returned in the ERP live price response with a zero price is treated as a missing item and uses the fallback rules. If this toggle is set as on (true) then it's allowed as a zero priced item from the ERP. Note there is one exception to this rule as documented in the FAQ.
Live price lookup logic
Each time we go to display a live price, the system runs through the following logic.
Make a live price request to the ERP
Products set in an Evolution X pricing rule as "Call for Price" or "Quote Me" will display "Call for Price" or "Quote Me" to the customer and will not be sent to the ERP for the live pricing request.
Evaluate the ERP Live Pricing Response
ERP returns a price for the product
If the product is zero priced (example 0.00) then the supplier toggle is evaluated and the product is returned as missing or free.
Products returned display the live price from the ERP
ERP returns a valid response but a product is missing
If Missing Item Fallback is Evolution X pricing
Look for a price on Evolution X
If we have a price, display the price
If there is no price in Evolution X, display the list price
If Missing Item Fallback is Call for price, display call for price to the user.
If Missing Item Fallback is Quote me, display the quote me button to the user.
Failure (no response, error response, malformed response, slow or timeout response)
Look at what is set in the Live Pricing Fallback option.
If Fallback is Evolution X pricing
Look for a price on Evolution X
If we have a price, display the price
If there is no price in Evolution X, display the list price
If Fallback is Call for price, display call for price to the user.
If Fallback is Quote me, display the quote me button to the user.
FAQ
How does the Supplier Buy 0 Priced Items Change Live Pricing?
Make sure to have the Supplier "Buy 0 Priced Items" toggled on if your ERP supports free items. If toggled off, as recommended for Prima, we will use the Live Price Fallback setting (Evolution pricing, call for price, or quote me). This will prevent your products showing as 0.00 priced.
Why does my item with Zero price from Live Price show 999.9 as returned from the Contract price rule?
If your ERP supports zero priced items then this is a configuration error which can be corrected with the supplier settings as described above. It can happen when the Evolution Pricing fallback rule is on and the Supplier "buy 0 priced items" is false and a pricing contract is set with a price of 999.9 because the Evolution price value will be used. No change is needed to the contract price in admin, it can continue to read 999.9 so long as live pricing is configured correctly.
How can I see and troubleshoot live price issues?
Read our article on live price logging in the Admin. You can report and view all live price requests.
Is it possible to determine with CSS when live pricing fails?
Yes, when a live pricing request fails (due to a Failed Live Price Request), css class ex-livepricing-failed will be added to the body element so a css rule body.ex-livepricing-failed can be created to make, for example, a widget visible in the layout (hidden by default, visible under this body class).
It can also be used to modify only the elements that failed to return a price, here is an example to modify the text for the Call for price fallback with CSS only:
/* HIDE THE DEFAULT CALL FOR PRICE FALLBACK MESSAGE */
body.ex-livepricing-failed .price-call.live-pricing-fallback-option-callforprice i,
body.ex-livepricing-failed .price-call.live-pricing-fallback-option-callforprice span {
display: none;
}
/* DISPLAY A DIFFERENT MESSAGE ON THE CALL FOR PRICE FALLBACK ELEMENT */
body.ex-livepricing-failed .price-call.live-pricing-fallback-option-callforprice::before {
content: "Price not found";
}
Please remember: This css class, once added, will remain in the body element until the page is refreshed.
When will products not be sent to Live Pricing?
There are several conditions that will prevent products being sent to live pricing to check the ERP price.
EvolutionX Item found with a Price Rule of "Call for Price" or "Quote Me" will not send to live price. In this case the SKU added to the price rule is matched to a Supplier + SKU and that item on the storefront will respect the Call for Price or Quote Me functionality. The item on the price rule is overriding the Live Price in this case.
EvolutionX catalog items which are Master Configurable (EvolutionX type 4) or third party Product Selectors (EvolutionX type 6, such as Schneider and LightsAmerica) do not get sent to Live Price requests and will show a configure button instead of the add to cart button.