Units of measure assets

Products can be sold, and inventory that is tracked, in various quantity units, such as kilograms, inches, liters. Of these units, products can be ordered in minimum quantities, and by multiples of specific quantities.

The controller commands use the UOM (unit of measure) to specify the quantity unit. If a UOM parameter is not specified, then the customer's specified quantity is multiplied by the nominal quantity of the catalog entry in the CATENTSHIP database table. The result is known as the requested quantity.

The requested quantity is rounded up to the next highest quantity multiple for the catalog entry. For example, if the multiple is 2 kilograms and the requested quantity is 4.1 kilograms, the result of the rounding would be 6 kilograms. The rounded quantity is used when inventory is checked, and this quantity has its own quantity unit. If the inventory quantity unit and the catalog entry quantity unit are different, there must be a conversion between the two units.

When Available to Promise (ATP) inventory is enabled, the inventory quantity unit is defined in the QUANTITYMEASURE column of the BASEITEM table. Otherwise, it is defined in the QUANTITYMEASURE column of the INVENTORY table. The enabled inventory, such as ATP, is recorded in the INVENTORYSYSTEM column of the STORE table.

The rounded quantity that is divided by the nominal quantity of the catalog entry is known as the normalized quantity. The normalized quantity is stored in the order item or the interest item, depending on the command that is being run. For example, if the rounded quantity is 6 kilograms and the nominal quantity is 2 kilograms, then the normalized quantity is 3.

The following diagram illustrates the structure of units of measure in the WebSphere Commerce Server:

Quantity unit and quantity unit format

A quantity unit is the unit of measurement that is used in the store. For example, kilograms, pounds, meters, inches, liters. The quantity unit format is how this quantity unit is formatted in the store. For example, how many decimal places are used when the quantity unit displays.

Each quantity unit format is part of only one store entity, but each store entity can have several quantity unit formats.

A quantity unit format can exist for each quantity unit and number usage. The quantity unit can have one or more quantity unit format descriptions, depending on how many languages the store supports.

Quantity units that are defined in one store can be used by other stores. In order for one store to use quantity units that are defined in another store a store relationship of type com.ibm.commerce.measurement.format must be created between the stores. For more information, see Relationships between stores.

Quantity unit format description

A quantity unit format description describes how to format (for display purposes) a quantity amount in a particular quantity unit, in a particular language.

Number usage

Number usage defines the way that a number is used in an application. For example, by using number usage codes in your WebSphere Commerce code, you can choose the way that you would like that number (currency or quantity) to be formatted or rounded. These codes (defined in the NUMBRUSG table) allow the number to be formatted according to the rules specified for that type of number usage in the CURFORMAT, CURFMTDESC, QTYFORMAT, and QTYFMTDESC tables. This formatting option allows stores to format numbers in different ways to meet the requirements of various situations.