Terminology
Here you'll find an index of important terminology we use throughout the documentation.
How the pieces fit together
An integration connects your application to Spiff Commerce. Within it, an activation deploys a theme and links it to the product collections your customers can choose from. Each customer session creates a bundle within that activation. The bundle holds one workflow experience for each design, and each design is identified by a transaction. When the customer is happy, the transactions are submitted as an order.
Setup and configuration
Integration
An integration represents your application, such as an e-commerce store or a custom website, in Spiff Commerce. You create and manage integrations in the Spiff Commerce Hub. Each integration has an application key, and e-commerce integrations also carry the list of integration products that can be personalized.
Application Key
An application key identifies your integration when your code talks to Spiff Commerce. It's required to construct a SpiffCommerceClient and to launch a hosted experience. You can find yours on the integration in the Hub.
Activation
An activation is a single deployment of a theme. It links the theme and its configuration to the product collections customers can choose from, and can optionally restrict the experience to a single product. Bundles are created within an activation.
Theme
A theme relates to the look and feel of the design experience. We provide a number of themes out of the box, but you can also create your own. Learn more about themes here.
Theme Install and Theme Configuration
Installing a theme into your account creates a theme install. A theme install carries a configuration: the values for the fields the theme exposes, such as colors, text and layout options. A theme receives its configuration through its context when it loads.
Region
Your Spiff Commerce account is hosted in a region, such as Australia (AU) or the United States (US). Anything that talks to Spiff Commerce, including the Hosted Experience API, needs to target the region your account is in.
Products and workflows
Product
A product is something a customer can personalize. Products are grouped into product collections, and each has one or more workflows that define how it is designed.
Integration Product
An integration product is a product that has been linked to an integration in the Hub, typically to a product in your e-commerce store. It is what you reference to preselect a product when launching an experience. It must be enabled, along with its integration, before customers can personalize it.
Product Collection
A product collection is a group of products that is meaningful to your business, for example all products available to be added to the cart together. An activation links a theme to one or more product collections, and a bundle is created against a collection. Learn more about product collections.
Workflow
A workflow defines how a product is designed. It is made up of steps, the scenes they apply to, and the conditions that decide when each step is shown. Workflows are configured in the Hub. Learn more about workflows here.
Step
A step is a single stage in a workflow where the customer makes a choice or supplies something, such as choosing a material, entering text or uploading a picture. Each step has a type. Learn more about step types here.
Workflow Experience
A workflow experience is a customer's live session with a workflow: the workflow plus every selection they have made so far. It is the main entry point for interacting with a design in the Core SDK, and always lives inside a bundle. Learn more about workflow experiences.
Step Handle
A step handle is the Core SDK's interface to a specific step in a workflow experience. It gives you the options available on the step and lets you apply the customer's choice. Learn more about step handles.
Customer designs
Bundle
A bundle groups the designs a customer is working on, along with shared settings, stakeholders and the product collection they are choosing from. Every customer experience is built around a bundle. Learn more about bundles here.
Transaction
A transaction represents a single design within a bundle. It's used as a handle by Spiff Commerce to the design of the customer. You can use a transaction ID to place an order, pull metadata about the design or to re-open the design experience for the customer to make changes.
Metadata
Metadata is a set of key value pairs that can be attached to a bundle or a transaction. It's used to store information about the design, such as the selections made by the customer. The selections recorded for a design are returned as its exported data.
Stakeholder
A stakeholder is a customer who has been given a role on a bundle. Each stakeholder has a type of Owner, Approver, Editor or Viewer. Learn more about customer details.
Ordering
Order
An order consists of a set of line items which each have a transaction ID, along with a quantity of each to order. If an order exists it means the customer has indicated they are happy with all of their designs and have paid for them. When using an official plugin you'll have the order created for you automatically when the cart is checked out in your e-commerce store. Otherwise you need to place the order yourself when it makes sense. Learn more about orders here.
Cart Add Mode
When a customer finishes a bundle, its cart add mode determines how the designs are added to your cart. Default consolidates products into as few line items as possible, FirstTransaction adds only the first transaction, and OneToOne adds each transaction as its own line item. The theme sets it on the finished bundle when it hands the bundle back to your store.
Presentment Currency
The currency, as an ISO 4217 code, that prices are shown to the customer in. It is passed to the experience when it is launched.
Automation
Process Flow
A process flow is an automated sequence of steps in Spiff Commerce that takes inputs, such as a bundle or its transactions, and produces outputs with data attached to them. You can start one with the Core SDK. Learn more about process flows.