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Mass Action Tool

Lori Krell edited this page Jul 27, 2018 · 35 revisions

This content is new and in-progress for MSI and includes content for "in development" and 1.0.0 Beta features. Information may change depending on development.


To properly begin using Multi-Sourcing features, you need to create new Custom Sources, create Custom Stocks with assigned Custom Sources, and assign Custom Sources with inventory data (products with assigned sources and inventory quantities). To quickly and easily assign sources and inventory, use the Mass Action tool: adding custom sources to products and migrating existing product data assigned to the Default Source to custom Sources.

You can use the use the Mass Action tool to make quick updates across multiple products. This is helpful for transferring inventory between sources and removing a source without editing each product individually.

Important: Default Source and Default Stock

Currently in the MSI Minimal Viable Product (MVP) release, there are limitations for Default Source and Default Stock to remember when using mass actions. The following information provides merchant and technical details.

  • The MSI MVP release does not have Bundle and Grouped products support. MSI supports these product types only when assigned to Default Source/Default Stock (which are pre-created by the system at the time of MSI installation). In future MSI releases, we will expand support for composite products.
  • You cannot unassign Default Source from Default Stock.
  • You cannot disable the Default Source.
  • You cannot assign Default Source to a Custom Stock. Currently when building an index for a custom Stock, the system would not be able to handle Grouped and Bundle products that could be potentially assigned to the Default Source.
  • You cannot assign Custom Sources to Default Stock. This is due to how the index for Default Stock is implemented. In the MSI MVP release, the system re-uses the Stock Status legacy index (cataloginventory_stock_status MySQL table) built by CatalogInventory module. MSI wraps it with MySQL View to make the index contract look the same as for other Multi Stock indexes created for custom stocks:
         Create View: CREATE ALGORITHM=UNDEFINED DEFINER=`root`@`localhost` SQL SECURITY DEFINER VIEW `inventory_stock_1` AS select distinct `legacy_stock_status`.`product_id` AS `product_id`,
         `legacy_stock_status`.`website_id` AS `website_id`,
         `legacy_stock_status`.`stock_id` AS `stock_id`,
         `legacy_stock_status`.`qty` AS `quantity`,
         `legacy_stock_status`.`stock_status` AS `is_salable`,
         `product`.`sku` AS `sku` 
         from 
         (
         	`cataloginventory_stock_status` `legacy_stock_status` 
         	join 
         	`catalog_product_entity` `product` 
         	on
         	((`legacy_stock_status`.`product_id` = `product`.`entity_id`))
     	 )

Assign product sources

Use the Assign Sources tool to add one or more sources to your products. The tool helps when creating and assigning custom sources to your Default Stock or custom stocks and preparing new locations and inventory.

After adding new custom sources, you can add inventory quantities per product or for multiple products using the import feature. See MSI Import and Export Product Data for details.

  1. On the Admin sidebar, tap Catalog. Then choose Products.

  2. Select the products you want to modify sources. Browse or search to find the products and select those checkboxes.

  3. Tap the Actions drop-down menu, and choose Assign Inventory Source. Tap OK to verify the Mass Action tool.

    Select products and assign sources
  4. Select checkboxes for all sources you want to add to the products.

  5. Tap Assign Sources.

    Add sources to selected products

The sources are added to the products with an inventory quantity of 0. You can add inventory amounts as available per source.

Transfer inventory to source

Depending on your business needs and status of location, Multi Source merchants may need to transfer product inventory from one source location to another. For example, you may be closing a warehouse location or no longer ship specific products from a location, moving all operations for those products to a new location.

This option allows you to select one or more products, the origin source to transfer inventory, and the destination source to receive quantities:

  • Inventory quantities and Source Item Status (In Stock/Out of Stock) for the selected source are moved per product.
  • If a product does not have that source, it is skipped.
  • All product inventory for the source is moved. You cannot transfer a partial quantity.

You have an option to also unassign the source when transferring inventory quantities.

To transfer inventory:

  1. On the Admin sidebar, tap Catalog. Then choose Products.

  2. Select products you want to transfer inventory. Browse or search to find the products and select those checkboxes.

  3. Tap the Actions drop-down menu, and choose Transfer Inventory. Tap OK to verify the Mass Action tool.

    Select products to transfer inventory
  4. Select the origin source to transfer products to a new destination. Tap Continue.

  5. Select the destination source to transfer products to a new destination.

  6. To remove the source from the products, select the optional checkbox Unassign from origin source after transfer.

    Select sources to transfer inventory
  7. Tap Inventory Transfer. All product quantities are deducted from the origin source and added to the destination source. The Quantity and Salable Quantity automatically update.

Unassign product sources

When unassigning a source from a product, you are indicating the product will no longer be stocked at that location. This process will completely clear all inventory data for source currently assigned to the product. If you need to move the existing inventory to a new location, consider using the Transfer inventory option.

Important: When you unassign a source from a product, all source data including inventory amounts is removed from that product. This can affect salable quantities and reservations for unprocessed orders. After checkout and before shipment, all product quantities in the order have associated reservations. If you unassign a source, you can cause issues with reservations and processing orders.

We strongly recommend completing all orders and shipments for those products prior to removing the source.

  1. On the Admin sidebar, tap Catalog. Then choose Products.

  2. Select the products you want to modify sources. Browse or search to find the products and select those checkboxes.

  3. Tap the Actions drop-down menu, and choose Unassign Inventory Source. Tap OK to verify the Mass Action tool.

    Select products and assign sources
  4. Select the source you want to remove from the products.

  5. Tap Unassign Sources. An alert displays that unassigning will remove all specific source and quantity data from the product.

  6. To complete, click Unassign Sources.

    Remove sources from selected products

MSI Documentation:

  1. Technical Vision. Catalog Inventory
  2. Installation Guide
  3. List of Inventory APIs and their legacy analogs
  4. MSI Roadmap
  5. Known Issues in Order Lifecycle
  6. MSI User Guide
  7. DevDocs Documentation
  8. User Stories
  9. User Scenarios:
  10. Technical Designs:
  11. Admin UI
  12. MFTF Extension Tests
  13. Weekly MSI Demos
  14. Tutorials
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