Rules and restrictions
Reference list of the rules that limit Trade Partner records, invitations and bulk uploads, such as connected partners that cannot be edited and invitation requirements.
| Rule | Applies to | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| A Trade Partner must exist before its Locations | Trade Partners, Locations | Every Location belongs to exactly one Trade Partner, so the Trade Partner must exist before a Location is added. |
| Your own company cannot be invited | Invitations | The Trade Partner list in Add Invite does not offer your own company. |
| Only your own Locations can be shared in an invitation | Invitations | Select your locations you would like to share lists only Locations that belong to your own company. |
| Invitation emails | Invitations | An invitation cannot be sent with an empty Email/s field or an invalid email address. |
| Nothing is sent until you select + Invite | Invitations | Closing the Add Invite drawer without selecting + Invite sends nothing. |
| Identifier numbers are validated | PGLN, DUNS, GLN | An invalid number is rejected. An invalid PGLN shows Invalid PGLN and nothing is created. |
| New Trade Partners are not connected | Trade Partners | A Trade Partner added by form or upload starts as Not Connected with Type NonWholechain. Connecting it is a separate step (see Invitations). |
| Buyer or Supplier choices differ | Add form, spreadsheet | The single Add form and the Trade Partner drawer offer only Buyer and Supplier. The spreadsheet column Connection Type accepts Buyer, Supplier, Other and Self. |
| Name required to create | Add form | The Create Trade Partner button is unavailable while the form is empty. Trade Partner Name is the only required field. |
| Template rows must stay | Bulk uploads | Do not remove or rename the heading row or the field-code row. |
| File types | Bulk uploads | .xlsx and .xls only. |
| Rows are processed individually | Bulk uploads | Rows without errors can be added even when an error banner appears. There is no preview and no count of created rows. |
| Updating records by upload | Bulk uploads | A row that matches an existing record updates it. Records are matched by identifier, so include the Trade Partner Number/ID and Location Number/ID in every file if you use identifiers. A row with a blank identifier for a record that has one creates a new record. A name can be changed through an upload only when the row carries the identifier. |
| Re-uploading a corrected file | Bulk uploads | Upload only the rows that were not added, to avoid duplicates. |
| One Trade Partner and one Location per row | Trade Partners bulk upload | Each row creates one Trade Partner and one Location for it. |
| Location type of uploaded Locations | Trade Partners bulk upload | Locations created from the Trade Partners template get the type Warehouse / Distribution Center, because the template has no Location Type column. |
| Coordinates not found | Trade Partners bulk upload | When no coordinates are given and none can be found for the address, the Location is saved with 0, 0. |
| Linking to a Location Group | Trade Partners bulk upload | A Location Group must exist before Locations are linked to it. A group is not created by an upload. |
| Alias types | Aliases | For Trade Partners, the alias types are External Identifier, URN and PGLN, in the manual Add Alias form and in the alias bulk upload in Settings. |
| Connected records cannot be edited | Trade Partner details | The details of a Trade Partner that is connected in Wholechain belong to another account and cannot be edited. |
| Type is read-only | Trade Partner details | Type (for example NonWholechain) is shown for information and cannot be edited. |
| Wholechain ID is read-only | Trade Partner details | Wholechain ID is assigned by Wholechain and cannot be edited. |
| Required name | Trade Partner details | Trade Partner Name cannot be saved empty: an error appears and Wholechain restores the name. Trade Partner Identifier can be saved empty. |
| Required fields for documents | Attachments tab | Document Title and Attachment are required to add a document. Privacy is Private by default. |
| Archiving affects Locations and aliases | Archive | Archiving a Trade Partner also archives its Locations and removes all aliases from the Trade Partner and its Locations (see Archive and restore). |
| Escape key | Drawers | Closes the drawer and discards entries that are not saved. |
| Account-wide settings | Settings pages | Changes made in Master Data Settings > Trade Partner apply to the whole account (see Master Data Settings). |
For the messages these rules produce, see Messages.
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