Create Global Custom Preferences

In Salesforce B2C Commerce, you can create global custom preferences, and then view and edit them. Custom preferences enable organization developers to make properties of the system modules configurable in Business Manager.

They can:

Define a preference type
Define a preference group
Group preference types into preference groups
Set the value of a preference for an organization
Read the value of a preference from a custom application (for example, a pipeline or B2C Commerce script)

One way to achieve higher flexibility when implementing customized functionality for a system is to make certain features and properties configurable. These features allow for easy adaptation of the system functionality to changing requirements later.

You can create custom preferences to make your settings configurable. Global custom preferences are defined in the context of the OrganizationPreference system object.

Because these objects are defined as custom preference types, you can add attributes and values.

Note: You need write permission to configure global custom preferences. If you have read-only permission, you can view the settings, but you can't change them. This change also applies to changes via B2C Commerce API calls.

You can also get and set custom preferences programmatically.

Note: The list of preferences and groups appear in the order which they were configured in the system object definition.

Start by creating an attribute grouping and corresponding set of attribute definitions by selecting Administration > Site Development > System Object Types.
1. Select OrganizationPreferences.
2. Click the Attribute Definition tab.
3. Click New and define custom (global or site) attributes:
  Enter or select these values:
  - ID: processingDays
  - Display Name: Sample custom preference
  - Help Text: This is the number of days to process an order
  - Value Type: Enum of Strings
4. Click Apply.
5. You can now select the following:
  - Mandatory: the field must be selected or contain text.
  - Externally Managed: The field is populated externally.
  - Select Multiple: (Applies only for Enum of Strings.) The user can select multiple choices,which appear as a list of elements. The user must use standard keyboard elements, such as Ctrl on Windows or Command on a Mac to select more than one element.
    Note: customizable options vary based on the value types selected previously.
6. Click Apply.
7. Enter these Value | Display Value definitions and click Apply after each entry, as follows:
  - 5 | orderProcessing (make this the default)
  - 6 | shipDays
  - 11 | totalDays
To assign attributes to an attribute group:
1. Click <<Back and click the Attribute Grouping tab.
2. Enter the following:
  
  ID: processTime
  
  Name: totalProcessTime
3. Select the language and click Add.
4. At the processTime row, click Edit.
5. Click the browse icon , select the processingDays attribute, and click Select.
You can set global custom preferences by selecting Administration > Global Preferences > Custom Preferences.
1. On the Global Custom Preferences Groups page, select an ID or name or click the Edit button at the right of a preference group row.
2. On the Global Custom Preferences page, select the Instance Type.
3. Select the preference value.
4. Click Apply.