Determining Inheritance

In Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation, when an Enterprise is created it can inherit all or part of an existing Enterprise's configuration rules. This inheritance is done at the configuration group level. A configuration group is a classification of similar configuration elements. For example, all of the rules and configurations dealing with items are grouped together into one configuration group and all of the rules and configurations dealing with organizations are grouped into another.

An administrator organization is set for every organization defined within the system. Only the administrator organization can modify the rules defined for a particular organization. If a particular organization administers multiple organizations, then they can load the rules of organization that it administers within the application tree.

Configuration groups are associated with organization levels. Organization levels determine how configuration groups are inherited and which organizations can maintain them. The organization levels defined in Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Foundation are:

The following table details the rules used to determine which organizations can maintain a configuration group as defined by the organization level. The table also describes the rules that determine how configuration groups are inherited when an organization is created.

Table 1. Organization Level Rules
Organization Level Organizations That Can Modify at this Level... Inheritance Details
Hub Level Only the Hub organization can modify configuration groups at the Hub level. All other organizations have read-only access. All organizations share this information.
Enterprise Level Only Enterprise organizations can modify configuration groups at the Enterprise level.

Any business transaction requiring Enterprise configuration is picked up from the Enterprise established by the transactional context. For example, order documents have a specific Enterprise.

An Enterprise can inherit this configuration from another Enterprise. Additionally, this configuration can be overridden at a configuration group level.

When an Enterprise is created, it inherits Enterprise level rules from its primary Enterprise.

Catalog Organization Organizations that are designated as catalog organizations can modify configuration groups at the catalog organization level. None.
Inventory Organization Organizations that are designated as inventory organizations can modify configuration groups at the inventory organization level. None.
Organization Any organization assigned a role (Seller, Buyer, etc.) can modify configuration groups at the organization level. None.
Important: You cannot inherit from an Enterprise that does not have the same inventory, capacity, and catalog organizations as the organization you are configuring.

The application rules side panel displays rules that have been inherited as grayed out.

Figure 1. Inherited Rules in the Application Rules Side Panel

As stated in the table above, depending on the organization you are logged in as, you may be able to override some inherited rules. If a rule can be overridden, the Override Configuration icon becomes available in the application rule side panel when you highlight the rule.

Figure 2. Override Configuration Icon

When you choose to override a rule you also override any other rules in the configuration group the rule you are overriding is associated with. When you choose the Override Configuration icon the Configuration Override Details pop-up window displays. This window provides the list of rules that are overridden.

Figure 3. Example of Configuration Override Details Pop-Up Window

If you override a configuration group and then decide to "re-inherit" the original rules, you can choose the Give Back Configuration Ownership icon. This icon becomes available in the application rules side panel for rules that have been overridden.

Figure 4. Give Back Configuration Ownership Icon