NOTE: This article is for Flipdish's product based menus (PBM) system, which is currently in a beta version. If you would like to join beta program for this, please contact us at help@flipdish.com. For the previous way of doing things, see this article

Creating a product

Creating a product in Flipdish is easy. We'll walk through the steps below to create a simple latte coffee product. 

1. Navigate to your Flipdish Portal and go to Catalog -> Products.
2. Select "Create new product".
3. Give it a name, a description (optional) and price (optional).
4. A SKU will be generated for you, but you can configure this if you'd like to map it to a real-world product for reporting purposes. 
5. Click "Create product" to save your new product.

At this stage, your product has been created and you should see it in your list of products. 

Editing a product and adding images to products

To edit your product and add more information to it:

1. Select it from the list on your products list page.
2. On the next page, you'll be able to change information like the name, description, price and SKU.
3. To give your product an image, click "add Image".
4. Select your preferred image to upload
5. Check how your image will appear in both aspect ratios to make sure it's to your liking
6. Press the "save" button at the bottom of the page to persist your changes.

Tip: Did you know you can use animated GIFs in your menu? Learn more here

How to delete (archive) a product

Sometimes you need to de-clutter your products and remove the ones you don't need any more. To do this, you can simply archive a product and it will no longer appear in your Flipdish portal. 

To archive a product:

1. Find the product in your products list.
2. Select the three-dot menu and select archive

The product will no longer appear in your products list!

How to add modifiers (options) to products

You often need to add a choice of options for your customers to choose from when ordering from your menu. For instance, whether to have a sandwich toasted or un-toasted, or to offer a pizza with extra toppings. This is easy for you to manage in your Flipdish Portal. We'll build on our example above and let our customers order a latte and select from 2 different sizes, as well as add some toppings. 

Creating a modifier group

Firstly, we'll create a modifier group to hold our modifiers 

1. In your Flipdish Portal, navigate to Catalog -> Modifier Groups.
2. Select "New Modifier Group". A new page will open where you can configure your group.
3. Since we're creating a "size" modifier group, we'll give ours a name of "Select Size"
4. Next we want to add our modifiers, we'll add "medium" and "large"
5. Select "Add Modifier". A side-drawer will open up which will let you search through all your existing modifiers that you may have created previously.
6. In our case, we need to create the modifiers, so we'll select "Create New Modifier" from the side-drawer
7. Give the modifier a name, in our case "Medium". A SKU will be auto-generated, which you can update if you like. You can define a price for the modifier or leave it 0. 
8. Select "Create Modifier". The modifier is created and added to your group. 
9. We'll repeat this step for "Large" modifier. For this option, we'll give it a price of 0.20 as it's a little more expensive for the larger version. 
10. For our purposes of our latte size, we want to select "One item - selection is required" in selection type. See below for an explanation of these configurations. 
11. Click "Save" to save your changes to your group. 

What is selection type in modifier groups?

Selection type lets you define the minimum and maximum selections that you'd like your customers to make. We provide 4 quick-access configurations, and "other" for your more complex needs. 

One item - Selection is optional

This configuration means that the user can make one selection (and one selection only), but they do not have to make a selection (it's optional). In this case, the user can proceed without making any selection. 

Any number - Selection is optional

This configuration means that the user can make as many selections as they like, but they don't have to make a selection. Like the option above, they can proceed without making a selection. One example where this could be used is in optional toppings for a pizza, or in our case, a coffee. 

One item - Selection is required

This configuration means that the user must make at least one selection from the list, and only one. In this case, the user will not be able to proceed until they make a selection from the list. One example where this could be used is a "size" option where the user must explicitly select a size. 

Any number - Selection is required

This configuration means that the user must make at least one selection from the list, but can select as many as they like. In this case, the user will not be able to proceed until they make at least one selection from the list. 

Other

With this configuration you can define special use cases for your menu experience. You can specify manually the minimum and maximum values that the user must make. 

Adding a modifier group to a product

1. Open the product in your Flipdish portal.
2. Select "Add Modifier Group". The side panel will open up.
3. Find the modifier group you'd like to add. In our case, we want "Select Size". Click the "+" icon.
4. Close the side drawer and click "Save Changes" on the product. 

We've now added a "Select Size" modifier group to our latte product. 

To learn more about Flipdish’s products or how to grow your online business enroll for FREE in the Flipdish Academy here: http://academy.flipdish.com/