We are upgrading the way company data is handled

Due to changes in how codes are sold, we have decided to abandon the old method for associating products to companies and try something new. This change will make it easier to enter corrections for company data as well as making it easier for companies to manage their own product collection.

As a user, you may not notice the changes right away. When you do, you may only think there is a cosmetic change to how the information is presented. But in the background, a great deal of improved logic will exist.

This change is rather substantial in regard to how the data is stored and accessed so it could be a couple weeks before we are finished and make the changes visible to the end users. We simply wanted to let you now that the canges were coming and that with this set of changes more new features are on the way.

Some things that will be changing:

• Companies will no longer have a Company ID that is in any related to the UPC/EAN code. Company ID use to be the first 7+ digits of the product code but that has proven to be a problem since the changes by the GIS on how codes are issued.
• The company edit form will change. We use to allow edits one item at a time but that is going to end. The company edit form will place all fields into one big edit form with only one save button. This may sound like a trivial change and on screen it really is. But in the background this is a very important change and will help make company management a lot easier.
• In the data feed, the company ID will be replaced with a new number. This new number will serve the same function, connecting products to companies but it will function in a much more useful way. We haven't decided if we will call the field the same thing or not yet. The content will change for sure.
• Data downloads will have better company links making it much easier to sort out the company data and link it to products.
• Duplicate company records that use to have different company ID values will get merged together so in the end, each company will only be in the database once. Right now, a company can be listed multiple times because they own multiple prefix codes.

We hope these changes will in the end produce better lookups, faster searches and more meaningful searches. We will use this upgrade to add more features in the future.