Introduced in Feature Pack 1

Advanced system-generated unique promotion codes

Advanced system-generated unique promotion codes are created by specifying an advanced pattern of characters.

Important: Using this method to create promotion codes is considered complex compared to using Simple system-generated unique promotion codes. Therefore, it is recommended that you use this creation method when your specific business requirements cannot be fulfilled with simple system-generated unique promotion codes.
The following inputs are required to generate advanced system-generated unique promotion codes:
Pattern
An advanced pattern that contains at least one set of generated characters, specified in brackets []. It can also contain fixed characters such as numeric, alphabetic, or alphanumeric characters.
Number of unique promotion codes to generate
The total number of generated promotion codes to create, based on your business needs.
Code generation status
The status of the system generation of the unique promotion codes for the promotion. The promotion codes are generated when the promotion is activated.
Note: Your promotion codes can fail to generate in the following situations:
  • The promotion codes are already populated in your store database.
  • There is insufficient space available on your system for generating the number of codes specified.
If your promotion codes fail to generate and are not already populated in your store database, contact your system administrator.
The maximum number of possible unique promotion codes to generate is calculated and displayed for reference, based on the pattern input.

Each unique promotion code is stored in its own database table row. If the number of unique promotion codes to generate or populate is large, for instance over 100,000 codes, your database must be optimized to handle the processing of this data. Your database must have the required database space allocated to store the generated codes.

Pattern syntax

Advanced system-generated unique promotion codes specified in brackets [] can take on the following values:
Numeric characters
D represents numeric characters in the pattern.
Alphabetic characters
A represents uppercase alphabetic characters in the pattern.
a represents lowercase alphabetic characters in the pattern.
M represents mixed-case alphabetic characters in the pattern.
Alphanumeric characters
X represents uppercase alphanumeric characters in the pattern.
x represents lowercase alphanumeric characters in the pattern.
N represents mixed-case alphanumeric characters in the pattern.
Sequential characters
S represents a sequence of characters in the pattern with the following notation:
S+startingNumber/Increment.

Specifying a starting number and increment value is optional, with the following behavior:

  • If both a starting number and increment are specified, the values are processed as a typical sequence.

    For example, [SSSS+100/20] represents a sequence that starts at 0100 and incrementing by 20.

  • If no starting number or increment is specified, a starting number of 0 and an increment value of 1 is automatically assigned.

    For example, [SSSS] represents a sequence that starts at 0000 and incrementing by 1.

Sample output

Advanced system-generated unique promotion codes can contain any amount of fixed characters, generated characters, and sequences.

Where, for example, the unique promotion codes sample results are:
Sample advanced system-generated unique promotion codes
Code generation pattern Sample unique promotion codes
IBM[XXX]EVENT IBM65BEVENTIBMJK7EVENTIBMXWTEVENT
SUMMER-[DDDAA]-SPECIAL SUMMER-123AB-SPECIALSUMMER-551LM-SPECIALSUMMER-319PG-SPECIAL
WINTER2010[XX]-SALE WINTER201055-SALEWINTER2010H9-SALEWINTER2010MC-SALE
IBM[DXSS] IBM5G00IBM8P01IBM2502
IBM[SSSS+100/20] IBM0100IBM0120IBM0140