Storefront

The storefront is the hub's store. Hubs use it to distribute licensed software, to sell course seats and memberships, and occasionally to ship physical goods. It is at /storefront, and the cart and your order history are at /cart.

Where a hub does run one, it is usually for the things it cannot simply give away: a solver whose licence is counted per seat, a training course with a registration fee, a data subscription. A department buying five seats of a licensed code for a semester goes through the storefront and gets the serial numbers back on the confirmation page.

Many hubs require you to log in before you can see the store at all. Where that is the case, /storefront shows a welcome page with a Login button instead of the catalogue.

Finding something

The store's home page lists the collections the hub has set up — usually categories of software. Click one to see its products, or type words into the search box and press Search to match product titles. Searching from inside a collection searches only that collection.

A product page shows its picture, its price or price range, a tagline, a description, and often a features list. Its address, https://<your hub>/storefront/product/<name>, is stable and shareable. Hub staff can also give you a link that arrives with the options already chosen.

You will not see every product the hub has. Products are limited by access level or by the groups your account belongs to, and individual variants can be restricted to a named list of people. What you cannot buy simply is not listed.

Adding an item to the cart

1. Choose an option under each heading on the product page — a platform, a licence term, whatever the hub has defined. As you choose, the price updates to the exact variant you have selected.
2. Set the quantity if the product allows more than one. Some hubs rename this field; some products can only ever be bought one at a time.
3. Press Add to cart. The hub takes you to /cart.

If the product is out of stock, has been withdrawn, or you already own it, the page says so in place of the Add to cart button.

The cart

/cart lists what you have collected, with a quantity box and a delete link for each line. Change a quantity and press Update cart to apply it; setting a quantity to zero removes the line. If the hub issues discount codes, type one into the coupon box and press Apply.

Press Checkout to start. You must be logged in — the hub asks you to sign in first if you are not, and your cart survives the login.

Checking out

Checkout is a series of steps, and the hub shows only the ones your order needs.

• Checkout: user agreement. If anything in the order carries an end-user licence, its text appears here. Tick the box to accept it and press Next. You cannot go on without accepting.
• Checkout: Notes/Comments. Some items ask a question — a purchase order number, a department, an intended use. Answer it and press Next. Where the question is marked required, an answer is required.
• Checkout: shipping information. For physical goods, enter the name and address to ship to, or choose one you saved earlier, and press Next. Tick Save this address for future use to keep it.
• Review your order. The full order, with subtotal, shipping, discounts and total, plus the notes you entered. Press Place order to confirm.

An order with a balance to pay hands you to the hub's payment provider at this point and returns you when the payment clears.

When it is done you land on a Thank you! page with an order summary, and the hub emails a confirmation to the address on your account.

Getting what you bought

Nothing is posted to you unless you bought a physical thing. Software, course seats and memberships are delivered on the hub, straight away.

The summary on the confirmation page carries the action for each item.

• A software download has a Download link. Where the hub issues licence keys, your serial number or numbers are printed beside it.
• A course seat has a link to the course page; you are already registered.
• A membership or subscription is applied to your account straight away.

Your orders

Press Your Orders in the cart, or go to /cart/orders, for every order you have placed, newest first, each with its number, date, items and total. Download links stay live here, so you can fetch a file again later.

You have to be logged in to see your orders. See Support if an order or a download does not behave as it should.