Vendors — Production Guide

Licensing

• Catalog slug: vendors
• Category: purchasing (Purchasing), category_sort_order = 40
• Free Marketplace opt-in module (not auto-installed)
• Catalog flags: is_default_included = false, is_billable = false, price 0, sort_order = 10
• New workspaces receive only Leads + Tasks by default; enable Vendors from Marketplace
• Existing workspaces that already have Vendors keep their subscription
• Deactivate via Central module subscription tools to revoke access without dropping data

Bootstrap

On new workspace create (Central tenant create or public register):

1. installDefaultModules() installs published is_default_included modules (Leads, Tasks only)
2. Operators enable Vendors from Marketplace (free / non-billable install activates immediately)
3. Tenant permissions include vendors.* via config/tenant-permissions.php / default role maps

No stage or status seeder (unlike Leads) — Vendors is a flat directory record with a simple active/inactive flag.

Permissions rollout

New Vendors permissions for existing workspaces must ship as an additive data migration using TenantPermissionSynchronizer::grantMissingDefaultRolePermissions([...]). Do not re-seed roles or rely on login/dashboard to repair RBAC.

Monitoring

• Platform audit events: vendor_created, vendor_updated, vendor_deleted, vendor_assigned, vendor_note_added, vendor_restored
• Notifications: assignment (mail + database) via VendorAssignedNotification
• Tenant mail settings with Central SMTP fallback

Deploy checklist

1. Migrate vendor tables (vendors, vendor_notes, vendor_activities)
2. Register the vendors catalog module (migration, not seeder) as free opt-in under the new purchasing category
3. Confirm module:vendors + vendors.* permissions on target roles
4. Deploy frontend (Vendors nav item under new Purchasing group, list/form/detail)
5. Smoke: create a new workspace → enable Vendors from Marketplace → create/edit/assign/note a vendor → soft delete/restore

Phase 4 roadmap context

Vendors is Milestone 1 of Phase 4 Purchasing. Purchase Orders (Milestone 2) hard-depends on Vendors; Expenses (Milestone 3, final) has a soft dependency on both Vendors and Purchase Orders. Phase 4 Purchasing is now complete. See module-dependencies.md and product-roadmap.md.