Details

Written by: Mattia Rigotti

Category: Tutorial Magento

Published: 25 June 2015

Hits: 1487

The goal of this connector is to publish the products on bindCommerce within the stores created with Magento. The publication may be complete with all data and images, or it may be an update of only some restricted data, such as stock availability.

The execution of the processes can be activated in interactive mode, by clicking on the appropriate button, or be started automatically by a scheduled procedure.

 

Product publishing options on Magento

To create a special configuration to be applied to the connector that will take care of publishing the products on Magento, go to the menu:

eCommerce >> Magento >> Product publishing

and click Add. Then fill in the data as described below:

• Configuration name: choose a name for the configuration
• eCommerce platform: select eCommerce Magento

Continue by selecting the desired options from those shown below:

• Creation of products in the eShop (Magento store)
• Modification of existing products in the eShop

Consider that to decide whether it is necessary to make a new insertion or an update of the products, the SKU code is used as the primary identification key.
The identification key of the categories used to manage the updates is built by appending the names of the categories in the main language, which will form a field called "keycat", so if a category is renamed or moved in the category tree, it will not be done update, but created a new category in addition to the previous one. Categories on the eShop are never deleted as they may have been created with other methods independent of bindCommerce, for example manually.

For each of these actions, the following options are available.

Options for creating new products in the eShop

• enter product name, description, notes, size and custom options
• enter categories: categories will not be created in WooCommerce, but select anyway to make the product-category combination
• insert child products
• enter product - category matching
• enter manufacturer
• enter prices: keep in mind the options described below in relation to the price lists to be considered
• enter stock availability
• insert product image
• insert category image
• enter metadata and tags
• enter featured products
• unpublish products out of stock (if availability is updated)
• use the heaviest weight between the real and volumetric one

Opzioni per la modifica dei prodotti esistenti nell'eShop

• update product name, description, notes, attributes, sizes and custom options
• update child products
  
• delete product - category pairing
• enter product - category matching
• update maufacturer
  
• update category name and description: it will not work with the name in the main language because if its name changes, the keycat, identification key of the category itself, will change and will therefore be interpreted as an addition
• update prices: keep in mind the options described below in relation to the price lists to be considered
• unpublishes the products reported as canceled on the integrator
• update stock availability
• update product image
• update metadata and tags
• updates featured products
• unpublish products out of stock (if availability is updated)
• use the heaviest weight between the real and volumetric one
• unpublish categories left without published products (acts on the whole store)

Where to get the available quantity for the products?

This is a premium option that allows you to define advanced rules to send inventory quantities different from the real ones. For more details on the configuration of the function, please consult the tutorial Quantity rules

Attributes to consider

You can choose to include some attributes in the publication. The attributes selected here will be published on the online shop.

For a correct connector configuration, it is advisable to carefully consider the characteristics of the connectors involved in the specific configuration area.

In the same section it is also necessary to specify the target language on the site.

Attribute scale conversion

Scale conversion is a tool made available to create a correspondence between the specific values of an attribute saved in bindCommerce and any different reference values.
They find application in the conversion of units of measurement relating to sizes if, for example, you want to express in different scales compared to the original or in the translation into other languages of specific values (for example the color).
In this tab it is possible to determine the attribute to convert, the starting scale and the target scale.

Price lists and prices

bindCommerce can manage multiple price lists and among the options of the connector that publishes the products on Magento there is the choice of which price lists to publish. In this regard, it is necessary to pay close attention to the key used by Magento to identify the price list (see in this regard the price lists management tutorial).

In this section it is necessary to choose which country code to use for the VAT rate.

Finally, let's consider the "Copy the price" field which has as possible options:

• Price excluding VAT on bindCommerce
  
• Price including VAT on bindCommerce / (1+VAT): to solve the problems of rounding to the nearest hundredths. This option is used to manage the problems of rounding the price to 2 decimals.

The problem derives from the fact that the price including VAT is not saved on the WooCommerce price table, but the VAT excluded price (which on the database can reach up to 5 decimals), and then it is multiplied by 1.22 (1 + VAT) to obtain the price including VAT, and if we keep to 2 decimals, sometimes there is no VAT excluded price that makes a round figure.

Let's take the example of a product with a price of € 180.00 including VAT, the price excluding VAT is € 147.54 (147.54 x 1.22 = 179.9988 rounded to € 179.99). If it had been € 147.55, the calculated price including VAT would have become 180.011 which is rounded up to € 180.01. When prices are fed by Danea, both VAT excluded and VAT included (rounded correctly) are present. If we choose the second option, bindCommerce will use the VAT inclusive price and obtain the VAT excluded price to 5 decimal places, which are sufficient to obtain a correct rounded calculation.

 

Choice of alternative decsriptions to the main one

The option allows you to publish the values of products present in an alternative date on Magento, instead of the main ones. We will use this possibility to manage the publication in alternative languages or with a different format.

If there are no values for the selected alternative, the system will use those of the main tables.

Magento

This section collects a series of Magento specific options:

• Tax class: enter a numerical value corresponding to the tax class id on Magento. This information can be found in the backend of your site, at the path: Sales -> Taxes -> Product tax classes. Leave the mouse for a few seconds on the desired class until an address appears. Search for the section /id/ and enter the number immediately following;
• Default attribute group: enter a numeric value corresponding to the id of the attribute group to be considered. This information can be found in the backend of your site, at the path: Catalog -> Attributes -> attribute set management. Leave the pointer on the desired group until an address appears. Search for the section /id/ and enter the number immediately following. Leaving the field blank, a set called bindCommerce will be automatically created;
• Default category ID: go to the Categories section and select the Default Category or any other name that has the root category of the store. write the number at the top next to the name and ID.

Connector creation

We remind you that before creating the connector it is necessary to install the Magento node on which the connector will operate. After doing this, go to the menu:

Process >> Connectors

and click on the Add button.

The following parameters must therefore be chosen:

• Connector name: choose a name to identify the connector
• Node type (technology): select eCommerce Magento
• Node: choose the previously created node
• Connector type: choose the type of Magento connector [Product publication]

lick on SAVE AND CONTINUE to access the additional fields to be filled in.

Configuration

In this field it is necessary to enter the configuration for the product publication previously created

Product filter

In this section of the connector it is possible to choose whether and which filter to apply among those previously created through the menu Processes -> Product Filter. To create a product filter, refer to the Product Filters tutorial.

Differential approach

The differential approach is used to optimize the repeated execution of the connector under the same configuration conditions (options and filter applied). By checking the last successful execution of the process, it extracts only the articles that have undergone a real modification and not every time the entire archive.

Click on SAVE AND CLOSE. The connector can be executed in interactive mode (by clicking on the button Run the connector immediately?) Or through automatic procedures

 

Details

Written by: Mattia Rigotti

Category: Tutorial Magento

Published: 25 June 2015

Hits: 1038

The handling of products in relation to Magento nodes is bidirectional. In fact, it allows both to publish products to an eCommerce, and to import the products on one site and then eventually publish them on another.

The product download may be complete with all data and images, or it may be an update of only some restricted data, such as stock availability.

 

 

The execution of the process can be activated in interactive mode, by clicking on the appropriate button, or be started automatically by a scheduled procedure.

Product import configuration

The product import configuration can be reached from the menu:

eCommerce >> Magento >> Product import

To create a new configuration, select the Add button and fill in the fields as follows:

• Configuration Name: Choose a name for the configuration
• eCommerce platform: select Magento eCommerce

First you will be able to choose whether the process should perform:

• Creation of products in bindCommerce
• Modification of existing products in bindCommerce

For each of these actions, the following options are available.

Consider that to decide whether it is necessary to make a new insertion or an update of the products, the SKU code is used as the primary identification key.

The identification key of the categories used to manage the updates is built by appending the names of the categories in the main language, which will form a field called "keycat", therefore, if a category is renamed or moved in the category tree, it will be identified as a new category (it will not be updated, but a new category will be created in addition to the previous one).

Options for creating new products in bindCommerce

The options relating to the creation of products not present are the following:

• enter product name, description, notes, size and custom options
• enter categories
• enter child products
• enter product - category matching
• enter manufacturer
• insert images
• enter prices
• enter stock availability
• insert category image
• enter metadata
• enter featured products

Options for editing existing products in bindCommerce

The options for editing existing products are as follows:

• update product name, description, notes, size and custom options
• update child products
• delete product - category combination
• add product - category combination
• update manufacturer
• update prices
• update stock availability
• update product image
• update category image
• update category description
• update metadata
• update featured products
• set the quantity to 0 for products not present in the file
• mark as canceled and set the quantity to 0 for products not present in the file
• delete images produced NOT transmitted?

Finally, there is an additional premium option that is valid both in creation and in modification of the articles:

• Convert the relative URLs present in the description into absolute: it can be useful when you want to download products that have images inserted in the body of the description and saved on the database in the form of relative URLs, which would not be visible outside the site.

Magento

In this section there are some fundamental parameters to indicate for the correct functioning of the communication with the eCommerce platform.

• Maximum number of products to be imported: in this field it is possible to choose a specific number of products to import by setting a maximum
• Number of products to be extracted for each request: the default value is 0 in order to import products with a single request, but if this causes problems, which usually occur when there is a lot of data to import, it is possible to enter values other than 0 (ex: 100) in order to limit the load on the Magento server
• Product number from which to start the import: allows you to start importing from a specific record, which will not necessarily be the first
• VAT rate to be applied to the prices of imported products: in this section you can specify a fixed VAT rate to be applied to the imported items

Alternative choice

Once you have chosen the options to perform, you can decide whether to save the data in an alternative instead of in the product list. It is useful for managing, for example, alternative languages to the main one.

Connector creation for download products from Magento

We remind you that before creating the connector it is necessary to install the Magento node on which the connector will operate. After doing this, go to the menu:

Process >> Connectors

and click on the Add button.

The following parameters must therefore be chosen:

• Connector name: choose a name to identify what the connector does
• Node type (technology): select eCommerce Magento
• Node: choose the previously created node
• Connector type: select eCommerce Magento [Download product on bindCommerce].

Click on SAVE AND CONTINUE to access further configurations.

Configuration

The previously created Magento product import configuration must be indicated in this field.

The connector can be run in interactive mode (by clicking on the button Run the connector immediately?) or through automatic procedures.

Click on SAVE AND CLOSE.

ATTENTION: The Magento APIs DO NOT recognize products with purely numeric sku. For correct operation, assign sku that contain at least one letter inside them.

Details

Written by: Mattia Rigotti

Category: Tutorial Magento

Published: 25 June 2015

Hits: 1131

The goal of these connectors is to download the orders that customers have placed on eCommerce stores made with Magento to bindCommerce.

At the same time as the orders are downloaded, the stock availability on bindCommerce can be updated, and as a result (thanks to other connectors) the quantities available for sale on the various online stores and on marketplaces such as ebay can be updated.

 

The execution of the connectors can take place automatically (scheduled procedure), or manually.

Options for downloading orders from Magento

The first thing to do will be to create a special configuration for the connector that will take care of downloading the orders. It can be configured by going to the menu:

eCommerce >> Magento >> Order download

A page will open containing all the possible options that we can give to the connector.

Select period

It is possible to choose whether to download all the orders each time, or only those of a given more recent period. If you try to download an existing order, it will be updated and not duplicated, but if there are a large number of orders, it is not sensible to re-execute the complete download every time (greater volume of data to transfer and process), but, in according to your discharge policy, limit the range only to a given period.
It is therefore possible to choose to download orders from a date onwards, or not older than a certain period.

Update existing customers

When you are downloading an order from a customer already present on bindCommerce (recognized through the relative eMail address), you can choose to update the relative personal data (name, address, etc.), or not. Normally the best choice is to perform the update (to always have updated data available).

What to do if there is no shipping address

On Magento you can specify the billing address and, without making it explicit, say that the shipping address is the same. During the order download on bindCommerce, to have a more complete situation (without empty fields), it is possible to choose to populate the shipping address using the billing address. If there are no particular reasons to the contrary, we recommend setting this option.

Filter by order status

It is possible to choose to download all orders on bindCommerce (do not filter by status), or download only those orders that are in a particular status.

Update stock availability on bindCommerce

This option allows you to choose which order statuses to update stock availability by decreasing the quantities purchased.

Order status to be considered canceled

Here you can specify which order status, among those managed and linked to Magento, to be considered as Canceled on bindCommerce.

Create products not present on bindCommerce

If the products contained in the downloaded orders are not present (SKU not present) you can choose to have bindCommerce create the downloaded product, or not. If the product is not created, it will not be possible to monitor its stock availability.

Order line uniqueness key

This option allows you to specify whether the unique key must be the SKU or if the SKU must be entered together with the description.

Magento

In this tab you can choose whether to keep the VAT rate coming from the site on orders or to replace it with the default one. You can also choose to download any orders previously uploaded from bindCommerce to Magento.

PayPal transactions

This is a premium option that allows you to report information relating to payment via PayPal within orders. In this section it will be necessary to indicate the PayPal node previously created.
For more information about this feature, consult the PayPal guide.

Electronic invoicing

In this section it is necessary to enter the name of the two fields intended for electronic invoicing present in Magento. They can usually be found in orders or from any module that manages the functionality.
Finally click on SAVE AND CLOSE.

Connector creation

We remind you that before creating the connector it is necessary to install the Magento node on which the connector will operate. After doing this, go to the menu:

Process >> Connectors

and click on the Add button.

The following parameters must therefore be chosen:

• Connector Name: Choose a name to identify what the connector does
• Node type (technology): choosing the Magento eCommerce node
• Node: choose the previously created node
• Connector type: choose the Magento eCommerce connector type [Download orders on bindCommerce].

After having set all the parameters, click on the SAVE AND CONTINUE button. The page will reload and you will be able to parameterize the connector options.

• Connector configuration: in this field it is necessary to enter the previously created configuration for unloading orders.

Once the changes are complete, click on SAVE AND CLOSE.

Details

Written by: Mattia Rigotti

Category: Tutorial Magento

Published: 25 June 2015

Hits: 1195

The installation of Magento type nodes allows you to put the bindCommerce integration platform in communication with online stores created in the Magento environment.

The installation consists in entering the user and the API key that will allow the dialogue of the e-commerce platform with bindCommerce, but let's see the configuration of the node from the beginning.

User and API key

First you need to go to your Magento administrative section.
It can be found at the address (unless set otherwise):

www.my.site.magento/admin

At this point at the top, in the main menu, you will find the item "System" under which we will find the path "Web services --> SOAP/XML-RPC - Roles".

Within the Roles section you can create a permission level to be assigned to API users. By clicking on "Add New Role" you can choose a name and a password for the role and by clicking "Role resources" from the menu on the left, a list of possible operations that can be performed by that role through the API will be made available. For simplicity (and to avoid that bindCommerce is unable to access the resources it needs) you can select "All" from the drop-down menu.

Once the permission level has been set, a user can be created on "System--> Web services -> SOAP/XML-RPC - Users".

A list (probably empty at this point) of users enabled to use the API will be shown. At the top right is the button for creating a new user.

Once the data has been entered, it will be important to keep in mind Username and API Key as they will later be used to create the node on bindCommerce.

 

All that remains is to go to "User role" in the menu on the left and select the role previously created for the newly created user.

Node creation

At this point you need to move to the bindCommerce platform and create a node for the site.

Go to menu:

Process-->Nodes

and click on the Add button.

• Technology: indicate which application the bindCommerce must communicate with. In this case Magento eCommerce.
• Name: choose the name to give to the node.

 

Once finished, click on the “Save and continue” button to reach specific sections.

FTP Access

It is necessary to give bindcommerce an FTP access with write permissions to the site root. In this section you can then specify the login credentials. The account must be able to directly access the main folder where the site is installed: it must therefore not be an access to an external or internal folder.

Website address

In questa scheda sono necessari due parametri:

• Protocol: communication protocol of the site where Magento is installed;
• Url: absolute address of the site where Magento is installed.

Magento

iI this specific section for Magento we will finally be able to insert the version, the key and the API user recovered previously.

Click on SAVE AND CONTINUE and finally on the Install node button. The installation of the node will be confirmed by a positive outcome message, and by the installation date shown in the Last update field.

Click on SAVE AND CLOSE.