Connecting your first channel
A channel is the connection to a connected system, for instance to your online shop or your ERP system. This page walks you through connecting the first one: from requesting the channel through the credentials to a verified connection. TRADElube transfers nothing yet, that is the next step, Your first transfer.
Prerequisites
Two things are needed before you start:
- A client you are signed in to. How you get one is described under access and client.
- Credentials for the target system. They come from the system itself, not from TRADElube, and what they are called and where you create them differs from system to system. You find that under Channels and tasks on the page of your system.
Requesting the channel
Your channel is usually there already. When we create the client we set up the channels your software license agreement covers along with it, see access and client. The navigation entry Channels then lists them one below the other, and you can go straight on to the credentials.
If the one you need is missing, this is where you request it. The button New takes you to the selection of channel types, grouped by the kind of system.
Clicking an entry does not open a creation dialog but a page with a prepared message to us: the link there opens a mail to info@ffe-tech.com whose subject already names the channel type you want. We get in touch as soon as the channel is there.
The dividing line runs between creating and configuring:
- Creating and deleting channels and tasks is our part. Why, is explained under tasks.
- Configuring the channel afterwards is something you can do entirely yourself: credentials, schedule, transfer plan, filters. This documentation describes each of those settings in enough detail for that. We are just as happy to do it for you.
Entering the credentials
Once the channel exists, you find it under Channels. Select it and open it with the button Edit.
In the section Login Details you enter what TRADElube signs in to the target system with. Which fields sit there is decided by the channel type: a Shopware channel asks for Url, Client Id and Client Secret, another one asks for other details. You then save with the button Save.
The sections below it, Configuration, Mappings and Traces, are not needed for this first step. They are described under Setting up a channel.
Checking the connection
On most channel types the same section carries the button Connect. It signs in to the target system once and tells you whether that worked.
The message Connection reads either Connection successful or Connection failed, and in the failure case the message leads you to the details.
If the button is missing on your channel, that is not a gap but the way it is built: on a connector, for instance, the other program signs in to TRADElube, so there is no counterpart for TRADElube to sign in to. Whether your channel type has the button is stated under Channels and tasks on the page of your system.
Click Connect before you configure anything else. A typo in the credentials would otherwise only surface on the first execution, and then you go looking for it in the traces instead of in the form you have open in front of you anyway.
The tasks that come with it
A channel on its own transfers nothing. What actually runs are tasks, and we created those together with the channel. They sit under the navigation entry Tasks.
Which ones they are depends on the connected system: a shop that delivers orders and takes in products gets different ones from an ERP system. The tasks of a system are listed under Channels and tasks, the principle behind them under tasks.
How often a task runs by itself is held in its field Performance. A new task is preset to Manually there and waits for you to start it. As long as that is the case, nothing leaves through the channel that you did not set off yourself.
If a task you expect is missing, ask us. We create the tasks you actually need for a channel, not everything the channel type is capable of, so a task not being in the list does not mean it does not exist.
Checking the result
The channel is fully connected when three things hold: it is in the list under Channels, its credentials are saved, and Connect reports success. The next step is Your first transfer.
Further reading
- Your first transfer: starting a task and reading the result
- Channels: what a channel is, and the two kinds
- Channels and tasks (reference): the connected systems, their credentials and their limits
- Setting up a channel: the guide with every setting