1. Contents
  2. Guides
  3. Channels and tasks
  4. Setting up a channel

Setting up a channel

Setting up a channel is two jobs, and this page carries the first: the path through TRADElube, which is the same for every system. The second job takes place in the connected system, in the shop or the ERP system, and it differs per system. It is covered in your system's guide, such as connecting Shopware, connecting WooCommerce, connecting Shopify or connecting CAO-Faktura.

What a channel is and why there are two kinds is under channels. For a connector such as CAO-Faktura this page ends earlier: it has no tasks, and the other side signs in by itself.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the connected system, to obtain the credentials there. Your system's guide shows the way.
  • For putting it into operation afterwards: planning and starting tasks.

Step by step

  1. Request the channel. Under the Channels navigation entry, New opens the choice of channel types. Choosing a type leads to a request page that explains what happens next: you tell us which system is to be connected, and we create the channel with its tasks. From then on the set-up is yours.

  2. Enter the credentials. Open the channel. The Login Details section holds the fields your system needs. Where the values come from is in your system's guide, because that is exactly where the systems differ. For a connector it is the other way round: TRADElube generates the credentials, and you enter them in the connected program.

  3. Test the connection. Where the channel offers a Connect button, press it right away. It shows within seconds whether address and sign-in are right, and saves you troubleshooting the first execution. The connection is also the precondition for everything else on this page.

  4. Fill the mappings. In the Mappings section, one tab per value pairing connects the external side with the internal one, order status, payment methods or properties for instance. Which tabs your system has is on its page under channels and tasks. Two things carry the way here:

    • The external side only appears once the connection is there. Reload fetches the list from the connected system and creates one row per external entry, with a suggestion based on matching names. Without a working connection this has no effect, and the tabs look empty although nothing is missing.
    • Import is the intended way to take over a maintained catalogue. The button creates the missing internal objects in the client, and the mapping is created along with them. That fits everything already maintained in the target system: countries, salutations, languages, payment and shipping methods, units, properties. We would not recommend it for order, payment and shipping status: those three carry meaning, they decide what counts as completed. Maintain them in the client and map them by hand.

  5. Set the channel's basic settings. Some systems need a few entries on the channel itself, for instance under which external category a category tree is to be created. Which ones these are, and what an empty field means there, is on your system's page.

  6. Put the tasks into operation. The channel's tasks are created and set to Manually. Configure the transfer plan per task, start the initial fill by hand in the order of the data, and set the cadences afterwards. Both are covered under planning and starting tasks. For a connector this step does not apply: its transfer plans sit in the channel itself, and the transfers are triggered by the connected program.

Checking the result

Three stages, a minute each:

  • The connection is up, and Reload fills the external side of the mapping tabs.
  • A manual start of the first task goes through, and the traces show Created per record.
  • The connected system holds what was transferred, checked on a sample.

Frequent pitfalls

  • Empty mapping tabs before the first connection. That is not a fault but the order: first the connection from step 3, then Reload in step 4 has something to fetch.
  • The initial fill in the wrong order. Whatever the target system needs as a reference has to go over first: categories, manufacturers and media before the products, stock and status after them. That is how you start the tasks from step 6 by hand. Your system's order is on its page.
  • Status kinds imported instead of mapped. An imported order status is a foreign body next to your own status kinds. For catalogues Import is the right move, for status kinds the manual mapping from step 4.
  • Two systems, one channel. A channel connects exactly one system with the client. A second shop is a second channel, requested as in step 1, with credentials, mappings and tasks of its own.

Further reading