CAO-Faktura

CAO-Faktura is an ERP system. Its channel is called CAO-Faktura-Connector in the channel type selection and sits in the group ERP-Systems. The word connector in the name describes the kind of channel and not the product: with a connector it is not TRADElube that addresses the other system but the other way round. A program on the ERP side signs in to TRADElube and fetches what it needs, or writes what it has changed.

Everything else follows from that. This channel has no tasks and no schedule, because TRADElube initiates nothing. The transfer plans therefore do not sit on a task but in the channel itself, with one tab per action. And the login details run the other way round than usual: TRADElube issues them instead of receiving them.

Prerequisites

What	What for
An installation of CAO-Faktura with its shop functions	It is the side that signs in. No additional program is needed
Login details from TRADElube	You generate them in the channel and enter them in the ERP system's shop settings
An ERP system allowed out onto the network	It calls TRADElube, not the other way round

What you do not need is access from TRADElube into your network. For an ERP system standing on the premises that is exactly the point of this design: traffic only goes one way, from the inside out.

The Login Details section holds one button and three fields, and all three fields are read-only.

The button Renew generates a new pair. It replaces the old one immediately, and until you have entered the new one in the ERP system, it no longer gets through. That is why TRADElube asks first. The route is meant for the case that a password may have fallen into the wrong hands.

Below it sit the Url at which the ERP system reaches TRADElube, plus User and Password. You enter these three in the ERP system. The way there is shown by CAO-Faktura anbinden.

Configuration and mappings

The Configuration section carries three settings:

Field	Meaning
Root Category	The subtree in question. Empty means "all categories on the top level"
Age of Orders to Export	How many days back an order is still handed out when the ERP system asks for it
Exclude Closed Orders from Export	Leaves completed orders out

The two order fields work together and keep the answer small: an ERP system asks for new orders regularly, and without a limit it would get the entire history every time.

The Mappings section holds nine tabs: Order Status, Payment Methods, Payment Status, Shipping Methods, Shipping Status, Base Units, Pack Units, Languages and Properties. What a mapping is and how it differs from an assignment is under mappings and channel mappings.

Available actions

Because there are no tasks, the units here are called actions. Nineteen of them can be called by the ERP system, grouped by the object in question.

Object	Actions
Products	Export, Update, Image Upload, Erase
Categories	Export, Update, Image Upload, Erase
Manufacturers	Export, Update, Image Upload, Erase
Products To Category	Update, Erase
Customers	Export, Update, Erase
Orders	Export, Update

The names are to be read from TRADElube's point of view:

Export means TRADElube hands the data out. The ERP system collects it, typically the orders.
Update means the ERP system writes data into TRADElube. That is the usual route for articles and prices maintained on the premises.
Erase reports that a record is no longer kept in the ERP system.
Image Upload brings an image from the ERP system into TRADElube.

Not every action has something to set. The Transfer Plans section holds three levels of tabs: the object at the top, the action below it, the plan's sections below that.

Transfer plans section with the three levels of tabs for object, action and section, and the first assignment row

But only what needs a mapping gets a tab. Erase has none, because the identifier of the record to disappear is enough. Of the three Image Upload actions only the one for products carries one: TRADElube keeps images on the product, and for categories and manufacturers the connector takes none. Twelve tabs remain.

You do not have to set up all of those either. What gets configured is what the ERP system actually calls. The rest stay as they are.

Special features and limits

There is no task list and no manual start. This channel does not appear in the list under the navigation item Tasks, and it has no schedule either. When something is transferred is decided solely by the program on the ERP side. If nothing has arrived since yesterday, that is not something to be set in TRADElube.

You can still see everything. Every call from the other side leaves a transfer behind, and it sits in the channel's Traces section, newest first, including what happened per record and field. That is the place to check whether the ERP system is calling at all.

There is no connection test, because TRADElube does not call. Whether the login details are correct shows on the other side's first call.

The ERP system offers fewer fields than TRADElube keeps. That holds for properties in particular: on the other side only a fixed, small number of fields is available for them. So map whole groups of properties rather than half of each of several groups. A half-transferred group looks like a fault in the ERP system, a deliberately omitted one like a decision.

Properties of type selection need no assignment of their own. They go to the field for option values by themselves. Only the remaining types have to be assigned.

Common questions

How do I start a transfer? You do not. The ERP system asks, TRADElube answers. The only lever on this side is configuring what is answered.

Why is the channel not in the task list? Because it has no tasks. That is its design, see channels, the section on the two kinds of channel.

I renewed the login details and nothing arrives any more. That is to be expected: the old ones are invalid now. Enter the new ones in the ERP system.

Can I connect the same client to a shop as well? Yes, and that is the regular case. The connector is one channel among others. Every channel has its own login details, its own configuration and its own traces.