TriData / TriCon

TriData is an ERP system. TRADElube fetches the product catalogue from it, together with categories, manufacturers, images, prices and stock, and hands the orders back. In the channel type selection the channel sits in the group ERP-Systems and is called TriData/TriCon there.

What is connected is not TriData itself but TriCon. TriCon is TriData's interface, a product of its own from the same company, and the only state TRADElube ever sees. That is the one peculiarity almost everything else about this channel follows from: TriData does not feed TriCon continuously but through a full upload somebody starts. An article you are missing in the shop is therefore first a question about that full upload and only then one about TRADElube. What happens during it is described under Vollupload und Bereinigung.

Prerequisites

What	Where it comes from
A reachable TriCon installation	You enter its address in the field Host
The identifier of that installation	You get it from TriData. It fills the field Identify Guid
A completed full upload from TriData into TriCon	Without it TriCon holds nothing TRADElube could fetch
The properties color, size and the product attributes are to become on your side	You create them under the navigation entry Settings, see Mappings

Unlike with an online shop you set nothing up on the far side. TriCon delivers and accepts whatever TriData gives it. Configuration happens in TriData and in TRADElube, not in between.

Setting up the connection

Enter the login details and save.
Look the mappings over, see below.
Start the tasks.

Two fields, and both are mandatory. The Host is the address of your TriCon installation, the Identify Guid the key to it. It stands there as a password field and is stored encrypted. Whether both are correct is shown by the first execution of a task: the sign-in happens when the connection is opened, not when you save.

Configuration

Three entries, all three of them usefully preset without any doing of yours.

Configuration section of the TriData channel with root category, order id number range and the checkbox for the origin order number

Field	Meaning	Note
Root Category	Which of your categories the tree from TriData is created under	Empty means: on the top level. That is the correct setting as long as TriData keeps your whole catalogue
Order Id Number Range	The counter the number TriData files an order under comes from	Stands at 0 and counts up by itself
Try to use Origin Order Number	Whether the shop's order number is handed over instead of that number	Not ticked out of the box. Only takes effect where the shop's number is numeric

You change the counter through the button Edit, after which Save writes the new state and Discard takes it back. That is only needed where you are joining a stock in TriData that has already assigned numbers.

The last two entries concern the task Orders Upload alone. TriData expects a number with every order, while your shop often assigns its order numbers differently, as a string with hyphens for instance. That is why both ways exist: the checkbox tries the shop's number, the counter provides the fallback where it cannot be read as a number.

Mappings

The channel holds eight tabs, one per list that exists on both sides. The column External shows the entry in TriData, the column Internal the one in TRADElube.

Order status tab of the TriData channel with six pre-filled rows, two cancellation reasons among them on the same internal status

Tab	What gets mapped
Order Status	The six states TriData knows for an order, onto your order status
Payment Methods	Cash on delivery, invoice, prepayment and whatever else you keep
Payment Status	When an order counts as paid
Shipping Methods	Your shipping methods onto TriData's
Shipping Status	When an order counts as shipped
Base Units	The units of measure TriData files an article in
Color/Size	TriData's two variant properties onto two of your selection properties
Product Attributes	Every further product attribute from TriData onto one of your properties

No tab fetches its external side from TriCon, and that sets this channel apart from every online shop. The External column is a text field throughout, in which you enter the value exactly as TriData writes it, spaces and capitalization included. The buttons Reload and Import are consequently absent from all eight tabs.

Six tabs are nevertheless filled the first time you open them, and from two different sources. Order Status, Payment Status and Shipping Status bring TriData's fixed states along and map them through the level of the status, so "open" onto open and "completed" onto completed. That two rows point at the same internal status is correct: TriData distinguishes who canceled, you as a rule do not. Payment Methods, Shipping Methods and Base Units work the other way round and enter your own records into both columns, on the assumption that TriData names them identically. Those three are the ones you should check.

Color/Size holds exactly two rows, Size and Color, and they can neither be added to nor deleted: TriData knows no further variant properties. You only fill the Internal column. Without those two assignments the transfer plan of Properties Download stays empty.

Product Attributes is empty out of the box, and you create every row in it yourself through the button New. The way from an attribute in TriData to a feature in the shop is written up as a guide under Configuring properties.

Analysis

This section only exists on an ERP system connected through TriCon, and it is not meant for everyday use. Each of its buttons puts a single query to TriCon and offers the unaltered answer as a text file to download.

Analysis section of the TriData channel with its eleven query buttons

The buttons carry no translated label but the name of the query itself, the same one in both languages: DownloadArtikelAll for the articles, DownloadAttribute for the attributes, DownloadGrFaKombi for the color and size combinations, DownloadArtikelKundengruppenPreis for the customer group prices, DownloadArtikelbild for the images, DownloadGroesse and DownloadFarbe for the two lists. For the stock there are four, depending on whether it is broken down by color and size and by branch: DownloadStock, DownloadStockColorSize, DownloadStockBranch and DownloadStockColorSizeBranch.

The same name then stands on the download as its file name, and that is why the names are as they are: where we ask you for one of these files, we name the button, and you recognize the downloaded file by it. It is needed when the question is whether a value already differs in TriCon or only comes out differently during the transfer. The query runs against the same connection the tasks use. As long as Host or Identify Guid is missing, the buttons are disabled.

Available tasks

Five tasks, four in and one out. Download means from TriData into TRADElube, upload the other way round.

Task	Direction	Transfers	Notes
Properties Download	Import	The values of color and size	Runs before the products, otherwise a variant cannot find its characteristic
Products Download	Import	Products including variants, categories, manufacturers, images and prices	The channel's largest task. It also tidies up at the end, see below
Stocks Download	Import	Stock only	Separate from the products, so a change in stock does not drag the whole product record along
Orders Upload	Export	Orders including line items, customer and address	The only way out of TRADElube
Order Status Download	Import	The status of an order handed over	The way back after TriData has processed the order

Which of these tasks exist in your client is decided by your needs: what gets created is what you actually use. How a task runs and what its schedule means is under Tasks.

Categories, manufacturers and images have no task of their own. They come along with the products, because TriData keeps them on the article rather than as lists of their own: the category path sits on the article as text, the manufacturer as a name, and TRADElube creates from that whatever is still missing.

Special features and limits

TRADElube writes nothing back into TriData except the orders. Categories, manufacturers, images and prices flow in only. What you change in TRADElube on a product taken over is overwritten by the next execution. The catalogue is maintained in TriData.

The tidying up does not run by itself. At the end of Products Download TRADElube checks what came from TriCon and is no longer there. Deactivating happens fully automatically, deleting only on a manually started task and only after a confirmation with an unlock code. The reason lies with the full upload: if it breaks off, TriCon is empty for a while, and a deleting execution would consistently pass that state on into your shop. The long version is under TriData betreiben.

A drop of 20 per cent or more halts the transfer. TRADElube counts the records from TriCon per area and raises an alarm when their number falls that far from one execution to the next. While the alarm stands, that area transfers nothing further. An alarm that merely reported would have removed the images long before anybody read it.

Common questions

A product attribute from TriData does not arrive in the shop. Then it is missing from the Product Attributes tab or on the far side, see Configuring properties.

An error message does not go away although I have fixed its cause in TriData. A full upload alone is often not enough for that, because the tidying up in TRADElube is started by hand. The way through it is under Fehlermeldungen verschwinden nicht.

An article's product number has changed. That is provided for. A product recognizes itself through its channel mapping and not through its number. The number only counts on the very first execution.