Overview

The SAWS PIM Connectors always consist of two components – the CONTENTSERV component and the client component. Both components are able to exchange data and report on their status. The client component uses standard functionalities of the connecting system in order to import or export data.

With our connectors, the data are delivered to the shop system without having to rely on a middle ware (e.g. Talend). Since every shop system uses its own import syntax, we pre-mapped attributes for you so that the import or export of data is easier than ever before!

In order to do so, we are using the CS Rest Service that manages all data to be sent and sends the result of this analysis to the SAWSConnector on the client side. Prior to that, a job needs to be created that decides which data (for example all products changed within the past week) are needed.The CS Rest service starts the job, collects the data and sends it to the client. Additionally, the SAWSConnector on the client site can send further information to the CS Rest Service – for example an update of the import status if the import takes exceptionally long. Thus, monitoring the process on the CS side is possible!

On the CS side, our plugins are located based on the CS Rest service. Here you can find two important components: the SAWSConnector Generic Rest Service that converts the data from the CS format to the format of the addressed shop – thus, a vast variety of different shop systems can be served. The second important component is the SAWSConnector ValueReader Plugin that defines the source of the data in the Rest Service (CS API, SOLR or – at a later stage – Staging Tables by CS).

On the client side of the relevant shop system, the SAWS Shop Client triggers the import. It also takes into consideration the invalidation of the cache, the analysis and the storage location of the log information. The client does not manipulate any data at this point since they already come prepared from the Rest Service. Ultimately, the data will be handled by the relevant importer of the relevant shop system – thus, the full import functionality can be guaranteed!

We put all emphasis on flexibility during the development of the SAWSConnector – experience goes to show that the requirements from different projects can differ greatly. This includes:

Every station represents a third party software or shop system that is supposed to have data delivered to. Those stations are freely configurable in both type and quantity; they allow for the CS PIM to be able to serve several applications – transparantly from only one solid base.

If over the course of time, several new SAWSConnectors should be added, then these can be created and configured easily. The easy-to-use user interface helps to make communication channels transparant.

All jobs can be embedded into workflow actions. This enables you to synchronize products to a Q-system first and only have it forwared to the productive shops once you reviewed both display and configuration. All those steps can be embedded into the workflow and thus can also be subjected to access rights.

Every part of the synchronization part can be handled using access rights. That way you can easily decide which departments or teams in your enterprise will have access and to what extend in every connector.

The SAWSConnector has several interfaces that allow mounting on to the project, e.g. to extend connectors, adjust values or modify settings. One example could be that order numbers should be delivered to the shop systems without a leading zero. In order to do so, you can create a project-sepcific plugin that takes over the conversion.