How to implement connectors for A+

Implementation notes

The following is a list of suggested tasks to follow and review during the implementation of this connector.

Turn on the connector

Connector enablement settings are global.

  • Enter the parameters defined in the user interface for the connector
  • The Refresh Warehouse is used for certain product information which is gathered from APlus
  • Set up the Integration Connection
    • Set up an ODBC connection that can access the APlus database
      • Each of the generated refresh jobs should then be set to use this connection
    • Set up an API Connection with the type of ApiEndpoint
    • The API Address should be the URL to the API server that is accessible from the web site for example https://mycompany.com/gatewayAdmin/GatewayClient
    • The User Nameand Password must be entered conforming to the security and user setup in APlus
  • Assign the connection to the generated integration jobs
  • Set up the WIS SiteConnections.config table with an entry to the new Integration Connection
    • This presumes you already have the WIS installed, the machine registered as a valid integration server and a valid user with the role of ISC_Integration
  • Optionally chain the jobs together. It is a common practice to set up the first job as recurring so that it runs every night and then chains from job to job through the chain of refreshes ending with rebuilding the search index.
  • Go through the country codes in APlus (ORCTL where CCCONO = 0, CCAPID = XA, CCCTLK begins with CNTY and CCRCCD =-CN) the 3-character codes in APlus should be used as the abbreviation in ISC.

Business considerations

  • APlus02: Codes Refresh APlus only has ship codes and not a 2-level structure by carrier. The integration will set up a carrier and the same service within the carrier (that is Carrier = UPS Ground, Service = UPS Ground). If you do not like this structure, we suggest you either run the integration once and reorganize them or just enter them manually. Once youre satisfied, delete the integration steps for the carriers and ship codes.
  • APlus08: Customers -.be aware that the country codes in APlus will not typically map to the 2-character codes in B2B so there is a CASE statement in each step to map the specific values. This statement may need to be altered to make sure we have a good map for countries.
  • Aplus10: Order History the callouts here are around the lookback period which is different in integration than it is in the settings which control the default behavior on the site.
    • We suggest you backfill the order history by adjusting this job to change the WHERE clause using the dayend dates and simply change it to either ranges of order numbers or dayend date to go back as far as desired for history.
      • This should be done in batches depending on the volume of records being processed.
      • During this backfill process, turn OFF the delta dataset option so that multi-threading can be used for performance
      • Make sure to set each of the steps up the same in terms of the time period being backfilled
      • When done, make sure to reset the WHERE clause to end to use the current date calculation
      • Turn Use Delta Dataset back on if desired not required this simply will only send up to the website the net changes instead of all the records
    • Adjust the lookback days as needed. The intent is that we are using the last date changed on each record, so technically it only needs to look back to the last time the refresh was run 5 days seems like a reasonable period.
    • We are testing against the dayend dates (oadncc, oadndt) and we would recommend adding an index to hsdet to help make the query run more efficiently.
  • Aplus12: Invoice History the strategy for invoices is to retrieve the last 30 days of invoices (this can be adjusted in the job definition) and only creates a header record of the invoice no detail of the invoice will be available.