Selling Matrix Items: To Export Matrix Items

The following activity will walk you through the process of exporting a template item (and the matrix items based on this template item) defined in MYOB Advanced to the BigCommerce store.

Story

Suppose that SweetLife Fruits & Jams company is going to sell juices in its BigCommerce online store. Acting as an implementation consultant helping SweetLife to set up the integration of MYOB Advanced with the BigCommerce store, you need to export the JUICE template item to the BigCommerce store.

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, for the purposes of this activity, the following entities have been created:

  • On the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the Matrix Items feature has been enabled.
  • On the Item Classes (IN201000) form, the MJUICE item class
  • On the Template Items (IN203000) form, the JUICE template item
  • On the Stock Items (IN202500) form, the matrix items listed in the following table
    Inventory ID Description
    APL-16OZ-GBT Apple juice in glass bottles of 16 fluid ounces
    APL-32OZ-GBT Apple juice in glass bottles of 32 fluid ounces
    CHR-32OZ-GBT Cherry juice in glass bottles of 32 fluid ounces
    ORG-16OZ-GBT Orange juice in glass bottles of 16 fluid ounces
    ORG-32OZ-GBT Orange juice in glass bottles of 32 fluid ounces
    PCH-32OZ-GBT Peach juice in glass bottles of 32 fluid ounces
    PNL-16OZ-GBT Pineapple juice in glass bottles of 16 fluid ounces
    SWB-32OZ-GBT Strawberry juice in glass bottles of 32 fluid ounces
    TMT-16OZ-GBT Tomato juice in glass bottles of 16 fluid ounces
  • On the Attributes (CS205000) form, the attributes and the attribute values listed in the following table
    Attribute Attribute Values
    Ingredient APL (Apple), CHR (Cherry), ORG (Orange), PCH (Peach), PNL (Pineapple), SWB (Strawberry), and TMT (Tomato)
    Package BOX (Box), GBT (Glass bottle), JAR (Jar), PBT (Plastic bottle), and TIN (Tin)
    Volume 08OZ (08 fl oz), 12OZ (12 fl oz), 16OZ (16 fl oz), 32OZ (32 fl oz), and 96OZ (96 fl oz)

Process Overview

In this activity, you will do the following:

  1. On the Template Items (IN203000) form, review the JUICE template item.
  2. On the BigCommerce Stores (BC201000) form, activate the Template Item entity.
  3. On the Entities (BC202000) form, update the filtering conditions to export the template items of the MJUICE item class.
  4. On the Prepare Data (BC501000) form, prepare the template item data for synchronization.
  5. On the Process Data (BC501500) form, process the template item data that has been prepared for synchronization.
  6. In the control panel of the BigCommerce store, review the exported item.

System Preparation

Before you complete the instructions in this activity, do the following:

  1. Make sure that the following prerequisites have been met:
  2. Launch the MYOB Advanced website with the U100 dataset preloaded, and sign in with the following credentials:
    • Username: gibbs
    • Password: 123
  3. On the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, make sure that the Matrix Items feature is enabled as follows:
    1. On the form toolbar, click Modify, and select the Matrix Items check box under Inventory and Order Management.
    2. On the form toolbar, click Enable.

Step 1: Reviewing the Template Item and the Matrix Items

To review the JUICE template item and the matrix items that have been generated based on it, do the following:

  1. Open the Template Items (IN203000) form.
  2. In the Template ID box, select JUICE.
  3. On the Configuration tab, review the attributes specified for the template item and their settings.

    In the Attributes table, notice that the following attributes of the Variant type have been defined (and can be used for the matrix items of the template item):

    • Ingredient
    • Package
    • Volume

    See the Configuration Overview section for details on the values defined for these attributes.

  4. In the Inventory ID Segment Settings table, notice the settings for the automatic generation of the identifiers that have been assigned to matrix items. The segments are generated based on the attribute values (Segment Type is set to Attribute Value for all segments), and the length of each segment is determined by the value in the Number of Characters column.
  5. On the Matrix Items tab, review the list of matrix items that have been generated based on the attributes configured for the Juice template item.

    In the subsequent steps of this activity, you will export these items to the BigCommerce store.

Step 2: Activating the Template Item Entity

You can skip this step, if you activated the Template Item entity while performing the following activity: Initial Configuration: To Establish and Configure the Store Connection.

To activate the Template Item entity, do the following:

  1. Open the BigCommerce Stores (BC201000) form.
  2. In the Store Name box of the Summary area, select SweetStore - BC.
  3. In the table of the Entity Settings tab, select the Active check box in the row of the Template Item entity.
  4. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 3: Updating the Filtering Condition

To configure the Template Item entity to export to the BigCommerce store only template items of the MJUICE item class, do the following:

  1. Open the Entities (BC2020PL) form.
  2. In the Store Name box of the Selection area, select SweetStore - BC.
  3. In the Entity column, click the Template Item link.

    The system opens the Entities (BC202000) form with the SweetStore - BC store and the Template Item entity selected in the Summary area. Notice that this entity can only be exported to the BigCommerce store (that is, Sync Direction is set to Export), and that only two tabs, Export Mapping and Export Filtering, are displayed.

  4. To create a filtering condition for template items, on the Export Filtering tab, click Add Row on the table toolbar, and specify the following settings in the row:
    • Active: Selected
    • Field Name: Item Class
    • Condition: Equals
    • Value: MJUICE
  5. On the form toolbar, click Save to save your changes.

    Now when you prepare and process the Template Item entity, only the template items of the MJUICE item class will be exported to the BigCommerce store.

Step 4: Preparing the Template Item Data for Synchronization

To prepare the template item data (which includes the data of the matrix items generated based on the template item) for synchronization, do the following:

  1. Open the Prepare Data (BC501000) form.
  2. In the Summary area, specify the following settings:
    • Store: SweetStore - BC
    • Prepare Mode: Incremental

    Incremental indicates that only records that have been modified since the last successful data preparation will be prepared. However, because you have not prepared the Template Item entity for SweetStore - BC before, all records will be prepared (as they would be if Full were selected).

  3. In the table, select the Selected check box in the row of the Template Item entity.
  4. On the form toolbar, click Prepare.
  5. In the Processing dialog box, which opens, review the results of the processing, and click Close to close the dialog box.

    Notice that the Ready to Process column shows the number of synchronization records that have been prepared for the Template Item entity.

Step 5: Processing the Prepared Template Item Data

To process the prepared data of the template item, do the following:

  1. While you are still viewing the Prepare Data (BC501000) form with the SweetStore - BC store selected, click the link in the Ready to Process column in the row of the Template Item entity.
  2. On the Process Data (BC501500) form, which opens with the SweetStore - BC store and the Template Item entity selected, select the unlabeled check box in the row of the JUICE template item (for which the ERP ID column shows Juice).
  3. On the form toolbar, click Process.
  4. In the Processing dialog box, which opens, click Close to close the dialog box.

Step 6: Viewing the Exported Item

To view the exported Juice template item in the BigCommerce store, do the following:

  1. Sign in to the control panel of the BigCommerce store as the store administrator.
  2. In the left pane, click Products > View.
  3. On the View Products page, which opens, locate the Juice product, and click the link in the Product Name column.
  4. On the product management page of the Juice product, review the exported settings.

    In the Product Options section, notice that in the Variant Options section, the option names (which correspond to the attributes that were configured and added for the template item in MYOB Advanced) and their values are displayed.

    In the Variants table, the variants of the Juice product (which are the matrix items that were generated in MYOB Advanced) are displayed. The SKU column of the table shows the identifiers of matrix items assigned by MYOB Advanced.

  5. At the top of the page, click View on Storefront.

    On the product page, which opens for the Juice product, notice three boxes (Ingredient, Package, and Volume), which correspond to product options on the product management page and attributes of the Variant type assigned to the JUICE template item in MYOB Advanced.