Product Synchronization: To Synchronize Non-Stock Items with Attributes

The following activity will walk you through the processes of creating an attribute for a non-stock item and synchronizing this item with the BigCommerce store.

Story

Suppose that the SweetLife Fruits & Jams company is going to start selling training courses in a few months. However, it wants to let the shoppers of its online store know when the courses will be available for purchase.

Acting as an implementation consultant helping SweetLife to set up the integration of MYOB Advanced with the BigCommerce store, you need to define an attribute for the course availability date and then export this date to the BigCommerce store.

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, the following tasks have been performed for the purposes of this activity:

• On the Item Classes (IN201000) form, the TRAINING item class has been defined.
• On the Non-Stock Items (IN202000), the ONLCOURSE non-stock item of the TRAINING item class has been created.

Process Overview

In this activity, you will perform the following:

1. On the Attributes (CS205000) form, create an attribute for the course release date.
2. On the Item Classes (IN201000) form, add the attribute to the TRAINING item class.
3. On the Non-Stock Items (IN202000) form, assign a value to the created attribute for a particular non-stock item.
4. On the Entities (BC202000) form, map the attribute field with a product field in the BigCommerce store.
5. On the Prepare Data (BC501000) form, prepare the non-stock item data for synchronization.
6. On the Process Data (BC501500) form, process the data prepared for synchronization.
7. In the control panel of the BigCommerce store, review the exported product.

System Preparation

Before performing the instructions of this activity, do the following:

1. Make sure that the following prerequisites have been met:
   • The BigCommerce store has been created and configured, as described in Initial Configuration: To Set Up a BigCommerce Store.
   • The connection to the BigCommerce store has been established and the initial configuration has been performed, as described in Initial Configuration: To Establish and Configure the Store Connection.
2. Launch the MYOB Advanced website with the U100 dataset preloaded, and sign in with the following credentials:
   • Username: gibbs
   • Password: 123
3. Sign in to the control panel of the BigCommerce store as the store administrator.
4. On the BigCommerce Stores (BC201000) form, open the SweetStore - BC record.
5. On the Entity Settings tab, select the Active check box in the row of the Non-Stock Item entity.
6. Save your changes.

Step 1: Creating an Attribute

To create an attribute for the release date of a product that is a non-stock item, do the following:

1. On the Attributes (CS205000) form, add a new record.
2. In the Summary area, specify the following settings:
   • Attribute ID: RELDATE
   • Description: Pre-Order Release Date
   • Control Type: Datetime
3. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 2: Adding the Attribute to the Needed Item Class

To add the Pre-Order Release Date attribute to the TRAINING item class, do the following:

1. Open the Item Classes (IN201000) form.
2. In the Item Class Tree pane, select the TRAINING item class.
3. In the right pane, on the Attributes tab, click Add Row on the table toolbar of the upper table.
4. In the added row, in the Attribute ID column, select RELDATE.
5. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 3: Assigning a Value to the Added Attribute

To assign a specific value to the created attribute for the ONLCOURSE non-stock item, do the following:

1. Open the Non-Stock Items (IN202000) form.
2. In the Summary area, in the Inventory ID box, select ONLCOURSE.
3. On the Attributes tab, in the row of the Attributes table with the Pre-Order Release Date attribute, set Value to 1/1/2024.
4. On the eCommerce tab, in the Availability box, select Set as Pre-Order.
5. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 4: Mapping the Attribute to a Field in the BigCommerce Store

To map the release date attribute with the BigCommerce field, 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 of the table, click the Non-Stock Item link.

   The system opens the Entities (BC202000) form with the SweetStore - BC store and the Non-Stock Item entity selected in the Summary area. Notice that the Sync Direction is set to Export, which means that this entity is only exported to the BigCommerce store.

4. On the Export Mapping tab, click Add Row.
5. In the row you have added to the table, specify the following settings:
   • Active: Selected
   • External Object: Product
   • External Field: Pre-Order Release Date
   • ERP Object: Non-Stock Item → Attributes
   • ERP Field / Value: =Year(CDate([NonStockItem -> Attributes.Pre-Order Release Date]))+'-'+Month(CDate([NonStockItem -> Attributes.Pre-Order Release Date]))+'-'+Day(CDate([NonStockItem -> Attributes.Pre-Order Release Date]))+'T00:00:00+00:00'
6. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 5: Configuring the Export of a Subset of Non-Stock Items

To configure the Non-Stock Item entity to export to the BigCommerce store only stock items of the TRAINING item class, do the following:

1. While you are still viewing the Entities (BC202000) form for the SweetStore - BC store and the Non-Stock Item entity, on the Export Filtering tab, add a row and specify the following settings:
   • Active: Selected
   • Field Name: Item Class
   • Condition: Equals
   • Value: Training
2. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 6: Preparing Product Data for Synchronization

To prepare the non-stock item data for synchronization, do the following:

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

   This setting controls which data will be loaded. Incremental indicates that the system will load only the data that has been modified since the previous data synchronization.

3. In the table, select the Selected check box in the row of the Non-Stock Item entity, and on the form toolbar, click Prepare.
4. 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 and are ready to be processed. The Processed Records column shows the number of records that have been processed (that is, records that have been successfully synchronized).

Step 7: Processing the Prepared Product Data

To process the product data that has been prepared for synchronization, do the following:

1. While you are still viewing the Prepare Data (BC501000) form, click the link in the Ready to Process column in the row of the Non-Stock Item entity.

   The Process Data (BC501500) form opens with the SweetStore - BC store and the Non-Stock Item entity selected in the Summary area. The table displays all synchronization records of the Non-Stock Item entity that the system prepared in the previous step.

2. In the row of the ONLCOURSE, Home canning courses online (website session) non-stock item, select the unlabeled check box, and on the form toolbar, click Process.
3. In the Processing dialog box, which opens, click Close to close the dialog box.

Step 12: Viewing the Exported Product

To view the exported product data in the BigCommerce store, do the following:

1. Open the Sync History (BC301000) form.
2. In the Summary area of the form, specify the following settings:
   • Store: SweetStore - BC
   • Entity: Non-Stock Item

   On the Processed tab, notice that the synchronization record of the ONLCOURSE, Home canning courses online (website session) item is displayed in the only row of the table. The External ID column displays the identifier of the item in BigCommerce.

3. Click the link in the External ID column to open the product in the BigCommerce control panel.
   Attention: If you are not signed in to the control panel of the BigCommerce store in the same browser, you will need to enter your sign-in credentials.
4. On the View Products page, which opens for the Home canning courses online (website session) product, review the details of the exported item. This item corresponds to the ONLCOURSE non-stock item in MYOB Advanced.

   Notice that in the Purchasability section, the This product is coming soon but I want to take pre-orders option button is selected, and in the Release Date box, the pre-order release date that you specified for the ONLCOURSE non-stock item has been inserted (1 Jan 2024).

5. In the left pane (above the Home menu item), click View Store to open the storefront.
6. On the storefront, in the list of categories, click Training.
7. On the page that lists products, click the link of the Home canning courses online (website session) product.

   On the page for the Home canning courses online (website session) product, notice that it is only available for pre-order, and that the message to customers indicates that the product will be available starting 1 January 2024. This date was specified as an attribute value in MYOB Advanced and exported during the synchronization of the Non-Stock Item entity.