Import SKU via the Integration Bus and Internal Connector

Ask yourself these questions:

• What kind of error handling (high level) do you need? Robust? Simple, like a try {} catch {} or if() {} else {} statement?
• How often does this need to happen? Real-time? Scheduled?

Depending on your answers, you could very well use a scheduled task within Kentico which are much easier to use and get going than an Inbound/Outbound Integration Bus Connector.

Every time I import or export data for a client I always ask myself those 2 simple questions and the answers determine what way I'll code it.

Brenden

Forgot all about scheduled tasks. Unfortunately everything has to be in real time. If something is changed in our ERP we want it to reflect this change on the site pretty much instantly. One of the main reasons we chose Kentico was because of the flexibility with real time integration. Just really need a simple example to expand on.

I believe the documentation explicitly shows a very generic outbound task if I remember right. Or it did for v7 anyway. Creating the outbound to your ERP is simpler than the inbound from ERP because you need to capture the event within the ERP to trigger a call to Kentico to perform the work. I'm not going to say this is an easy task at all which is most likely why you haven't found an example. There is a good chance companies end up hiring a Kentico Partner or Consultant who knows these items to write the code for them.

With that being said, if you have a valid maintenance agreement, you can email support and ask for additional examples, if they have them. If you have consulting credits you can use those as well to get some work from Kentico.

Honestly I have done these type of things in many different ways, but the cleanest is to take the software out of the equation. Either create your own syncs or use a commercial sync software. Set-up a middle SQL database between the ERP and Kentico. Use the sync or DB triggers to push changes into the middle DB and out to the Kentico tables.

Why a middle database, because much like business logic code, it abstracts the two systems from one another and prevents having to recreate the entire connection if one side changes some how. Honestly doesn't take anymore effort and overall easier to control the sync process.

It all clicked yesterday and I have most of the product import/update done. Still got the order export stuff to do with the subscriptions, but that seems fairly simple now i "get it". Virgil we are actually using a middle SQL database, glad someone else agrees that is a good course of action. I just received an email from our awesome guy at Kentico with an example as well. So time to see if i got it all right yesterday. :)

Nice suggestion Virgil! I've done that before and it does work very well.

Glad to hear you are already following good practices. Best of luck