Help for Aimeos

Hi all. Looking at data import for a catalogue only POC. with regard to the csv import from our ERP the item records have an article number and name. But also a internal id number that is the unambiguous database number for that item. Because we can have more than one item with the same article name (but different internal ids) due to conversions from serialised to unserialised item types (the ERP treats those as different items) we can’t guarantee uniqueness of the article number although we only ever have one of those active at any time (due to aforementioned conversions).

I’d like to bring that over in the import so that when we look at adding the full shop functionality that internal id can be passed back with the order info. Is the best place to store this field without any extensive customisation a hidden attribute? Is that one of the possible uses for those field types in aimeos - storing external identifiers?

Cheers.
Mark.

I also have the same ERP-hidden attribute issue , can anyone short it out? It would be a great help.

Our recommendation would be to store that internal number in "product.code" because the values in this fields have to be unique. Storing the article number won't work if it's used by more than one article if you can't make sure only one of these articles sharing the same article number is stored in the database at the same time.

You can store the article number as product property to display it in the frontend if you won't need it in your ERP system (which only uses the internal ID). If you want to push the article number to the ERP system too, hidden attributes are the best and easiest way do that.

Great thanks for the suggestion I’ll try that out with our data.

As mentioned we try to never have two articles with the same name active at the same time but what commonly happens is that an item is created as unserialised and ordered on a PO as part of development process and when it arrives they change their mind and decide to track serials (bit of a proddev deficiency I suppose - but sometimes depends on the vendors warranty processes too). They have to create a new serialised item record (different internal id) and adjust everything.

When we look at getting aimeos.com to help develop the ERP order exporter the ERP will expect the products to be referenced by internal id so good to get the right data testing now.

I’ll try out different fields for the article number. I suppose that will require custom templates to pull the different field and render it instead of the default product.code field.

Cheers.