Managing inventory updates with Salesforce Commerce Cloud

For information on how NewStore integrates with SFCC, see Integrating Salesforce Commerce Cloud .

The recommended way to update inventory is to fetch updated information regularly from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud.

You cannot create new inventory records from controller scripts nor can you call dw.system.Pipelet (link) from scheduled job steps. This is why the pipeline NewstoreImport is part of the int_newstore cartridge.

For inventory updates from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud, the set of new inventory records is collected and written into a "Digital" system format XML inventory file. If this file is not empty, its contents are imported right after the updated records have been committed. Existing records are updated directly in the script, which makes the extra import step an exception from the regular runs.

• Import inventory updates from existing ERP systems of the retailer
• Pull inventory from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud using scheduled jobs (recommended)
• Push inventory to NewStore Omnichannel Cloud using a scheduled function.

note

You don't need the app_newstore cartridge if you plan to use the pull mode to sync inventory with NewStore Omnichannel Cloud.

Importing inventory into NewStore Omnichannel Cloud in SFCC format

For retailers that do not use NewStore as their inventory master, they have to import inventory from existing ERP systems of the retailer into NewStore Omnichannel Cloud. These ERP systems already export inventory or availability information in the required SFCC format. However, the

SFCC Connector cartridge provides a way to upload the same availability files into NewStore and speed up the integration.

The inventory import process uses a sfcc-inventory-test.xml.zip file, with the following mapping configuration:

{
    "config": {
        "test123": {
            "head": {
                "mode": "atp"
            },
            "items": {
                "fulfillment_node_id": "fullfillment_node_id"
            }
        }
    }
}

To set up an inventory import from the ERP system of the retailer:

1. The inventory list ID in the header or inventory-list property must match a key in the mapping configuration. See inventory lists for more information on how inventory lists are mapped in NewStore.
2. The head property in the mapping configuration is passed directly to the head of the inventory import schema and matches it.
3. The items property contains mapping data which is applied to each item that is transformed. NewStore currently supports only fulfillment locations (fulfillment_node_id) that can be mapped to an inventory list.

After inventory is imported into NewStore Omnichannel Cloud for the first time, the process only pulls the updated availability values from the ERP system in the subsequent imports.

Pulling inventory updates from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud

int_newstore/metadata/job-schedules.xml contains example definitions.

Job	Description
NewStoreInventorySetup	Creates the required folders in the ImpEx area. Used only once after deployment.
NewStoreInventoryUpdate	Pulls availability information from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud and updates inventory records from there. The default configuration targets the inventory list that is assigned to the current site. To update a different inventory list, specify its ID as the parameterListID in the first step. note Assign the inventory resource manually to the schedule, since resource assignments are not included in the job schedule export format. If the data contains inventory records that don't exist, the records are created using the native inventory import format. This is limited to records that actually list products available.
NewStoreInventoryCleanup	Cleans up old files from the archive area.MaxAgeSeconds defines the maximum age for files in the archive; Default is 86400 seconds (one day).

When these jobs run, the following files are created in your ImpEx root folder.

File	Description
src/download/inventory/1234567890abcdef.json	Temporary file downloaded from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud. The base filename is generated from a fresh UUID and is read using a streaming parser that operates in limited memory. The whole file is processed in a single transaction.
src/download/inventory/missing/1234567890abcdef.xml	If the downloaded information contains non-zero inventory records that do not yet exist, this file is created for these records. limited memory. The platform does not allow creating inventory creating inventory records from the scripting API. Temporary file downloaded from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud. The base filename is generated from a fresh UUID and is read using a streaming parser that operates in limited memory. The whole file is processed in a single transaction.
src/download/inventory/archive/1234567890abcdef.json src/download/inventory/archive/1234567890abcdef.xml	The locations to which older files are moved when the process completes. If there is an error, the files are left where there are, to help diagnosis. single transaction.

Importing availabilities from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud in SFCC format

The SFCC Connector cartridge needs to import availabilities from NewStore, updating the corresponding inventory lists in SFCC. Inventory lists that can be for stores in SFCC are also updated.

The SFCC Connector cartridge contains a job that starts an export process in NewStore, which:

1. Starts the export via the Start ATP export for channel method. SFCC provides:

   • inventory_list_id: Received from SFCC.
   • ocapi_callback_url: NewStore can use this to execute the import job in SFCC.

2. Fetches the file via the Get ATP for channel method.

3. Performs the transformation of the format from JSON to SFCC XML.

4. Uploads the file to an S3 bucket.

5. Runs a job in SFCC using OCAPI, in order to process the uploaded file and import it.

   The following attributes are sent:

   • InventoryUrl: The url to download the inventory.xml from.
   • InventoryListID: The SFCC Inventory listID. Sent back to NewStore in the Notify step.
   • LastUpdatedAt: Used for providing deltas from NewStore to SFCC. This value isn’t used by SFCC, only sent back to NewStore when the inventory was successfully imported. This value is saved and used on the subsequent inventory export processes.

6. SFCC notifies NewStore by sending LastUpdatedAt.

Mapping between SFCC inventory lists and NewStore group names

Main inventory lists

Inventory lists are the aggregated availabilities from multiple fulfillment locations.

For every inventory list existing in SFCC which needs to be updated with availability data from NewStore, there needs to exist an Availability Group Name in NewStore.

Create an availability group with the Create fulfillment location group method. Use this method to specify which fulfillment locations are part of that aggregated availability group.

See the following example:

{
    "group_name": "inventory_list_sfcc",
    "fulfillment_nodes": ["FulfillmentNode01", "FulfillmentNode02"]
}

For example the SFCC Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) has the inventory_m inventory list by default. The group name should match this.

Store inventory lists

For each inventory list used by stores, a corresponding group name must exist in NewStore.

However, for stores, there is only one fulfillment location for each group. This fulfillment location is the store itself.

Use the Create fulfillment location group method:

{
    "group_name": "store_1",
    "fulfillment_nodes": ["FulfillmentNodeStore01"]
}

A store group name with multiple stores can be created, but is typically not required.

Updating fulfillment location groups

If the retailer opens a new store and wants to add it to the Main inventory lists , update the fulfillment location group.

To do this, use the Update fulfillment location group method to specify an updated list of fulfillment location, which includes the new store. See the following example:

{
    "group_name": "inventory_list_sfcc",
    "fulfillment_nodes": ["FulfillmentNode01", "FulfillmentNode02", "FulfillmentNode03Store2"]
}

note

If the retailer has created an inventory list in SFCC, a new corresponding group must be created in NewStore. See the example in this section .

Adding tenant-specific mapping configuration for product ID

Each customer may have a different extended attribute to identify the SFCC productID in NewStore.

For example, using the Start global ATP export method generates an availabilities file which can be then retrieved and looks like this:

{
    "atps": [
        {
            "atp": 19991,
            "external_identifiers": [
                {
                    "catalog": "storefront-catalog-en",
                    "identifiers": {
                        "sku": "640188016624M",
                        "upc": "640188016624"
                    },
                    "locale": "en-us"
                },
                {
                    "catalog": "sfra-apparel-catalog-en",
                    "identifiers": {
                        "sku": "640188016624M"
                    },
                    "locale": "en-us"
                }
            ],
            "future_atp": 0,
            "present_atp": 19991,
            "product_id": "640188016624M"
        }
    ]
}

Any of the external identifiers can be used as SFCC productID, so that when the inventory XML file is generated, this external identifier is used and matches the productID in SFCC.

note

If the attribute external_identifiers from the file generated by the Start global ATP export method isn’t present, then product_id is used as the default mapping attribute.

For that, a mapping configuration for each inventory list needs to be provided in the manner specified below:

POST: {{SFCC_CONNECTOR_ENDPOINT}}/sfcc-api/v1/mapping_config/availability

{
    "inventory_list_id": "inventory_m",
    "config": {
        "catalog": "storefront-catalog-en-test",
        "locale": "en-us",
        "external_id": "upc",
        "handling": "preorder"
    }
}

This specifies that for inventory list inventory_m and catalog storefront-catalog-en-test, the external id upc should be used as the SFCC productID identifier.

This generates a file, located under: v.sfcc.newstore.transformation.data/inventory/team-sfcc/

OCAPI credentials

Since NewStore calls the cartridge using OCAPI, use the following method to allow authentication:

POST: {{SFCC_CONNECTOR_ENDPOINT}}/sfcc-api/v1/ocapi_credentials

{
    "client_id": "Client ID provided by the SFCC implementation partner",
    "client_secret": "URL ENCODED client secret ID provided by the SFCC implementation partner"
}

Important

Remember to URL encode the password before posting it.

Future inventory handling for pre-orders

In the mapping configuration , the handling attribute is provided with the value preorder (for pre-orders).

This is used to populate the preorder-backorder-handling SFCC attribute.

Important

NewStore does not currently support managing backorders.

Currently, NewStore only manages future availability for DCs. Stores do not support future availability. For more information, see Pre-orders .

Related topics

• Integrating Salesforce Commerce Cloud
• Availabilities
• Importing orders
• Integrating Salesforce Commerce Cloud
• Integrating Salesforce Commerce Cloud
• APIs and webhooks
• Pre-orders