Importing from ERP

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import -screenshot

Importing allows an administrator to populate a SuperOffice database with companies/projects from the ERP system.

Selecting ERP Sync from the import source will let you select the ERP connection to use.

SuperOffice will call the ERP connector's GetSearchableFields for each active actor-mapping.

All the actors with one or more searchable fields are added to the actor type drop-down.

Searching for actors

search -screenshot

Search-in-ERP dialog uses the list of fields from the GetSearchableFields call to fill in the upper grid.

Clicking the Find link or button will call SearchActorsAdvanced to search:

The active criteria along with the list of columns marked "Show-in-Search" are passed to the connector.

ActorArrayPluginResponse SearchActorsAdvanced(Guid connectionID, string actorType, SearchRestrictionInfo[] restrictions, string[] returnFields )

For example:

SearchRestrictionInfo[] restrictions = { new SearchRestrictionInfo {FieldKey = "NAME", Operator = "begins", ScalarValue="S"} };

string[] returnFields = {"NAME","NUMBER1","SUPPLIERLIMIT","STDTERMS"};

ActorArrayPluginResponse response = SearchActorsAdvanced(3aef3af6-8642-4fc1-8dc9-4e08bd76a6bf, "Supplier", restrictions , returnFields);

The returned actors could look something like this:

[0] = { ActorType = "Supplier", ErpKey = "erp123",
  LastModified = "103423423",
  FieldValues = {
    ["NAME"] = "SuperOffice AS",
    ["NUMBER1"] = "4343321",
    ["SUPPLIERLIMIT"] = "x2" }

[1] = { ActorType = "Supplier", ErpKey = "erp594",
  LastModified = "1034232063",
  FieldValues = {
    ["NAME"] = "Sandtander SA",
    ["NUMBER1"] = "865421",
    ["STDTERMS"] = "30",
    ["SUPPLIERLIMIT"] = "x0" }

The field keys and return fields use the field key identifiers returned by the call to GetSupportedActorTypeFields.

If there are list items in the returned columns, then the display values for these columns are fetched by calling the GetListItems.

Timestamps

The actors returned by the search are identified by two values:

  • ErpKey - is the id of the actor in the ERP system. This is a string, not an int or a GUID. The id should be stable over time. i.e. Editing the name of the company in the ERP system should not change the ErpKey.

  • LastModified - is the timestamp. This value is recorded when an ERP Actor is linked to a SuperOffice entity. The timestamp value is sent back to the connector when synchronizing so that the connector can figure out what was changed last. The timestamp is not parsed or understood by SuperOffice -- it is for the ERP Sync connector to understand.

Importing

The actual import is done by calling the ERP Sync connector's GetActors with the chosen ERP Keys. The connector must populate and return the ERP Actor objects. SuperOffice will create entities in the database and create the links to the ERP actors.

ActorArrayPluginResponse GetActors( Guid connectionID, string actorType, string[] erpKeys, string[] fieldKeys )

For example:

ActorArrayPluginResponse response = GetActors(3aef3af6-8642-4fc1-8dc9-4e08bd76a6bf,
        "Supplier",
        { "erp123","erp594"},
        {"NAME","NUMBER1","SUPPLIERLIMIT","STDTERMS"}
        );