Actinic & XML feeds

Hi there,
I would just like to know if the following ideas would be possible:

We have a supplier which has a huge of products, and they have a great IT infrastructure. They offer an XML feed to customers which shows live stock and availability, automation of order processing and instant allocation of stock to your orders.

Would it be possible to add this XML into Actinic?

[fergusw]

Toby,
Actinic has a very powerful feature called "External Links" which allows you to link and retrieve and/or update data from an external data source.
This data source could be an SQL database, and access database or even a spreadsheet file.

A possible use for this for you could be using Excel to convert the XML file into a spreadsheet i.e. a suitable data source for Actinic's External linking.

Food for thought?

[eshopbrokers]

Xml

Thank you very much for the reply. What I will do is get in contact with our supplier for more a bit more in depth information. The feed would have to be able to pass on orders to the suppliers system when they are made on our site. In your opinion, would it be worth doing it in Actinic or going for a bespoke system?

[fergusw]

Toby,
A "feed" is normally associated with a one-way static transfer of data, i.e. in this case from the supplier to you by way of an XML file.

When you mention

The feed would have to be able to pass on orders to the suppliers system when they are made on our site.

you are implying some sort of two-way interaction or action, which cannot be done by way of a feed as indicated above.

To pass on orders to the suppiers system would require a separate process entirely. Your Actinic website has a well developed order processing system. There is no easy "plug and play" method for passing order information to suppliers, other than perhaps via email.

Maybe Actinic is not a solution for you, however there may be others than can suggest potential workarounds if you provide more info.

[eshopbrokers]

Okay, I am going to get hold of their IT department and find the best solution. Will keep you posted...

[marke]

One way you might be able to pass a "feed" of orders back to your supplier might be through the export orders function (Opertaions>Report selection). This allows you to export your orders to several csv files (if I remember correctly). You might then be able to re-import these CSV files into an Access database, run a query to reformat the data into your suppliers required format and then export this data as an xml file or something which can then be sent to your supplier as an order file. Might or might not work. Its the only way I can think that you might get a workable solution without bypassing the Actinic order processing completly.

[Duncan Rounding]

Jan (MoleEnd) has Automation and Batch Prcessing that may suit what you want. You can email a pdf packing list to a supplier for example.

[Jan]

Hi Toby,

It's not easy to import data into Actinic from an XML feed but if your supplier can provide you with a csv feed you can use the file / import option to update your stock levels and possibly to add new products (this part would depend on the information that they are providing).

To export orders from Actinic you can use the standard Actinc export feature (you have to enable this in business settings before it's available). This export produces 5 files containing different parts of the order data.

If you want to export the order data with a single line for each order iten, you can use my One Stop Order Processing tool, this allows you to export order information containing the fields you require in the order you require as a file. You can find more details and a free trial here :

http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/One...rocessing.html

If you need a more customised approach then you could write or have written a customised export module, there are a few people on this board that could do that for you (for a fee).

Regards,

Regards,

[RuralWeb]

you my also find that your supplier will give you a website if you ask!

[Jan]

Actually having reread the original question, all you want to do it add a live stock indicator to your website, so the answer is yes, you should be able to add the code easily to the product layout.

Regards,

[eshopbrokers]

thanks for all of your replies. I will find out about the csv files and using them with Jan's order processing. Our supplier does offer websites, but they do not looks as good as what actinic could be. An example is http://www.digitalkind.co.uk We are looking to do a full site redesign in the summer. So we would want this solution implemented by then.

[gabrielcrowe]

Hi there,
I would just like to know if the following ideas would be possible:

We have a supplier which has a huge of products, and they have a great IT infrastructure. They offer an XML feed to customers which shows live stock and availability, automation of order processing and instant allocation of stock to your orders.

Would it be possible to add this XML into Actinic?

i'm working on a solution that may interest you, email me for details.