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Importing products (API)

Importing products by means of the API includes the following parts of the system:

  • eContent repository: helper methods for automatic metadata generation.
  • catalog data (categories, products and related attributes) need to be stored individually for every language used in the shop
  • available classes for new database objects can be obtained from the sve_class table (by default only two classes: 1 = category, 2 = product)

Attributes

Every catalog class defines a number of valid attributes for their elements. The name identifier, ID and Content Type of all attributes are stored in the table sve_class_attributes.

The node_id of the product, attribute_id and language code fields are required.

After a new product is created, attributes can be associated with the product using its node_id. In addition, creating a new attribute requires its ID and the language code.

Attributes use three data types to store their data (text, float and int). The API provides a corresponding setter method for every data type that needs to be called explicitly on import.

Data type Method
float setDataFloat
int setDataInt
text/string setDataText

Importing a category

A category has class_id = 1.

Categories are used to group products by setting the parent_id of the product to the node_id of the category. The root node of the tree is 2 (the parent of the first category).

For example:

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// get the Doctrine repository
$objectRepo = $this->em->getRepository(SveObject::class);

$categoryName = 'My category';
$categoryNodeId = $objectRepo->getNextNodeId();

$econtentCategory = new SveObject();
$econtentCategory->setClassId(1); // 2 = product, 1 = category
$econtentCategory->setParentId(2); // root node
$econtentCategory->setBlocked(false);
$econtentCategory->setHidden(false);
$econtentCategory->setSection(1); // 1 = Standard

$econtentCategory->setChangeDate(new \DateTime());
$objectRepo->generateMetaData($econtentCategory, $categoryNodeId, $categoryName);
$this->em->persist($econtentCategory);
$this->em->flush();

// import an attribute for the new category
$econtentAttribute = new SveObjectAttributes();
$econtentAttribute->setNodeId($categoryNodeId);
$econtentAttribute->setAttributeId(101); // 201 = ses_name
$econtentAttribute->setLanguage('eng-GB');

$econtentAttribute->setDataText($categoryName);
$this->em->persist($econtentAttribute);
$this->em->flush();

Importing a product

A product has class_id = 2.

Creating a product requires the parent_id (its Location in the product tree/catalog). Changing the parent_id moves the product in the tree. After creation, the product's node_id serves as its unique identifier.

Product entities provide getters and setters for their attributes.

To import into the *_tmp table, use $nodeId = $objectRepo->getNextNodeId();.

Use the generateMetaData() method to generate metadata such as the URL alias of the product.

The following example creates a product object in the database and sets its properties. It creates attributes and associates them with the object. Different attributes have different data types (text is default).

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// create a product and set its data fields
$productNodeId = $objectRepo->getNextNodeId();

$econtentProduct = new SveObject();
$econtentProduct->setClassId(2); // 2 = product, 1 = category
$econtentProduct->setParentId($categoryNodeId);
$econtentProduct->setMainNodeId($productNodeId);
$econtentProduct->setBlocked(false);
$econtentProduct->setHidden(false);
$econtentProduct->setSection(1); // 1 = Standard

$econtentProduct->setChangeDate(new \DateTime());
$objectRepo->generateMetaData($econtentProduct, $productNodeId, 'New Product');

$this->em->persist($econtentProduct);
$this->em->flush();

// import an attribute for the new product
$econtentAttribute = new SveObjectAttributes();
$econtentAttribute->setNodeId($productNodeId);
$econtentAttribute->setAttributeId(201); // 201 = ses_name
$econtentAttribute->setLanguage('eng-GB');

$econtentAttribute->setDataText((string)'product name');

$this->em->persist($econtentAttribute);
$this->em->flush();

Create the index for the new products (in temporary area):

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php bin/console silversolutions:indexecontent

After the import, the database tables and Solr cores have to be switched:

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php bin/console silversolutions:indexecontent swap
php bin/console silversolutions:econtent-tables-swap

For more information, see Staging system and Indexing econtent data.