Updating catalog data

You can synchronize catalog data, such as serialized flag, department, and product velocity, from IBM® Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management.

Currently, catalog data is configured in Sterling Order Management System by using the Applications Manager, item loading services, or Sterling Order Management System APIs such as manageItem.

Since inventory management, cycle count, and batch picking require the catalog data, such as serialized flag, department, and product velocity, it must be synchronized from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management. These fields are updated from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management in two ways – synchronously and asynchronously.

Synchronous update

Sterling Order Management System can synchronously update the catalog data of published items from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management. Regardless of whether the catalog data is updated in the Applications Manager or by using the manageItem API, it is always synchronized with Store Inventory Management.

Sterling Order Management System also supports configuring the catalog data for a published item at the store level, and it is synchronized with Store Inventory Management as well. You can perform the task in Applications Manager, from the Node Item Attributes screen or by using the modifyItemNodeDefn API, and the change is synchronized with Store Inventory Management.

Asynchronous update

While synchronous updates can automatically synchronize any addition, deletion, or modification of catalog data from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management, it does not update the catalog data that are already present in Sterling Order Management System before Store Inventory Management was deployed. To do this one-time synchronization, a Sterling Order Management System agent is provided to synchronize the complete catalog data from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management.

To configure the agent, perform the following steps:

Go to Applications Manager > Application Platform > Process Modelling > General tab > General (Process Type) > Transactions tab > SIM Item Sync.
Click the User Triggered tab. A sample agent criteria is provided: SIM_ITEM_SYNC_SAMPLE.
Create a copy of the criteria and rename it. For example, SIM_ITEM_SYNC.
Configure the runtime properties such as Agent Server, JMS Queue, and Provider URL. You need not schedule this agent criteria.

After you configure the agent, perform the following steps:

Start the agent server.

Run the Trigger Agent server by entering the following information in Agent criteria ID:


<Agent criteria id> -CatalogOrganizationCode <Catalog organization code configured on Sterling
Order Management System> 
-TriggerUser <Valid user name to run the agent>

Notes:

It is assumed that as part of participant modelling in Sterling Order Management System for a Store Inventory Management customer, a single Catalog Organization owns all catalogs, which must be specified as part of the Agent criteria ID. Additionally, a valid username is required to run the agent, even though authentication is not necessary. For example, if the Catalog Organization is XYZCorp, and username is admin, then pass the following value as the Agent criteria Id:
```
SIM_ITEM_SYNC -CatalogOrganizationCode XYZCorp -TriggerUser admin
```
If you want to run the SIM_ITEM_SYNC agent regularly, configure it as a time-triggered agent by specifying the CatalogOrganizationCode and TriggerUser as parameters in the Criteria Parameters tab in the Agent Criteria screen. For more information, see Specifying a transaction as time-triggered.

Important: Use the asynchronous update only for initial load of items from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management, or when synchronous update does not work as expected and you need to update all items in an ad hoc manner.

Validation

Once all catalog data is updated from Sterling Order Management System to Store Inventory Management, you can validate the updates by calling the GET REST APIs for that product.

Important: Refrain from using the POST and DELETE APIs for products, unless explicitly instructed. You must update the product information only in Sterling Order Management System, and Store Inventory Management is updated synchronously. Using the POST or DELETE Store Inventory Management APIs can make the Store Inventory Management product data go out-of-sync with the Sterling Order Management System product data, and you must rectify the data by using the SIM_ITEM_SYNC agent.