CODEWITHSUNDEEP
apimagentomagento-1.7httprequest
user1281146
user1281146

Reputation: 167

What`s the best practice for Magento to update stock from code

I have to integrate my webshop with an external system. This system provides several functionalities, described in their API. This is what I want to do:

So I have to hook into the Magento stock check and I want some script which updates the products like everyday.

Where should I implement my changes? What is the best way to do this? I can imagine Magento already have some API stock functionalities, but can`t seem to find the right documentation.

Thanks in advance!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3752

Answers (2)

Andrew
Andrew

Reputation: 12809

Firstly you could use the Magento web service via either SOAP and XML-RPC:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/api/soap/introduction.html#Introduction-SOAP

There's an API for updating stock levels:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/api/soap/catalogInventory/cataloginventory_stock_item.update.html

However, this is usually quite slow and can take some time to update large collections of products, in which case you are better going for a solution which uses the Magento object model directly, or something custom.

Depending upon your level of development expertise there's a few options available. One library to checkout is Magmi:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/magmi/index.php?title=Magmi_Wiki

this is useful for updating lots of product data / stock levels quite quickly.

If you do no require an automated solution, you could always use the standard Magento import/export profiles to import stock levels from a CSV file, a quick search for 'Magento Import Export Profiles' should give you a good starting place:

http://www.seenbest-web-design.com/techclub/importing-a-csv-of-products-to-magento/
http://www.woolleydesign.net/2011/02/updating-store-inventory-in-magento/

Upvotes: 1

user1281146
user1281146

Reputation: 167

I am fully functionally using Magmi now. I have written a plugin to automatically create configurable products, so if anyone is ever interested let me know.

There is already a plugin to process configurable products, my plugin is dependent on that plugin.

Basically, you will only be able to create configurable products if you especially have added this to your CSV, with a column named 'type'. In the column type you can set simple or configurable. With my module that won`t be nessecary. By some logic I automatically recognize the simple products and create a new configurable containing those products.

A little explanation on why I need this: The stock system of our client updates a list of product (CSV) every few hours, containing entries of products. They sell clothing, and every size, and every color is a new entry. So one product can have 10 entries, entry 1: t-shirt green, size 12; entry 2: t-shirt green, size 13, etc.

I explain this, just in case anybody would ever need something like this, my plugin will probably help you. It will although need a few modification for your situation, since this is very specific to how your list of products is composed.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions