The iMerchant Monsoon interface allows seamless integration with Monsoon inventory system with minimal configuration.
The interface provides two functions, preparing inventory to send to the Monsoon system and importing orders that sold via the Monsoon markets.
The process can be run manually or automatically via the windows task scheduler.
Set Up
The Monsoon interface is accessible via the menu bar Interfaces option.
This opens a form that contains the various settings necessary to configure the process.
The form allows the user to name the process and enter directories where the exported inventory files will be saved and the imported order files will be located.
These folders must match the locations defined in the Data Exchange setup portion of the Monsoon system.
The iMerchant inventory export folder is the Monsoon inventory import folder and iMerchant order import folder is the Monsoon order export folder.
These folders must be accessible to both systems.
Ideally the iMerchant process runs on the same PC as the Monsoon system.
Inventory exports to Monsoon must be configured to define the products being sent.
The Monsoon system has various categories of products that can be exported.
The iMerchant interface only exports items to the “Books” category.
The lower portion of the Monsoon interface form allows the settings for the Books category to be configured.
This area allows the user to select the fields that will be sent and the products that will be exported.
Each Monsoon category has a set of required fields that must be exported. iMerchant prepares these fields automatically.
For the “Books” category the fields are:
Product Number
Description
Author
Quantity
Price
Condition
Binding
Dust Jacket
Dust Jacket Condition
Publisher
Publication Date
SKU
ISBN
EAN
In addition to the required fields many optional fields can be sent to the Monsoon system.
The Field Mappings buttons allow the user to select the optional Monsoon fields and define which iMerchant field corresponds to the selected field.
The Monsoon export is usually a subset of the entire iMerchant inventory.
The “Selection Rule” link allows the user to create a product query that defines the products to be exported.
iMerchant keeps track of when the last export occurred and will only include items from the selection list that have changed since the last export.
The last export date and time is displayed on the form under the folder location.
The last export date can be cleared, forcing a complete update of items by using the “Edit”, “Clear Last Extract Date” menu selection.
If changes are made to the selection rule, the last extract date should be cleared to insure all products are posted on the Monsoon system.
Import / Export
The import and export functions can be run on demand via the Data Exchange menu selection.
The Export Inventory selection will create a tab delimited file in the Monsoon Export folder.
This can be a long running process depending on the amount of data being extracted.
The Import Sales Order selection will prompt for an order import file to be processed.
The import process expects a tab delimited file in the monsoon order export format with a “.txt” extension.
Once processed the imported order file will be renamed by changing the extension to “.imported”.
Errors or problems during an import or export process are recorded to a log file in the C:\ComputacApps folder beginning “MonsoonInterface”.
The file will contain detailed information about the problem, and indicate which records were in error.
A condensed error is also recorded in the standard iMerchant error log.
Scheduling Automatic Updates
The import and export functions can be scheduled for automatic execution via the Windows Task Scheduler.
Add the program imMonsoonInterface.exe to the scheduler with the desired execution schedule.
The task should be scheduled so that it does not begin execution before the previous session has completed.
The imMonsoonInterface.exe program will scan the order import folder and process all order files it finds.
Once the orders have been processed, the export process will be run and an export file placed in the export folder.
The program will be run using the iMerchant user saved under:
Tools > Options > General tab > User For Batch Mode Processing setting.
The results and error report are emailed if the Email Alert settings are configured.
Miscellaneous
All data being exported to Monsoon is validated on the Monsoon system.
Check the Monsoon Data Exchange documentation, and make sure the iMerchant field being sent conforms to the requirements.
To insure valid data is always exported use an iMerchant “code” field when mapping to Monsoon fields that have value constraints.
The parameter’s description is exported, so set the description as the required Monsoon value.
For example, the Condition Code field in Monsoon only allows the following values, ”new”, ”like new”, “very good”, “good”, “acceptable”, and “refurbished”.
Set the iMerchant condition code descriptions to these values.