Export pricing data from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing

We can configure a scheduled job to export product data and pricing data from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing. After the pricing data is exported to Dynamic Pricing, merchandisers can use Dynamic Pricing to analyze this data in relation to defined business strategies. Dynamic Pricing makes real time pricing recommendations based on competitor pricing and market activity.


Task info

This scheduled job runs the Data Load utility, which exports product and pricing data into .csv files. The set of files are compressed into a .zip file, and then uploaded to Dynamic Pricing through an SFTP transport.

Note: In a production environment, this scheduled job is configured on the staging or authoring environment.


Procedure

  1. Configure the Dynamic Pricing SFTP transport.

    1. Open the Administration Console.

    2. On the Administration Console Site/Store Selection page, select Store.

    3. Click Configuration > Transport. The Transport Configuration page displays.

    4. Click Add to open the Add Transport page.

    5. Select the Dynamic Pricing SFTP Export connection settings check box.

    6. Click Add to accept the changes. When you add a transport method to a site, it is automatically activated.

    7. From the Add Transport page, click the check box beside Dynamic Pricing SFTP Export connection settings, and click Configure.

    8. Specify the following configuration parameters for the SFTP transport, and click Ok.

      Parameter Value
      Host name Enter the FTP host name.
      Port number Enter the port number. By default port for Dynamic Pricing is 160.
      User name Enter your FTP user name.
      Password Enter your FTP password.
      Remote directory Enter remote FTP upload directory.

  2. Configure the scheduled job to export products and prices from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing.

    1. Click Configuration > Scheduler. A list of jobs that are scheduled to run is displayed.

    2. On the Scheduler Status Display page, click New.

    3. Create the Dynamic Pricing export job with the following values:

      Parameter Value
      Job Command Dataload
      Job parameters Enter the following job parameter:

        dataLoadType
        Use DynamicPricingExport for the type of Dataload command.

      Start date Enter the current date.
      Start time Enter a time to start the job for the first time.
      Schedule interval Type the number of seconds between successive runs of this job. If this parameter is omitted, the job runs only 1 time.To run the job scheduler daily at a fixed time. Click the Fixed Time check box, and leave the Schedule interval field blank. Enabling Fixed Time ensures a job runs at a specified time, even with Daylight Saving Time changes.

      Note: For this integration, run the Dynamic Pricing export job once daily.

    4. Click OK.

  3. Optional: Alternatively, we can create a scheduled task at the operating system level to export your data to Dynamic Pricing. Notes:

    • This is an alternative to the scheduler in WebSphere Commerce.

    • Configure a scheduled task at the operating system level reduces excessive load on the WebSphere Commerceserver if you have a large product catalog.

    1. Open the sample directory. For example:

    2. Copy the DynamicPricingExport sample directory, and place the copied folder in a directory of your choice.

    3. In the copied sample directory, open the wc-dataextract-env.xml file to update the user name and password for the database.

      Note: Ensure that the password is encrypted. For more information about encrypting a password in the data extraction utility, see: Configure the Data Extract utility environment settings.

    4. Save and close the file.

    5. Open the WebSphere Commerce configuration file.

    6. Review the file to check whether KeysConfigFile is defined. This is the configuration flag that indicates we are using the Key Locator Framework for storing the merchant key. An example of the KeysConfigFile definition is as follows: 

        KeysConfigFile = "config/CustomKeys.xml

    7. If the KeysConfigFile is defined, update your wc-dataextract-env.xml with the following path:

      • (Linux) <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="WC_eardir/xml/config/CustomKeys.xml" />

      • (Developer) <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="workspace_dir\WC\xml\config\CustomKeys.xml" />

    8. If the KeysConfigFile is undefined in wc-server.xml, ensure that your wc-dataextract-env.xml contains the path to the default WCKeys.xml file:

      • (Linux) <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="WC_eardir/xml/config/WCKeys.xml" />

      • (Developer) <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="\workspace_dir\WC\xml\config\WCKeys.xml" />)

    9. If you edited the wc-dataextract-env.xml file, save and close the file.

    10. Use one of the following options to schedule a task at the operating system level:

      • (Linux) Use Crontab.

    11. When you set up the scheduled tasks, use one of the following commands:

      • (Developer) WCDE_installdir\bin\dataextract.bat ...sample_directory\wc-dataextract.xml

      • (Linux) WC_installdir/bin/dataextract.sh ..sample_directory/wc-dataextract.xml

      Where

        sample_directory
        Your copied sample directory for DynamicPricingExport createdd earlier in this task.


Results

When the scheduled job runs, your products and prices are exported from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing.

Note: Any data that is external to WebSphere Commerce, such as competitor pricing, needs to be extracted separately by a designated provider.


What to do next

Import prices from Dynamic Pricing to WebSphere Commerce.