At Nousmedis we are enthusiastic about technology and product management. When we discover shortcuts, innovative ways to organize product information, or new possibilities or functionalities in our favorite tools (like Akeneo), we can’t help but share this knowledge with all of you and show how wide and wonderful the universe of product data management and catalog automation can be.
Let’s take an exciting tour of Akeneo. Let’s break down the step-by-step of connecting this PIM with EasyCatalog. And let’s do it in a simple and precise way. Let’s get started!
Akeneo and its Connections
First of all… Do you know what Akeneo is? It is a product information management and product data intelligence software that enables product data management from one place to enhance the user experience. In other words: it is a PIM (Product Information Manager). And what are ‘Connections’ in Akeneo? They are the key to connect this PIM to any data source or destination, such as ERPs, DAMs or even EasyCatalog.
For Akeneo and its connections to work properly, make sure you have previously followed these steps:
- Import your data: Bring the information from your ERP, DAM or MDM to Akeneo.
- Complete and enrich: Enhance and complete your product information.
- Publish data: Use output channels, such as EasyCatalog – which is what we are going to discover next – to publish your data.
Akeneo Configuration
In order to export the product information to EasyCatalog, you must first create a
conexión
of the type
Destino de datos
.
1: Create a connection of type Data Destination
These are the steps to create a connection:
- Click
Conectar. - Then,
Ajustes de conexión. - Now click on
Crear. - In the field
Etiqueta, type a name for the connector. For example, type something like ‘EasyCatalog‘ or ‘My EasyCatalog Connector‘ to make it obvious that you want to connect your PIM to EasyCatalog. WARNING !!!! The connection code value is automatically generated from the value entered in the tag. You can keep it or change it to any other, it’s up to you !!! - Now choose the flow type of your connection which, in the case of EasyCatalog, should be of the type
Destino de datos.
See what you should be seeing if you are following these steps:
Connection configuration
Once the connection is created, you can assign an image to it to quickly determine what it is at a glance. For example, as we are setting up a connection to EasyCatalog, we could place an image of the EasyCatalog logo, as shown in the above screenshot but also below in more detail:
EasyCatalog connection image
After creating the connection, Akeneo will provide you with a set of credentials that you will use when configuring an Akeneo Origen de datos in EasyCatalog.
2: Select the type of flow
As mentioned before, when creating or updating a connection, you must specify a flow type. Determining the correct type of flow is critical to the proper functioning of the connection. Allows you to set up the data flows that will interact with your PIM. It will determine how connection flows are monitored in the Flujos de datos panel.
The flow type has three options available. To create a connection to EasyCatalog, you must choose Destino de datos as the flow type.
If you choose this option, the Data Flows pane will monitor the data sent from Akeneo over this connection.
3: Write down your credentials
Each time you create a connection, Akeneo automatically generates a set of credentials. These credentials are required if you want to make Akeneo API calls or, in the case we are detailing, use an Akeneo Data Source in EasyCatalog.
The credentials consist of 4 different values:
- The
ID de cliente. - The
Secreto. - The
Nombre de usuarioof the connection. - The
Contraseñaof the connection.
Whenever you want to consult the ID del cliente, the Secreto or the Nombre de usuario of a connection, navigate to Conectar > Ajustes de conexión and click on the connection icon. The connection credentials are displayed on the right side of the screen under Credenciales.
Important! The password is only displayed once, right after the connection is created. Therefore, be sure to write it down and keep it in a safe location.
4: Set connection permissions
For each connection, you can define a set of permissions that control access to:
- Some final API points. In this case, such permissions are defined by
rol de usuario de la conexión. - Some sections of your catalog. In this case, permissions are based on the
grupo de usuarios de la conexión. Please note that this option is only available in the Enterprise Edition.
Configuration of an Akeneo as a data source in EasyCatalog
Now that we have reviewed how to configure Akeneo to be able to export product information to EasyCatalog, let’s see how to configure this data source in EasyCatalog.
The EasyCatalog Enterprise module includes two versions for Akeneo data sources: Akeneo and Akeneo extended. Both offer the same functionality, but the extended version adds two additional filtering options: by Product Status and by the Completeness value of the product data.
Follow these steps:
1: Install Akeneo Data Provider
Select Archivo > Nuevo > Panel EasyCatalog > Gestionar Proveedores de Datos Enterprise. The ‘Manage Enterprise Data Providers’ dialog box will open. Select the data provider Akeneo or Akeneo Extended from the list and click on the button Instalar.
The Akeneo Extended data provider offers two additional options: Status – allows you to filter imported products by their status: All, enabled or disabled –and Complete – you can choose whether you want to import all products or only those marked as complete by Akeneo.
2: Create a new Akeneo data source
Configuring a data source is a relatively simple task that basically consists of selecting the different values within the Configuración del origen de datos de Akeneo dialog box:
New Akeneo Data Source Dialog Box
Let’s review what we have to indicate in each of the fields that we find in this dialog box of the Akeneo data source:
Name
As with the other EasyCatalog Data Sources, the name of the Data Source must be unique, as it will be used to uniquely identify it. The name you type here will appear in the menu Archivo→Nuevo→panel EasyCatalog.
Server URL
Enter the full URL where your Akeneo server is hosted. EasyCatalog will connect to it when you finish configuring the Data Source and every time you run the command Sincronizar con Origen de datos.
Customer ID, Secret, Username and Password
Type the credentials that Akeneo automatically created when setting up the connection.
Create columns with the attribute label
Check this box if you want to import the field label name for each attribute. This will allow you, for example, to use the tag name in the catalog and automatically translate it into another language if you later decide to import another language from Akeneo.
Include products from subcategories
Check this option to import all the products of the main categories and also those of each subcategory.
Duplicate product for each category
If a product belongs to more than one category and you want it to be shown in the catalog once for each category, check this option. EasyCatalog will modify the product id displayed in the panel by concatenating the contents of the fields ID de producto and ID de categoría.
Include Entities
Check this option to import the Akeneo reference entities into your Data Source.
Initialize
Click the Inicializar button to test the connection to the Akeneo server using the provided credentials, and fill in certain values in the panel with the options returned by Akeneo. If a successful connection is established, the fields Locale por defecto, Canal, Categoría and Locale will be unlocked and filled with the correct values provided by Akeneo.
Locale (language) by default
The configuration Locale por defecto is used to obtain the correct set of categories and channels for the selected language. If you select Todo, the code will be displayed in the menus Categoría and Canal.
Channel
Select the name of a channel to import the products published by that channel. As a general rule, you should define a different channel for each type of output: digital, print, e-commerce, web, etc.
Category
Select a category name if you want to import only products belonging to that category; select Todos to import products from all categories.
Locale (language)
Select Todo if you want to import each field multiple times, once per language. EasyCatalog will concatenate the two letters of the Language Code to the field name. For example, the descripción field will be imported twice if the Akeneo PIM has two locales, one for Spanish Spanish from Spain (description_es_ES) and one for English from the USA (description_en_US).
3: Group products by category
You are now ready to group and organize!
Use the Agrupar... option in the context menu of the EasyCatalog data panel to group products by category. This will greatly improve the usability of your data and enable certain advanced paging options.
Akeneo data dashboard grouped by category
And there you have it! You now know everything you need to know to connect Akeneo with EasyCatalog and manage your product data efficiently…
But before ending this post, we would like to give you some more tips about Enterprise data providers management in EasyCatalog, because it is common that you may want to change them, test them, update them, delete them…
Manage Enterprise Data Providers
The list of Enterprise data providers is constantly updated. But if you don’t find one that fits your needs, we can develop it for your company.
Installation, update and removal of data providers
Select Archivo > Nuevo > Panel EasyCatalog > Gestionar Proveedores de Datos Enterprise. The Gestionar Proveedores de Datos Enterprise dialog box will open:
Manage Enterprise Data Providers Dialog Box
Install /Upgrade
To install the latest version of a data provider, first select one of the data providers showing an exclamation mark and click this button. To install a new data provider, select it from the Available list and click the Install button.
Uninstall
If you no longer wish to use a data provider, select it from the list of installed data providers and click this button to uninstall it. EasyCatalog will delete the associated data provider files from the EasyCatalog Workspace folder.
Import
This button allows you to import custom developed data providers. For more information on the development of custom data providers, please contact us here.
Show
Click this button to open the folder containing the script of the selected data provider.
Installed data providers
This list shows the data providers you already have installed. EasyCatalog displays the version number and, when a new version is available, an exclamation mark. Click on the (i) icon to open, in your default browser, a page with the new features and bug fixes.
Available data providers
EasyCatalog is adding more and more data providers. Select a data provider from this list and click the Instalar button to download the Script files associated with this provider to your Workspace folder. The installed data providers will be available from the menu option Archivo > Nuevo > Panel EasyCatalog. If there is more than one version for a data provider, click on the arrow icon to the left of the data provider’s name to display all available versions.
Tailor-made data providers
If you want to import data directly from your database, ERP or PIM, and your data source is not yet compatible with EasyCatalog, we can develop a custom data provider for your company. Please, contact us using the following form.
Do you have any questions or experiences you would like to share? Leave it in the comments!
See you next time, technophiles!