OXID programming of an online store connection

PHP development of an ONIX article import for the German Taxpayers Association

eWorks was commissioned by the Service-Gesellschaft des Bundes der Steuerzahler (BdSt Steuerzahler Service GmbH) to develop an automatic article import for the BdSt store www.steuerzahler-service.de.

In close consultation with the data supplier "Haufe" (http://www.haufe.de), an import interface for the OXID store used was developed using PHP programming, which downloads the XML article data to be imported via FTP download in ONIX format, checks it and imports it into the MySQL database of OXID eShop. The article import was programmed so that it differentiates between new, existing and obsolete articles and adds, updates or deactivates the store articles accordingly. In addition to the XML programming, an image import was programmed that identifies, downloads, checks and crops the corresponding article images, imports them into the OXID store and stores them in the MySQL database for the corresponding articles.

A particular challenge of the interface programming was the requirement to run the import daily (or nightly) time-controlled and fully automatically, i.e. unobserved and yet reliable. For this reason, special attention was paid to quality assurance - during PHP development, but also after commissioning. For example, a log file was programmed that contains all processes, process steps, SQL database changes and error messages that can occur during operation and that considerably speeds up troubleshooting in the event of a fault.

eWorks designed the ONIX import technically, programmed it with PHP, integrated it into the OXID eShop and installed it on the web server using a cronjob. In the first few days after going live, eWorks carefully checked the activities of the developed ONIX import on a daily basis, analyzed any errors and corrected them. Since then, the programmed article import has been running unobserved on the store server night after night, searching for new XML data in ONIX format and importing it into the OXID store's MySQL database if necessary. Following commissioning, eWorks supports its client in the analysis and elimination of possible program errors (warranty), other faults and occasional functional enhancements.