WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0.4.0 or later

Exporting pricing data from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing

You can configure a scheduled job to export product data and pricing data from WebSphere Commerce to Dynamic Pricing 16.4. 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.

About this task

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 server.

Procedure

Configure the Dynamic Pricing SFTP transport.

Open the Administration Console.
On the Administration Console Site/Store Selection page, select Store.
Click Configuration > Transport. The Transport Configuration page displays.
Click Add to open the Add Transport page.
Select the Dynamic Pricing SFTP Export connection settings check box.
Click Add to accept the changes. When you add a transport method to a site, it is automatically activated.
From the Add Transport page, click the check box beside Dynamic Pricing SFTP Export connection settings, and click Configure.

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.

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

Click Configuration > Scheduler. A list of jobs that are scheduled to run is displayed.
On the Scheduler Status Display page, click New.

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 that you want 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.

Click OK.

Optional: Alternatively, you 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.
- Configuring 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:
  - WCDE_installdir/samples/DataExtract/DynamicPricingExport
  - WC_installdir/samples/DataExtract/DynamicPricingExport
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 your database.
  
  Note: Ensure that the password is encrypted. For more information about encrypting a password in the data extraction utility, see: Configuring the Data Extract utility environment settings.
4. Save and close the file.
5. Open your wc-server.xml from one of the following directories:
  - WC_eardir/xml/config/
  - WC_eardir\xml\config\
  - workspace_dir\WC\xml\config\
6. Review the file to check whether KeysConfigFile is defined. This is the configuration flag that indicates you 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 in wc-server.xml as above, you must update your wc-dataextract-env.xml with the following path:
  - <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="WC_eardir/xml/config/CustomKeys.xml" />
  - <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="WC_eardir\xml\config\CustomKeys.xml" />
  - <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="\WCDE_installdir\workspace\WC\xml\config\CustomKeys.xml" />
8. If the KeysConfigFile is undefined in wc-server.xml, you must ensure that your wc-dataextract-env.xml contains the path to the default WCKeys.xml file:
  - <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="WC_eardir/xml/config/WCKeys.xml" />
  - <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="WC_eardir\xml\config\WCKeys.xml" />
  - <_config:property name="keyConfigFile" value="\WCDE_installdir\workspace\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:
  - Schedule a Windows task.
  - Use Crontab.
11. When you set up the scheduled tasks, use one of the following commands:
  - WCDE_installdir\bin\dataextract.bat ...sample_directory\wc-dataextract.xml
  - WC_installdir\bin\dataextract.bat ..sample_directory\wc-dataextract.xml
  - WC_installdir/bin/dataextract.sh ..sample_directory/wc-dataextract.xml
  Where
  
  sample_directory
  
  Your copied sample directory for DynamicPricingExport that you created 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.