Rank: Member
Joined: 11/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 52
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Hi,
I require to do by code what I can do with the admin section and the Web Service appears to provide methods for various tasks that can be done via the admin section.
Is there any documentation, tutorials, tips, etc for the BV Commerce Web Service?
Is there anyone using it for direct management of the database?
Is there anything that the Web Service can't do that the admin section can?
Are there any known issues?
Thanks in advance for any help.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
Posts: 2,136
Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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I use web services to to perform many of the admin tasks related to shipping in one of my products. There is nothing that the admin UI can do that web service can not as of SP1 (within my area of interest).
I am not aware of any documentation, tutorials, etc. for the web service. I did all of my work by inspection (reading the BV code). |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 52
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Thanks Andy,
It's nice to know that the web service is a viable choice for direct management of the db.
Where I would find documentation helpful is when a method that would seem obvious to use doesn't do what I would think it would. Some methods can only be used (ie, work) under certain conditions.
For example, when creating a second product choice control. I have to obtain a product object using method "Catalog_InternalProduct_FindByChoiceIdLight" as the bvc_Product table is changed such that the original SKU is no longer "valid". Have you encountered this?
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
Posts: 2,136
Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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Hello Dom, I agree that some of the methods are not intuitive and it took a while to figure out how they worked. Unfortunately I did not even look at the product editing methods. The biggest difference between using a method directly vs using the web method is that the instance variables are not updated for you via the web method. For example lets say there was a method called Orders.Order.MarkCompleteAndUpdate(Order o) that returned true if the update is successful. We could assume that code like this would work: Code:
Order 0 = Order.FindByBvin(bvin);
if (Order.MarkCompleteAndUpdate(o))
Assert(o.OrderStatus == Complete);
But via the web service, we would have to do something like this: Code:
Order o = webservice3.Orders_Order_FindByBvin(token, bvin);
if (webservice3.Orders_Order_MarkCompleteAndUpdate(token, o))
{
o = webservice3.Orders_Order_FindByBvin(token, bvin);
Assert(o.OrderStatus == Complete);
}
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 52
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Hi Andy,
Have you encountered pros and cons with use of the Web Service?
Is there anything the Web Service should NOT be used for? For example, product insertion and product management?
Thanks.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/5/2003(UTC)
Posts: 2,136
Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)
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Hello Dom,
I have not looked at the web service methods related to the Catalog very much. There may be limitations lurking in there. I found one when I was developing Shipper Service for BVC5, but BV Software fixed it with SP1. I suspect you are concerned that you are going to invest a lot of time on a project only to find out that a critical piece is missing. My guess is that you will find one or two missing pieces, but nothing critical. |
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/15/2006(UTC)
Posts: 52
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Andy,
Yep I am doing a major project.
Thanks for your advice and I am upgrading to SP1.
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