Product: Flat-File Integrations

Article Link: http://help.truecommerce.com/en/articles/10233280-flat-file-integration-overview

Flat-File Integrations with Transaction Manager is a generic term used to describe any File-Based data transfer between Transaction Manager and another system, whether this is your Business System, UPS WorldShip, FedEx Shipping Manager, or simply reading/writing plain XML, CSV, and TXT files to communicate data.

A Flat-File Integration is an ambiguous integration - meaning that Transaction Manager is unaware of the application on the other end, instead it is simply either Reading a file or Writing a file in a specific location - what happens outside of those processes Transaction Manager is unaware of, and as such has no direct control of the external platform outside of what it can produce on the file.

When a Flat-File is referenced it is referring to any plain-text file that can be read/write through basic system programs such as Notepad or Microsoft Word/Excel, files with plain-text extensions such as XML, CSV, JSON, and TXT are all common examples of Flat-Files.

Transaction Manager can read/write these files by following a pre-defined Schema that will is agreed upon during your initial Implementation of that file with TrueCommerce.

This Schema is ultimately what allows Transaction Manager to be able to properly understand the files being read/written so that it can keep a consistent format of data to be automatically processed - whether this is a delimited, parent-child, or fixed-length type file.

A Local Flat-File Integration is one that Reads / Writes your files directly from your computer, whether that's the server or a workstation, allowing Transaction Manager to interact directly with your machine to transfer the needed data.

The Integration Service is required for a local Flat-File Integration and is a service that runs in the background of either your Server or across all your clients to be able to communicate and transfer large amounts of data between Transaction Manager and your machine.

Since all Local based Flat-File Integrations use files stored on your machine you will need to configure your Import / Export Directory paths in order for Transaction Manager to know where to Read / Write your files to and from.

Each path is relative to the machine that's using it - so if you need multiple workstations to have access to this path, you will need to configure a path that's relevant for all workstations (such as a network path).

A Cloud Flat-File Integration is one where Transaction Manager hosts the files on a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server that your company can use to push/pull data to and from. This FTP is secured behind a username/password that is generated for your company to use to prevent outside access.

From here, your files are stored temporarily avoiding the need to configure your local machine or server from needing to grant access directly to Transaction Manager.

For Cloud based Flat-File Integrations transferring files to/from your local machine or Business System is your company's responsibility - you will need to configure a FTP Client Transfer program such as FileZilla or SmartFTP Enterprise to ensure your files are transferred to and from are handled.

TrueCommerce offers a free open-source Cloud FTP transfer solution known as Cloud FTP Bridge. However this software is provided as-is and does not fall under the full support - while some assistant can be offered in configuration its operational capabilities are provided as-is.

Cloud FTP Bridge is designed to be used as a Low-Volume solution. For Time-Sensitive or high-volume transfers please consider an alternative such as SmartFTP Enterprise

rev 12/4/2024