Product Import

Product Import for AX

The product import functionality is used to import products from the MS Dynamics AX database to the SQL database. It imports the following entities: products, product groups, product variants, variant components, related products and sales taxes.

When the product import process is performed for the first time, the following conditions should be met to import a product:

• Product is visible
• Product variants are visible

If all product variants are invisible, the related product will not be imported.

Next time the product import process is performed it will import only products which have been modified since the last time of successful product import run. Changes to products, product variants, product prices, product translations and related products are tracked and registered as the modified products in Dynamics AX. The last import date is saved in the product import process only when the product import process completed successfully.

It is possible to configure the product import to import always all products, instead of only the changed products. This can be useful for small catalogues but normally this is not recommended because of performance reasons.

The property 'Visible in Webshop' is also imported during the product import process and can be seen on the 'Catalog overview' page of the 'Catalog' module in the backoffice:

The 'Visible' Option on the 'Catalog Overview' Page

The 'Visible' Option on the 'View Product' Page

The product import uses the B2C Template Customer to determine the price and warehouse to be used. This customer is specified in the 'Webshops' form of the 'Webshop' menu item in Dynamics AX.

During the product import process the following steps are performed:

Step 1: The TAX information is calculated depending on 'Sales tax groups' of the customer ('Customers' form -> 'Setup' tab) and 'Item sales tax group' of the item ('Item' form -> 'References' tab) and imported into the 'VatRates' table in the SQL database.

Step 2: Item groups are imported in the SQL database. This information is saved in the table 'ProductCategories' in the SQL database. The item group translations are imported to the 'ProductCategories' table.

Item groups which were deleted in AX will be deleted in the SQL database next time the product import process is performed.

Step 3: The import of products is performed. If the imported product is a simple product (meaning a product without variants), all its data is saved in the 'Products' table in the SQL database. During the import of a product with variants the variant and variant component information is stored in the following tables in the SQL database: 'VariantComponentGroups', 'VariantComponents, 'ProductVariants'.

Step 4: Related products for imported products are saved in the 'RelatedProducts' table in the SQL database. If two products are interchangeable (are set as related products to each other), two records are created with both products. If a related product is deleted in the AX database, during the next time the product import process is performed, the record in the 'RelatedProducts' table is deleted as well.