Setup

ERP Integration

In Sana Admin on the ERP Integration menu item you can set up the search index and keyword fields and import the item categories. All this data is retrieved from your ERP system.

Index fields



Sana Commerce search is based on the Lucene search engine. By adding the product fields to the Lucene index you can extend the webstore search functionality.

The configuration of the Sana Commerce enhanced search settings provides the possibility to search products by different keywords: title, item number, color, size, description and others.

Use the Keyword fields section to extend the webstore search by adding the fields to the index on which the customer can do the search.

The table below provides the description of the keyword fields:

Field Description
Field name This dropdown list presents all fields the customer can search on.
Related table If a field from the items (products) table in your ERP system is related to another table and this field is selected in the Field name dropdown, the name of the related table will be shown in this column.
Related table field name This dropdown list provides all available fields from the related table which can be selected for display. If no field from the related table is selected a value of the field specified in the Field name column will be shown by default.

Use the Filter fields section to configure filtering and sorting of the products on the search results and product list pages. This means that those fields that are added in the Filter fields section can be used to configure filtering and sorting of the products in the webstore. Filtering and sorting can be configured under the Navigation & search menu item. These fields are also used to create product sets.

The field names differ depending on your webstore connector. The field names which are at the head of the list and in bold type are optimized connector fields. The data from the standard fields is retrieved from the Items table in Microsoft Dynamics NAV/ Released products table in Microsoft Dynamics AX, while the data from the optimized fields is retrieved from different places.

The tables below provide the description of the optimized fields:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Keyword fields:

Field Description
Color

Used to search products by color and/or size. These two fields are used in the Sana Commerce NAV Connector with Fashion add-on and Sana - LS Retail Connector.

If you use Sana Commerce NAV Connector with Fashion add-on the colors are retrieved from the Item Vertical Components table, while sizes are retrieved from the Item Horizontal Components table.

If you use Sana - LS Retail Connector the fields like color, size, style and others created for item variants are used to search products by color, size, style and other available fields. The data from these fields is retrieved from the Extended Variant Dimensions table.

Size
Description Used to search products by description. If product description is present in Sana Admin the data will be retrieved from it but not from NAV. If there is no product description in Sana Admin the data is retrieved from the Extended Text table in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. If product description is present in different languages it is also used.
Title Used to search products by name. The data is retrieved from the Items table, the Description field. If product names are present in different languages, then product names translations are also used.
Variant Title Used to search product variants by name. The data is retrieved from the Item Variants table, the Description field. If product variants names are present in different languages, then product variants translations are also used.
Bar Code Used to search products by bar code.

Filter and facet fields:

Field Description Sortable  Facet
Color

Used to filter products by color and/or size. These two fields are used in the Sana Commerce NAV Connector with Fashion add-on and Sana - LS Retail Connector. To be able to use color and size for filtering in standard NAV Connector requires customization.

If you use Sana Commerce NAV Connector with Fashion add-on the colors are retrieved from the Item Vertical Components table, while sizes are retrieved from the Item Horizontal Components table.

If you use Sana - LS Retail Connector the fields like color, size, style and others created for item variants are used to filter products by color, size, style and other available fields. The data from these fields is retrieved from the Extended Variant Dimensions table.

 No  Yes 
Size  No  Yes
Gross weight (orderable products only) Gross weight is not used for sorting or facets. It can be added to the search index to become available as filter for product sets. The data is retrieved from the Item Units of Measure table, the Weight field.  No  No
Price Used to sort products by unit price. The data is retrieved form the Items table, the Unit Price field. The customer specific prices are not used for sorting.  Yes  No 
Product category Used to filter products by product category. The data is retrieved from the Item Categories and Product Groups tables, the Description field, as combination of the item category and product group descriptions. If product categories (item category and product group) are present in different languages, then product categories translations are also used.  No  Yes 
Title Used to sort products by name. The data is retrieved from the Items table, the Description field. If product names are present in different languages, then product names translations are also used.  Yes  No 

Microsoft Dynamics AX

Keyword fields:

Field Description
Color Used to search products by color and/or size. The data is retrieved from the Released product variants table. The colors are retrieved from the Color field, while sizes are retrieved from the Size field.
Size
Description Used to search products by description. If product description is present in Sana Admin the data will be retrieved from it but not from AX. If there is no product description in Sana Admin the data is retrieved from Presentations or Translations in Microsoft Dynamics AX. If product description is present in different languages it is also used. For more information about product description in Microsoft Dynamics AX, see "Product Description".
Title Used to search products by name. The data is retrieved from the Released products table, the Product name field. If product names are present in different languages, then product names translations are also used.
Variant Title Used to search product variants by name. The data is retrieved from the Released product variants table, the Product name field. If product variants names are present in different languages, then product variants names translations are also used.
Bar Code Used to search products by bar code.

Filter and facet fields:

Field Description Sortable  Facet
Color Used to filter products by color and/or size. The data is retrieved from the Released product variants table. The colors are retrieved from the Color field, while sizes are retrieved from the Size field.  No  Yes
Size  No  Yes 
Gross weight (orderable products only) Gross weight is not used for sorting or facets. It can be added to the search index to become available as filter for product sets. The data is retrieved from the Released products table, the Gross weight field.  No  No
Price Used to sort products by base sales price. The data is retrieved from the Released products table, the Price field.  Yes  No
Product category Used to filter products by product category. The data is retrieved from the Item groups table, the Name field. If item groups are present in different languages, then item groups translations are also used.  No  Yes
Title Used to sort products by name. The data is retrieved from the Released products table, the Product name field. If product names are present in different languages, then product names translations are also used.  Yes  No

For more information about filtering and sorting, see "Search".

 NOTE

Applies to: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The fields that are marked with the '[Attribute]' tag are used to retrieve product attribute values if such are configured in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for the procurement category hierarchy. For information about product attributes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see "Product Attributes".


 NOTE

When the index fields are configured or some of the fields have been added or removed the index should be rebuilt. In this case you will receive the message that the index should be updated by running the product import task.


Item categories



Item categories are used to group items (products) that share certain characteristics, for example electronics or women's clothing. It is important for you to keep your catalog well structured, with all the necessary information, so customers can easily find what they are looking for.

Item categories are managed in the ERP system. When the catalog is ready in your ERP system, and items are assigned to the appropriate item categories, you can import them to Sana to automatically build the main webstore navigation and catalog.

Step 1: Open Sana Admin and click: Setup > ERP Integration > Item Categories.

Step 2: To import all item categories from the ERP system, click Import from ERP.

Step 3: Then, in the Import under field, you can select the place where your item categories should be imported. Item categories from ERP can be imported only to the main webstore menu.

You can import item categories either to the root of the main menu or to one of the existing menu items.

  • If you leave the field Import under empty, all item categories will be imported to the root of the main menu as the main navigation items of the first level.
  • If you select some existing menu item in the Import under field, all item categories will be imported to it as sub-items.

Those item categories that are not set to Visible in Webshop in your ERP system will be also imported and set to invisible in Sana Admin.

When you import your item categories together with the assigned products from the ERP system to Sana, you automatically build webstore navigation and catalog. If in Sana Admin you go to: Setup > Navigation & search > Menus, in the Main Menu you will see the imported item categories from your ERP system.

Also, when you import your item categories, Sana will automatically create product and product list pages with the product sets based on the assigned products to the item categories in your ERP. Product list pages with the product sets will be automatically linked to the created menu items.

Then if needed, you can edit your menu the way you like. You can change the order in which you want menu items to be shown in the menu by dragging and dropping them. You can also change the level of menu items, either make it as a parent item or as a sub-item to the one of the higher level.

When the item categories have been imported from your ERP system, you will see a pop-up with the results of how many items have been created in the main menu, how many product pages and product list pages have been created.
 

When item categories have been already imported from your ERP system, you can either update them - select Add only new categories in ERP or replace all item categories - select Re-import all available categories.

Below you can see the links to the ERP manuals about item categories:
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 - 2016: Item Categories and Product Groups
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017: Item Categories
Microsoft Dynamics AX: Product Categories and Item Groups
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: Item Categories
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations: Product Categories and Item Groups
Microsoft Dynamics GP: Item Classes
SAP Business One: Item Groups
SAP: Product Hierarchy