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In Magento, one SKU can have different product names. For example: If you have two different store views, you can have your product name in two different languages

• English: Table
• Spanish: Silla

To do this via the Magento Core API, you will need to:

1. Create the product using the catalogProductCreate function (default values)
2. Update the product in each store view using catalogProductUpdate function

In order to access Magento web services API, you will need to do the following:

1. Log in with a username and API key. This username is not the same as the username that you used to log in to the admin backend of the store. You will need to create an API user and role assigned to this user in Admin panel.
2. Upon successful login, it would then return a session ID (security token). The session ID is mandatory in every API call request. Unlike other security tokens, there will be session timeout and this session ID would be expired automatically in a period of time. Once the session ID is expired, you will not be able to perform any API call request, and you will have to perform log in again to get a new session ID.

Notes:
Magento only accepts the latest and only one session ID to be used in the API call. Therefore, if there are more than one user trying to access the API, it is a good practise to have only one session ID at a time and be shared among the users until this session ID is expired.

The following are the steps to setup a new API user from Magento’s backend admin.

Step 1:
Create an API user’s role under the admin panel, System->Web Services->Roles

Step 2:
Press “Add New Role” button to create a role for an API user.

Step 3:
Under “Role Info”, create a role’s name.

Step 4:
Under “Role Resources”, set permissions or restrictions for the user to access certain levels of data. Either select “All” or “Custom” for accessing the resources.

Step 5:
Create API user under the admin panel, System->Web Services->Users

Step 6:
Press “Add New User”.

Step 7:
Create an user account by filling up all the required field.

Note: Account must be set to “Active” in order for this user to access the API.

Step 8:
Select the user role for the user.

Finally, the API user is created.

Note: User can create one or more API user(s) and role(s).

Magento has a different data model for customer. It’s more like a ‘contact’ centric system then an ‘account’ centric system. It treats all customer as an individual instead of a company.

If you are integrating Magento with Salesforce, perhaps you should consider the Person Account feature. It would be the good fit for the design.

If you really have to get the company information from Magento customer, you can get it from the address object. One Magento customer can have more than one addresses. Designing how the data synchronised between two different data set is crucial.

Feel free to contact us if you are interested to know more.

Magento supports a few product types. Each product type has different behavior. This is important when you design the product synchronisation process.

For example, if you are integrating Salesforce and Magento in the following scenario:

Magento Order > Creates > Salesforce Opportunity

If one of the order line items is a bundle product, you may get more than one line item returned from the API.

Order item from UI

XML data from API

The bundle product and all the associated items will be listed in the API. It is important to filter the list before you push it to Salesforce.

if your application is not listed in Magento connect or you need to build a custom integration process, here are some options that you may find helpful:

Magento API

You can access the majority of the modules using the Magento Core API. It supports both SOAP and XML RPC protocols.  In addtion you can also create your own API.

Magento Database (Mysql)

If you are connecting to Magento via the database, it’s important to study the relational diagram in advance and understand the dependencies. This approach will be vulnerable if the database schema changes during future upgrades, requiring you to update your integration as well.

Integration Platform

In addition to the approaches described above, you can also integrate to Magento using an integration platform such as Boomi Atomsphere. Boomi uses an XML format to interchange data between applications. This approach results in a robust and easily maintained integration.

Any form of use-case with Magento can be integrated. Here are some use-case scenarios that we have implemented to date:

• Integrate Mangento with GreatPlains (CRM/ERP)
• Integrate Mangento with SmartTurn (Inventory Management Software)
• Integrate Magento with Netsuite (CRM/ERP)
• Integrate Magento with Salesforce (CRM)

If you need any more details on how to integrate with Magento feel free to contact us.