Connecting The Back Office Using Csv-Files; Product Database Format - Opticon ESL Server Manual

9. Connecting the back office using CSV-files

The back office triggers the ESL server application by placing a file, containing either only product
modifications or a complete product database, in the 'Input' folder (see chapter 7.1).
Only one file may reside in this folder to enforce sequential handling. This means that the Back office
may only store another file, when the current file has been processed and moved to a different
folder.
To avoid read/write conflicts the database files should first be copied into the specified folder under a
temporary name (i.e. *.tmp) and renamed to the correct name afterwards.
The placing and processing of incoming CSV-files should be done as follows:

The file is moved/copied to a configurable local folder, called the 'Input folder'.

When moving/copying the file from the Back office to the folder a temporary name is used, i.e.
'productdata_1.tmp', 'productdata_2.tmp', etc.

After the complete file has been moved or copied, the file will be renamed to its final name, i.e.
'productdata_1.csv', 'productdata_2.csv', etc.

The server application will pick up the CSV-file as soon as it detects this rename file event.

The file will be processed instantly, as the records contain no start/end date.

Once a file is processed, it will be moved to the configurable 'Processed' folder and the Back
able to put another file in the folder.

When errors occur, they will be reported in an error log in the 'Log' folder. The data file will not be
moved in case of errors.

The ESL server application will call the middleware applications to parse the incoming CSV-file
combined database file. After that the ESL server application will generates the information and image files
that are used to update the ESLs.
9.1.

Product database format

Currently the only supported database format is CSV (comma separated values) with the
following properties:

UTF-8, UTF-7, ANSI or Unicode encoding (other encoding formats on request)

Allowed field separator(s): 1) semi-colons

Methods: 1) modification database (add, replace, delete) and 2) complete database

Each product in the database must contain a unique product ID field to allow linking of an ESL to a
product.

If there's a 1-to-many relation between the unique product ID and the barcode on this product, then
the same product should be added to the database multiple times for each unique barcode, but all
other fields must be identical. Also any product modifications (like price) should be applied on each
record for this product.

The adding of a product barcode field to the database isn't mandatory. However it is recommended,
since it adds the possibility to quickly link ESLs to a product by simply scanning the barcodes on the
product and the ESL using the barcode terminal.

If any, a column header line should start with '#'.
68
Opticon ESL
ESL Server manual
v1.0.62.2
office is
into a