5 Replies Latest reply: Oct 1, 2014 5:54 PM by TheBCMan RSS

    Required entity ID for Order_CreateUpdate

    TheBCMan Community Member
    TheBCMan Sep 24, 2014 1:25 AM

      Is there any reason why Order_CreateUpdate API called MUST have an entity ID to update? Why can't we update "yet to checkout customers" with entity ID's of -1 and only update customers that are logged in or already checked out and paid for? Or is there any other way to update an uncompleted order via the API?

       

      This API call should only be tied to the order ID and nothing else.

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        • 1. Re: Required entity ID for Order_CreateUpdate
          Liam Dilley CommunityMVP
          Liam Dilley Sep 24, 2014 1:41 AM (in response to TheBCMan)

          Order ID needs to be assigned to a CRM entry. An existing customer has their ID, a new user is assigned one. When you hit the site your assigned an Entity ID. So you just checking out or the instant you add to cart and generate an order that needs to be associated to something.. Which is the Entity - You can consider this as the person on the site.

           

          With one of our near completed apps we have a live order status feed with lots of information, current shoppers and their cart etc. Entity ID for me is a key feature and something we even want expanded on and accessible with liquid.

          • 2. Re: Required entity ID for Order_CreateUpdate
            TheBCMan Community Member
            TheBCMan Sep 24, 2014 6:45 PM (in response to Liam Dilley)

            Thanks for info, orders for users not logged in have entity ID's of -1, so they might have a cookie with an entity ID but the API / database certainly doesn't know about it and is going off the order ID. If the entity ID is created first time you hit the site in my investigation the VID cookie is empty or contains the number 0. When is the entity ID assigned to a brand spanking new user? If I assign that new entity ID to the order and the user logs in there order will disappear unless I detect the login and then reassign the order to the new entity ID?

            • 3. Re: Required entity ID for Order_CreateUpdate
              Liam Dilley CommunityMVP
              Liam Dilley Sep 24, 2014 6:58 PM (in response to TheBCMan)

              They are until they purchase, and as you noted if you got a cookie then it re-uses it.

              I would actually like BC to generate it as soon as they hit the site. You get the entity ID as soon as you finish a web form, you can dump the module tag on a confirmation page and you can see it generated on the front end.

              My point was that your a person (entity) on BC so everyone is an entity and an order at least needs to be associated with a general nobody which is -1 currently or an active entity ID. You can pass that on a site to API service to then do stuff in the background. Jason T at Simpleflame does this for example with several cool implementations they have done in the passed.

               

              So...

               

              - Someone on the site = -1

              - Some form of interaction - Entity ID - not in the CRM - There are cases of this but I do not have a full list of cases - would be nice

              - Done something on the site like fill in a form - Entity ID - Now in the CRM so that is the customer ID.

               

              On my testing I have have been on the cart with entity id not -1 but not in the CRM but I can not work out what use case this is.

               

              I am not saying things are ideal or anything, Just noting what I know of it, and as mentioned, we would like this to be an assigned value as soon as you hit a BC site and then accessible via liquid along with some session info for better digital marketing stuff.

               

              And as the last note - All the API is being done and sorted into REST etc, so the SOAP stuff wont be updated again now but we will have access to new stuff at some point not to far away - BC has not given a full ETA.

              • 4. Re: Required entity ID for Order_CreateUpdate
                TheBCMan Community Member
                TheBCMan Sep 24, 2014 7:15 PM (in response to Liam Dilley)

                Yep already thought of that, but forcing or hacking a user (AJAX) though a form is not nice, I still need an email address to make the entity ID, so I would have to make fake email address' for them, the CRM would fill up with crap entries, I then could track those fake CRM users and delete them on a cron cycle or something like that but it would mess up the use of the CRM because they would be viable in reports.

                 

                I could also ask them what their email address is on checkout then create the entity ID (or look it up) in the CRM via API but I would have to do that on the shopping cart checkout page as I couldn't get a confirmation page without selecting shipping, it is just not a nice user experience to ask, what is your shipping details and your email address on the cart checkout.

                 

                All could be avoided if you could update the shopping cart via the order ID only just like BC does on the website.

                • 5. Re: Required entity ID for Order_CreateUpdate
                  TheBCMan Community Member
                  TheBCMan Oct 1, 2014 5:54 PM (in response to TheBCMan)

                  Can anyone from BC staff chime in on this, I worked around my issue by disabling shipping and getting the users email address on the input user details page but it limits what I can do to the user mid session.