Adobe Commerce 2.0: merchant plugin guide [deprecated]

About this guide

This guide describes ChannelEngine's integration with Adobe Commerce (née Magento), including how to install and configure it, and more.

Table of contents

Introduction

Features

Requirements

How to request an account

Install ChannelEngine on Adobe Commerce

Configure ChannelEngine on Adobe Commerce

Transactions log

How the integration works

• Orders
• Shipments
• Cancelations
• Returns

Uninstall the integration

Introduction

Adobe Commerce is a leading ecommerce platform that offers webstore functionality. It is designed to help merchants personalize the look, content, and functionality of their store.

Adobe Commerce 2.0 is the predecessor of Adobe Commerce 3.0. While version 2.0 is still supported for existing integrations, it is no longer available for new integrations.

The plugin is installed directly in your Adobe Commerce environment, which allows it access to the Adobe Commerce code and database. This integration provides additional features out of the box. However, if you have existing plugins or customizations in your environment, there is an increased risk of conflict with them. 

Features

Supported	Not supported
Product data	Multiple stock locations**
Product offers	Order extra data
Orders	Return tracking code
Marketplace-fulfilled orders
Shipments
Cancelations
Returns (merchant)
Returns (marketplace)*
Product images
Three-level product structure
Multi-source inventory (MSI)**

* Marketplace returns are only supported by Adobe Commerce Cloud/Enterprise Edition.

** Although MSI is supported – as it handles all stock functionality on Adobe Commerce –, ChannelEgine's multiple stock locations feature is not supported by this plugin.

Requirements

Below are the requirements to install the Adobe Commerce plugin:

• Adobe Commerce 2.3 or higher (Open Source, Commerce, Cloud)
• Access to the Adobe Commerce admin

How to request an account

To sign up for an account with Adobe Commerce, request a demo on their website.

Install ChannelEngine on Adobe Commerce

To establish a successful connection between Adobe Commerce and ChannelEngine, first, make sure Adobe Commerce is installed on your machine. You then need to install the ChannelEngine plugin on Adobe Commerce. You can do so via the Adobe Marketplace, the Web Setup Wizard, or the command-line interface.

Via the Adobe Marketplace

1. Go to the ChannelEngine Marketplace Connector on the Adobe Marketplace.
2. Add the ChannelEngine Marketplace Connector (a.k.a. plugin) to your cart, and proceed to the checkout. Note that the plugin is free, and no payment details are required.
3. Once the checkout process is done, click Install.

   

4. Follow the instructions on the Extensions tab.

Command-line instructions

Prerequisites

• Install Composer, a dependency manager for PHP.
• Make sure you have the correct access keys. These are used to synchronize the installation and verify your credentials.

Procedure

1. Locate the ChannelEngine plugin. Copy its component name and version.
2. Follow the How to install instructions.
3. Indicate the component name and version in the ‘composer require’ section of the composer.json file.
4. Update project dependencies using Composer.

Via the Web Setup Wizard

The Web Setup Wizard allows for the installation and update of extensions and components in Magento 2.

1. Go to the Admin of your Adobe Commerce webstore.
2. On the sidebar, go to System, Web Setup Wizard.
3. In the Public access key and Private key, enter the details from your marketplace profile.
4. Click Save configuration.
5. Wait till your webstore synchronizes with your Magento marketplace.
6. Select the ChannelEngine plugin and click Install.

Configure ChannelEngine on Adobe Commerce

Once Adobe Commerce is connected with your ChannelEngine tenant, you can start configuring the ChannelEngine plugin.

1. Go to the Admin of your Adobe Commerce webstore.
2. On the sidebar, go to Stores. ChannelEngine appears as a new menu item there. 
3. Under ChannelEngine, click Configuration.
4. Click Configure to proceed with the integration.

Now you need to go through the four configuration steps: Account, Product synchronization, Order synchronization, and Initial synchronization.

Account

During the Account step, you can configure your account settings. Select the store view that is not yet connected to any ChannelEngine account. Enter Account name and API key of your ChannelEngine account.

• Account name - the subdomain for your ChannelEngine environment. You can take it from the URL when you log in to your account. E.g.: the account name for the environment http://my-store.channelengine.net/ is my-store.
• API key - your Merchant API key on ChannelEngine. You can find it under Settings, Merchant API keys on ChannelEngine.

Click Connect and continue to save your current account configuration.

Product synchronization

During the Product synchronization step, you can configure your price and stock settings as well as attribute mapping settings.

• Export products - enable product export to ChannelEngine.
• Use customer group pricing - if enabled, a specific price can be set per customer group. If disabled, the same price is applied to all customers.
• Select price attribute - select a price attribute to be exported to ChannelEngine.
• Enable stock synchronization - enable product stock export to ChannelEngine. Stock export only works with product data export. You cannot synchronize stock levels without product data.
• Select inventories - select which inventories to use during product synchronization. The combined stock of the selected inventories is then exported.
• Set default stock quantity - set the default stock quantity for products that do not have a stock quantity already configured on Magento 2.
• Enable three-level synchronization (Zalando) - if enabled, products are synchronized according to the three-level product structure (i.e.: grandparent-parent-child), which is necessary for specific marketplaces, such as Zalando.

In the Attribute mapping section, you can map Adobe Commerce attributes to ChannelEngine attributes. Select a Adobe Commerce attribute from the dropdown menu to map to the ChannelEngine attribute. You can also leave attributes unmapped, if desired, by selecting Not mapped.

To map custom attributes, select the option Extra data mapping.

Click Save and continue to save your current product synchronization configuration.

Order synchronization

During the Order synchronization step, you can configure how orders are synchronized between ChannelEngine and Adobe Commerce.

• Import merchant-fulfilled orders - enable the import of orders that are fulfilled by you via ChannelEngine.
• Unknown order lines handling - select the way to handle orders that contain unknown products in the order lines. The options are Include the full order or Exclude the full order.
• Synchronize shipments - enable the synchronization of shipments with ChannelEngine.
• Synchronize cancellations - enable the synchronization of cancelations with ChannelEngine.
• Synchronize returns* - enable the synchronization of returns with ChannelEngine.
• Import orders fulfilled by marketplace -  enable the import of orders that are fulfilled by the marketplace via ChannelEngine.
• Import orders fulfilled by marketplace from - set the date from which to import orders that are fulfilled by the marketplace via ChannelEngine.
• Import marketplace returns* - enable the import of returns handled by the marketplace.
• Default item condition* - set the default condition of the returned products. The options are Unopened, Opened, or Damaged.
• Default item resolution* - set the default method of handling returned products. The options are Exchange, Refund, and Store credit.

Click Save and continue to save your current order synchronization configuration.

Initial synchronization

During this step, you can enable the integration with ChannelEngine and start the synchronization of the data between Adobe Commerce and ChannelEngine. Click Enable and start sync to begin transferring products from your Adobe Commerce store to ChannelEngine, and to fetch orders from ChannelEngine into Adobe Commerce.

Change configuration

You can change configuration settings after the initial setup is completed. To do so, go to the Configuration tab of your ChannelEngine store on Adobe Commerce.

Transactions log

For every background synchronization task performed by the ChannelEngine plugin (e.g.: product and order synchronization, etc.), an entry is made in the transaction log. To check if your synchronization tasks were successful, or see error messages for failed tasks, go to Stores, ChannelEngine, and click the Transaction log tab.

How the integration works

After the initial synchronization, the integration synchronizes product data and orders between Adobe Commerce and ChannelEngine as follows:

• Newly created products in the store are automatically created on ChannelEngine.
• Updated products in the store are automatically updated on ChannelEngine.
• Deleted/disabled products in the store are automatically deleted from ChannelEngine.
• Newly created orders on ChannelEngine are automatically updated in the store.
• Newly created shipments in the store are automatically created on ChannelEngine.
• Updated shipments in the store are automatically updated on ChannelEngine.
• Canceled orders in the store are automatically updated on ChannelEngine.
• Newly created returns on ChannelEngine are automatically created in the store.
• Newly created returns in the store are automatically created on ChannelEngine.
• Updated returns in the store are automatically updated on ChannelEngine.

For more detail on how the synchronization takes place, refer to the corresponding section below.

Orders

After the initial synchronization, all new orders are automatically pushed from ChannelEngine to your Adobe Commerce store. They appear under Sales, Orders on Adobe Commerce.

Shipments

To synchronize shipments between Adobe Commerce and ChannelEngine, you must enable the Synchronize shipments option during the configuration process.

The ChannelEngine plugin detects the creation of a new shipment. If it is a shipment of an order that originated on ChannelEngine, the plugin exports it to ChannelEngine.

If tracking information is missing from the shipment, the plugin creates a ChannelEngine shipment without it. As soon as the missing tracking information is provided, the plugin updates the corresponding ChannelEngine shipment accordingly.

Cancelations

For cancelations to be synchronized between Adobe Commerce and ChannelEngine, you must have enabled the Synchronize cancelations option during the configuration process.

The ChannelEngine plugin detects if the order status changes to Canceled. This applies to orders that originated on ChannelEngine. If the plugin detects such a change, it exports a cancelation to ChannelEngine.

Returns

For cancelations to be synchronized between Adobe Commerce and ChannelEngine, you must have enabled the Synchronize returns option during the configuration process.

Newly created returns on ChannelEngine are automatically synchronized with the store.

ChannelEngine plugin detects if a return status changes to Closed. This applies to returns that originated on ChannelEngine. If the plugin detects such a change, it exports the return update back to ChannelEngine.

Conversely, returns created in the store for orders originating on ChannelEngine are synchronized with ChannelEngine.

Uninstall the integration

To uninstall the Adobe Commerce 2.0 plugin, follow the steps below based on how it was installed.

If the plugin was installed manually:

1. Open the terminal and disable the module:

   php bin/magento module:disable ChannelEngine_ChannelEngineIntegration

2. Remove the plugin code by deleting the '/app/code/ChannelEngine' folder in the file system.
3. Delete the ChannelEngine-related tables from your database.
4. Clean and flush the cache:

   php bin/magento cache:clean
   php bin/magento cache:flush

5. Upgrade and recompile the application:

   php bin/magento setup:upgrade
   php bin/magento setup:di:compile

If the plugin was installed via Composer:

1. Open the terminal and remove the package:

   composer remove channelengine/channelengine

2. Disable the module:

   php bin/magento module:disable ChannelEngine_ChannelEngineIntegration

3. Upgrade the setup:

   php bin/magento setup:upgrade

4. Check for any ChannelEngine tables in the database and delete them.
5. Clean and flush the cache:

   php bin/magento cache:clean
   php bin/magento cache:flush

6. Recompile the application:

   php bin/magento setup:di:compile

ChannelEngine's Adobe Commerce 2.0 integration should be uninstalled successfully.