InRiver: merchant integration guide

About this article

This article describes the integration between InRiver and ChannelEngine, and explains how to configure both platforms.

Introduction

Requirements

Limitations

Supported features

Settings and configuration

On InRiver

On ChannelEngine

FAQs

Introduction

The cloud-based product information management (PIM) software platform InRiver built an integration to ChannelEngine that transforms your InRiver product data for use on ChannelEngine. When your product data leaves InRiver, it is transformed into JSON and ChannelEngine automatically consumes it.

On ChannelEngine, your product data from InRiver instantly creates a digital product catalog that is ready for creating listings on 1,300+ channels.

Requirements

• You have an active InRiver account and manage your product data on the InRiver platform.

• A ChannelEngine account with a Merchant API key. Find it at Settings, Merchant API keys.

• Your base API URL: https://{your-subdomain}.channelengine.net/api.

• A unique Merchant product number for every product, which is usually your product SKU.

Limitations

• Stock is never written to ChannelEngine from InRiver.
• Whether variation images are inherited from the parent depends on how you configure your InRiver settings. Ensure that a variation with no images of its own consumes the images of its parent.
• Brand is always set at the parent level. Send per-variation brand values as a custom field on the variation.
• ChannelEngine only accepts unique SKUs. SKU deduplication in the export from InRiver is per-page only. If the same SKU appears on two pages, InRiver sends it twice to ChannelEngine, and the integration fails. Ensure that you do not send duplicate SKUs to ChannelEngine.
• Extra data type and IsPublic are locked after the first upsert. If you send a custom field to ChannelEngine with an incorrect configuration, you need to manually delete and recreate the field on the ChannelEngine platform.
• If you manage pricing on ChannelEngine, you cannot export pricing from InRiver.
• The integration is outbound only. ChannelEngine does not return orders, returns, or shipments to InRiver.
• Each adapter instance supports a single content language by default. Send multi-language fields as custom extra data fields in your export to ChannelEngine; do not send multiple exports.
• Only a single parent-variation depth is supported. Grandparent products are not supported.

Supported features

Settings and configuration

On InRiver

Before continuing with your configuration steps on ChannelEngine, work with your InRiver representative to prepare your product data on the InRiver platform. Please contact your InRiver account manager for more information. 

On ChannelEngine

1. Generate and copy the Merchant API key from Settings, Merchant API. Enter the Merchant API key in the InRiver adapter as CE_API_KEY.
2. Confirm and share the API base URL (Settings) with the InRiver team for use as CE_BASE_URL.
3. Ensure that the relevant channel is published before you start any test or live run.
4. After the scheduled export runs, go to Products and verify that the products appear correctly.
5. Confirm the image display (maximum 10 images per product: ImageUrl and ExtraImageUrl1-9) and check that the image order matches your expectations, based on the RESOURCE_EXPORT_CONDITION setting in InRiver.
6. Review and manage any custom Extra data fields. After InRiver pushes a field for the first time, you can only change its type and public visibility by deleting and recreating the field on ChannelEngine. For details on managing custom Extra data fields on ChannelEngine, check out ChannelEngine: custom fields.

FAQs

Whom do I contact to set up the initial configuration on the InRiver platform?
Contact your InRiver account manager for more information.