Magento Update and Microservices Implementation for SOURCE-Werbeartikel

Optimization of ERP Integration with Magento

On the SOURCE website, all data that is entered onto the website is transferred to a third-party ERP, which processes orders. Our team’s task was to connect Magento with this system so that the data can be updated several times a day there.

Before our team came to the project, another third-party organization was working on the site. Due to the previous structure, it was impossible to update the site and introduce new features. Therefore, our team took the following steps:

• make a complete refactoring of the part responsible for business logic
• connect to the API to optimize requests, add loading speed and the ability to more easily expand functionality
• complete certain parts that did not work correctly and interfered with updating Magento to the new version

As a result, the site began to work faster, and more information arrives quicker to the client’s ERP. After we rewrote everything that could be implemented with the default Magento functionality, we updated Magento to the latest version at that time. This helped us develop our modules based on the core Magento logic.

Implementing the New Website Design

Source already had the website design, which they wanted to implement. Before getting down to work we discussed all the necessary points with the client: requirements and functionality, what can be implemented on the site and what cannot.

The client decided to implement the new design gradually:

Menu -> Header and Footer -> Category Page -> Product Page and Home Page -> Checkout and Cart Checkout.

Each part of the site changed gradually from 2 weeks to a month. This allowed us to fix possible errors and bugs that might appear, and at the same time develop the next part.

The client has 4 stores, the main one is German. However, the design was first developed for the Swiss store, since it is not overloaded with requests. Then it was tested on live clients, and after that, it was released to the main German store.

Product Page

Since the specificity of the site is the complete customization of products, we made the following changes for the convenience of using the site:

• Price difference. Depending on the choice of the number of products, their color and logo, the price of the order may change. This function has already been done before us, but we rewrote it for the convenience of updating the store in the future.
• Logo location. For this function, we installed a separate microservice that offers possible places where you can print the logo for each product. When you select a specific product, a request is sent to this microservice. It returns a list of possible places where the logo can be located to a product page, where the user can select the appropriate one.
• Multi Add to Cart. Our team developed a module with which you can add one product in different colors and quantities. For example, 5 orange and 10 green mugs.

Checkout changes

Initially, the checkout did not have a brief information on the order: the number of goods, colors, and the total cost of the entire order. The team’s task was to add all these missing items that would summarize the orders and provide the ability to adjust it. As a result, we added a wide functionality, which helped to unload the client’s office – since most of the information was automatically filled in by the buyers themselves and the office did not need to call them. Here are some additional features:

• Branding calculator. In order to count how much will need to be spent on printing, etc, the team installed a separate microservice called branding calculator. All data is saved and updated in this microservice. After counting, the data is processed in the client’s ERP. We linked Magento with ERP and a branding calculator to pull up-to-date data, update it several times a day and display it in both Magento and the client’s ERP.

• Calculator to checkout. All calculations of the order cost were initially carried out only on the product page. We also moved them to the checkout so that the client could see the final cost when placing an order and double-check it.
• Cost display. The order cost and additional cost, such as taxes, are displayed separately. The price and how it changes are immediately visible in the checkout. Then the list of orders is transferred back to the ERP from Magento, where information about the order is indicated – which products are selected, colors, file with the logo, quantity, etc.
• Module for VAT ID. We installed the geissweb/module-euvat module, which covered all the client’s needs for checking the VAT IDs of B2B customers.

Celebros Integration

For website search and navigation our client uses the Celebros platform. There you can create certain rules in the platform depending on how you want it to work. Our team set it up so that the service takes all the products from the website, indexes them, and then displays them in the order we specified in the rules. As a result, the Celebros search is shown in Magento. Here are some features that we implemented for the site:

• When users go to the product page and scroll down a little, they can see cross-sales products. We decided to use the Celebros functionality instead of the usual cross-sales section. It allows you to show a custom block that makes a request to Celebros, pulls out similar products and shows them as a cross-sales category, but it loads as an infinite scroll. There are also filters for this block so that users can specify them on the product page.
• It turned out that some users who followed a direct link to the product page did not see the cross-sales block. It was located at the bottom and loaded only after scrolling down to reduce the load on the server. To focus attention on this block, our team added new functionality: when the user wants to close the page, a pop-up is shown with the same cross-sales block and infinite scrolling. This function appears only on one page that was opened via a direct link, so as not to be too intrusive for users.