2010-12-20

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Setting up the MCM

What does it do?

The MCM (Multichannel Manager) is a standalone program that manages the connections and file transfers to and from the channels that are set up to integrate with the Mailware software.  The MCM is installed in the Mailware data directory and when running shows up in the notification area of windows.  Normally it is set to run whenever a user is logged into the system hosting the database files.  The MCM is controlled via Tools->Preferences Channels tab. 

Channel Setup Instructions

As of Mailware 2011 (Build 1116) the following channels are supported.

Amazon

Buy.com

ChannelMax

eBay

Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)

Just Add Commerce

Magento

OS Commerce

Volusion

X-Cart

Zen Cart

Custom (MySQL)

Custom (SQL Server)

Amazon

To Set Up the Amazon MCM:

There are four keys required for the API: Merchant ID, Marketplace ID, AWS Access Key, and AWS Secret Key.

Make sure that your system has the most recent versions of Mailware and the associated MCM.  The MCM needs to be in the data directory and the MCM shortcut needs to be in the Startup folder in the start menu.

There are two .dll files for Amazon Web Services that need to be installed and registered on your computer.  These need to be copied into the data directory (the location of MCM.exe) and the Mailware program directory (the location of Mailware.exe).  They also need to be registered using “regasm” instead of “regsvr32″.   This only has to be done on the server.  The MCM does not need to be set up on client machines.  The Web Services version is tied to the MCM version to make it easier to know when it needs to be upgraded.

To register the .dlls, go to Start, Run, and type cmd. Do not press Enter. When cmd.exe appears in the search results right-click and choose Run as Administrator. Then in the console that opens cut and paste the following (Note: to paste in a console you must right click and choose paste): 

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\regasm C:\Mailware\Data\MarketplaceWebService.dll

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\regasm C:\Mailware\Data\MarketplaceWebServiceCore.dll

Do this for the two .dlls in the data directory as well as the ones in the program directory.  

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\regasm “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mailware 2012\MarketplaceWebService.dll”

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\regasm ”C:\Program Files (x86)\Mailware 2012\MarketplaceWebServiceCore.dll”

NOTE: Your paths may vary (for example your data may be in a different location or you may be running a different version of Mailware rather than the 2012 example above. Please adjust your paths accordingly. If they contain spaces you will need to surround the path with double quotes ” ” like we did for the program files path above.

To Sign up with Amazon’s services:

Get the primary login information for the seller central account.

Open Mailware and create an operator ID for the Amazon download, do not assign a password to them. The exact ID and operator name do not matter (example name:”Amazon Download”)

Go to Tools->Preferences and select the Channels tab and click on the Amazon channel on the left hand side.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the New button and enter a name for the channel like “Amazon Download” in the Description field.

Enter the primary login information in the Email and Password fields.  Leave that window open, your Mailware screen will look something like the following:  

Go to http://aws.amazon.com/ and click on the Sign Up Now button at the top right.  It will now ask you to log into their seller central account.

If you already have an AWS account the you will get a message saying that you have already set up an account

Otherwise, you will need to fill out some more information to set  up your account.

Open a new tab in the browser and go to https://developer.amazonservices.com/ and click on the icon

Click on the radio button next to I want to access my own Amazon seller account with MWS.

Click on the icon

Click on the checkbox next to the I have read and accepted the Amazon MWS License Agreement.

You should now get a screen similar to:

Use the Windows Copy (ctrl-C) and Paste (ctrl-V) to copy and paste the values from this screen to the corresponding fields in the Amazon channel setup screen.  NOTE: Make sure that you remove any trailing spaces that may be added as part of the paste process.

Go to http://sellercentral.amazon.com and, when asked, type in the primary user email address and password from step 1.

Go to the Account info link in the left navigation pane on the seller central home page under Settings.

Copy the merchant token from the Seller Account Information page and paste it into the corresponding field in Mailware.

The “This is a Marketplace account” checkbox does not need to be checked.

You can now turn on the Amazon Channel.  When setting your download/upload times keep in mind the following limitations of the Amazon API.

Product Uploads: Amazon limits the frequency of product uploads to once an hour.

Shipping Conformation Upload: Amazon limits the number of shipping confirmation uploads to once per 24-hour period.  So set the time of the upload to be after you will complete shipping each day.

Order Downloads:  Do not request order downloads more frequently than once every 30 minutes.

When the MCM starts it checks for the most recent order file and downloads it.

After the file has been downloaded, the software requests a new order file.

Click the  button in Mailware to save the channel settings.

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table from the Active Listings report that you can download from your Seller Central account.

Click on the button from the Amazon setup page in Tools->Preferences Channels tab.  This will request an Active Listings report from your Seller Central account.

If you get an error message This means that the dll files have not been registered in the Mailware program files directory (normally C:\Program Files\Mailware 20XX).  See the instructions above to resolve this issue.

When the report is complete download it to your system.

To format the report correctly to be imported into Mailware do the following

Open the file in a spreadsheet application.

Save the file again.  Do not convert the file into the spreadsheet file format.

This will add the necessary carriage returns at the end of each record.

Run the Import Amazon Products from the Tools menu in Mailware.

If you cannot locate the link in the tools menu check the Installing Scripts documentation.

The Amazon product import script makes the following assumptions about your listings.

If the Amazon Seller SKU matches a product in Mailware, the script will add a record to the ChannelListings table for that product.

If the Seller SKU does not match a product in the Products table it will add it to Mailware and to the Channel Listings table.

If you are selling the same physical product under different Seller SKU’s  then you will have to manually delete them from the products table and add them to the Channel Listings table for the product.  See the Products documentation.

NOTE: If you change your Amazon Seller Central account password, all of the access keys will change.  The process described above for obtaining the keys and copying them into the appropriate fields in Mailware.

Buy.com

To Set Up the Buy.com MCM:

Send a request to mp-integration@buy.com and request FTP credentials to access your orders.

Set up an Operator ID for the Buy.com orders.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Buy.com logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button

Enter in a name for the Buy.com channel in the description field.

Enter in an Email address and password in the appropriate fields (these can be any value as they are not used)

Enter in the FTP Host, User and Password data from the credentials provided by Buy.com.  There is no need to populate the directory field.

Check the Order download is active checkbox and enter a time. If you prefer an interval (e.g., every 30 minutes) check the box and enter a time interval. Note: you must also enter a Download Time 1. It will not affect the start time of the interval. Intervals begin when the MCM is started.

After completing the Buy.com channel setup your setup screen will look similar to When setting up the shipping confirmation upload keep in mind that the system uploads once per 24-hr period.  So select an upload time that is after you complete shipping for the day.

Click the  button in Mailware to save the channel settings.

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

ChannelMAX

ChannelMAX is an Amazon repricing tool.  The Mailware integration with the software uploads a file that contains the Amazon Seller SKU, a Repricing Model ID (set up using the Channel MAX web interface) and the price floor (Wholesale Price in Mailware) and price ceiling (Retail Price in Mailware).

To Set Up the ChannelMAX MCM:

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the ChannelMax logo.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the ChannelMAX channel in the description field.

Enter in an Email and Password in the appropriate fields.

These are not needed for this channel, but the software requires them.

Enter in a default file name in the FTP File Name field

For example CompanyNamechannelmax.txt

Enter in the FTP Host information

For example ftp.channelmax.com

FTP Directory can be left blank

FTP User: Provided by ChannelMAX

FTP Password: Provided by ChannelMAX

Check the to turn on the channel.

After completing the ChannelMAX setup your screen will look similar to this:

Click the  button in Mailware to save the channel settings.

You will need to setup the Repricing Model ID in the associated products. To do this check the Products documentation.

eBay

To Set Up the eBay MCM:

Create an Operator ID for the eBay channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the eBay logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the eBay channel in the description field.

You will need to create an ebay developer account in order to access your eBay orders through the API.

Open a browser and go to the following url http://developer.ebay.com

Click on the Join Now button

Fill in  your company information on the following screen, when done click on the join now button.

You will then get an email from developer-relations@ebay.com to validate your email address and activate your account.  Check your spam email as it sometimes ends up there.

Once  you have activated your account, click on the Get your application keys link in Welcome to the eBay Developers Program! email and select the Generate Production Keys button on the web page.

Open a browser and add the following url to the address bar: http://developer.ebay.com/tokentool/

At the login screen enter your developer account username and password.

Select the Production option from the Development Environment drop down box.

Select Key Set 1 from the drop down and click Continue To Generate Token.

In the next screen key in your ebay id and password

NOTE: If you change your eBay password this process will have to be done again.

From the next screen copy the Token from the field and paste it into the token field in the channel setup in Mailware.

Put the ebay userid and password in the corresponding fields in the tab.

Select the Operator ID that you set up for the eBay store from the OperatorID dropdown.

Set up the Order download time and frequency and check the Order download is active and the Download every check boxes.

After completing the eBay setup your screen will look similar to this:

Click the  button in Mailware to save the channel settings.

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

Ebay integration notes

As of Mailware 2011 (Build 1116) the MCM only does order downloads.

If the orders are downloading with items that contain prices and quantities but no product numbers you need to add the ProductNo information into the Custom Description field in you eBay listings.

Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA)

If you have a product that is both FBA and in house then you only need the product in Mailware once. The way Mailware works with FBA is that it creates multiple locations in the stock levels tab. One is called Default and one is called FBA. The In Stock quantity that shows up in the Stock Levels tab will be the sum of the quantities from both locations.

To Set Up the Fulfillment By Amazon FBA MCM:

Register the FBA dll’s using the regasm utility.

Type the following into a command line prompt: C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regasm “C:\Mailware\Data\AmazonFWSCore.dll” /tlb

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Fulfillment By Amazon logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the Amazon FBA channel in the description field.

Enter in your seller central Email and Password in the appropriate fields in the setup screen

Copy the AWS Access Key and AWS Secret Key from the Amazon setup screen into the corresponding fields in the Fulfillment By Amazon setup screen.

Check the Inventory update is active and Send Inventory is active check boxes on the setup screen.

Select an Upload time.

After completing the Fulfillment By Amazon setup your screen will look similar to this:

Integration Notes

If you did an Amazon inventory import from the Active Listings report then the products will be set up as FBA products in the FBA Tab in the products table. If not check the Products documentation for instructions on setting up FBA products.

The FBA MCM integration requests an inventory report from Amazon and Mailware creates a Location called FBA.  When the inventory file is received from Amazon the stock quantities from the report are added to the FBA location for the products that Amazon reports you have stock on in FBA.

Magento

Magento is an open source web cart that runs on a MySQL database.  As is the case with all Open Source web carts, the integration requires customization of the SQL scripts that have been developed for Magento to connect to your implementation of Magento.

To Set Up the Magento MCM:

To ensure that you are able to connect to the MySQL database that is hosting the store, contact your ISP to ensure that your IP address is whitelisted.

Create an Operator ID for the Magento channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Magento logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the Magento channel in the description field.

Enter in the username and password for the user that has administrative privileges to the MySQL database in the appropriate fields

Enter in the IP or URL to the MySQL database into the Server IP field

Enter in the Magento database name into the Database Name field

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check boxes.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the Magento Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the Magento setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

Magento integration notes

You can use the button to check your connection to the MySQL database.

If you get a message then you have set up everything correctly.

If you get a message, make sure that the MCM is running (there should be a blue Mailware logo in the notification area).  If it is not go to the Startup menu and click on the MCM shortcut.  If it is running stop it and restart it again.

If you get any other message check to see that your login credentials are correct.

OS Commerce

OS Commerce is an open source web cart that runs on a MySQL database.  As is the case with all Open Source web carts, the integration requires customization of the SQL scripts that have been developed for OS Commerce to connect to your implementation of OS Commerce.

To Set Up the OS Commerce MCM:

To ensure that you are able to connect to the MySQL database that is hosting the store, contact your ISP to ensure that your IP address is whitelisted.

Create an Operator ID for the OS Commerce channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the OS Commerce  logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the OS Commerce channel in the description field.

Enter in the username and password for the user that has administrative privileges to the MySQL database in the appropriate fields

Enter in the IP or URL to the MySQL database into the Server IP field

Enter in the OS Commerce database name into the Database Name field

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check  boxes.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the OS Commerce Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the OS Commerce setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

OS Commerce integration notes

You can use the button to check your connection to the MySQL database.

If you get a message then you have set up everything correctly.

If you get a message, make sure that the MCM is running (there should be a blue Mailware logo in the notification area).  If it is not go to the Startup menu and click on the MCM shortcut.  If it is running stop it and restart it again.

If you get any other message check to see that your login credentials are correct.

Volusion

To Set Up the Volusion MCM:

Create an Operator ID for the Volusion channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Volusion logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the Volusion channel in the description field.

Enter in the Login and Password into the appropriate fields.  Keep the setup window open.

Log into your Volusion account and go to store management.

Choose Inventory, Import/Export from the Volusion top menu.

Click on the “Volusion API” button.

Click on the “Run” button for “Generic/Orders”

Click on the “Run” button again after the new screen opens.

Copy the URL in the box to the right of “Download or use this URL:” to the clipboard.

Paste the URL into the “Orders URL” field on the Volusion setup dialog in Mailware.

Repeat steps 9 through 11 for Products and Customers.

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check boxes.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the Volusion Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the Volusion setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

XCart

XCart is an open source web cart that runs on a MySQL database.  As is the case with all Open Source web carts, the integration requires customization of the SQL scripts that have been developed for XCart to connect to your implementation of XCart.

To Set Up the XCart MCM:

To ensure that you are able to connect to the MySQL database that is hosting the store, contact your ISP to ensure that your IP address is whitelisted.

Create an Operator ID for the XCart channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the XCart logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the XCart channel in the description field.

Enter in the username and password for the user that has administrative privileges to the MySQL database in the appropriate fields

Enter in the IP or URL to the MySQL database into the Server IP field

Enter in the XCart database name into the Database Name field

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check boxes.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the XCart Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the XCart setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

XCart integration notes

You can use the button to check your connection to the MySQL database.

If you get a message then you have set up everything correctly.

If you get a message, make sure that the MCM is running (there should be a blue Mailware logo in the notification area).  If it is not go to the Startup menu and click on the MCM shortcut.  If it is running stop it and restart it again.

If you get any other message check to see that your login credentials are correct.

Due to the complexity of the XCart MySQL database schema, full product upload is not available for this channel.  Product prices, and stock quantity information is uploaded.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart is an open source web cart that runs on a MySQL database.  As is the case with all Open Source web carts, the integration requires customization of the SQL scripts that have been developed for Zen Cart to connect to your implementation of Zen Cart.

To Set Up the Zen Cart MCM:

To ensure that you are able to connect to the MySQL database that is hosting the store, contact your ISP to ensure that your IP address is whitelisted.

Create an Operator ID for the Zen Cart channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Zen Cart logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the Zen Cart channel in the description field.

Enter in the username and password for the user that has administrative privileges to the MySQL database in the appropriate fields

Enter in the IP or URL to the MySQL database into the Server IP field

Enter in the XCart database name into the Database Name field

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check boxes.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the Zen Cart Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the Zen Cart setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

Zen Cart integration notes

You can use the button to check your connection to the MySQL database.

If you get a message then you have set up everything correctly.

If you get a message, make sure that the MCM is running (there should be a blue Mailware logo in the notification area).  If it is not go to the Startup menu and click on the MCM shortcut.  If it is running stop it and restart it again.

If you get any other message check to see that your login credentials are correct.

Custom (MySQL)

The custom MySQL option allows Mailware to integrate with any custom cart that uses a MySQL database for its back end.  The integration requires custom SQL scripts to interact with your custom cart.

To Set Up the Custom (MySQL) MCM:

To ensure that you are able to connect to the MySQL database that is hosting the store, contact your ISP to ensure that your IP address is whitelisted.

Create an Operator ID for the custom channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Custom (MySQL) logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the Custom MySQL channel in the description field.

Enter in the username and password for the user that has administrative privileges to the MySQL database in the appropriate fields

Enter in the IP or URL to the MySQL database into the Server IP field

Enter in the database name into the Database Name field

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check boxes as applicable.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the Custom MySQL Cart Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the Custom MySQL cart setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

Custom MySQL integration notes

You can use the button to check your connection to the MySQL database.

If you get a message then you have set up everything correctly.

If you get a message, make sure that the MCM is running (there should be a blue Mailware logo in the notification area).  If it is not go to the Startup menu and click on the MCM shortcut.  If it is running stop it and restart it again.

If you get any other message check to see that your login credentials are correct.

Due to the nature of custom carts certain features may not be available.

Custom (SQL Server)

The custom SQL Server option allows Mailware to integrate with any custom cart that uses a Microsoft SQL Server database for its back end.  The integration requires custom SQL scripts to interact with your custom cart.

To Set Up the Custom (SQL Server) MCM:

To ensure that you are able to connect to the SQL Server database that is hosting the store, contact your ISP to ensure that your IP address is whitelisted.

Create an Operator ID for the custom channel.

Open the Channels Tab from Tools->Preferences and select the Custom (SQL Server) logo.

Check the “Show a tab for this channel on the Products screen” box.

Click on the  button.

Enter in a name for the Custom SQL Server channel in the description field.

Enter in the username and password for the user that has administrative privileges to the SQL Server database in the appropriate fields

Enter in the IP or URL to the SQL Server database into the Server IP field

Enter in the database name into the Database Name field

Check the Product upload is active, Shipping  confirmation upload is active and Download every check boxes as applicable.

Select an upload time, download time and download frequency.

Assign the Custom SQL Server Cart Operator ID from the Operator ID drop down list.

After completing the Custom MySQL cart setup your screen will look similar to this:

In order for the orders downloaded to work correctly with the software you will need to build the Channel Listings table.  See the Products documentation for more information on how to do this.

Custom SQL Server integration notes

You can use the button to check your connection to the MySQL database.

If you get a  message then you have set up everything correctly.

If you get a message, make sure that the MCM is running (there should be a blue Mailware logo in the notification area).  If it is not go to the Startup menu and click on the MCM shortcut.  If it is running stop it and restart it again.

If you get any other message check to see that your login credentials are correct.

Due to the nature of custom carts certain features may not be available.

UNDER THE HOOD: The MCM interacts between Mailware and the channels using three different methods depending on the channel.

Channel Specific API’s (Application Program Interface)

ODBC connections to the web store databases.

FTP file transfers

API Integration: In order to use an API integration with a particular channel, our developers write the software to connect to the API to transfer the data to and from the channel.  These integrations are limited in how much data can be accessed by the API.  In many cases data that is on the channel are not included in the API and are therefore not available for Mailware to interact with.  Examples of this type of connection are Amazon, Ebay and Volusion.

ODBC Integration: An ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) integration allows Mailware to run SQL scripts on the the database that is hosting the store (either MySQL or SQL Server).  The MCM creates a set of temporary tables on the remote server and runs sets of SQL scripts to manage the data.  With order downloads the scripts pull order information from the appropriate order tables and inserts the data into the temp_mailware_orders, temp_mailware_items and temp_mailware_payment tables these tables are then downloaded into the mailware database and appended with a number depending on what channel they are coming from for instance if the orders are being downloaded from a custom MySQL cart (ChannelNo 5) the files will be called temp_mailware_orders_5 etc.

Tracking number uploads are done when MCM copies all the tracking information that have not been marked as UPLOADED in the Tracking table for the channels in question and uploads them to temp_mailware_shipconfirmupload on the remote server.  The temp_mailware_shipconfirmupload file contains the mailware order number, the AltOrderNo1 (this is where the channel order number is stored), the tracking number and other shipment information.  The scripts that run on the server update the appropriate fields in the remote database with the tracking information.

Product uploads are handled in a similar manner as tracking uploads.  The product information (including information from the related ChannelListings table) are upload to temp_mailware_productupload on the remote server.  Scripts are run on the server to update the existing products and add new ones.  The functionality of this feature depends greatly on the complexity of the remote databases product tables.

Most Open Source carts (Magento, OS Commers, XCart, Zen Cart) and all custom cart integrations use this method.

FTP File Transfers: The FTP file transfer method is for some API based integrations.  This method depends on Mailware downloading order files from a FTP location and running scripts to import them into the Mailware database.  Likewise Mailware generates a file that meets the specifications of the service and uploads them to the FTP site.   Currently this is only used for the ChannelMax repricing channel and for Buy.com

Customer Matching: When orders are downloaded from a channel Mailware checks the current customer database for any customers that are already in the customer table.  Mailware compares the billing last name and the billing email address from the orders downloaded with those in the customer table.  If both match then the customer number (CustNo) from the Customer table will be used in the order.  If there is no match then Mailware creates a new customer in the database and assigns the new CustNo to the order.

 

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