Overall app flow

Summary

The Akeneo App for Salesforce is designed to help you manage the transfer of product data from Akeneo to Salesforce. It follows a simple way that can be divided in three main steps.

  • Configure the catalog
  • Transfer the products
  • Verify the transfer result

Managing Akeneo Catalogs

Everything evolves around the catalog. The goal of configuring that catalog is to have an Akeneo - Salesforce mapping and a product filter.

All catalogs are maintained in Akeneo. You can create and delete catalogs from Salesforce, but the data lives in Akeneo. That being said, you can also update the data of a catalog only in Akeneo without using Salesforce.

To configure a catalog, first you need to have one. So it all starts with the creation of a catalog.

Catalog Creation

Warnings

When utilising multiple locales, the connector may issue warnings, alerting you to potential discrepancies between the locales enabled in Akeneo and those configured in Salesforce or at a catalog level. These warnings will be prominently displayed either during the catalog creation process or conveniently listed on your Akeneo Catalogs page, as illustrated below. Paying attention to these warnings ensures a smoother synchronisation process and helps maintain consistency between Akeneo and Salesforce locales.

 

 

Mapping

With every catalog you define the fields in Salesforce that should receive data from Akeneo. What is beeing transferred is configured in the mapping.

Define target fields in Salesforce

 

Missing a Salesforce field in the list?

If you cannot find a custom field in the list, it may be because it is not supported by the connector. Please refer to the list to check which Salesforce field types are supported, along with the corresponding Akeneo PIM attributes that are compatible.

 

 

Define source attributes in Akeneo

 

 

Filter

Most of the time, you do not want to transfer all products from Akeneo. The product filter on the Akeneo Catalog App let you define the products using one or multiple filter criteria.

Check Mapping and Preview 

After completing the mapping process in Akeneo, you can return to Salesforce and review the schema overview. Click on 'Preview Products' to visualize a subset of products. This allows you to ensure that the field mappings are accurate and that the correct data is appropriately mapped to the respective Salesforce targets

 

 

Transfer the products

Transferring the products can be handled in two ways.

  • Instantly
  • Scheduled

Instantly

Scheduled

Scheduled transfers are a convenient way to automate your daily or weekly product update tasks.

 

 

Product Data

The data to be transferred is divided into three groups.

  • Attribute values
  • Categories
  • Attachments

What data is included in Attribute Values

When transferring attribute values, the system will automatically handle the transfer of simple, variants, models, and translations, provided that the necessary data is available and the connector configurations are set up accordingly. For detailed information on the specific data being transferred, please refer to the following article.

 

 

Check the result of your transfer job

Product transfers are closely monitored therefore for each transfer whether that's scheduled or manual a log is being created. 

Transfer logs

For each and every transaction a transfer log is created that gives you the peace of mind that everything went well. If something went wrong you are getting all the information you need to fix the source of the error very easily.

Did you know

Transfer logs have the potential to occupy a significant amount of storage space within your Salesforce Org. To address this concern, the Akeneo Connector App offers two essential features. Firstly, the 'Minimal Transfer Logs' option allows you to control the volume of log entries, focusing only on critical information. Additionally, the app provides the ability to automatically clear all previous transfer logs, helping you efficiently free up space in your organization's storage.