How do I read product data in a Jscript function or how do you Interface B@SE Tag Library [...]

Andrew Macdonald

Is there any way to read the product database to get data fields using JScript ?

Can you do it using B@SE Tags i.e. with this test code I can display the details for a product on a template page

[%set [@sku@] %]123456[%/set%]

[%product sku:'[@sku@]';%]

[%param *body%]

<p>[@sku@] [@model@]</p>

[%/param%]

[%/product%]

Is there anyway to call the tag library, for example this tag code with a JScript function and return values back into the JScript that can then be used to fill a field with specific data or call another JScript function.

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Orders & Inventory

Accepted answers

Andrew Macdonald

I ended up recreating the export once I realised that it had option to enter the Header and Footer sections to wrap the full set of product line sections. So its all working again now. Running at 15minute updates at the moment. Thanks for your help

All comments

Erik Merkley

This is quite a complex area, and not something B@SE is well suited to. First of all, it depends when you are fetching this data. If you mean when the page is first rendered, the B@SE can just generate the JS code you need:

[%product sku:'1234'%]

[%param *body%]

[%/param%]

[%/product%]

But I imagine you are actually wanting to make an AJAX call after the page has loaded. There is a B@SE function to help with this:

https://developers.maropost.com/documentation/neto-designer-documentation/b-se-tag-library/function-tags/templating/load_ajax_template/

This will take some getting your head around. It is not at all like calling a traditional API from JS. Rather you are using JS to trigger parts of the page to refresh. Those parts can then in turn contain fresh JS that automatically executes when the call returns.

It might be best to take a step back and explain what you're trying to achieve. Neto is not a typical API-driven platform and B@SE is quirky, inconsistent, confusing and under-documented. Sometimes there are better ways of doing things.

Andrew Macdonald

Thanks for your suggestion. Our store has a quick order customisation where you can select any number of products and then add the products to the cart as a batch.

It was originally built by developers and written in JScript.

The problem is we just realised it is reading a separate data file which is produced by some product export feed, rather than reading the main product database.

Hence we are seeing issues where the data in the product database has changed i.e. stock quantities as a result or orders and prices as a result of updates, and the quick order product data feed is out of sync and not yet updated as this is produced via some scheduled export process. I am still yet to work out how that export is done.

Quick-Cart So ideally I want to modify this code to read the main database and not the data feed as described above.

I was thinking about Ajax after I made this post so I will take a look at your suggestion.

Or if you have any other suggestion let me know.

Erik Merkley

Right, that helps to understand the context. That's a cool website feature!

I can understand why your developer implemented it that way. Yes, there are downsides with data being out of date, but it's a clean and simple way of doing it. I would probably have done it the same way.

Replacing that with AJAX would be possible but it's a bit of a project. Definitely not a case of just switching out the code to read from the DB instead - Neto just isn't built that way. You'd need to put the code to render new lines of the table in an AJAX template, then call that with SKUs a customer enters. Then append that new data to the table. Neto's AJAX is also notoriously slow. It won't be a quick order entry anymore.

The data is currently almost certainly coming from a scheduled export. Have you checked the list of product exports (/_cpanel/dsexport?limitmod=DS_inventory)? Look for one with a schedule set. Just make that export run more often. You can check its history to see how long it usually takes to run, to get an idea of how often is practical. If you don't have too many products (say, less than 50k), I'd have thought half hourly would be fine. Would that help solve the problem of stale data?

Andrew Macdonald

Yes I have checked /_cpanel/dsexport?limitmod=DS_inventory

They are all .csv file exports. This file is called quick-order-product-catalogue.js and is in the ....com.au/export directory and has the format which is almost like JSON i.e.

let productBase = {'100917': {

'Sku': '100917','Name': `BUS,COND,NEUT,H KIOSK`,'Uom': `Each`,

'Price_1': '$27.30','Price_2': '$0.00','Price_3': '$27.30',

'Price_4': '$0.00','Price_5': '$27.30','Price_6': '$0.00',

'Promo_Price_1': '$0.00','Promo_Price_2': '$0.00',

'Promo_Price_3': '$0.00','Promo_Price_4': '$0.00',

'Promo_Price_5': '$0.00','Promo_Price_6': '$0.00',

'Stock': '0','Multi': '','Lead_Time': '42','POA': 'y',

'100933': {

'Sku': '100933','Name': `BUS,COND,E`,'Uom': `Each`,

'Price_1': '$24.92','Price_2': '$0.00','Price_3': '$24.92',

'Price_4': '$0.00','Price_5': '$24.92','Price_6': '$0.00',

'Promo_Price_1': '$0.00','Promo_Price_2': '$0.00',

'Promo_Price_3': '$0.00','Promo_Price_4': '$0.00',

'Promo_Price_5': '$0.00','Promo_Price_6': '$0.00',

'Stock': '0','Multi': '','Lead_Time': '66','POA': 'y',

Have you seen any format like this on the site anywhere before ?

The big problem is we realised that the file has stopped updating all together for about the last two weeks. If there was an export job there its like it has been deleted and now the export does not happen. Or it is some sort of custom export that is no longer running.

I have looked everywhere else and cannot find how the file could be exported and hence why it has stopped updating the file.

Erik Merkley

That's JSONP, just a slightly different form of standard JSON.

It's definitely been created by an export. If you're sure it isn't in the list then I think your theory that it was deleted two weeks ago is correct.

Easiest way to get this fixed is just recreate the export. Set it to run pretty often and you'll be back up and running. If you don't want to tackle it yourself I could probably do it in a few hours' work. Reach out at erik@echidnasewing.com.au.

Andrew Macdonald