Create an "Information Harvester" Application

When a merchant publishes a store, ShopSite creates an XML file containing product information, and then notifies an "information harvester" application that the file exists. The harvester application must respond to the notification, read the file, and store the information in the database for the cross-store product directory.

The Notification Program

There is a notificationURL setting in the global.aa file which tells ShopSite the URL to use to notify the application harvester application that a new XML file exists. ShopSite uses that URL to construct the following GET HTTP request:

notificationURL?function=create&file=products.xml&storied=storied

where:

• notificationURL is the URL stored in the global.aa file.
• products.xml is the name of the XML file produced by ShopSite.
• storeID is the store ID of the ShopSite store.

When the information harvester application receives the notification, it must reply on the port that it was contacted on with status=SUCCESS.

The XML File

The XML files produced by ShopSite are self-documenting, meaning that they contain their own DTD as the first part of the file. The DTD is reproduced here for your convenience.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE ShopSiteProducts [

<!ELEMENT ShopSiteProducts (VersionInfo, StoreInfo, ProductInfo)>

  <!ELEMENT VersionInfo (VersionNumber)>

    <!ELEMENT VersionNumber (#PCDATA | CData)*>

  <!ELEMENT StoreInfo (StoreURL, OrderURL, StoreEmail, StoreID, TXStoreID, StoreName, CurrencySymbol, DecimalIndicator, WeightUnits)>

    <!ELEMENT StoreURL (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT OrderURL (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT StoreEmail (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT StoreID (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT TXStoreID (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT StoreName (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT CurrencySymbol (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT DecimalIndicator (#PCDATA | CData)*>

    <!ELEMENT WeightUnits (#PCDATA | CData)*>

  <!ELEMENT ProductInfo (Product)*>

    <!ELEMENT Product (Name, Price, GraphicURL, Description, Weight, SKU, OptionsText, OptionFiniteText, MoreInfoFileName, SalePrice, UseSalePrice, PageURL, CategoryID, RecordNumber, ShippingCharge, GroundShipping, SecondDayShipping, NextDayShipping, Taxable, TaxWareCode)>

      <!ELEMENT Name (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT Price (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT GraphicURL (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT Description (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT Weight (#PCDATA| CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT SKU (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT OptionsText (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT OptionFiniteText (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT MoreInfoFileName (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT SalePrice (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT UseSalePrice (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT PageURL (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT CategoryID (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT RecordNumber (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT ShippingCharge (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT GroundShipping (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT SecondDayShipping (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT NextDayShipping (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT Taxable (#PCDATA | CData)*>

      <!ELEMENT TaxWareCode (#PCDATA | CData)*>

]>

ShopSite Help and Resource Center April 3, 2003 Give Feedback

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