ERP integration with an external ordering platform

Problem

A distributor's customers place their orders on a platform that is not the ERP. Without integration someone retypes the same thing on the other side, and delivery addresses and master data drift apart within months. The real issue is that the platform's format is decided by someone else, and when that format changes, it changes without asking.

Solution

The sync runs both ways and covers orders, delivery addresses and master data. It sits on scheduled server tasks, so nobody has to trigger it by hand.

Between the external API and the ERP there is a dedicated exchange model. Whatever arrives from outside is first translated into that model, and only then turned into SAP Business One documents and master records. It is an extra layer that looks like ceremony until the day the platform changes its API contract.

When that happens, the change stays inside the translation layer. The rest of the add-on never notices: it keeps speaking the internal language.

Architecture

Why it is built this way

I put a dedicated exchange model in the middle. The external format never touches the ERP entities, so when the platform changes its contract the change stays in one layer.

The REST client is isolated. Serialisation and retries do not mix with business logic.

It syncs on scheduled tasks, not screen events. A user should not wait on a system we do not control.

It writes to the ERP through the SDK rather than the tables, so validation and numbering stay SAP's job.

Result

186 commits on this client.