Example Inventory Scenario
One of the ways in which you may want to use the Inventory adapter is to integrate a warehouse line-of-business (LOB) application with the Inventory System. The following figure illustrates this type of integration, and the circled numbers in the figure correspond to more detailed explanation that follows.
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As warehouse inventory changes, the warehouse LOB application is updated to reflect the latest inventory status.
A BizTalk adapter has been configured to receive inventory updates from the warehouse LOB application every hour. The details of this adapter are specific to the warehouse LOB application and are not relevant to the adapter used in step 4.
BizTalk Server processes and routes the XML message containing the updated inventory information. The amount of processing will depend on the message format used by the warehouse LOB application and the degree to which that format differs from the message format used by CommerceServerInventoryImport messages. In any event, this step must produce an XML message using the latter format for the next step.
You have configured an Inventory send adapter endpoint within your BizTalk Server to accept CommerceServerInventoryImport messages. When a message of this type, containing updated inventory data, is routed to this Inventory send adapter endpoint, it will use the Catalog Web service with which it has been configured to import the inventory updates to the Inventory System. The adapter will also generate a CommerceServerInventoryImportResponse message containing the results of the import operation and submit it back into BizTalk Server. You must configure BizTalk Server to properly consume this response message, which might mean routing it back to the warehouse LOB application. For more information about how to work with the BizTalk Server solicit-response messaging model, see Conversing with Other Systems.
Shoppers using the Commerce Server 2009 retail Web site can now see recently updated inventory information and use it to make more informed purchasing decisions, ultimately resulting in greater customer satisfaction.