This guide provides a high-level overview of the recommended workflow for integrating a point-of-sale system with AmmoReady. It assumes a new/pristine POS environment and that one or more distributors are connnected to the target AmmoReady account.
Basic Flow
Use the API to pre-load Brands, Calibers, Categories, and Actions into the POS system. Using AmmoReady's default values for these attributes avoids data-mapping problems (Cobra Tec = CobraTec) as both systems are in sync out of the gate.
You can create new Categories via the API as needed when/if they are created in the POS system.
Brands, Calibers, and Actions don't change often. There are no endpoints for creating new Brands or Calibers at this time. Dealer-specific Brands can be created through the web interface and then accessed via the API.
Sync in-stock Inventory to AmmoReady so that the website is always displaying what is physically in-stock.
There are two basic ways to sync in-stock inventory:
a) Use theinventory#create
method to create new items. This approach requires that you pass ALL required data needed to display the item on a web page, which you may not have in the POS system.
b) Use thecatalog#add_to_inventory
method to simply copy an item from the Catalog (connected distributors) to Inventory. This method only requires a UPC, which is typically scanned or entered by the POS user.