PIM Developer Overview

In this article we will look at PIM from a developers perspective and provide you with the overview and references you need to get started.

Before getting started

In this concept article you can find a overview of PIM, delving into its fundamental concepts and detailing its key features. If you haven't already, we highly recommend reading it.

Also, this article provides a comprehensive technical overview of the Bizzkit platform.

Finally, it's crucial to understand our release policy. Kindly go through this article where you'll find detailed information about specific releases, modifications, instructions for upgrades, and more.

Creating a test environment in Docker

All Bizzkit applications can be run in docker which makes it easy to set up a local environment for test, demo and development. Please refer to this article for more information.

API

PIM is composed of a REST API that includes endpoints related to attributes, brands, lists, hierarchies, segmentation system, products, and so forth.

Click here for the PIM API Swagger reference

Every API endpoint and schema is documented within the code. This makes their usage in development environments or via Swagger highly intuitive and efficient.

REST clients

In order to facilitate seamless integration and application development, we provide pre-packaged solutions in the form of NuGet packages. These include auto-generated .NET clients and factory classes to make it easy to authenticate.

Click here for more information about the packages and how to create a client, and contact your Bizzkit representative to get access to our package feed.

Job Runners

PIM utilizes two job execution mechanisms, namely the notification hub and the task runner. The role of the notification hub is to inform the User Interface (UI) about modifications, while the task runner takes care of event processing, cache management, and related tasks. The Hangfire UI for the Task Runner can be reached from the UI through the following navigation: Settings -> System Administration -> Jobs. To check the status of completed jobs, you can visit the Jobs-tab. You can see a list of the running application instances from Settings -> System Administration -> Application instances.

Setting up

When setting up a new installation of PIM you might find these articles interesting:

Ingesting Data

Our PIM system boasts a comprehensive data ingestion mechanism, harnessing the simplicity of the CSV format. This tool empowers you to efficiently import a variety of elements, including attributes, brands, products, hierarchies, and so forth. For a deeper understanding of the CSV specification utilized, please explore the dedicated article on the CSV specification.

Events

PIM has the capability to communicate with other systems about events such as item creation, updates, or deletions using webhooks. You can set these up either through the User Interface (UI), by navigating to Settings -> Administration -> Webhooks, or via the API. For more detailed information, please refer to this article.

Extensibility

PIM can be extended in numerous ways. External bulk operations are an extension point in PIM, enabling you to perform custom operations or jobs on the product catalog, which are run on the customer solution side. UI Extension Frame Sets provide a way to call an external URL with parameters, and display the result either internally or externally. Please refer to:

Additional Resources

For more insights, you're encouraged to explore other articles available in both the Concept and Tutorial sections.