Standard terms, concepts and events within PlatformManager product.

Accelerators

These are snippets of Groovy logics which are deployed to partitions and designed to set up some frequently used functionality within a Pricefx partition, typically various dashboards. These snippets are pulled directly from a Git repository.

Accelerator Packages

These are the most powerful components available in PlatformManager Marketplace. They are pieces of code (Groovy, JSON definitions, Rest API calls) which allow you to configure a partition to a required pricing application state (ie. Handling Rebates, approval workflows, sales insight dashboards, etc). They provide ability for user interaction like entering inputs and uploading data.

Activity Logs

Shows changes relate to accounts, integrations and partitions as well as user accounts creation/deletion, permissions changes, group assignments.

Assets

Identifies and defines a group of Pricefx partitions and can be used to associated with a user or a business role.

Business Roles

Assigns a name to a set of specific PlatformManager permissions and accesses and used to as a template for permission assignment to one or more users.

Connection

Utilize the partition access credentials to create a link between PlatformManager to the Pricefx partition.

Converters

Are used by by mappers (LoadMapper, IntegratMapper and MultilevelMapper) to convert data types.

Data Upload

Use of uploaded CSV files to load Pricefx entity types in a partition. Supported entities include Customer, Customer Extension, Product, Product Extension, Data Source, Price Parameter, Product Competition and BoM data.

Data Mapping

The process where an uploaded CSV file’s columns are linked to the Pricefx mandatory fields either for a specific Pricefx entity during Data Uploads or for linking to columns in a Datamart for the loading of an Accelerator .

Events

Pricefx generates various events which can trigger an action by IntegrationManager.

Groovy Sandbox

Since IntegrationManager runs untrusted Groovy scripts that could contain malicious code, these scripts must be evaluated inside a sandbox to prevent malicious code. If the sandbox detects a forbidden code, it throws an exception

Inbound

Refers to data that is migrating from customer application systems to Pricefx partitions.

IntegrationManager

Allows uploading data from the external systems, such as SAP, into Pricefx and exporting data from Pricefx, so that they can be further used in the external systems. This two-way exchange uses a format which best suits the given scenario (CSV file, XML file, JMS message or calling a web service). 

IntegrateMapper

Will perform insert and update operations on selected backend objects. This operation is not available for all types of objects. This command is particularly useful in a situation where the caller does not (and should not) know about typed IDs and other “internal” data fields, i.e. typically in an integration scenario. 

Integration Templates

These are predefined and prebuilt components that contain pieces of code which allow you to efficiently set up IntegrationManager to do specific actions with 3rd party systems. 

JSON Web Token (JWT)

JSON Web Tokens are an open and standard way to represent your user’s identity securely during a two-party interaction. When two systems exchange data you can use a JSON Web Token to identify your user without having to send private credentials on every request.

Lightning

Powered by Accelerators it delivers a full suite of standard pricing analytics, management and CPQ realization tools designed to jumpstart pricing application implementation.

LoadMapper

It is a very efficient and quick way to load bulk data. The main benefit is its enormous speed to load thousands of rows (compared to e.g. integrate). The main drawback is that it will always work on entire rows. 

Mandatory Fields

These are the required fields that are used as the Output of the Data Mapping process and refer to fields that must be populated for Data Uploads and loading of Accelerators.

Mappers

Mappers are used for conversion of the message body to the Pricefx format. The message body is usually a list of maps or a map. We have the following types of mappers: LoadMapper, IntegrateMapper and MultilevelMapper.

MarketPlace

Provides access and execution of wizards in the form of Integration Templates, Accelerators and Accelerator Packages.

MultilevelMapper

This is used to remap values from multiple levels of multiple sources into one output body. It can combine calculated values with values extracted from the body and headers, including lists at several levels. Output mapping must always be unambiguous.

OAuth2

OAuth2 is a protocol enabling a Client application, often a web application, to act on behalf of a User, but with the User’s permission. The actions a Client is allowed to perform are carried out by a Resource Server (another web application or web service), and the User approves the actions by telling an Authorization Server that he trusts the Client to do what it is asking. 

Object Types

PlatformManager supports a set of the standard Pricefx entity types; customer, , customerExtension, product, productExtension, pricingParameter, datamart, rebateRecords, payoutRecords

Outbound

Refers to data that is migrating from Pricefx partitions to customer application systems.

Parsing Options

A set of options that allow the data conversion process to interpret our uploaded CSV file and determine the following characteristics; separator, quote character used, escape character, decimal separator and the data format.

Permissions

Identifies the low-level and granular tasks that can be performed within PlatformManager. Defines ability to read, use, deploy or update specific aspects or functions within the product.

PfxClient

A prebuilt module that will allow all other components to connect to Pricefx server.

PlatformManager

PlatformManager allows you to create, administer and maintain certain assets, like Pricefx partitions and IntegrationManager instances. You can connect to them, monitor their activity, upload master data, set up user access and deploy templates and deploy Accelerators.

Realtime

Used in conjunction with a route, the route listens to events / input data and processes this input immediately. There is no delay. Examples of realtime include; event listeners (based on the REST WebService listener), WebService listener, Socket listener and JMS listener.

REST Basic

The most simple way to deal with authentication is to use HTTP basic authentication, it uses a special HTTP header that adds 'username:password' encoded in base64. We Do not use this authentication scheme on plain HTTP, but only through SSL/TLS.

REST JWT

See JSON Web Token

REST OAuth2

See OAuth2

REST Public

An open and accessible REST service that does not require any authentication or authorization.

Route

A route is a set of rules which describe how to react to a specific event (incoming SOAP call, uploaded CSV file, etc), in particular how to extract, transform and load the incoming data.

SFTP

Secure File Transfer Protocol, used when you need to secure server-to-server file transfers between yourself, your trading partners, and enterprise servers, SFTP (which stands for SSH File Transfer Protocol or Secure File Transfer Protocol) is a more secure option than FTP.

Spring DSL

This is essentially a facade for Spring Integration. The DSL provides a simple way to embed Spring Integration Message Flows into your application by using the fluent Builder pattern together with existing Java configuration from Spring Framework and Spring Integration. Provides an alternative to XML configuration.

Trigger

A type of route that periodically checks if the input data was delivered at a given location or if it is the correct time to start a route.

This type of public routes is most used. The integration (in this case a scheduled job) usually starts by detecting whether the input data (CSV or XML file) was delivered into a source folder or whtether it is the correct time to start an action,

Web Service

These services are part of the web service framework within IntegrationManager and are used to support inbound messages that are part of the integration between customer systems and Pricefx partition.