Integration for order entry into Exact Online using a standardised e-mail format with PDF attachment

Questions (en)
#1

How could I use Invantive Query Tool, or another Invantive application to automate order entry (orders ingeven) into Exact Online using a standardised email format which clients can fill in, e.g. a standardised PDF attachment to incoming e-mail?

The flow would be as such:

  1. Our client fills in standardised PDF order form.
  2. Client attaches PDF form as an attachment to a mail sent to a predefined e-mail address.
  3. Invantive uses/analyses the data from the PDF/e-mail directly or via a third-party tool.
  4. Invantive uses the data from the PDF to automate order entry into Exact Online.

Many thanks for your thoughts!

#2

Recommended product is Invantive Bridge on-premise as ado.net provider or through direct loading of Invantive SQL into a Visual Studio project.

In general such a flow is only financially feasible with a quite high order volume of hundreds of orders per month. I don’t recommend to build such flows independently. It is easier to control order entry using a form, for instance built using Knack and then exchange data with the custom order entry portal.

First step is to make the email accessible, for instance using IMAP or POP. Use code to retrieve the unprocessed mails. Next, extract the data from the form using a product such as IronPDF (separate purchase). Then use a DataContext.Current.ConnectionManager.Insert/Update/Delete or PassthroughSQL to execute the necessary statements on Exact Online.

#3

Dear Guido,

Thanks for your reply. Could you elaborate a bit on the DataContext.Current.ConnectionManager.Insert/Update/Delete part, I have no experience with these kind of things but am very grateful to learn from you.

#4

Without previous experience it will probably quite hard and beyond the scope of these forums. I recommend reaching out to one of our partners with a development team.