Guide: Using BigCommerce with Databox (Custom API Integration)

IN THIS ARTICLE

• BigCommerce Integration Details
• How to Connect BigCommerce to Databox
• How to Use and Create BigCommerce Metrics
• Additional Information

BigCommerce Integration Details

IN THIS SECTION

• Overview
• Integration Basics

Overview

BigCommerce is an e-commerce solution in which company owners can build a store and sell their items digitally. 

The BigCommerce integration is designed for more tech-savvy users, as it syncs data through a Custom API integration. In order to create BigCommerce metrics in Databox, you’ll need to use the Metric Builder. Learn more about the basics of Metric Builder for Custom API Integrations here. 

Integration basics

How to connect BigCommerce to Databox

IN THIS SECTION

• How to connect BigCommerce to Databox
• How to access your API key, access token / API key secret

• What’s the maximum amount of historical data initially available when you use a new BigCommerce Metric in Databox?
• What time zone does BigCommerce data sync in?
• What type of pagination is supported by BigCommerce Integration

How to connect BigCommerce to Databox

To connect a BigCommerce Account in Databox, go to  Data Manager > + New connection. Type BigCommerce in the search bar and click on the Connect button. Next, click the green Connect now button.

This will open the  Authorization window, which is where you will be prompted to enter your Site hash and API Key to authorize the Databox app. Learn how to access your Site hash and API Key here. 

How to access your API key, access token / API key secret?

To successfully connect your BigCommerce with Databox, you will need to use your  Site hash and API Key in the connect process. You can get more information on how to access your API key here.

To find the Site hash, login into your BigCommerce account, choose the store you want to connect to Databox. Once you are in the UI you can see the Site hash in the URL, example: store-yoursitehash.mybigcommerce.com (the bold part being the Site hash). Copy your Site hash and paste it in Databox's Activate BigCommerce window. 

To access the API Key in your BigCommerce Account, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to   Settings > API Accounts and click on the + Create API Account button.
2. Select  Choose V2/V3 API token from the Account type drop-down list. 
3. Enter a Name for your app/integration. Under OAuth scopes, select Read-Only options. Click the Save button.
4. Copy the API Key and paste it in Databox's Activate BigCommerce window.
5. Once you have entered your  Site hash and API Key in Databox's Activate BigCommerce window, click the green Activate button to authorize the Databox app. 

What's the maximum amount of historical data initially available when you use a new BigCommerce Data Source Metric in Databox?

• Custom Metric Setup: When a user creates a metric using an endpoint that supports date time parameters in the API request, those date time parameters determine the amount of historical data that will be pulled for the given metric. You can learn more about the date time parameters here.
•  API Limitations: APIs may have limits set by the system itself on the amount of historical data that is stored/ can be accessed.
•  Pagination Limitations: The pagination limit is set to 100 pages, which means that pagination will stop when the 100th page is reached. In cases where the metric is using pagination, of course, the interplay of date time parameters and pagination can have an impact on how much of the historical data the user can pull for a given metric. Learn more here.
•  Databox Plan: The amount of historical data you're able to access in Databox is dependent on your Databox plan. Learn more here.

What time zone does BigCommerce data sync in? 

Multiple Time zones are available, however, the chosen timezone is dependent on the store that is being connected.

What type of pagination is supported by BigCommerce Integration

BigCommerce integration supports the next pagination type. 

Learn more about pagination here.

How to use and create BigCommerce Metrics

IN THIS SECTION

• How to access pre-built BigCommerce Metrics
• How to create custom BigCommerce Metrics

How to access pre-built BigCommerce Metrics

1. Navigate to Metrics > Metric Library.
2. In the  Browse by Data Source section, click the Data Source dropdown and search for BigCommerce. This will filter out pre-built BigCommerce Metrics.

How to create custom BigCommerce Metrics

Let’s walk through how to create a Custom Metric for BigCommerce.

In order to prepare API requests, you should reference API-specific documentation that can be found in the Databox app through the API Docs link in the top right of the Prepare API Request page. Or, use this direct link.

1. Navigate to Metrics > Custom Metrics to access the Metric Builder for BigCommerce.
2. Click the green + New Custom Metric button and select your connected BigCommerce Account from the Data Source drop-down list.
3. Open the API documentation for BigCommerce to find the endpoint that will return the data needed for the given custom metric you wish to create. 
4. Click the drop-down to select GET or POST as the HTTP Method. This is dependent on the information you found in the API documentation. 
5. The Base URL is already predefined, you will need to copy the missing part of your chosen endpoint to sync the appropriate data. 
6. Add Parameters based on your HTTP Method. Parameters limit the records returned for the API request.
   1. If you’re creating a GET request, define the Key and Value pair(s). The API documentation provides information on endpoints for a field/ argument, which will be the Key. The condition (i.e., an ID, true/ false, etc.) will be the Value. 
      If the API documentation for BigCommerce states that the Integration supports dynamic date ranges, you will be able to click the  calendar icon to add datetime parameters.
   2. If you’re creating a POST request, define the relevant JSON body.
      Click on the  calendar icon to add datetime parameters.
   3. Pro Tip: You can choose multiple Keys and Values for one Custom Metric. You can add an additional Key and Value by clicking on “+”. 
7. You can add Headers that include Key and Value pairs if the API needs this to successfully return data.
8. If the endpoint supports pagination, we recommend you select the appropriate method using the Pagination Method dropdown. 
9. Once you have the basic setup, click on the green Continue button. You will be directed to the Select value step.
10. In the Select value step, select a property that includes the metric value you'd like to track in your Custom Metric. A metric value must be purely numeric. 
11. Once you have selected the value, click on the green Continue button.
12. The Segment by dimension step is optional. This step will be taken into account only when you are trying to create a dimensional metric. If you'd like to segment your metric by multiple dimensions, choose one to complete during this set up, then begin again and select a different dimension until each desired metric is created.

    1. To skip this step, select None. 

13. The Select date step is optional as well. 
    1. Use current time of storing data (Dynamic): Select this option if you don’t want to select a date field
    2. Use a field from response (optional): Select this if you want to select a date in order to see your data in predefined intervals. 
14. In the Preview & Customize step, you can see the JSONata expression that has been created based on your selection of properties. 

    1. You can customize the JSONata expression (optional) in the right editor panel. 

15. To continue, click on the Preview data button to validate the expression and returned data. 
16. Once you have previewed your data, click on the green Continue button to proceed to the last step of setting up your Custom Metric.
17. In the Describe metric step, you can set up the following:
    1. Name your metric: Enter a name for your custom metric.
    2. Data Aggregation: These selections determine how your data is handled. This especially impacts the way data is grouped and displayed for longer Date Ranges. Learn more here.
    3. Favourable trend: You can select when "Trending UP is positive" or "Trending DOWN is positive," since some metrics are better (positive) when the value is lower (like Bounce rate, Churn rate, etc.). This will affect how comparison values and goal comparisons are calculated and calculated.
18. Once you completed the Describe metric step, click the green Continue button to finish the Custom metric setup.

Additional Information

IN THIS SECTION

• Integration limitations

Integration Limitations

• Databox limits the use of its integrations to GET requests. This is because our integration only reads your data.
• Rate limits: Learn more about BigCommerce API rate limits here.
• BigCommerce API by default limits the number of results to 50 within the response and the maximum limit is 250 within the response for most resources, including orders. This means that if you set the limit parameter to a value higher than 250, the API will return an error.