How does RetailVista integration to Woocommerce work with variant articles?

Variant products in Woocommerce are products that have multiple 'Variants' available. Examples of variant products are color/size products. The product remains the same but is available in several different sizes or colors. Ultimately, each variant product in Woocommerce has its own unique SKU number. The same number must exist within RetailVista so that it can synchronize the inventory and price. 

Unfortunately, it is not technically possible to search and update a variant product based on the SKU number using the Woocommerce API. The Woocommerce API also requires the SKU number of the main product. However, within RetailVista, the main product of a variant product (related product) is not known because there can be multiple main products (a variant product can be part of multiple products).

For this reason, it is unfortunately necessary to specify the 'Main' product in RetailVista for the SKU variant. In practice, this means that the variant SKU number from Woocommerce must be entered in the article search text or external code field, followed by a | symbol and then the SKU number of the 'Main' product. Whether the search text field or external code field is used depends on the fallback setting as configured in the webshop maintenance.

Example: 1234|5678 where 1234 is the variant SKU number and 5678 is the 'main' product number in Woocommerce.

If the product with this search text qualifies for webshop synchronization (for example, because something has changed), it will search in Woocommerce for a variant product with SKU number 1234 that falls under a main product with SKU number 5678.If that combination is found, the stock and price of the SKU variant product will be updated.

More information about the specific REST API call (or its absence) can be found at:

https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/issues/31370