Introduction

The present concept describes what cost objects are in the context of the Intershop Commerce Management system and the cost object API.

Cost objects allow the customer to keep track of costs and as such are an important part of cost accounting. A cost object is anything in the customer organization to which cost can be assigned directly whereas cost centers are usually used to accumulate costs that cannot be directly assigned to the actual creator of the cost. Examples of cost objects include projects, products, services, purchase order numbers etc.

Costs can be tracked via cost objects on each order.

References

• Webshop REST APIdescribes the cost object REST API.
  • REST API - Create new cost object type (until 7.7)
  • REST API - Get cost object types (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Get cost object type (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Update cost object type (until 7.7)
  • REST API - Delete cost object type (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Get basket cost objects (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Get basket cost object (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Assign cost object to basket (until 7.7)
  • REST API - Remove basket cost object (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Get order cost objects (until 7.8)
  • REST API - Get order cost object (until 7.8)
• Concept - REST Framework
• Concept - Business Objects

Cost Object REST API Overview

The cost object REST API follows the resource plus handler class approach. The resource is used to define the REST path, available methods and the request/response data. The handler encapsulates the business logic. In addition, validator classes are used to ensure the data is correct.

REST API is implemented for:

• Cost object types of the customer
• Managing cost objects at the basket
• Getting the cost objects of an order

See the Webshop REST API for more details and request data examples.

Cost Object Type

Resources

Business Objects

Cost object types describe what kind of object the cost object represents. For example, projects are cost objects of type project.

The Cost Object Type BO API is straightforward and follows the same principles as other standard BOs.

The CostObjectTypeBORepository supports the usual CRUD operations.

A BusinessObjectCostObjectTypeExtension interface is also introduced as a base interface for business objects that should manage cost object types (e.g., CustomerBO). It has an additional method to find a cost object type by its name in the extended business object's (e.g., customer's) context.

The CostObjectTypeBO is a very simple business object. It has the following properties:

• id - the system ID that is part of the BusinessObject interface. It helps keep track of cost object types that may have the same name, but have existed at different times or exist in a different context. Assume, for example, a Project type is created, it is deleted after some time and another cost object type is created named Project. The two Project cost object types will be treated as different, because their system IDs will not be the same.
• name - the meaningful name of the type at a customer organization. This can be Project, PurchaseOrderNumber, etc. At the same time, there can be only one cost object type with the same name in the same context (e.g., the customer organization).
• displayName - a localized name of the cost object type. Unlike the name, it can be modified after the cost object type creation and it is not mandatory for it to be unique within the customer.
• description - a localized description of the cost object type.

ORM

Cost object types are stored in a separate CostObjectType database table.

Import and export

A new element cost-object-types is added to exported customers. It can be used to import new cost object types for that customer.

The new element has the following format:

<customer id="XYZ">
...
<cost-object-types>
	<cost-object-type name="Project">
    	<display-name xml:lang="en-US">Project</display-name>
    	<description xml:lang="en-US">Cost object type representing the projects of the company.</description>
    	<display-name xml:lang="de-DE">Projekt</display-name>
    	<description xml:lang="de-DE">Kostenträgertyp für Projekte des Unternehmens.</description>
	</cost-object-type>
	 ...
</cost-object-types>
 ...
</customer>

Cost Object Basket and Order extensions

Resources

Abstract classes

Basket

Order

Business Objects

A common extension interface is introduced for assigning cost objects to a business object. It is used to access the cost object assigned to a basket or an order. There are two implementations provided, one for basket and one for order.

ORM

Assignment tables are used for the assignment of cost objects to a basket or an order.

Cost Object Permissions and Roles

A new Role APP_B2B_COSTOBJECT_MANAGER is introduced along with the following new permissions for managing cost objects:

Permission	Description	Roles
		APP_B2B_ACCOUNT_OWNER	APP_B2B_COSTOBJECT_MANAGER	APP_B2B_APPROVER	APP_B2B_BUYER
APP_B2B_ASSIGN_COSTOBJECT_TO_BASKET	Select cost object for basket
APP_B2B_ASSIGN_COSTOBJECT_TO_BASKETLINEITEM	Select cost object for line item
APP_B2B_VIEW_COSTOBJECT	view cost objects
APP_B2B_CREATE_COSTOBJECT	create cost objects
APP_B2B_ACTIVATE_COSTOBJECT	activate/deactivate cost objects
APP_B2B_EDIT_COSTOBJECT	edit cost objects
APP_B2B_DELETE_COSTOBJECT	delete cost objects
APP_B2B_ASSIGN_USER_TO_COSTOBJECT	Assign cost objects to user
APP_B2B_UNASSIGN_USER_FROM_COSTOBJECT	Unassign cost objects from user
APP_B2B_VIEW_COSTOBJECTTYPE	view cost object types (includes settings for handling)
APP_B2B_CREATE_COSTOBJECTTYPE	create cost object types
APP_B2B_EDIT_COSTOBJECTTYPE	edit cost object types(includes settings for handling)
APP_B2B_DELETE_COSTOBJECTTYPE	delete cost object types