OCI – Overview
OCI (Open Catalog Interface) is a standard developed by SAP for connecting procurement systems with online shops. Today OCI is supported by many systems: SAP SRM, SAP Ariba, ivalua and all OCI-compatible platforms.
The AgiqonConnector supports OCI 4 and OCI 5.
How does OCI Punchout work?
An OCI punchout session runs in three phases:
Phase 1 — Login
The procurement system calls the shop's login URL and passes:
- Username and password (or a token)
- The hook URL — the return address to which the cart will later be sent
https://shop.example.com/AgiqonOciEntry/login
?USERNAME=buyer@company.com
&PASSWORD=secret
&HOOK_URL=https://procurement.company.com/return
The connector validates the credentials, creates a new Transmission and logs the customer into the shop.
Phase 2 — Shopping
The buyer sees the shop like a normal Shopware customer: searching for products, adding them to the cart, adjusting quantities. Instead of a checkout button, they see a "Transfer Cart" button.
Phase 3 — Transfer
On transfer, the connector sends the cart data as an HTML form (OCI 4) or JSON (OCI 5) via POST directly to the hook URL of the procurement system. The buyer is automatically redirected.
Procurement System ←── POST to hook URL ── Shopware Shop
(product data)
From this point, the punchout session is complete. The procurement system processes the data internally (approval, order placement).
OCI 4 vs. OCI 5
| OCI 4 | OCI 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer format | HTML form (POST) | JSON |
| Field names | NEW_ITEM-DESCRIPTION[n], NEW_ITEM-MATNR[n], … | items[].description, items[].matNumber, … |
| Usage | Very widespread, classic | More modern systems |
| Configuration | "OCI Version: 4" | "OCI Version: 5" |
The version is set per system and only affects the transfer format — the configuration interface is identical.
Login URL
https://shop.example.com/AgiqonOciEntry/login
The parameter names (USERNAME, PASSWORD, HOOK_URL, TOKEN) can be configured individually per system. The defaults follow the OCI specification.
Logout URL
https://shop.example.com/AgiqonOciEntry/logout