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2024.2 1. The overall design of the system

2024.2 1. The overall design of the system

Owned by Yurii Pochtovyk
May 01, 2024

The NetSuite Connector is implemented as a Magento extension, 100% unencrypted code. It does not use any external service other than the NetSuite instance to communicates with. The communication with NetSuite happens via SuiteTalk , which is a SOAP service. It makes use of the PHP Toolkit, a light wrapper over SOAP provided and maintained by NetSuite.

As mentioned before, the NetSuite Connector is a multi-module package. There are over 10 modules that are installed based on your needs. The main modules that are required on every project are:

  • RocketWeb_NetSuite 
  • RocketWeb_NetSuiteCustomer
  • RocketWeb_NetSuiteProduct
  • RocketWeb_NetSuiteStockUpdate
  • RocketWeb_NetSuiteOrder
  • RocketWeb_NetSuiteFulfillment


All modules are composer packages which can be retrieved from our private composer repository (repo.rocketweb.com). 

Speed optimizations:

  • The Connector supports running imports, exports and stock syncs in parallel.
  • Exporting can be done in parallel with a few code changes (e.g. have 2 crons, one exporting odd order numbers, the other one even numbers).

Optimized product import uses Magento Batch product import API and can handle approximately the same products per second as Magento's batch product import can, the main bottleneck comes from the NetSuite network communication.

How does it work?

The main logic of the Connector is a Magento command bin/magento netsuite:cron which is usually added as a standalone crontab entry to make sure its always executed and not limited by the Magento cronjob schedule. The command netsuite:cron class is \RocketWeb\NetSuite\Command\NetSuiteCron which has one required and optional inputs:

  • --mode - The run mode of the connector. Run modes can be:
    • import
    • importToQueue
    • processQueue
    • export
    • stock
    • all
      or comma-separated combination of them
  • --debug - If this option is included, the command writes to CLI output with Log level = Debug instead of Log file


The code responsible for executing the correct mode lies in method \RocketWeb\NetSuite\Command\NetSuiteCron::processMode(). As you can see, the run mode import is equal to importToQueue + processQueue. 

As the modes hint, the Connector works with Magento DB Queue. For the Import process, the two separate actions are used to split the logic as the first step fetches the data/records from NetSuite and saves that data into Queue, and the second step processes those records from Queue and save them in Magento. The export process is also split into two parts but as you can notice, there is only one mode listed. The first part of the Export process gets triggered in Magento when a specific action happens (for example - Order is Placed) and our code adds the information of that action into Queue. The second part is the run mode export which processes the Queue records and pushes data to NetSuite. Based on your needs, the cronjob schedule for those modes should be scheduled smartly as usually there is no need for immediate data transfer from NetSuite into Magento (Shipments, Order Status updates, Items <= Import processes) while you want to see the data transfer from Magento to NetSuite (Customers, Orders <= Export processes) to happen as soon as possible.

Logging in the Connector is done into two files:

  • /var/log/netsuite_system.log
  • /var/log/netsuite_exception.log

The level of logging is set in the following logic:

  • Command verbose level (-v/-vv/-vvv)
    if that is not set, then it uses
  • Configuration value
    either set in DB (core_config_data) for path rocketweb_netsuite/developer/logger_level OR by setting a default value in config.xml.
    If that is not set, then it uses
  • Default value
    hardcoded in the file.

The logic setting the level is found in \RocketWeb\NetSuite\Model\Logger\Logger::getDynamicLevel()


There are also two more Database Log tables that can be used:

  • System → NetSuite → Error Log - This table contains Errors that are reported from NetSuite Response part of workflow. Sort them by Latest occurrence to see the latest errors being reported. Use Occurrences sort to see if there are any global issues that are showing regularly. 
  • System → NetSuite → API Log - This table is filled only if Configuration is set and contains every Request and Response to and from NetSuite. It should be used for Debug purposes but it's Deprecated as the same data can be found in NetSuite.

Naming conventions

To understand the technical documentation correctly, we need to clear up a few naming conventions that we use.

  1. Process - Process represents a specific workflow in the Connector. It can either be the import or export process.
  2. Import/Export - The import/export represents process action from Magento 2 point of View. Processes that receive from NetSuite are called Import processes. And the other way around - Processes that send to NetSuite are called Export processes.

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