Electronic interfaces

What electronic interfaces does Rittal offer?

1. OCI transfer with the Rittal Online Shop

With the OCI interface we offer our customers the possibility to import shopping carts into their own system. Afterwards you can initiate the order from your system.

Prerequisites for this are a valid registration to the Rittal Online Shop and the integration of the individual call parameter in your system. You can carry out this connection yourself. Please contact your local IT with the following information.

Registration

To use the OCI interface, you need a valid online shop account. If you do not have an account yet, please register using the registration form of your local country shop.

Implementation

After the successful registration you can create the individual call link with your access data and the parameters necessary for you.

The call link should be structured as follows:

https://www.rittal.com/de-de/shop/oci-login?login=your email address&password=your password&id=oci&SENDFORM=POST&MATGRP=ECLASS80&TARGET=_top&PREVENT_REDIRECT=true&HOOK_URL=your return address

URL: https://www.rittal.com/de-de/shop/oci-login?
login = your username (mail address)
password = password for login
id = oci (Not changeable, is processed internally by us)
SENDFORM = POST (Not changeable, is processed internally by us)
MATGRP = ECLASS51; ECLASS60; ECLASS80; ECLASS10; ETIM60; ETIM70; UNSPSC (classification selection, case sensitive mapping: please use capital letters)

TARGET= "_top" = display in same browser window; "_blank" = display in new browser window

PREVENT_REDIRECT= "true" = redirection is disabled; "false" = redirection is enabled
HOOK_URL = your return address

If the shop is embedded in a procurement system (e.g. as IFRAME), the following parameter configuration should be used:

TARGET=_top
PREVENT_REDIRECT=true

This definition ensures that you stay in your system.

2. Electronic catalogs

A resource providing data to describe products. It contains far more information than printed catalogues, and can be searched for specific data. Because it is based on standards, the data structure is familiar, enabling recipients to process the data in a meaningful way, for example, to select and order products.

Alongside wholesalers, a growing number of direct clients are now also turning to electronic catalogues, because they are comprehensive, tested, and clearly defined. Engineers can also incorporate the data into their plans. Electronic catalogues from Rittal use codes to enable them to be used internationally. The file format is based on an XML structure.

The XML-based, standardised file format BMEcat is used to exchange product information and conditions.

Your benefits:

  • Simple, fast processing of product data
  • Up-to-date, individual product prices in your system
  • Error-free transmission of product data and fewer mistakes in orders

Advantages:

  • Data plays a central role: Our customers benefit from our digitalization progress.
  • Clear structuring of product data in a file
  • Time savings and simplification of order processes
  • Improved quality of master data

The two data models offered by Rittal are ETIM and eCl@ss, as outlined below:

ETIM (electro-technical information model) standardises the exchange of product data in the electrical engineering and similar sectors. ETIM is not a data exchange standard, but a descriptive data model analogous to eCl@ss, to facilitate easier comparisons between products and services in the electrical engineering sector. The main difference between it and eCl@ss is that products are assigned to an item class with no regard for hierarchy. Additionally, products in ETIM can only be described with industry-relevant attributes and values, whereas in eCl@ss, all values are available.

Rittal is an active member of ETIM’s Technical Committee 4.

Like ETIM, eCl@ss is used to characterise products in a defined format. This format is comprised of classes. These product classes can be likened to drawers, into which the products are sorted, and which are tailored precisely to those products. Unlike ETIM, eCl@ss is designed for use with Industry 4.0, and is therefore a cooperation partner to AutomationML, the standard for data exchange between engineering systems.

There are two eCl@ss variants: Basic and Advanced.

Below, we consider the example of class 27-18-01-01 - Electrical cabinet. It contains eCl@ss Basic features such as “Number of doors”, “Floor mounting supported”, “Protection category (IP)” and “power loss dissipation capacity [Pve]”.

These basic features are also found in eCl@ss Advanced. However, Advanced is transmitted in a different format to Basic and is therefore completely independent and not merely an extension. Furthermore, eCl@ss Advanced includes other features, such as “mounting variant”, “component accommodation”, “blocked area” and “parts relationship”. These features are known as reference features. Unlike the simple features, they are comprised of a block of features. For example, there are multiple mounting variants on one enclosure. Each of them is described by a block of features which includes the mounting reference point, the name of the mounting variant, and the type of mounting. This block can be multiplied any number of times in order to describe that specific enclosure.

As well as full translations into German and English, partial translations into French, Turkish, Chinese, Spanish, Czech, Portuguese and other languages are also provided.

eCl@ss Advanced was developed for use in a variety of CAx systems. Thanks to the depth of information and the clear data structure, it is suitable for all systems, from design through to production. Rittal is an active member of the Cross Expert Group CAx at eCl@ss.