Within this article:  

• Definition of APIs within the context of LittleBig Connection
• Scope of action of the APIs - Purchase Order and Purchase Requests
  
  • • Platform Action: Proposal selected
    • Creation of Purchase Request (Optional)
• API Action: Your internal Information System synchronises the Purchase Request via the platform
• Retrieval of ongoing Purchase Recherche
  • • Update of the Purchase Request (validation/rejection)
    • Generation of the Purchase Order
• API Action: Your internal Information System synchronises the PO via the platform
  • • Retrieval of ongoing Purchase Orders
    • Update of the Purchase Order
    • Adding files as attachments to the PO

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Definition of APIs within the context of  LittleBig Connection

In order to have more information on the different API functions in the context of LittleBig Connection, please refer to our "APIs - General Info - Premium feature"

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Scope of action of the APIs - Purchase Order and Purchase Requests

The LittleBig Connection API alalows you to maintain the information relating to your ongoing projects in sync with your internal Information Systems.

Once your project has been created, the related Purchase Order is also generated. this will allow your procurement department to allocate the resources required for the project, so the supplier can also generate the invoice to be paid.

An additional option are the Purchase Requests. They allow our platform to connect to your E-procurement tool, and hence avoid the manual undertaking of adding the information in our platform then having to insert them by hand in your internal Information System, at the time to create Purchase Requests. 

This option will then activate an additional stage to workflows and  enables other agents to intervene in the procurement process.

Here is an example of the process:

With a Purchase Request: Without the Purchase Request

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Platform Action: Proposal selected

Once the proposal has been chosen, the project may start.

 

The APIs may be used to:

• Synchronise the data within the Purchase Orders and the Purchase Requests with your internal Information Systems
• Validate Purchase Requests
• Assign additional Purchase Order and Consultant identifiers, to match them with your in-company internal identifiers
• Upload and add documents as attachments to the Purchase Order

Next action:   The platform may then generate the Purchase Request (if the option is enabled) or the Purchase order. 

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Purchase Request generation (Optional)

If the Purchase Request feature is enabled, the Purchase order will be created from the moment the user accepts the Purchase Request. 

If the Purchase Request feature is not activated, the Purchase Order will be the one to be created.

The next step would be the creation of the Purchase order.

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API Action: Synchronisation of the Purchase request in your internal systems via the platform

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Search of ongoing Purchase Requests

With the "SearchPurchaseRequest" operation, you can filter the ongoing Purchase Requests. You may also be able to do a search for a specific period of dates/time, to narrow down the scope of the results: 

 

You may check the API documentation link to have more details on the topic of search criteria

API Resource	/purchaseRequests/search
Operation	SearchPurchaseRequest
HTTP Verb	POST
Query Parameters (optional)	withAncestors: when set to true, the returned Purchase Requests will contain information about related Request for Proposal and the selected Proposal
Request Body	{     "status": "inProgress" }

The response will contain information of the Purchase Requests matching the criteria below:

• ID of the Purchase Request
• Status
• Custom fields (if any)
• Request for Proposal
• Request for Proposal (if withAncestors = true)
• Selected Proposal (if withAncestors = true)

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Update of the Purchase Request (validation/rejection)

After retrieving ongoing Purchase Requests, with the "UpdatePurchaseRequest" operation,  you can update the details (external identifiers for the Purchase Request and Purchase Orders) and either approve or reject it.

Here is an example of the request to retrieve data:

API Resource	/purchaseRequests/{purchaseRequestId}
Operation	UpdatePurchaseRequest
HTTP Verb	PATCH
Request Body	{     "externalId": "External PR Number",     "startedPurchaseOrderExternalId": " External PO Number",     "status": {         "value": "validated",         "message": "The PR is validated"     } }

If the request was successful, the response would contain the updated information for the Purchase Request.

Otherwise, an error message will be shown.

 

Depending on the validation workflows defined by the company in the platform, it is possible that the Purchase Order may not be generated straight away, until the process is completed.

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Generation of the Purchase Order

Once the Purchase Order is generated, it will then be possible to access the data it contains via the API, with the purpose of synchronising it to your internal Information system.

It will also become possible for some of those details to be modified and updated, additionally it will become possible to add files as attachments. 

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API Action: Your internal Information System synchronises the PO via the platform

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Retrieval of ongoing Purchase Orders

With the "SearchPurchaseOrders" operation, you can filter out the ongoing Purchase Orders. You may carry out searches, specifying a specific timeframe (date/time), in order to reduce the scope of the results shown.

More details available in our API documentation. 

Here is an example of the operation: 

API Resource	/purchaseOrders/search
Operation	SearchPurchaseOrders
HTTP Verb	POST
Query Parameters (optional)	withAncestors: when set to true, the returned Purchase Requests will contain information about related Request for Proposal and the selected Proposal
Request Body	{     "statuts": "inProgress" }

 

The response will contain the information of the Purchase Orders that matches the below criteria:

Purchase order ID ID and Title of the Project Renewal ID Entity and Legal entity Status Start and end dates Work unit information (number types and price)  Details on early termination

Manager and Buyer information Activity reports generated Daily fees (if any) Spending lines Custom fields (f any) Requests for Proposals (if setup withAncestors= true) Proposal selected (if setup withAncestors=true)

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Update of the Purchase Order

With the operation "UpdatePurchaseOrder", you may update the information of and within the (assignation Purchase Orders and consultant identifiers) Purchase Order, once it has been retrieved. 

Below an example of the operation:

API Resource	/purchaseOrders/{purchaseOrderId}
Operation	UpdatePurchaseOrder
HTTP Verb	PATCH
Request Body	{   "purchaseOrderExternalId": "PO-ID",   "consultantExternalId": "CONSULTANT-ID" }

If the request is successful, the respond will contain the updated Purchase Order.

Otherwise, an error message will be displayed.

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Adding files as an attachment to Purchase Orders

The API feature offers you the option of uploading and attaching documents to your Purchase order thanks to the operation " UploadPurchaseOrderDocument".

 

API Resource	/purchaseOrders/{purchaseOrderId}/upload
Opération	UploadPurchaseOrderDocument
HTTP Verbe	POST
Corps de la Demande	{   "fileName": "Purchase order approved and signed by the buyer",   "fileType": "clientPurchaseOrder",   "fileData": "JVBERi0xLjQKJcOkw7zDtsOfCjIgMCBvYmo[...]GVuZ3RoIDMgMCBSL0ZpbHRlcjEyNzg3CiUlRU9GCg==" }

 

If the request is successful, the following message will be displayed:

Response Body

{     "id": {purchaseOrderId},     "result": "Le fichier a été ajouté au Bon de Commande " }

 

Otherwise, an error message will be displayed.