Adobe Commerce (Magento) setup guide

Connect Adobe Commerce or Magento to flashtimer

Give flashtimer a key to your store and your countdown timers follow your cart price rules: change a sale's end date in your store and the timer in your emails changes with it. You don't need a developer to connect, and it takes about ten minutes.

Open IntegrationsSee the steps
  • Nothing to install
  • Pro and up
  • Reads, never changes
  • About ten minutes
flashtimer connected to Adobe Commerce: Nothing to install, Pro and up, Reads, never changes, About ten minutes.

Before you start

What you need

  • Owner or admin in flashtimer

    Connecting an integration is up to your organization's owners and admins, on Pro and up.

  • An admin login to your store

    One that can open System → Integrations and Stores → Configuration. If you don't see those menus, ask whoever manages the store.

  • Magento 2.4 or Adobe Commerce

    Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce, on your own servers or on Adobe's cloud. Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service connects another way, described here.

Step by step

Connect Adobe Commerce

First you make a key for flashtimer in your store's admin (steps 1 to 7), then you paste it into flashtimer (steps 8 and 9). The last two steps are an optional extra that makes changes arrive at once, and need someone who can install a module.

  1. In Adobe Commerce

    Step 1: In your store's admin, open System → Integrations

    Sign in to your store's admin. In the menu on the left click System, and under Extensions click Integrations.

    An integration is your store's way of giving another service a key of its own, with only the access you choose. Click Add New Integration.

    your-store.com/admin
    The store admin's System menu open, with Integrations under Extensions marked, and the Add New Integration button on the Integrations page behind it.
  2. In Adobe Commerce

    Step 2: Name it flashtimer and enter your admin password

    In Name, type flashtimer. Leave Email, Callback URL and Identity link URL empty.

    Under Current User Identity Verification, type the password you sign in to this admin with. Your store asks for it whenever access is handed out. Don't click Save yet.

    your-store.com/admin
    The New Integration form with flashtimer typed in the Name field, the other fields empty, and the Your Password field filled in.
  3. In Adobe Commerce

    Step 3: On the API tab, tick what flashtimer may read

    Click API on the left. Set Resource Access to Custom, then tick these five boxes: Catalog → Inventory → Products, Marketing → Promotions → Cart Price Rules, Stores → Settings → All Stores, Stores → Inventory → Sources and Stores → Inventory → Stocks. Click the small arrows to open each group.

    Only want timers that follow your sales, without Stock Monitor? Cart Price Rules and All Stores are enough. Then click Save.

    your-store.com/admin
    The API tab with Resource Access set to Custom and five resources ticked: Products under Catalog, Cart Price Rules under Marketing, and All Stores, Sources and Stocks under Stores.
    What flashtimer does with each permission
    Cart Price Rules
    Reads your cart price rules: their names, dates and whether they are active. This is what timers follow.
    All Stores
    Reads your store's time zone, so a sale that ends on the 30th ends at midnight where your store is, not somewhere else.
    Products
    Lists your products by name and SKU when you pick one for Stock Monitor.
    Sources, Stocks
    Reads how many of a product can still be bought, so Stock Monitor can end a timer when it sells out.

    flashtimer only reads. It never changes a rule, a product, a price or your stock.

  4. In Adobe Commerce

    Step 4: Click Activate on flashtimer's row

    After you save, your store takes you back to the Integrations page. flashtimer is listed there as Inactive: it exists, but has no key yet.

    Click Activate on its row.

    your-store.com/admin
    The Integrations page listing flashtimer as Inactive, with the Activate link on its row marked.
  5. In Adobe Commerce

    Step 5: Check the access and click Allow

    Your store lists the access you ticked in step 3, so you can check it once more. Groups you ticked show everything inside them.

    Click Allow at the top right.

    your-store.com/admin
    The store asking to approve the flashtimer integration's access, listing Catalog, Marketing and Stores resources, with an Allow button at the top right.
  6. In Adobe Commerce

    Step 6: Copy the Access Token

    Your store shows four values. flashtimer needs one of them: the Access Token, the third one. Copy it somewhere safe for a minute, then click Done.

    Treat it like a password: anyone who has it can read what you ticked in step 3. If you lose it, click Reauthorize on the integration's row for a new one.

    your-store.com/admin
    The integration's tokens: Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, Access Token and Access Token Secret, with the Access Token field marked and a Done button.
  7. In Adobe CommerceMagento 2.4.4 and later

    Step 7: Let your store accept the token

    Since version 2.4.4 a store refuses an integration's token until one setting is turned on. Go to Stores → Configuration, open Services on the left and click OAuth.

    Open Consumer Settings and set Allow OAuth Access Tokens to be used as standalone Bearer tokens to Yes. If the box is grey, untick Use system value next to it first. Click Save Config.

    Not sure which version you have? Do this step anyway: it's the usual reason a connection is refused.

    your-store.com/admin
    Stores, Configuration, Services, OAuth with Consumer Settings open and the setting Allow OAuth Access Tokens to be used as standalone Bearer tokens set to Yes and marked.
  8. In flashtimer

    Step 8: In flashtimer, paste your store's address and the token

    In flashtimer, go to Settings → Integrations, open the E-commerce tab and click Adobe Commerce (Magento).

    In Store URL, type the address your shop opens at, starting with https://, like https://your-store.com. Not the admin's address. In Access Token, paste the token from step 6. Leave the three Cloud Service fields empty and click Connect Adobe Commerce (Magento).

    Open Integrations
    app.flashtimer.com
    flashtimer's Adobe Commerce (Magento) dialog with the Store URL and Access Token filled in, the Cloud Service fields empty, and the Connect Adobe Commerce (Magento) button.
  9. In flashtimer

    Step 9: Connected: choose what flashtimer does by itself

    The dialog shows Connected, your store's address and the time zone your sale dates are read in. From now on flashtimer checks your store every few minutes.

    Under Automation, tick what you want done for you. Auto-create timers makes a timer for each new cart price rule, Auto-update timers moves a timer's end when you change the rule's dates, and Auto-archive timers puts a timer away when its rule is switched off or deleted. Everything is off until you tick it, and your choice is saved as you make it.

    That's the connection done. The next two steps are optional.

    app.flashtimer.com
    flashtimer's Adobe Commerce (Magento) dialog showing Connected, the store's address, the three Automation choices ticked, and the optional Instant updates section with a Disconnect button below.
  10. In flashtimerOptional

    Step 10: For instant updates, download the module for your developer

    Without anything more, a change in your store reaches your timers within a few minutes. If you want it within seconds, your store needs flashtimer's small free module, which tells flashtimer the moment a cart price rule is saved or deleted. It sends the rule's name, dates and status, and nothing about customers or orders.

    Click Download the module and send the file to whoever looks after your store's server: your developer or agency. Installing it is a routine job for them. They unzip it into app/code/Flashtimer/Sync and run bin/magento module:enable Flashtimer_Sync, bin/magento setup:upgrade and bin/magento cache:flush.

    app.flashtimer.com
    The Instant updates section of flashtimer's dialog: a Download the module link, the address to paste into the store, and the secret with Copy and Regenerate buttons.
  11. In Adobe CommerceOptional

    Step 11: Paste flashtimer's two values into the module

    Once the module is installed, go to Stores → Configuration in your store's admin, open Services and click flashtimer.

    Copy the address from flashtimer's dialog into Webhook URL and the secret into Webhook signing secret (the copy buttons next to each give you the whole value). Set Enabled to Yes and click Save Config.

    To check it, change a rule's end date in your store: the timer linked to it follows within seconds.

    your-store.com/admin
    Stores, Configuration, Services, flashtimer in the store admin: Enabled set to Yes, the Webhook URL and the Webhook signing secret filled in, and a Save Config button.

Once connected

What you can do next

  • Make a timer from a cart price rule

    Pro and up

    On the Timers page, open the arrow next to New timer and under Import choose Adobe Commerce (Magento). Pick a rule and click Create timer: it counts down to the rule's end date. A timer you make this way tells you when the rule's date changes and offers to Sync.

  • Let new sales become timers by themselves

    Pro and up

    With Auto-create timers on, every new cart price rule with an end date gets a timer within a few minutes, and with Auto-update and Auto-archive on it follows the rule from then on without you.

  • End a timer when a product sells out

    Business

    Open a timer, go to Automations and add a Stock Monitor: pick a product by name or SKU and the stock level at which the timer should end.

Manage

Manage the connection

Disconnect
In Settings → Integrations → Adobe Commerce (Magento), click Disconnect. Your timers stay and keep counting down; they stop following your store. To take the key away too, delete the flashtimer integration in your store's admin.
Replace the token
Click Reauthorize on the integration's row in your store, copy the new Access Token and connect again in flashtimer with it. Your Automation choices are kept.
Connect another store
An organization connects one store at a time. Connect with the other store's address and token: timers that followed the old store are let go of, so they never follow a rule from the wrong shop.
New secret for the module
Click Regenerate next to the secret in flashtimer's dialog, then paste the new one under Stores → Configuration → Services → flashtimer in your store.

Troubleshooting

If something doesn't work

Most problems show a message on flashtimer's Integrations page. Here's what each one means and what to do.

“Adobe Commerce refused the access token.”
Three things cause this, and the message is the same for each. Do step 7 if you skipped it. Check that the integration is Active in your store. And check that you pasted the Access Token, not one of the other three values. If the message names something to allow, tick that box on the integration's API tab, save and reauthorize.
“There is no Adobe Commerce API at this address.”
The Store URL isn't your shop's own address. Use the one your shop opens at for customers, like https://your-store.com, not the admin's address and not a single page of the shop.
“Your store redirects to …”
Your shop lives at a slightly different address, usually with or without www. Connect again with the address the message names.
“Site URL must start with https://.”
Type the whole address, starting with https://. A store that only answers on http can't be connected.
“Your store asks for a username and password before it answers”
A test or staging store is often locked behind a password prompt, and flashtimer can't get past it. Ask your developer to let requests to /rest through, or connect the live store.
“Something in front of your store … blocked flashtimer with HTTP 403.”
A firewall or bot protection stopped flashtimer before it reached your store. Ask whoever runs it to allow requests to /rest/V1.
I changed a rule's date and my timer didn't move
A timer you made yourself from a rule, or linked by hand, doesn't change on its own: open it and click Sync to the new date. Timers that flashtimer created through Auto-create follow the rule themselves, within a few minutes, as long as Auto-update timers is ticked.
My new rule didn't become a timer
Check that Auto-create timers is ticked, that the rule is Active in your store and that its To date hasn't passed. Then give it a few minutes: flashtimer checks on a schedule unless the module is installed.

Still stuck? Contact support.

Questions

Answered before you ask.

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