I want to build an automated routine that exports orders from Magento to another ERP. I started down the road of the magento SOAP/XML API's. However we are finding this solution slow for large numbers of orders.
Now I realize that the flat order tables (sales_flat_order, sales_flat_item etc) seem to contain all of the information I need. Is this file reliable and kept up to date? Is there anything that I will be missing in this case (other than custom attributes of course). Are these files likely to change in event of upgrade?
Magento API's http://www.magentocommerce.com/api/soap/introduction.html
Magento Data model http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/2_-_magento_concepts_and_architecture/magento_database_diagram#magento_database_downloads
thanks