Synchronization dashboards

When Business Central is connected to a webshop, data must flow in both directions. Products and stock levels are sent to the webshop, and orders are received. Without a way to control what data moves, when, and under what conditions, keeping Business Central and your webshop in sync becomes unmanageable. This is especially true across multiple webshop platforms or sales channels.

Synchronization dashboards are the control layer for that data flow. Each dashboard groups a set of message definitions that serve a related purpose, such as publishing products, importing orders, or updating stock levels. For example, M2R_IN_ORDERS groups the messages that download orders from Magento into Business Central, while WOO-OUT-PRODUCTS groups the messages that create and update WooCommerce products. When you set up a new sales channel, a ready-to-use set of dashboards is automatically created for you. They are inactive by default.

You activate a dashboard and its message definitions when you are ready to start synchronizing a specific data type. You can set a dashboard to run on schedule, or process it manually, which is the typical approach during testing and setup.

Message definitions

Each dashboard contains several message definitions. A message definition specifies the data sent or received, whether the message is active, and the order in which messages are processed within the dashboard.

The following image shows the message definitions in a dashboard.

There are three key elements of a message definition:

• Triggers determine when a message runs, for example, when a product is updated in Business Central.
• Filters determine whether a message is allowed to run. For example, a filter can prevent an item from being sent to your webshop unless it meets specific criteria.
• Mappings determine how data fields from your webshop correspond to fields in Business Central.

Some synchronization dashboards contain multiple lines with the same message definition. For example, the WOO-OUT-PRODUCTS synchronization dashboard contains two lines with the WOO-020 message definition in the Document No. field. One line is used to create a new product in WooCommerce, while the other line is used to update an existing product. However, both lines use the same WOO-020 message definition. When you select the Message Definition action to modify the message definition, you are modifying it for both lines. Other areas that you modify from the synchronization dashboard level, such as Card, Events / Triggers, Filters, or Request Parameters, apply only to the selected line. The following screenshot shows the two lines with the same message definition in the WOO-OUT-PRODUCTS synchronization dashboard.

Running synchronization dashboards and activating message definitions

The articles on synchronizing Business Central with your webshop instruct you to activate specific synchronization dashboards and message definitions. Examples include webshop synchronization or customer synchronization. Use that information differently, depending on whether Tinx consultants or another Dynamics 365 Business Central partner implemented your Tinx Connector, or whether you are implementing it yourself.

If you use Tinx Connector implemented by Tinx consultants or another Dynamics 365 Business Central partner, your dashboards and message definitions are configured to meet your company’s needs identified during the discovery phase. Most of the time, there is no need to adjust them. In such cases, you might have dashboards and messages that are different from the Default mapping. So in your Business Central, you might need to activate different dashboards and message definitions than those described in the articles.

Each dashboard is linked to a Sales Channel, which holds the connection settings for your webshop. For more information, see Sales Channel. When you create a sales channel for a new webshop, a set of synchronization dashboards is created in your Business Central environment. By default, the dashboards are inactive and do not synchronize data between Business Central and your webshop. Before activating each dashboard, make sure your data is ready on both sides. For example, your items in Business Central are ready to be sent to your webshop, or your webshop orders can be imported to Business Central. Follow these steps to activate a dashboard.

For Tinx Connector to publish or receive data, both the synchronization dashboard and its message definitions must be active.

For the synchronization dashboard, it means that you either:

• Set it up to run automatically by selecting On Timer. For more information, see To set up a synchronization dashboard for automatic processing.
• Process manually. For more information, see Manually processing synchronization dashboards and message definitions.

Manual is typically used during implementation, while On Timer is applicable when you want the synchronization to run automatically. If you select On Timer, make sure that the related TINX NAS Inbound Mgt or TINX NAS Outbound Mgt job queue is set to Ready. For more information, see Job queues. The job queue status is one of the most common causes of synchronization issues. For more information, see Check the job queue status.

The On Timer and Manual options on the synchronization dashboard require appropriate setup of the job queues. This applies to both the TINX NAS Inbound Mgt and TINX NAS Outbound Mgt job queues. On Timer requires that the related job queue is set to Ready, while Manual requires that the related job queue is set to On Hold. For more information, see Job queues.

In the specific articles, you can find synchronization dashboards for WooCommerce, Magento, and Shopify. Based on their code, you can identify the relevant dashboards in other webshops, such as Shopware or Amazon. The code for all supported webshops in Tinx Connector follows a similar pattern.

You also need to activate particular message definitions on the synchronization dashboard. In some articles, you are also given instructions regarding specific message definitions. If their codes are not provided in the articles, the right message definitions depend on what you want to achieve.

The following screenshot shows an example of the synchronization dashboard related to publishing attributes to Magento. There are many different options available in different messages, such as create, modify, or remove.

If you use the default mapping, in some cases, you will also need to adjust the mapping before activating the message definition. For example, Tinx Connector supports three ways to publish prices from Business Central to the webshop. You need to choose the right method. Then you need to adjust the mapping so that the message definition can pass the price information from the right area in Business Central. For more information, see Default mapping.

To set up a synchronization dashboard for automatic processing

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.
2. Select the dashboard you want to activate, and then choose Edit.
3. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the General FastTab, set the Status field to Released and the Processing Policy field to On Timer.
4. On the Lines FastTab, select the Active checkbox for each message you want to activate. Wait for the job queue to process the messages.

Manually processing synchronization dashboards and message definitions

In most cases, you set the Processing Policy to On Timer for only a few dashboards. These are typically in areas that need regular synchronization between Business Central and your webshop, such as orders or products (WOO-IN-ORDERS or WOO-OUT-PRODUCTS for WooCommerce). You can keep other dashboards with the Processing Policy set to Manual and run them only when needed.

Inbound message definitions, such as webshop orders, download data from the webshop to the Tinx buffer tables. On the other hand, outbound message definitions publish data through Record Queue. That difference impacts how you process the messages manually. For more information, see Data flows between Business Central and your webshop.

To manually run inbound message definitions

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the dashboard you want to activate, and then choose Edit.

3. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the action bar, in the Job Queue group, choose the Set On Hold action.

   This changes the status of both the TINX NAS Outbound Mgt. and the TINX NAS Inbound Mgt. job queue entries to On Hold. You cannot manually run the synchronization dashboard if the job queue is set to Ready. To confirm that the job queues are on hold, select the Entries action.

4. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the General FastTab, set the Status field to Released and the Processing Policy field to Manual.

5. On the Lines FastTab, select the Active checkbox for each message you want to run.

6. On the action bar, in the Home group, choose the Process (F9) action. This triggers the data import from the webshop.

   When you choose Process (F9), Tinx Connector runs active messages in the dashboard in sequence. For example, webshop order processing in Shopify consists of five message definitions. The process starts with the order import (GQL-120) and ends with the creation of the sales order in Business Central (GQL-124). You don’t need to select Process (F9) for each message definition. Tinx Connector processes them according to the Priority field. Each message has its own priority setup. If the Priority field is empty, it processes based on the line. The following screenshot shows the message definition applicable to Shopify order processing.

   

To manually run the outbound message definition

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.

2. Select the dashboard you want to activate, and then choose Edit.

3. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the action bar, in the Job Queue group, choose the Set On Hold action.

4. On the General FastTab, set the Status field to Released and the Processing Policy field to Manual.

5. On the Lines FastTab, select the Active checkbox for each message you want to run.

6. Make the necessary changes in Business Central. For example, publish an item to the webshop or change its price.

7. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Record Queue, and then choose the related link.

8. The Record Queue page displays the records with all the changes that are waiting to be published to the webshop. On the action bar, in the Home group, choose the Process all Records or Process Filtered Records action to publish the changes to the webshop. For more information, see Processing entries in the record queue.

   Always make changes after activating the message definition: follow step 6 before step 7. If you make a change while the message definition is inactive, Tinx Connector does not detect it after the message is activated. For example, if the relevant message was not active, and you published an item to the webshop, the appropriate record is not added to Record Queue after activating a message definition. In that case, unpublish the item, activate the message definition, then publish it again. This adds the record to Record Queue and makes it possible to publish it to the webshop.

To find which synchronization dashboard a message definition belongs to

You can’t run a message definition without a synchronization dashboard. If you have a specific message definition but don’t know which dashboard it belongs to, check the Message Definition List page.

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Message Definition List, and then choose the related link.

   If you don’t find Message Definition List in Search, sign in to Business Central with the TINX E-Com Admin role. Then on the Role Center page, select Integration, and then choose Message Definitions.

2. On the Message Definition List page, find the message definition in question, and check the No. Of Use In Synchronisation Dashboard field.

3. On the action bar, in the Navigation group, select the Dashboards action if the No. Of Use In Synchronisation Dashboard field is greater than 0.

   This opens either the message or the list of dashboards, depending on whether the message definition is used in multiple dashboards.

4. If the field is blank, the message definition is not yet added to any synchronization dashboard. You must create a new synchronization dashboard and add the message definition to run it. For more information, see Create new synchronization dashboard.

To create a new synchronization dashboard based on an existing one

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.
2. Select the dashboard you want to use as a template, and then choose the View action.
3. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the action bar, in the Functions group, select the Copy Dashboard action.
4. On the Copy Dashboard page, select the dashboard you want to copy from in the From Job No. field. Then enter a new code for the dashboard that you want to create in the To Job No. field.
5. Choose OK to create the new dashboard.
6. Find the new dashboard on the Synchronisation Dashboard List page, and then choose Edit.
7. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the action bar, in the Home group, select the Comments action.
8. On the TINX Comment Sheet page, in the Description field, add your first comment. Record the reason for creating this dashboard and identify the dashboard that was used as a template. Use comments to record any changes to the dashboard.
9. Return to the Synchronisation Dashboard page, and make the necessary changes. In particular, set up the Sales Channel field if you need a copy of the synchronization dashboard due to a newly created sales channel. Then record the changes on the TINX Comment Sheet page.

The Synchronisation Dashboards page

Fields

The following table describes the fields on the Synchronisation Dashboards page.

Actions

The following table outlines key actions on the Synchronisation Dashboards page.

Related information

Synchronize stock
Synchronize attributes
Synchronize products
Synchronize customers
Key concepts in Tinx Connector
Troubleshooting checklist