Quickstart

Tinx Connector is a Business Central app that automatically synchronises data (products, orders, inventory, and customers) between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and your webshop.

In this quickstart, you will install Tinx Connector and then go through the 5 parts. Use the diagram (with steps A-E) to better understand where you are in the Tinx Connector process.

Part 1. Configure initial elements in Tinx Connector.

Part 2. Connect your Business Central with your webshop.

Part 3. Set up job queues

    A - Make sure that the job queues' status is Ready.

Part 4. Export items from Business Central to the webshop

    B - Set up message definitions for items and select the items to publish.

    C - Check if the items are available in your webshop.

Part 5. Import orders from the webshop to Business Central

    D - Set up message definitions to import orders.

    E - Verify that the orders appear in the buffer table called Webshop Orders.

Learn more about the remaining architecture details in the Key concepts in Tinx Connector.

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The quickstart is designed for users with at least an intermediate level of knowledge of Business Central.

Complete this quickstart in a sandbox environment rather than in production. A sandbox gives you a safe place to test your configuration, validate the steps, and check user permissions before you go live.

After completing the quickstart, you will have a working connection, a published product on your webshop, and at least one imported order in Business Central. This is an introduction before the more detailed setup tasks in the Business functionality section.

Use the Troubleshooting guide if you face any synchronisation issues, particularly during parts 5 and 6.

Before you begin

Before running this quickstart, ensure you have access to:

  • Business Central sandbox environment with permission set: SUPER.

  • Backend of the webshop's test environment with the role: Administrator.

If you are a Dynamics 365 Business Central partner experimenting with Tinx Connector and you do not have access to a webshop test environment, contact the Tinx Support Team to request access to the WooCommerce test environment.

Install

Tinx Connector is available for both Online and on-premises versions, but for this quickstart, use the online version. To connect to the webshop, you only need to install the Tinx Connector app in Business Central. There are Tinx plugins for webshops that provide advanced features, but most customers do not require them, and they are not needed in this quickstart.

Follow these steps to install Tinx Connector:

  1. Go to Microsoft AppSource.
  2. Search for Tinx.
  3. Select the appropriate Tinx Connector application.

On AppSource, there is a separate Tinx application for each webshop. Choose the application that is appropriate for your webshop. If you plan to use multiple connectors, use the Tinx WooCommerce Connector for this Quickstart. Most examples and screenshots in this guide use WooCommerce, so the steps are easier if you use the same connector. Do not use the Tinx Amazon Connector for this Quickstart unless it is the only connector you expect to use in the future. In its current version, the Tinx Amazon Connector has limited functionality for sending data from Business Central to the webshop, so you will not be able to execute Part 4 in the Amazon Connector.

tinx-connector-appsource.png
  1. Select Free Trial, and if needed, sign in with the Microsoft account that has permission to install extensions in Business Central.
  2. Select the sandbox environment where you want to install the extension.
  3. Confirm the installation and wait for the process to complete.

You can use the free trial for 30 days. After 2 weeks, a notification appears on the home page informing you that your trial period expires in 14 days.

Verify installation

Follow these steps to confirm that Tinx Connector is installed.

  1. In Business Central, select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Extension Management, and then choose the related link.

  2. On the Installed Extensions page, confirm that Tinx apps appear and are installed. There is always one general Tinx E-Commerce Extension (base) and a specific channel extension (for example: Magento, WooCommerce, or Shopify).

installed-extensions.png

Part 1. Initial configuration

Change your role

Three new roles become available after you install the Tinx Connector. For this quickstart, use the TINX E-Com Admin role. This role provides easy access to the functionality you need to complete the next steps in this quickstart.

tinx-menu-role-center.png

Follow these steps to apply the role. 

  1. In the top right corner, choose the Settings icon, and then choose the My Settings action.
  2. On the My Settings page, in the Role field, select TINX E-Com Admin.
  3. Choose OK.

Allow HttpClient Requests

HttpClient Requests are essential for the Tinx Connector to exchange data between Business Central and your webshop. Follow these steps to enable HttpClient Requests.

  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Extension Management, and then choose the related link.
  2. Open the Tinx E-Commerce Connector page.
  3. Make sure that the Allow HttpClient Requests toggle is turned on.
tinx-ecommerce-connector-extension-settings.png
  1. Repeat steps 1-3 for the connector installed in Part 1, such as Tinx WooCommerce Connector or Tinx Magento 2 Connector.

Enable Change Log

Tinx uses a change log to monitor when you make changes to products, prices, and inventory. Enabling the change log allows Tinx to automatically detect these changes and add them to the Record Queue page.

  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter E-Commerce Integration Setup, and then choose the related link.

    2. If you don't find the E-Commerce Integration Setup in Search, go to the Role Center, select Setup, and then choose E-Commerce Integration Setup.

  2. On the E-commerce Setup page, on the General FastTab, ensure the Enable Change Log toggle is turned on.
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Part 2. Connect with your webshop

Set up a connection with your webshop. The process is different in each webshop. Select the appropriate instruction.

Return to this quickstart after establishing the connection between Business Central and your webshop.

Part 3. Set the inbound and outbound job queue entries to Ready

In parts 4 and 5, you send items from Business Central to your webshop and import orders from your webshop to Business Central. To make that happen, you need special Tinx job queues to handle the automatic synchronisation between the two systems. These background processes run every minute. The outbound job queue sends changes from Business Central to your webshop, while the inbound job queue checks for new orders and imports them into Business Central. Ensure these job queues are ready to run.

  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Job Queue Entries, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Job Queue Entries page, ensure that the TINX NAS Outbound Mgt. and the TINX NAS Inbound Mgt. job queues have the status set to Ready (alternatively, In Process). If the status is On Hold, use the Set Status to Ready action to update both job queues' statuses.
tinx-nas-inbound-outbound.png

 

Part 4. Publish a Business Central item to the webshop

The Tinx Amazon Connector does not include functionality to publish items to the webshop. Skip this step if you are using the Tinx Amazon Connector.

Set up the OUT-PRODUCTS synchronisation dashboard

  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.
  2. Open the OUT-PRODUCTS synchronisation dashboard. Depending on your connector, this is: WOO-OUT-PRODUCTS for WooCommerce, M2R_OUT_PRODUCTS for Magento, GQL_OUT_PRODUCTS for Shopify, and so on.
  3. On the OUT-PRODUCTS Synchronisation Dashboard page:
    1. On the General FastTab, set the Processing Policy field to On Timer and the Status field to Released.
    2. On the Lines FastTab, select Active for message definitions 020 and 024.
synchronization-dashboard-woo-out-products-woo-020-woo-024.png

Publish an item

  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Items, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Items page, select Publish to Webshop for the item(s) that you want to publish. The job queue runs in the background, and it sends the item(s) to the webshop within 1 minute.
  3. Check the Webshop Product ID field after 1 minute to confirm that the webshop has applied the product ID to your item.
item-published-to-webshop.png

You can also confirm synchronization by verifying the list of products available in your webshop and the Synchronization Ledger Entries.

If you are using a test webshop environment that the other users have access to, it is possible that some other users have already published an item with the same item number to the webshop. In such a case, Tinx Connector does not publish your item to the webshop, and the Webshop Product ID is not populated. To avoid that, create a new item in Business Central and repeat steps 2 and 3.

Part 5. Import the webshop orders to Business Central

Before you start, make sure that there are some orders in the webshop, or create a new one.

  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.
  2. Open the IN-ORDERS synchronisation dashboard (WOO-IN-ORDERS for WooCommerce, GQL_IN_ORDERS for Shopify, and so on).
  3. On the IN-ORDERS Synchronisation Dashboard page:
    1. On the General FastTab, set the Processing Policy field to On Timer and the Status field to Released.
    2. On the Lines FastTab, select Active for message definition 086 (for Shopify GQL-120).
synchronization-dashboard-woo-in-orders-woo-086.png
  1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Webshop Orders, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Webshop Orders page, verify the list of imported orders. Wait for 1-2 minutes for the Tinx Connector to download the orders from the webshop.
orders-imporded-from-webshop.png

Next steps

You have three options after completing the quickstart:

  • If you want to understand the ideas behind the steps you completed, review the Key concepts in Tinx Connector. It explains the Tinx architecture, basic terminology, and the overall logic of inbound and outbound processing. This is the introduction before delving into the details in the Business Functionality section.

  • If you are ready to explore other Tinx Connector functionalities immediately, go directly to the Business Functionality section.

  • If something did not synchronise as expected during the quickstart, use the Troubleshooting guide to locate and resolve the issues. You can also request a free one-hour session with a Tinx consultant for configuration or troubleshooting. Contact the Tinx Sales Team.

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