If you've just completed the quickstart, you might have questions about how Tinx Connector works behind the scenes. This article explains the core concepts and principles that enable the integration, before you dive into more specific how-to guides in the Business functionality section.
If you're already familiar with the main concepts behind integrating an ERP system with a webshop, you only need to review the Data Flows and Monitoring sections to get an overview of how these concepts are implemented in Tinx Connector.
Tinx Connector integrates Business Central with webshops such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce. There are different implementation scenarios. You might already have a webshop that you want to connect to Business Central. Or you might be starting a new webshop from scratch and want to integrate it with Business Central right away. Whichever applies to you, the core concepts remain the same.
How the integration works
Tinx Connector serves as a bridge between Business Central and your webshop, keeping data synchronized between the two systems. The diagram introduced in the quickstart illustrates the most common configuration. In this example, the company manages all of the product information in Business Central. Customers place orders on the webshop, and those orders flow back into Business Central for processing and fulfillment.
After connecting Business Central with your webshop, you have the same data in two different places. For example, the items you sell and their prices exist in both Business Central and your webshop. That's why it's important to understand which one of them is the primary source of information. There are three common approaches:
All data in Business Central
This is the approach shown in the diagram and quickstart. Tinx Connector includes Product Information Management functionality to manage data in the webshop. See all the webshop management options available in Tinx Connector.
Selective webshop management
You can choose to manage certain data only in your webshop. For example, product images, marketing descriptions, promotional content, and customer reviews can be maintained exclusively in your webshop. At the same time, Business Central remains the source of core business data, such as prices, SKUs, and stock levels.
External PIM systems
A growing number of companies use external Product Information Management (PIM) systems to centrally manage product data, which then feeds into both Business Central and their webshop.
To learn more, see the articles in the Product Information Management section.
Set up the connection
To connect Business Central and your webshop, you need to install the appropriate Tinx Connector app in Business Central. There are separate apps for each webshop: Tinx WooCommerce Connector, Tinx Shopify Connector, Tinx Magento Connector, and others. Once installed, you need to establish the connection. This connection is called a Sales Channel. The most important elements of the sales channel are the store URL and the API keys to access the webshop.
You set up the connection in part 2 of the quickstart. To learn more, see the Sales channels.
Data flows between Business Central and your webshop
When you establish the connection, you need to decide what information should flow between Business Central and your webshop. Should all products be published to the webshop? What are the directions? Which data flows from Business Central to the webshop, and which flows in the opposite direction?
These rules are called Message Definitions in Tinx Connector. Each message definition controls what data synchronizes and when. For example, sending products to the store is one message definition, and receiving orders back is another. A ready-to-use set of message definitions is provided out of the box for each supported webshop right after setting up the sales channel.
Tinx Connector contains many message definitions, organized into flows called Synchronisation Dashboards. While working with Tinx Connector, you typically work within the synchronisation dashboards.
Most examples and screenshots in this documentation are based on WooCommerce or Magento. The most important message definitions use the same numbers across all webshop platforms, as shown in the screenshot. For example, WOO-006 (WooCommerce) and M2R-006 (Magento) both download new customers from the webshop into Business Central. Similarly, WOO-020 (WooCommerce) and M2R-020 (Magento) both publish new products from Business Central to the webshop. The descriptions might vary slightly, but the core functionality is the same. Keep in mind that some message definitions or synchronisation dashboards can have different roles depending on the platform.
You used synchronisation dashboards and message definitions in the quickstart. In part 4, to enable item publishing from Business Central, and in part 5, to enable order downloads to Business Central. To learn more, see the Default mapping and the Synchronisation dashboards.
From Business Central to webshop: Publish immediately
When you set up message definitions, products created or updated in Business Central are published to your webshop almost immediately.
Workflow
The following workflow corresponds to the previous diagram. This is also an illustration of what Tinx Connector did behind the scenes when you published an item in part 4 of the quickstart.
- You select an item in Business Central and publish it to the webshop by selecting the Publish to Webshop checkbox on the item card.
- Right after you publish an item in Business Central, the appropriate message definition identifies that change. This is the WOO-020 message definition named Create Item in WooCommerce, within the WOO-OUT-PRODUCTS synchronisation dashboard.
- An entry is created in the Record Queue. The Record Queue contains a list of changes waiting to be processed.
- The Job Queue processes the change and sends the updated product information to your webshop within 1 minute. For outbound flows, this is the TINX NAS Outbound Mgt job queue.
- The product appears on your webshop.
In addition to items (products), Tinx Connector allows you to synchronize other important data, such as:
- Inventory levels so customers can see if items are available and whether the quantity they want to order is in stock.
- Order status updates to keep customers informed.
- Product categories to organize products on a webshop.
- Variants and attributes to offer different options, such as sizes, colors, or materials.
- Images and descriptions for product visuals and marketing content.
To learn more, see Syncing products, Inventory calculation, and Attributes management.
From webshop to Business Central: Review before you approve
When a customer places an order on your webshop, it doesn't immediately create a sales order in Business Central. This allows you to handle scenarios such as payment failures or customer cancellations. Orders wait in a buffer table where you can review and validate them before they become sales orders. This two-step process gives you control over order processing.
Record Queue is not involved in the inbound flow.
Another example is when you implement Tinx Connector, and your company had both Business Central and a webshop before, but they were not integrated. In such a scenario, you have items in Business Central and the corresponding products in the webshop. In that case, during the implementation, you typically start by migrating all existing webshop products into the buffer table. Then you update your Business Central items with the so-called webshop ID. This way, Tinx Connector can identify which Business Central item corresponds to each webshop product and synchronize data correctly.
When you add or update products in Business Central, they appear in the webshop 1 minute after you publish them. You don't use buffer tables when sending data from Business Central to your webshop, because you don't need to review or approve it. Business Central is the source of truth for the webshop. When data flows in the opposite direction, from the webshop to Business Central, buffer tables are used to control which data gets imported.
In part 5 of the quickstart, the only action you performed was importing orders into the buffer table Webshop Orders. In the daily operations, you typically review and approve those imported orders to create actual sales orders in Business Central.
To learn more, see Item and customer matching.
Monitor synchronization issues
When something doesn't sync as expected, such as publishing an item that doesn't appear in your webshop or orders not importing, there are three key areas to check.
- Synchronisation Ledger Entries is the first place to look. Here you can see whether each synchronization was successful or rejected, along with any data issues that led to the rejection. For example, when you try to publish an item that already exists in the webshop, you can see the error here. To learn more, see Synchronisation ledger entries.
- Job Queue Log Entries is the second place to check. Job queue log entries can help you identify communication issues between Business Central and your webshop or business rules that prevented processing. For example, if a customer is blocked in Business Central and you try to create an order for that customer, you'll see this error. To learn more, see Job queues.
- Record Queue shows changes waiting to be processed. If you're synchronizing a large number of changes at once, they might still be in the queue. In this case, there's no error. You need to wait for the queue to process. To learn more, see Record queue.
To learn more, see the Troubleshooting guide.