See the whole flow
Lesson 11 of 15 6 min read
Use the Mappings diagram, the data path view, Live Flow and the trace diagram to see how your data moves, at a glance.
Once you have more than a couple of Integrations, a list of Mappings becomes hard to picture. Supply Lens can draw your setup for you. In this lesson you will meet four views, each answering a different question:
| Question | View |
|---|---|
| How is my setup wired together? | The Mappings diagram |
| What happens to an Order from Shopify, step by step? | The data path |
| What is flowing right now? | Live Flow |
| Where did this particular record come from and go? | Trace |
The Mappings diagram
On Settings → Integration setup → Mappings, press the eye icon in the top-right to visualise your Mappings. The diagram shows which Integrations you have and which document types go to and from each.
Things to know:
- Each Integration normally appears once, with data flowing in and out of it. It only appears twice where data loops back on itself.
- Disabled Mappings are drawn with a dotted arrow, which makes a paused flow easy to spot.
- You can zoom, drag to move around and fit the diagram to the view, and download it as an SVG or PNG image, which is handy for internal documentation.
The data path
Also on the Mappings page, pick a document type and a source Integration to see every step that kind of Document goes through, from the incoming data to the Mappings that run. You can follow it through to the next Document it creates, which is useful for two-hop flows using As: Document.
Live Flow
The Live Flow page shows your Integrations around Supply Lens and animates each piece of data along its connection as it is created. It keeps a running count over a time window you choose, gives each document type its own colour, and splits counts into documents coming in and going out. It is designed to be left on a screen, with a fullscreen mode and a replay button for recent activity.
Trace
From any source data, Document or target data record, you can trace it through its whole chain: where it came from and everything made from it. The chain is drawn as a diagram showing each record's status, with anything held or failed highlighted. Click a record in the diagram to preview it.
An example of the kind of chain a trace shows: one order, sent to two places, with one failure to look at.
Explaining the setup to the new finance director
Hilltop's new finance director asks how orders get into the accounts. Rather than describing it, Priya opens the Mappings diagram, downloads it as a PNG and drops it into her reply. Later that week a wholesale order fails to reach the roasting planner; she traces it and sees at a glance that Unleashed received it fine and only the planner leg failed.
Recap
- The Mappings diagram (eye icon on the Mappings page) shows how your Integrations are wired; dotted arrows are disabled Mappings.
- The data path shows every step a document type takes from a chosen source.
- Live Flow animates data as it moves, ideal for a wall screen.
- Trace follows one record through its whole chain and highlights anything held or failed.
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