How tag rules work

"Wholesale orders go in Parked." "Faire Direct orders belong to Mark." Rules like these depend on something about the individual order, and in Supply Lens that something is usually a tag. Around twenty of the Unleashed order settings are tag maps. Once you understand one, you understand them all. By the end of this lesson you will be able to read and write a tag rule.

What a tag is

A tag is a small label attached to a Document. Tags come from two places:

• The source Integration. When an Integration reads an order, it can tag the Document with facts about it. For example, a Faire order is tagged with where it came from, such as faire:source:FAIRE_DIRECT, and a B2B Wave order with the customer's discount, such as b2b-wave:customer_discount_rate.
• Mappings. A Mapping can add Target tags to the item it creates, so you can label everything that passes along a particular route.

A tag usually has up to three parts separated by colons: the source (which Integration wrote it), the key (what it describes) and the value.

Anatomy of a tag map

Here is the salesperson tag map from the settings guide:

"salesPersonTagMap": {
  "items": [
    { "source": "faire", "key": "source", "value": "FAIRE_DIRECT", "data": "Mark Wallis" }
  ],
  "default": "Will Harrald"
}

Read it as: if the order has a tag from faire whose key is source and whose value is FAIRE_DIRECT, use Mark Wallis; otherwise use Will Harrald.

Data versus the tag's own value

This is the part people miss. A rule can work in two ways:

• With data: the rule pins a fixed value. "If tagged Faire Direct, the salesperson is Mark Wallis."
• Without data: the rule carries a value through from the tag. B2B Wave tags each order with the customer's discount rate, and this rule passes whatever rate it finds straight on:

"customerDiscountRateTagMap": {
  "items": [
    { "source": "b2b-wave", "key": "customer_discount_rate" }
  ]
}

Defaults apply even with no tags

An entry with no matching tag still applies through the map's default. So if you want a blanket value for every order, you can set only the default and leave items empty. For example, customerDefaultsTagMap with just a default gives every new customer the same payment term and tax code.

A different shape: rules with tag and integration

A few settings use a slightly different rule shape. orderStatusMap rules have a tag (a partial match against the order's tags), an integrationKey (the source Integration, such as a Shopify store's key) and the orderStatus to apply. A rule needs at least one of tag or integrationKey, and if both are set, both must match. The first matching rule wins. You will meet it in the order status lesson.