Mappings explained

What a Mapping is, every field on the Mapping screen, Target Data versus Document, common patterns, and the tools for seeing and managing your Mappings.

A Mapping tells Supply Lens where to send a Document once it has been received from a source system. Mappings are what join your Integrations together into a working data flow. Without a Mapping, data arrives in Supply Lens but has nowhere to go. With the right Mappings in place, your systems stay in sync automatically.

You'll find them under Settings → Integration setup → Mappings. To create one, see Add a Mapping.

Why Mappings matter

Each Integration handles one system. Mappings are the rules that decide how data moves between those systems through the hub. Each arrow below is one Mapping record.

A simple setup with Shopify and an ERP needs at least two Mappings:

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Adding a warehouse needs more:

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Core fields

Field	On screen	What it controls
Map	Document type	The document type to route, for example `Order`, `Inventory` or `Shipment`. Required.
From	From integration	The source Integration. Supply Lens listens for Documents of this type arriving on it. Required.
As	Map to	Whether to send the data directly to another Integration (`Target Data`) or produce an intermediate Supply Lens Document (`Document`). Required.
To	To integration	The destination Integration. Supply Lens sends the data to this system. Required.

Read a Mapping as a sentence: Map Orders from Shopify as Target Data to Unleashed.

Behaviour switches

Switch	On	Off
Enabled	The Mapping runs.	The Mapping doesn't run at all. Use this to pause a flow without deleting it.
Automatic	The Mapping runs automatically when a matching Document arrives.	Matching Documents are queued with a `Ready` status and must be processed manually.

Matching (filtering) fields

You can narrow a Mapping so it only applies to some Documents. If every value you set matches a Document, the Mapping runs. Leave a field blank to apply to all.

Field	What it does
Customer	Only route Documents from this customer or buyer. Blank for all customers.
Supplier	Only route Documents from this supplier. Blank for all suppliers.
Ship to	Only route Documents addressed to this Party. Blank for all ship-to Parties.
Ship to location	Only route Documents addressed to this Location. Blank for all.
Ship from	Only route Documents from this Party. Blank for all ship-from Parties.
Ship from location	Only route Documents from this Location. Blank for all.
Tags	Only route Documents that carry these tags, one per line. Blank to match regardless of tags.

These filters rely on your master data: a Customer filter only works if that customer's Documents are matched to the right Party, and a Location filter only if the Location is recognised.

Target and miscellaneous fields

Field	What it does
Map to	`Target Data` or `Document` (the As field).
To integration	Which Integration to send to.
Target tags	Tags to apply to the outbound item at the target, one per line.
Status update types	Only trigger this Mapping when specific status updates occur, one per line.

The Mapping screen with Automatic and Enabled check boxes, a Matching section, a Target section and a Miscellaneous section

Target Data or Document?

Choice	What happens	Use it when
Target Data	Supply Lens takes the incoming Document, immediately produces the output format the target Integration expects, and sends it. One step, one hop.	Most Mappings.
Document	Supply Lens produces a new intermediate Supply Lens Document instead of sending to an Integration.	There's no direct translation from the incoming type to what the target expects, so a second Mapping completes the route; or you want to produce a Document (such as an Invoice) from an incoming event (such as a Shipment) before routing it on.

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Common patterns

Pattern	From	Map	To	Purpose
Order routing	Shopify	Order	Unleashed	Receive storefront orders and send them to your ERP or inventory system for fulfilment. The most common starting point.
Stock sync	Unleashed	Inventory	Shopify	Keep storefront stock levels up to date when inventory changes in your ERP.
Order to warehouse	ERP	Warehouse Order	3PL Integration	Send a warehouse instruction to your 3PL or WMS once an order is ready for fulfilment.
Despatch back to storefront	3PL Integration	Shipment	Shopify	Return tracking information to your storefront after your 3PL confirms despatch.

Sending to several targets

Create several Mappings from the same source to route one document type to more than one destination, for example orders to both your ERP and your warehouse:

From	Map	To
Shopify	Order	Unleashed
Shopify	Order	3PL Integration

Supply Lens processes each Mapping independently. If one fails, the other isn't affected.

Seeing your Mappings

Tool	What it shows
Mappings list	Automatic, Enabled, Map, From, As and To for each Mapping.
Eye icon (top-right)	A diagram of which Integrations are in place and which document types go to and from each. Each Integration appears once, with data flowing in and out; it only appears twice where data loops back on itself. Disabled Mappings show as dotted arrows. You can zoom, drag, fit to view, and download as SVG or PNG.
Document type and source Integration pickers	Every step a document goes through, from the incoming data to the Mappings that run. You can follow it on to the next Document it creates. Clear either choice to start again.

The Mappings visualiser, showing Integrations as boxes joined by arrows labelled with document types

Managing many Mappings

Tool	What it does
Clone	Opens a pre-filled copy of a Mapping to change and save as new. The original is unchanged.
Bulk add (from the Add button)	Set up a Mapping once and create it for several Integrations at the same time, previewing every pairing before anything is created.
Update several	Change several Mappings at once instead of one by one.
Migrate	Move every Mapping that uses one Integration over to another in one step, for example from a sandbox to live. It tells you how many Mappings will change first.