Integration - overview

Before you import data into your live system, take the following necessary precautions:

1. Create a snapshot of your system with all the data available. This snapshot will help you restore the data if anything goes wrong with the import.
2. Validate the scenario. Before you start importing real data, which sometimes has hundreds or thousands of records, prepare a test file that contains no more than 10 records and import from that file first.
3. Perform the operation when the users are inactive or less active, for example, overnight.

If the import was performed successfully but you imported the wrong data, you can modify the same scenario that was used for import to remove the imported data from the system.

If you need to transfer data between an external application and Visma.net ERP, you have to convert the data in an external format to or from the data in the format of Visma.net ERP. The tool you use to perform such conversions in Visma.net ERP is a data provider.
A configured data provider, which has information about the source of external data and the structure of the data, performs data transfers between the external application or external file and Visma.net ERP.

You create data providers in the Data providers (SM206015) window.
To create a provider, you specify its name and type, the access parameters to the source, and the data schema.
You can find more information on data providers in Data providers (SM206015).

To import data from an external system or file to Visma.net ERP, you need to map the external data fields to the fields of an Visma.net ERP window.
To define such mapping in Visma.net ERP, you use import scenarios.
An import scenario specifies the sequence of actions to be performed by Visma.net ERP to import data from an external source.

You can create an import scenario in one of the following ways:

• Standard way:
  First you create a data provider, and then you add a new import scenario and map the data.
  
• Simplified way:
  You upload the file, map window elements to external data, and then import the data.
  The data provider and the standard import scenario are added automatically.
  For more information, see: Simplified scenarios for data import.

Export scenarios are used primarily to export data from Visma.net ERP to an external data source, such as a file or SQL table. You can also use export scenarios to update records in the system. For example, you can use export scenarios to mark records in the system once they have been exported to exclude them from future exports.
As another example: Suppose you want to update existing records or mass-execute some action on them.
If you have the list of particular record IDs that you want to update, it is easier to compose an import scenario and update the records by processing the list of IDs.
If you have no list of IDs, you can compose an export scenario to select and update the needed records by the specified condition.
For more information on export scenarios, see: Configuring export scenarios.

Each of the built-in data providers, which are reusable and require no additional custom code, recognises the data structure of the file or application and efficiently converts data from the particular external format into the internal format of Visma.net ERP; it also efficiently converts internal data into the particular external format.
Nevertheless, you may need to convert the data during import or export to formats specific to the particular system or perform other necessary data transformation.
To do this, you can create formulas with the help of the easy-to-use formula editor.
For details, see the following topics:

• Formulas in the mapping
• Functions
• Operators

You can create a client application that can access Visma.net ERP through web services to import, update, or delete records in Visma.net ERP and export records from Visma.net ERP.

To access these web services, you can use the screen-based SOAP application programming interface (API), the contract-based SOAP API, or contract-based REST API.