Integration Glossary

A log of all the activities between iPaaS.com and other systems.

A way of identifying a piece of data separate from its unique ID. In iPaaS.com this is used as a way to identify products that may have old model numbers, a barcode, or the like.

An Application Programming Interface is a toolset for connecting two pieces of software via requests and responses. Saying software has an API is akin to saying a physical device has a USB port. There is a method of hooking into the system, but there is still work needed to make systems talk to each other and do what you want them to. There are also different types of APIs (ex. REST, SOAP, JSON, GraphQL), and just because a software developer published an API does not mean that they have made all fields of data accessible via API, or that the API is fast, efficient or scalable. In simplest terms, not all APIs are created equally.

A request that one system sends to another to either retrieve, update, create, or delete data.

A string of numbers and letters that serves as a unique identifier of an application to be used when authenticating via an API. This can be used as an authentication method as well but is not as secure as using an API Token.

See throttling.

A string of numbers and letters that allows an API to authenticate with an application.

Many applications were built before APIs were popular, and have added modules to help make some data accessible via APIs. The iPaaS.com platform was built with APIs in mind, allowing us to provide remarkable API performance.

An Application is the technology that an integration built for iPaaS.com is created for.

The manufacturers of software technologies with cloud-accessible APIs.

A set of available features for an Application, published by an Application Provider.

Software solutions have traditionally been limited by hardware resources, like available CPU, RAM, and Disk Space. For instance, if you open too many browser tabs on your computer, it will slow down and eventually start to crash. To get around the problem of having finite hardware resources, our cloud-based iPaaS platform is able to automatically add more resources as needed to address the data integration needs. No human intervention is needed, it is simply how our platform is built. So, if an eCommerce store normally takes in a few orders a minute, but on Cyber Monday receives 1000 orders a minute, our systems will automatically scale up to handle the increase in data throughput.

The cloud hosting platform that iPaaS is hosted on.

The components that make up a product. If you manufacture bikes and then sell them to customers the BOM would contain items like the frame, wheels, tires, seats, and handlebars.

Buy Online, Pickup in-store, also known as “Click and collect”, refers to purchasing through an online sales channel, such as an eCommerce website, and then picking up the order yourself rather than having it delivered to you.

When you sell a package of 2 or more of the same item for one price. Also see kit.

The programming language used to build iPaaS.com. It is also used when building custom translations and mappings.

All subscriptions listed on the iPaaS.com Marketplace are certified as built to the iPaaS.com data standards. See also Integration.

The concept that certain items have a parent/child relationship. For instance, a category might have subcategories or a kit may be made up of multiple products.

An application that is hosted in one or more data centers and not on any one physical computer. It is accessible from the Internet.

Defines how iPaaS.com handles duplicate IDs of an entity in an external system. This is defined on the edit mappings page and has the options of Error (reject the duplicate entry), Remap and Link (link the resulting data then return the transfer as an update), Update and Link (update the matching data and link the new entry) and Update and No Link (update the existing data, but do not link the new entry).

The company in iPaaS.com is the subscriber account holder, for which all Integration Subscriptions and their respective configurations belong. As a subscriber, you can only access your instance, but as a MiSP you can be granted access to multiple companies (access granted by that iPaaS subscriber).

iPaaS.com provides a way for agencies and 3rd party developers to build apps into the marketplaces of external systems like BigCommerce, Clover, etc. and enable the data from iPaaS.com to appear within those apps natively. We refer to the development and registration of these in iPaaS.com as 3rd Party Applications (or 3PAs). When a subscriber enables a 3rd Party application, we refer to it in the subscription as a connected application.

Where the core fields of data of the record are stored. See also related collection.

Customer Relationship Management systems are used to store information about a subscriber’s customers and interactions with them. It is a category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote these types of systems.

Custom fields can be added to any data model in iPaaS.com. These are limited to text fields. Some subscriptions have these and some of those are supported fields to move data to and from iPaaS.com. They are defined in the subscription setting for that subscription. Some Integration Subscriptions will allow custom fields to be created in that external application.

The data model for categories of customers that a subscriber has defined (i.e. retail, wholesale, B2B, B2C).

The data model for people who have purchased an item on a sales channel.

Each type of experience (subscriber, integration partner, and MiSP) has its own dashboard with relevant data.

The menu section in iPaaS.com that holds links to each of the iPaaS.com data models.

One system will be the “source of truth” for a particular field of data. This provides checks and balances so that if you check the inventory in your warehouse and update your ERP, your ERP can update the inventory availability on your sales channels like your eCommerce website. Your eCommerce store will not overwrite what is in the ERP, because the ERP is the data master for your inventory.

The standardized way that iPaaS stores different types of data that are pulled in via Subscriptions.

A data set that, without an integration solution, is trapped in a single system.

A collection of platform-level standards that enables iPaaS.com to manage integration efforts being performed across many organizations and enable connectivity across many applications. Subscribers can build trust that they can grow and manage their application-dependent operations without becoming beholden to one or more specialized organizations employing custom development, but instead trust iPaaS.com to manage existing and ongoing integration requirements through its technology and distributed workforce, with a fixed costing model to enable subscribers in setting manageable budgets. Integration Standards include Data Standards, New Integration Development Certification, Data Orchestration Standards, Mapping Standards, Reporting Standards, MiSP Role Standards, Reusability Standards, and Documentation Standards.

When it comes to technology, often, one task cannot begin until a prerequisite task is completed. We call these prerequisites dependencies. For instance, in a project plan, entering API credentials into the iPaaS.com platform would be dependent on first receiving those API login credentials from the client. Accounting for this is important so that all parties understand that if they delay a task, it may have a snowball effect, delaying dependent tasks.

Data in iPaaS flows either to iPaaS (from a subscription) or from iPaaS (to a subscription).

A category of subscription that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote subscriptions that are online stores.

Electronic data interchange is a data protocol that is used heavily in the shipping industry and often enables dropshipping. Dropshipping is an order fulfillment technique whereby an external warehouse fulfills an order. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

Templates are defined so that they can be used for notifications throughout iPaaS.

The data model that holds information about a subscriber’s employees.

A software endpoint is a remote piece of software. It may be running on a local server, or in a cloud. Regardless of whether it is SaaS or on-premise, in the iPaaS.com world, it is something that you want to integrate.

Enterprise Resource Planning software is used to facilitate a wide range of organizational needs. This may include finance and accounting, purchasing and inventory management, order and warehouse management. Depending on the ERP and the organization using it, an ERP can be used to manage a wide variety of needs, from manufacturing supply chain management, to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), to B2B Sales efforts.

Tracking for when there are errors when data is going in or out of iPaaS. This can be used to troubleshoot external data and see if translations need to be implemented or altered.

A list of all data transfer events for the subscriber’s iPaaS instance.

Events that are currently in process.

The export menu item under subscription management allows a user to export subscribers’ data using the iPaaS.com mappings. Useful for systems that are not currently a subscription. An FTP server needs to be configured in order to utilize this functionality.

A collection of settings that can be used to export different types of data on demand. A subscriber can export their entire iPaaS.com configuration as a JSON file. This is useful for moving from staging to production.

The ability to export the translation mappings from an iPaaS account.

See connected applications and extensions.

The ID in a subscription is the unique ID for that piece of data in that external system.

Software that enables a subscriber to communicate with personnel in the field. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

Software that allows a subscriber to collect ad hoc data. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

Charts that help visualize a project plan, allowing viewers to see estimated delivery dates and dependencies in an organized, easy-to-understand format.

The data model that holds gift card data brought over from a Subscription.

iPaaS.com is set up with a hub and spoke approach to managing data. This means that all data flows to and from iPaaS.com and not from one subscription to another.

Also known as safety stock. A way to prevent overselling when a merchant sells on multiple channels. Allows you to set a number of items you want to have in stock when showing an out-of-stock message.

A bulk transfer to bring over foundational and pre-requisite data through a subscription (i.e. populate all categories before bringing over products). Will overwrite what is in the system currently.

This is the logic to translate between an application and iPaaS.com built by an integration partner. Integrations are often multi-directional, meaning that data is flowing both in and out of multiple systems. For example, order data may flow from an eCommerce website, and a marketplace like Amazon down to an ERP for order fulfillment, and inventory data may flow back from the ERP to Amazon and the eCommerce store.

The dashboard view to see how a subscriber’s subscriptions are functioning.

While MiSPs are responsible for servicing clients, integration partners work with the iPaaS.com SDK to publish new integrations in our marketplace. MiSPs can become integration partners. So can software publishers that want to publish their own integration into the iPaaS.com platform.

Within the iPaaS.com platform, the subscriber can enable one or more Integration Subscriptions that connect with external applications (which may or may not be its sales channels). All subscriptions listed on the iPaaS.com Marketplace are certified, but ones that are built just for a specific company may not be. Subscriptions can fall into one or more of the following categories: eCommerce, POS, ERP, Marketplace, CRM, Sales Tax Management, Marketing, Reviews, Field Service Management, PIM, Forms, Notifications, DropShipping, and Loyalty. More categories may be added at iPaaS.com’s discretion. One subscription is defined as a singular connection to an external system. For example, if you have 2 integration subscriptions that are connected to 2 separate Shopify stores, that is counted as 2 subscriptions.

A set of available features in an integration is the integration version, which may support one or more application versions.

The view of iPaaS for integrators that allows them to manage the subscriptions they maintain.

An integration Platform as a Service provides a reliable way to connect software systems and manage the flow of data between them. Much like Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, it is hosted, maintained, and supported by the iPaaS publisher.

When you sell 2 or more different products for one price. iPaaS defines these as Bill of Materials, Basic or Add-on. Also see bundle.

A reseller may license iPaaS to sell a bundled or white-labeled version of the product to their customers. iPaaS subscribers are not considered a licensee.

This defines a group of locations. For instance, if you have a warehouse that then contains multiple bins within it, that would be a location group. A multi-level hierarchy for locations can be supported through custom fields.

The data model that shows various locations where inventory is stored.

This describes how iPaaS.com has made it possible to set up and manage iPaaS accounts with minimal coding. The iPaaS admin panel was built to make it easier for non-developers to utilize. There are some times when having a developer available will help though, such as if you want to use mathematical formulas to transform data. For example, if you sell red staplers individually on your retail website, but by cases of 72 staplers on your B2B eCommerce website, you may want to use a formula in iPaaS.com to let your inventory system know that 72 individual staplers were purchased.

Software that enables e-commerce merchants to cultivate customer loyalty by providing points, discounts, coupons and other incentives to increase repeat customers. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

The function in iPaaS to pull in or push out a certain piece of data or retry that function.

This is the process of taking data fields from one system, and defining how they relate to available fields in another system. For example, in one system, you may have a field called “street_address”, and in another piece of software, that field is called “mailing_address”. Through a process of mapping fields, you can associate these together so that the iPaaS platform can pass information from the appropriate field in one system to another.

Holds all of the attributes for an individual mapping.

Software that supports the marketing efforts of subscribers. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

The section of iPaaS where you add in new subscriptions.

A common type of iPaaS subscriber who sells physical or virtual items online or through a brick-and-mortar store.

Software that allows subscribers to communicate internally and externally. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

Businesses that help other organizations set up and manage their software integrations utilizing the iPaaS.com platform. In their own marketing, they may refer to themselves as agencies, consultancies, development teams, or solution integrators, but in the iPaaS.com ecosystem, they help iPaaS subscribers utilize the platform.

The logged-in version of the application as an MiSP where they can see a list of clients and go into each of their iPaaS instances.

Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price is an attribute of the product data set and is used to store what the manufacturer believes you should sell a product for.

Much like it sounds, this refers to multiple channels working together. Multi-channel marketing refers to marketing across mediums and platforms. For instance, you might want to run campaigns via both email, SMS, and push notifications and connect data to help you better optimize your efforts. Similarly, you can sell products through multiple sales channels, including B2C and B2B eCommerce websites, and online marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. However, you will want to connect inventory and order data with an ERP to streamline business operations.

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is what is needed to get a project moved from testing to production. In the world of iPaaS.com, an MVP might include integrating two key systems, after which point, you can continue to integrate more systems. It is important to remember that sometimes clients can get more value and start getting ROI on a partial scope, rather than trying to include “the kitchen sink” in a release. Another example would be integrating an eCommerce website and a Point of Sale software. It may be important to integrate customer, order, and product data initially, but, for instance, you may be able to integrate gift cards and loyalty/reward point programs after the initial launch.

The way you navigate around iPaaS. It lives on the left side of the screen and can be opened or collapsed.

When data comes into iPaaS.com it is transformed into a standardized format for storage. This allows iPaaS.com to easily communicate with multiple systems.

Taking multi-channel a step further, you want to better integrate the experience users have across your different platforms. For example, retailers want shoppers to be able to access the same sales and discounts both in-store and online, or earn and redeem reward points across those same sales channels. Sometimes this is achieved through manual efforts, but ideally, it is managed through a platform like iPaaS.com for more efficiency and higher customer (and employee) satisfaction.

The concept that certain items have a parent/child relationship. For instance, a category might have subcategories or a kit may be made up of multiple products.

The partnership management platform and portal that iPaaS uses to interact with partners.

The data model that stores the type of payments a subscriber’s e-commerce stores accept for products (i.e. ACH, CreditCard, PayPal, etc.).

The ability for a user to be able to access, change, or configure certain parts of iPaaS. They are grouped into roles.

Product Information Management software holds data and marketing collateral (images, etc.) for a product catalog. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

Point of Sale software is used in retail and other locations to manage in-person sales. It is the next evolution of the cash register. Point of sale software often handles the tracking of inventory and pricing, receipts and sales tax collection, and a variety of other data that is received at checkout. More advanced POS solutions support gift cards, reward points, and a variety of other features.

A subscription that is only available for an individual subscriber, typically built by a MiSP or an integration partner.

The data model that stores the products a subscriber sells.

The data model that stores the category sets of products a subscriber sells. The color product category set may have red, blue and orange product catalog categories.

A categorization of products that is used to distinguish a physical product in your inventory from a virtual one. Physical: a product that is shipped to you. Virtual: a product that is delivered digitally.

The data model that stores the categories of products a subscriber sells. These are all items that are part of one or more product category sets. For example, the color product category set may have red, blue and orange product catalog categories.

When a series of API calls are going to happen, they get put in a priority order called a queue.

This is short for Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Consulted and Informed, 5 different levels of involvement someone may have with a particular task or assignment. It is often said that if everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. It is often helpful to create a RASCI chart to define the client’s responsibilities and your own team member’s responsibilities so that there is never a question about who should be working on a particular task.

When a record is deleted in iPaaS.com it is not actually deleted, but rather marked as inactive. Using this functionality you can mark that record as active again.

An individual piece of data that is made up of fields. In iPaaS.com this data is stored in data models. Examples are a customer, product, transaction, etc.

The payment for an iPaaS subscription that processes on a regular basis per the contract or the terms selected at signup.

Anybody (including Application Providers) that is not already engaged as an MiSP, Technology Partner, nor Integrator, that wishes to receive compensation from iPaaS.com for providing prospective subscribers.

Associated data records that exist as their own data type in iPaaS.com. Each of these can contain one or more records depending on the collection and that individual record. They can also contain child collections of their own (grandchild collections of the core record).

Products on an e-commerce platform that are shown on the product page or in checkout as related to the product in order to encourage cross-selling and upselling. iPaaS.com supports the following related product types: Replacement, Similar Item, and Related Product.

A company that has licensed iPaaS in order to resell it to its customers.

Software that enables a subscriber’s customers to leave product reviews. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

A grouping of permissions that are assigned to one or more users.

An online, brick-and-mortar location, or any organized method where a merchant sells their products. This could be their website, a marketplace like Amazon, their physical store, in-store at Target, pop-up events, etc.

Software that calculates tax rules (based on the tax class) to be used in online transactions or that assists with other sales tax functions, such as the collection of sales tax exemption certificates. A category of subscriptions that is used on the iPaaS Marketplace to denote this type of subscription.

iPaaS provides sandbox iPaaS.com accounts to partners. These sandbox environments look and feel like a production account, but have limited resources as they are for learning and testing purposes.

iPaaS’s Software Development Kit provides a documented and defined set of steps for creating new integrations into the iPaaS.com Marketplace. This helps keep the system democratized and open to new software integrations. The marketplace is not just about internal roadmaps, it is about what the iPaaS partners and their clients want.

An individual’s user settings within iPaaS. This currently includes themes.

The data model for how a merchant ships products to its customers. This could include items like USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.

Functionality to see records in a subscription system that do not have a corresponding value in iPaaS.com and vice versa.

SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit and is a way for merchants to track their inventory. It may or may not be a unique identifier in some systems.

The system of record for data. This could be different for each of your data types. See also Data Master.

A Statement of Work is a document that specifies the requirements of a project. When you have a firm SoW for a project, it is clear what a party will be doing, and what it will not. For example, your team may be integrating a particular eCommerce and particular ERP platform that are in iPaaS.com’s Marketplace, but you may not be writing an integration to a custom database the client operates. While that work could be done with iPaaS.com’s SDK, it may require further scoping and skill sets, and not be included in the budget that has been presented.

A company that contracts with iPaaS for access to an iPaaS.com subscription.

The dashboard view for a subscriber that gives the subscriber a high-level overview of the health of their iPaaS instance and their data flows in and out of iPaaS.

What iPaaS looks like when logged in as a subscriber. If a subscriber gives an MiSP access to their account, this experience will be identical.

The location in iPaaS to manage, edit or remove integration subscriptions.

See Integration Subscriptions.

The section of iPaaS to view the health of the system.

A Solution Integrator is an individual or business that provides integration services. Traditionally, SIs have manually connected software, which is time-consuming and expensive. These one-off projects rarely include detailed developer documentation or maintenance strategies and resources. SIs can leverage iPaaS.com to improve delivery time, customer satisfaction, and retention.

A collection of tax rates that apply to items in a merchant’s product catalog.

An Application Provider that wishes to engage in co-marketing efforts and receive special privileges from each other beyond those provided between iPaaS.com and a referrer.

Third-Party Applications are externally existing applications that utilize iPaaS.com APIs for their native features, which can be registered with iPaaS.com to securely exchange authorization tokens and other built-in parameters.

APIs are powerful tools, but the databases, servers, and clouds behind them do not have infinite resources. That is why it can be crucial to schedule and throttle the movement of data in and out of certain systems (more specifically throttling the calls that are made). For example, if you are working with a large product catalog, you would not want to update prices and inventory for a million product records all at once, especially not in the middle of a busy shopping day like Black Friday. You would want to stream in updates more manageably so as not to overwhelm the eCommerce site. iPaaS.com supports rate limiting, allowing you to ensure that key systems are not bombarded with data.

The data model for a subscriber’s employee timesheets.

How products are tracked in an inventory tracking system. iPaaS.com supports this at the product and variant levels. Product: track all inventory of a product regardless of variant. Track all t-shirts as one inventory. Variant: track inventory of a product at the variant level. Track small green t-shirts separate from large green t-shirts, separate from large red t-shirts, etc.

The data model for a merchant’s list of transactions when a customer purchases products from them.

The amount of data that is transferred via the API between iPaaS and an external subscription.

Within iPaaS a subscriber can leverage the iPaaS.com translation functionality or can write code (C#) that allows for incoming or outgoing data to be modified. For instance, if data from an e-commerce platform comes in as first name and last name in 2 fields and their CRM stores it in one field they can combine that data through the translation functionality.

This is the next evolution of the omnichannel experience. When commerce is truly unified, shoppers can interact with a brand across channels seamlessly. For instance, they can buy online and pickup in store, as well as buy online and return in store. Store gift cards work seamlessly online and at brick-and-mortar locations. There is no Rube Goldberg machine that employees have to use to support shoppers, systems are integrated together for maximum efficiency.

In each system, each record contains a piece of data that is unique (typically an ID number, but can be an email address or any other piece of unique information). This is used to ensure that data in that system or in others is looking at that specific record when it accesses it.

An account that is tied to a person who has access to pieces of the iPaaS platform. They may be one or more types of users (i.e. MiSP, Subscriber or Integration Partner) and have a role assigned to them.

The section in the subscriber experience where you can create, update and delete users and roles.

A single product may have multiple options such as size or color. These are referred to as variants in iPaaS.com but they may be referred to differently in other systems. Each option on the variant is referred to as a variant option.

The options that a variant contains. If the variant is color then the options might be red, green and blue.

While you can set APIs to check systems for new data on a schedule, Webhooks exist to trigger APIs when a certain event takes place, for instance when a purchase happens on an eCommerce site. iPaaS.com has both internal and external webhooks implemented that are configurable at the subscription level. The external webhook can let iPaaS.com know that a new order is in the eCommerce platform. An internal webhook can then notify another system, such as an ERP, that a new order is in iPaaS.com.

This section of the subscription configuration defines which mapping collections will be sent from iPaaS to that subscription.

This section of the subscription configuration defines which mapping collections will be sent to iPaaS from that subscription.