Configure Inventory Visibility data sources
This article offers a comprehensive overview of data source configuration for Inventory Visibility. It covers the essential steps for setting up and optimizing data source configurations to enhance your inventory management processes.
Each data source configuration includes the following components:
- Data source name
- Dimensions (dimension mapping)
- Physical measures
- Calculated measures
Note
If you recently transitioned from UI version 1 to UI version 2, see the Differences between Inventory Visibility UI version 1 and UI version 2 section of this article to learn what has changed.
For new installations, we recommend that you use UI version 2 from the start. If you're still using UI version 1, we recommend that you test the new version and then upgrade to UI version 2 as soon as possible.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, install and set up the Inventory Visibility Add-in as described in Install and set up Inventory Visibility.
Differences between Inventory Visibility UI version 1 and UI version 2
The Inventory Visibility app in Microsoft Power Apps supports two versions of the user interface: UI version 1 and UI version 2. Each version uses a different and independent collection of configuration settings. Therefore, you must choose which version you prefer to use.
When you're setting up data sources, UI version 2 differs from UI version 1 in the following ways:
Physical measures – In UI version 2, you no longer have to specify the data source for a physical measure. By default, UI version 2 uses the current data source.
Calculated measures – In UI version 2, you specify calculated measures in two steps:
- Set up calculated measure metadata to specify the name and data source for a calculated measure.
- Add calculated measure lines. Each line consists of a physical measure name and an operator (addition or subtraction) that's used to combine the line with the other lines during the calculation.
Add data sources (data source names)
Each data source represents a system that your data comes from. Example data source names include fno (which corresponds to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management) and pos (which stands for "point of sale"). By default, Supply Chain Management is set up as a default data source (fno) in Inventory Visibility.
Note
The fno data source is reserved for Supply Chain Management. If your Inventory Visibility Add-in is integrated with a Supply Chain Management environment, we recommend that you don't delete configurations that are related to fno in the data source.
Important
When you add a data source, be sure to validate the data source name, physical measures, and dimension mappings before you update the configuration for the Inventory Visibility service. You won't be able to modify these settings after you select Update Configuration.
Add a data source in UI version 2
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 2.
To add a data source in UI version 2, follow these steps.
- Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
- On the navigation pane, select Feature management.
- On the Data source settings tile, select Manage.
- On the Data source settings page, select New on the toolbar to add a data source. Enter a name for the new data source (for example, ecommerce or another meaningful data source ID).
- Select Save.
Add a data source in UI version 1
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 1.
To add a data source in UI version 1, follow these steps.
- Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
- On the Change area menu at the bottom of the navigation pane, select Legacy UI.
- On the navigation pane, select Configuration.
- On the Data Source tab, select New data source to add a data source. Enter a name for the new data source (for example, ecommerce or another meaningful data source ID).
Note
When you add a data source, be sure to validate the data source name, physical measures, and dimension mappings before you update the configuration for the Inventory Visibility service. You won't be able to modify these settings after you select Update Configuration.
Dimensions (dimension mapping)
The purpose of the dimension configuration is to standardize the multi-system integration for posting events and queries, based on dimension combinations. Inventory Visibility provides a list of base dimensions that can be mapped from the dimensions of your data source. Thirty-three dimensions are available for mapping.
- If you're using Supply Chain Management as one of your data sources, 13 dimensions are already mapped to the Supply Chain Management standard dimensions by default. The other 12 dimensions (inventDimension1 through inventDimension12) are also mapped to custom dimensions in Supply Chain Management. The remaining eight dimensions (ExtendedDimension1 through ExtendedDimension8) are extended dimensions that you can map to external data sources.
- If you don't use Supply Chain Management as one of your data sources, you can freely map the dimensions. The following table shows the full list of available dimensions.
Note
If you use Supply Chain Management, and you change the default dimension mappings between Supply Chain Management and Inventory Visibility, the changed dimension won't sync data. Therefore, if your dimension isn't on the default dimension list, and you're using an external data source, we recommend that you use ExtendedDimension1 through ExtendedDimension8 to do the mapping.
| Dimension type | Base dimension |
|---|---|
| Product | ColorId |
| Product | SizeId |
| Product | StyleId |
| Product | ConfigId |
| Tracking | BatchId |
| Tracking | SerialId |
| Location | LocationId |
| Location | SiteId |
| Inventory status | StatusId |
| Warehouse specific | WMSLocationId |
| Warehouse specific | WMSPalletId |
| Warehouse specific | LicensePlateId |
| Others | VersionId |
| Inventory (custom) | InventDimension1 through InventDimension12 |
| Extension | ExtendedDimension1 through ExtendedDimension8 |
| System | Empty |
Note
The dimension types that are listed in the preceding table are for your reference only. You don't have to define them in Inventory Visibility.
The inventory (custom) dimensions might be reserved for Supply Chain Management. In that case, use the extended dimensions instead.
External systems can access Inventory Visibility through its RESTful APIs. For the integration, Inventory Visibility lets you configure the external data source and the mapping from the external dimensions to the base dimensions. Here's an example of a dimension mapping table.
| External dimension | Base dimension |
|---|---|
| MyColorId | ColorId |
| MySizeId | SizeId |
| MyStyleId | StyleId |
| MyDimension1 | ExtendedDimension1 |
| MyDimension2 | ExtendedDimension2 |
By configuring a dimension mapping, you can send the external dimensions directly to Inventory Visibility. Inventory Visibility will then automatically convert external dimensions to base dimensions.
Add dimension mappings in UI version 2
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 2.
To add a dimension mapping in UI version 2, follow these steps.
Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
On the navigation pane, select Feature management.
On the Data source settings tile, select Manage.
On the Data source settings page, select the data source where you want to set up a dimension mapping.
In the Dimension mappings section, select New Dimension Mapping on the toolbar.
On the New Dimension Mapping page, set the following fields:
- Customer dimension – Enter the name of the source dimension.
- Base Dimension – Select the dimension in Inventory Visibility that you want to map to.
For example, you've already created a data source that's named ecommerce, and it includes a product color dimension. In this case, to do the mapping, first add ProductColor to the Dimension Name field for the ecommerce data source. Then select ColorId in the To Base Dimension field.
On the toolbar, select Save.
Add dimension mappings in UI version 1
To add a dimension mapping in UI version 1, follow these steps.
Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
On the Change area menu at the bottom of the navigation pane, select Legacy UI.
On the navigation pane, select Configuration.
On the Data source tab, expand the data source where you want to set up a dimension mapping.
In the Dimension Mappings section, select Add to add a dimension mapping row. Then set the following fields for the new row:
- Dimension Name – Enter the name of the source dimension.
- To Base Dimension – Select the dimension in Inventory Visibility that you want to map to.
Select the Save link for the new row.
Physical measures
When a data source posts an inventory change to Inventory Visibility, it posts that change by using physical measures. Physical measures modify the quantity and reflect the inventory status. You can define your own physical measures based on your requirements. Queries can be based on the physical measures.
Inventory Visibility provides a list of default physical measures that are mapped to Supply Chain Management (the fno data source). These default physical measures are taken from the inventory transaction statuses on the On-hand list page in Supply Chain Management (Inventory Management > Inquiries and Report > On-hand list). The following table provides an example of physical measures.
| Physical measure name | Description |
|---|---|
| NotSpecified | Not specified |
| Arrived | Arrived |
| AvailOrdered | Available ordered |
| AvailPhysical | Available physical |
| Deducted | Deducted |
| OnOrder | OnOrder |
| Ordered | Ordered |
| PhysicalInvent | Physical inventory |
| Picked | Picked |
| PostedQty | Posted quantity |
| QuotationIssue | Quotation issue |
| QuotationReceipt | Quotation receipt |
| Received | Received |
| Registered | Registered |
| ReservOrdered | Ordered reserved |
| ReservPhysical | Physical reserved |
| OrderedSum | Ordered in total |
If your data source is Supply Chain Management, you don't have to recreate the default physical measures. However, for external data sources, you can create new physical measures as you require.
Add physical measures in UI version 2
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 2.
To add a physical measure in UI version 2, follow these steps.
Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
On the navigation pane, select Feature management.
On the Data source settings tile, select Manage.
On the Data source settings page, select the data source where you want to do the dimension mapping. Then, in the Physical Measure section, select New physical measure on the toolbar.
On the New physical measure page, set the following fields for the new physical measure:
- Display name – Enter a name that's unique not only within the new measure's own data source but also across all data sources. The recommended format is <Data source>.<Physical measure name> (for example, ecommerce.returned). This format ensures that the display name is distinct and unique across all data sources.
- Physical measure name – Enter the name of the physical measure.
On the toolbar, select Save.
Add physical measures in UI version 1
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 1.
To add a physical measure in UI version 1, follow these steps.
- Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
- On the Change area menu at the bottom of the navigation pane, select Legacy UI.
- On the navigation pane, select Configuration.
- On the Data source tab, expand the data source where you want to set up a physical measure.
- In the Physical measure section, select Add to add a physical measure row. Then, in the Measure name field for the new row, enter the name of the measure. For example, enter Returned if you want to record returned quantities in this data source for Inventory Visibility.
- Select the Save link for the new row.
Extended dimensions
If you're using external data sources, you can take advantage of the extensibility that the solution offers by creating class extensions for the InventOnHandChangeEventDimensionSet and InventInventoryDataServiceBatchJobTask classes.
Be sure to synchronize with the database after creating the extensions in order for the custom fields to be added in the InventSum table. You can then refer to the "Dimensions" section earlier in this article, to map your custom dimensions to any of the eight extended dimensions in BaseDimensions in Inventory.
Note
For additional details about creating extensions, see Extensibility home page.
Calculated measures
You can use Inventory Visibility to query on both inventory physical measures and custom calculated measures. Calculated measures provide a customized computation formula that consists of a combination of physical measures. This functionality lets you define a set of physical measures that will be added, and/or a set of physical measures that will be subtracted, to form the customized measurement.
Important
A calculated measure is a composition of physical measures. Its formula can include only physical measures without duplicates, not calculated measures.
The configuration lets you define a set of calculated measure formulas that includes modifiers of addition or subtraction to get the total aggregated output quantity.
Add calculated measures in UI version 2
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 2.
To add a calculated measure in UI version 2, follow these steps.
Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
On the navigation pane, select Feature management.
On the Data source settings tile, select Manage.
On the Data source settings page, select the data source where you want to do the dimension mapping. Then, in the Calculated measures section, select New calculated measure on the toolbar.
On the New calculated measure page, set the following fields for the new calculated measure:
- Calculated measure display name – Enter a name that's unique not only within the new measure's own data source but also across all data sources. The recommended format is <Data source>.<Calculated measure name> (for example, iv.TotalAvailable). This format ensures that the display name is distinct and unique across all data sources.
- Calculated measure name – Enter the name of the calculated measure.
On the toolbar, select Save & close. The page is refreshed and now includes the Calculated measure details section.
In the Calculated measure details section, select New calculated measure details V2 on the toolbar to add a modifier row for the calculated measure.
On the New calculated measure detail page, set the following fields for the new modifier:
- Calculated measure formula description – Enter a detailed explanation of the significance and purpose of the formula in the calculated measure.
- +/- to result – Select the modifier type (Addition or Subtraction).
- Physical measure name reference – Select the name of the measure (from the selected data source) that provides the value for the modifier.
On the toolbar, select Save & close.
Repeat steps 7 through 9 until you've added all the modifiers that are required to complete the formula for your calculated measure.
On the toolbar, select Save.
Add calculated measures in UI version 1
This section applies when you're using Inventory Visibility UI version 1.
To add a calculated measure in UI version 1, follow these steps.
Sign in to your Power Apps environment, and open the Inventory Visibility app.
On the Change area menu at the bottom of the navigation pane, select Legacy UI.
On the navigation pane, select Configuration.
On the Calculated measure tab, select New Calculate Measure to add a calculated measure.
Set the following fields for the new calculated measure:
- New calculated measure name – Enter the name of the calculated measure.
- Data source – Select the data source to include the new calculated measure in. The querying system is a data source.
A new, blank modifier line is automatically included for the new calculated measure. Set the following fields for it:
- Modifier – Select the modifier type (Addition or Subtraction).
- Data source – Select the data source where the measure that provides the modifier value is found.
- Measure – Select the name of the measure (from the selected data source) that provides the value for the modifier.
Select Save measure to save your settings so far.
If you must add another modifier line, select Add to add a row, and then set the fields as you did for the first row. When you've finished, select the Save link for the row.
Repeat the previous step until you've added all the required modifiers and completed the formula for your calculated measure.
Select Save.
Work with calculated measures in Inventory Visibility
For example, a fashion company operates across three data sources:
pos– Corresponds to the store channel.fno– Corresponds to Supply Chain Management.ecommerce– Corresponds to your web channel.
Without calculated measures, when you query for product D0002 (Cabinet) under site 1, warehouse 11, and a ColorID dimension value of Red, you might get the following query result, which shows inventory quantities under each preconfigured physical measure. However, you don't have visibility into the total available for reservation quantities across your data sources.
[
{
"productId": "D0002",
"dimensions": {
"SiteId": "1",
"LocationId": "11",
"ColorId": "Red"
},
"quantities": {
"pos": {
"inbound": 80.0,
"outbound": 20.0
},
"fno": {
"availphysical": 100.0,
"orderedintotal": 50.0,
"orderedreserved": 10.0
},
"ecommerce": {
"received": 90.0,
"scheduled": 30.0,
"issued": 60.0,
"reserved": 40.0
}
}
}
]
You then configure a calculated measure that's named MyCustomAvailableforReservation, as shown in the following table. This calculated measure will be consumed by the consumption system.
| Consumption system | Calculated measure | Data source | Physical measure | Calculation type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
fno |
availphysical |
Addition |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
fno |
orderedintotal |
Addition |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
fno |
orderedreserved |
Subtraction |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
pos |
inbound |
Addition |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
pos |
outbound |
Subtraction |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
ecommerce |
received |
Addition |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
ecommerce |
scheduled |
Addition |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
ecommerce |
issued |
Subtraction |
CrossChannel |
MyCustomAvailableforReservation |
ecommerce |
reserved |
Subtraction |
When this computation formula is used, the new query result will include the customized measurement.
[
{
"productId": "D0002",
"dimensions": {
"SiteId": "1",
"LocationId": "11",
"ColorId": "Red"
},
"quantities": {
"pos": {
"inbound": 80.0,
"outbound": 20.0
},
"fno": {
"availphysical": 100.0,
"orderedintotal": 50.0,
"orderedreserved": 10.0
},
"ecommerce": {
"received": 90.0,
"scheduled": 30.0,
"issued": 60.0,
"reserved": 40.0
},
"CrossChannel": {
"MyCustomAvailableforReservation": 220.0
}
}
}
]
The MyCustomAvailableforReservation output, based on the calculation setting in the custom measurements, is 100 + 50 – 10 + 80 – 20 + 90 + 30 – 60 – 40 = 220.
The default data source configuration
This section provides details about the default data source configuration that's set up when you install Inventory Visibility. You can modify this configuration as you require.
Important
The default configuration has evolved through various version iterations. It's possible that your sandbox environment was initially set up with an outdated default configuration, while your production environment was initialized with the latest version of the default configuration. If you've customized your third-party system based on an outdated default configuration, it might encounter issues when your production environment goes live, especially if you haven't reviewed and adjusted the configuration. To prevent this scenario, we recommend thoroughly reviewing and updating your draft and runtime configurations before transitioning your production environment.
Data source configuration
Configuration of the iv data source
This section describes how the iv data source is configured.
Physical measures configured for the "iv" data source
The following physical measures are configured for the iv data source:
- Ordered
- Softreserved
AvailableToReserve calculated measure
The AvailableToReserve calculated measure is configured for the iv data source as shown in the following table.
| Calculation type | Data source | Physical measure |
|---|---|---|
| Addition | fno | PhysicalInvent |
| Addition | fno | Ordered |
| Addition | fno | Arrived |
| Addition | pos | Inbound |
| Addition | iv | Ordered |
| Subtraction | fno | ReservPhysical |
| Subtraction | iv | Softreserved |
| Subtraction | pos | Outbound |
| Subtraction | fno | Softreserved |
TotalAvailable calculated measure
The TotalAvailable calculated measure is configured for the iv data source as shown in the following table.
| Calculation type | Data source | Physical measure |
|---|---|---|
| Addition | fno | AvailOrdered |
| Subtraction | iv | Softreserved |
| Subtraction | @iv | @allocated |
TotalOnHand calculated measure
The TotalOnHand calculated measure is configured for the iv data source as shown in the following table.
| Calculation type | Data source | Physical measure |
|---|---|---|
| Addition | fno | PhysicalInvent |
Configuration of the "fno" data source
This section describes how the fno data source is configured.
Dimension mappings for the "fno" data source
The dimension mappings that are listed in the following table are configured for the fno data source.
| External dimension | Base dimension |
|---|---|
| InventBatchId | BatchId |
| InventColorId | ColorId |
| InventLocationId | LocationId |
| InventSerialId | SerialId |
| InventSiteId | SiteId |
| InventSizeId | SizeId |
| InventStatusId | StatusId |
| InventStyleId | StyleId |
| LicensePlateId | LicensePlateId |
| WMSLocationId | WMSLocationId |
| WMSPalletId | WMSPalletId |
| ConfigId | ConfigId |
| InventVersionId | VersionId |
| InventDimension1 | CustomDimension1 |
| InventDimension2 | CustomDimension2 |
| InventDimension3 | CustomDimension3 |
| InventDimension4 | CustomDimension4 |
| InventDimension5 | CustomDimension5 |
| InventDimension6 | CustomDimension6 |
| InventDimension7 | CustomDimension7 |
| InventDimension8 | CustomDimension8 |
| InventDimension9 | CustomDimension9 |
| InventDimension10 | CustomDimension10 |
| InventDimension11 | CustomDimension11 |
| InventDimension12 | CustomDimension12 |
Physical measures configured for the "fno" data source
The following physical measures are configured for the fno data source:
- Arrived
- PhysicalInvent
- ReservPhysical
- onorder
- notspecified
- availordered
- availphysical
- picked
- postedqty
- quotationreceipt
- received
- ordered
- ReservOrdered
- OrderedSum
- SoftReserved
Configuration of the "pos" data source
This section describes how the data source pos is configured.
Physical measures for the "pos" data source
The following physical measures are configured for the pos data source:
- Inbound
- Outbound
AvailQuantity calculated measure
The AvailQuantity calculated measure is configured for the pos data source as shown in the following table.
| Calculation type | Data source | Physical measure |
|---|---|---|
| Addition | fno | AvailPhysical |
| Addition | pos | Inbound |
| Subtraction | pos | Outbound |
Configuration of the "iom" data source
The following physical measures are configured for the iom (Intelligent Order Management) data source:
- OnOrder
- OnHand
Configuration of the "erp" data source
The following physical measures are configured for the erp (enterprise resource planning) data source:
- Unrestricted
- QualityInspection
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