QXchange Integration with DEAR Inventory

Overview
QXchange is a powerful data integration tool to access, integrate and manage large volumes of data from various systems. Extraction, transformation and loading of data are powered by QXchange with source and target database support.
QXchange helps organizations to bond together all enterprise data and ensures accuracy of data in a timely manner. QXchange is a simple stand-alone application that can be used by novice users at ease.

QXchange is flexible, easy to use, data integration software. It can quickly and easily transfer data between many standard data formats and applications, including MS Access, Excel, Comma delimited flat file, MS SQL Server, QuickBooks, Dear Inventory and others. It allows simple and clear setup of extraction, transformation and loading instructions to exchange data between different formats. The instructions are stored and managed as profiles.

DEAR Inventory, is a cloud-based, inventory and order management application for SMBs which offers a complete back-end management solution with purchasing, sales, warehouse management, light manufacturing features as well as shipping, ecommerce, and payment gateway integrations. DEAR Inventory aims to help small to medium business owners take control over inventory and order management while streamlining, automating, and simplifying all daily operations. DEAR has wide applications in various industries by businesses of various sizes. Retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and ecommerce operators are the broad categories of DEAR Inventory users. Some businesses utilize DEAR for simple inventory management needs while others rely on DEAR to meet compliance requirements imposed by their industry, for example food manufacturers need DEAR for lot traceability and expiry date capabilities.

Technology
Dear Inventory, supplies API services, a pool of API calls for building applications and integrating with Dear Inventory objects. This set of APIs allows you to create and retrieve data from Employees, New hires, Positions, Payrates, Deductions, Location, Background check, Contact Info, Time punches, Time sheets and supporting to export into payroll. The platform also ensures that the third-party product is properly authenticated prior to getting access to the Dear Inventory data.  All access to Dear Inventory is through the API requests.

Authentication and Authorization
QXchange uses sign-on information provided by the individual customer to identify itself while communicating through the Dear Inventory. An existing company id and Dear Inventory API Key can be used. The login information is encrypted and stored locally on the user machines. The application and login information are presented to the Dear Inventory authentication system to allow access to the QXchange application.

QXchange is installed locally at the customer site so that customer data is directly loaded between customer machines and the Dear Inventory site without any other intervening web sites. QXchange sends a message request to Dear Inventory and Dear Inventory sends back a response message; the communication is managed synchronously.

Data Access Plug-in
QXchange integration engine uses Data Access Plug-ins (DAPs) for individual application and data format integration. All the DAPs are called using a standard Application Program Interface (API). The Dear Inventory API is wrapped inside one of these DAPs. This allows for a smooth and standard operation across all the various DAPs.

QXchange is installed locally at the customer site so that customer data is directly loaded between customer machines and the Dear Inventory site without any other intervening web sites. QXchange sends a message request to Dear Inventory and Dear Inventory sends back a response message; the communication is managed synchronously.

Supported objects in QXchange

Using QXchange
The QXchange engine works the same for all different DAPs. Every data transfer is set up as a profile, with a source and target data file, which can be of different data formats. Data transfer between specific objects and the mapping of source to target fields are also set up in the profile.

The profile can be executed directly or can be scheduled to be executed later. The process can be run on a local desktop or on a server.

Source Data
Dear Inventory can be defined as source data and the various objects can be accessed. Field level data from the objects can be extracted and mapped to destination objects and fields in different data formats. Data from multiple objects can be extracted. Multiple profiles can be set up to extract data from various objects. Source data can also be filtered using various expressions. Prior to executing extract, the source data can be viewed to make sure the right records are getting selected.

Target Data
Dear Inventory API allows to post the data into Dear Inventory systems. It can be used as target data and the objects supported by the API can be posted. Using QXchange any data source can be used as source and target can be Dear Inventory, with the mappings allowed by API the system can post the data to Dear Inventory. The loading data to Dear Inventory is limited to the API.

Scenarios
The QXchange ability to integrate Dear Inventory allows many uses. Certain limitations in Dear Inventory reporting can be exceeded with this tool.

Conclusion
QXchange does a tremendous job, understanding the intricacies of the Dear Inventory data structure as well as the complications inherent in the data integration process. With this ability and its ease of use, it allows users to make more effective use of their Dear Inventory Data.