Understanding the NetSuite REST data types is essential for building integrations using SmartConnect. This article provides an overview of these data types and how to populate them with SmartConnect.
Standard Fields
string
Description: Represent text values
Example: Customer name, Invoice memo
Usage: Any source column or additional column can be used to set these field
boolean
Description: Represents true/false values for toggle fields.
Example: Active status, taxable flag
Usage: pass in a value of “true” or “false”
int64
Description: Represents an integer (non decimal)
Example: Days overdue, Customer priority
Usage: Any source column or additional column that returns a number value
double
Description: Represents a decimal number with 15 decimal place precision
Example: Amount, Rate
Usage: Any source column or additional column that returns a decimal value
float
Description: Represents a decimal number with 7 decimal place precision
Example: Quantity, Available quantity
Usage: Any source column or additional column that returns a decimal value not exceeding 7 places
date
Description: Represents a date without a time
Example: Transaction date, Due date
Usage: SmartConnect will attempt to read your source data as a date, but if it fails to interpret the date you will need to use a calculated column to format as ‘YYYY-mm-DD’
date-time
Description: Represents a date with a time
Example: Last Modified Date
Usage: SmartConnect will attempt to read your source data as a date-time, but if it fails to interpret the date you will need to use a calculated column to format it in ISO 8601 format (e.g., YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ)
ListOption
Description: Represents a drop-down list of options
Example: Email preference, Item type
Usage: Change the Column type and use the dropdown to set the value, or use a Local Constant, or List Option Column to set the value.
RecordReference
Description: Represents a relationship to another record
Example: Linking a specific customer on a sales order
Usage: These fields can be mapped 2 ways.
- If the internalId for the related record is available from the source or an additional column, this can be mapped directly.
- If the externalId or referenceName for the related record are available from the source, this can be mapped using a Record Reference Column
RecordReferenceCollection
Description: Represents multiple relationships within a single field
Example: Subsidiaries, Locations
Usage: These fields can be set by providing a comma separated list of internalIds (e.g., 1,2,3)
Special Fields
Some fields in the NetSuite API have special functionality and impact the behavior of the import.
internalId
Description: Unique identifier generated by NetSuite
Usage: internalId can only be mapped on updated records, these field must be left blank when creating records
externalId
Description: Unique identifier set by an external system
Usage: When mapping externalId, it will be used to identify existing records for Update If Exists or For Delete instead of the grouping fields
createdFrom
Description: Used in transformations to link the new transformed record to the originating parent record
Usage: This is a mandatory field when mapping a transformation to link the two records together. It can be set the same way as any other record reference column.
