Courier API

Full documentation on how to use Courier API.

Shipments

OVERVIEW

CHOOSING VIEWS

First of all, we'd like to point out that you decide what you see and how you see it on the Shipments page. You can select which view you'd like to use by clicking on the button shown below:

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You can then choose between three views based on your needs:

1. Standard View

This is the recommended, standard view for users who would like to see only what's essential to keep efficient track of their shipments.

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2. Advanced View

The advanced view is recommended for developers who need the request and response details of shipments.

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3. Custom View

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In the "Standard View" of the "Shipments" page, you can see what's going on with each of your shipments in terms of:

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And the options to Cancel (image-1618920773507.png), Download Label (image-1618920796721.png) or View Parcel Info (image-1618920848704.png). 

 

GETTING THE TRACKING CODE

When you click on View Parcel Info (image-1618920848704.png), you can see the details of the parcel as well as the tracking code.

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You can search among your shipments based on DC_REQUEST_ID, REFERENCE and TRACKING_CODE by choosing one of our search parameters:

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And you can also specify the dates between which you'd like to search (or pick one of the Fast Date Picker options):

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If you do not know any of these details, you can narrow down the results on this page by filtering by:

Courier

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Friendly Service Name (the name of the service you sent the parcel with)

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Name (name of the customer the parcel was sent to)

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DOWNLOAD CSV

You can download a report of your shipments by picking a date range (or picking among the Fast Date Picker options) and clicking "Download CSV" like shown below:

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Users

OVERVIEW

Users page allows the owner of a Courier API account to see all the users that have access to the system under their account. The purpose of allowing multiple users under a Courier API account is to enable each user to have their own, personal login details and to give account owners the ability to see, manage or remove users.

By default, account owners can view all the users of their system by the below parameters:

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And you have the ability to filter through your users by name, email, company or API account.

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CUSTOMISING VIEWS

By clicking the "Customise Views" button (image-1619614645992.png) you can turn on or off certain parameters and you can also edit the filters by which you'd like to narrow down your list of users :

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USER ACTIONS

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Users page allows you to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courier Directory

OVERVIEW

The Courier Directory page gives you a list of all the courier integrations that Courier API offers. You can see some of the courier integrations our system offers.

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The main purpose of the Courier Directory is to allow you to make use of our system presets as well as creating your custom ones specific to each one of your API accounts.

SERVICE PRESETS

Service presets are specially configured codes that allow access to specific services each courier offers.

In Courier API, we add the most commonly used service presets for each courier and we update the presets in our system all the time to give our customers access to the most popular and up-to-date services. These are called the "system presets" in the Courier API system and you can view the available system presets for a courier by clicking on the relevant courier's logo in the courier directory:

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Then you will be presented with a list of all the system presets available for DPD.

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CREATING A NEW SERVICE PRESET

If the service preset you're looking for is not available in the system, you can add it for yourself. To do this:

1. Click on "Create Preset" on the top-right corner of the screen (if you have multiple API accounts, please make sure that you've selected the correct API account you wish to add this preset to):

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2. Then fill in the information below. Please note that the details required for presets may differ from one courier to another.

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3. If you'd like to use this new preset under certain circumstances, you can tick the "Apply restrictions to this preset" box and create rules for it by selecting certain parameters:

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You can make your shipments go via this new service preset based on weight, dimensions, value and more. As an example, you can allow this preset for shipments over £50 and under £100 or use it only for shipments going to a certain postcode area. You can also select the countries in which you'd like to support this preset: 

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4. If you have got multiple API accounts and you wish to make this new preset available for them as well, tick the "Add to multiple accounts" box and select the API accounts you need or alternatively, click on the "All Accounts" button to apply this change to all of your accounts.

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5. Once you've finished making all the configurations, hit "Create Preset" and the new preset you've just created will appear in the list of presets, with a "custom" tag next to it.

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You can go back and edit or delete your custom presets anytime you wish to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smart Shipping

OVERVIEW

The overall objective of the Smart Shipping feature is to allow users to set specific rules based on which their shipments can be sent. You can add and combine various parameters to get your shipping services to work just like how you want them to work.

Just like service presets, Smart Shipping works based on API account as well.

CREATING RULES

1. So, the first step is to select an API account:

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2. Then you will see that the "Create Smart Rule" button will be activated and you'll be able to click on it and set the basics of your rule. 

Rule Priority determines the priority of a rule among other rules. 0 is the highest priority and the higher the number is, the lower the priority. And, of course, you'll need to give your rule a name.

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3. Once that's done, click on "Set Parameters" and select a "Parameter Type". The fields will change depending on the parameter that you select:

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You can add multiple parameters by clicking "Add Parameter". Once you've finished entering the values for each of your parameters, click "Set Output Service". In this example, we're setting rules for parcels weighing a minimum of 1 kg and a maximum of 5 kg and at the minimum value of £10 and maximum of £20.

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4. When you click on "Set Output Service", you'll be presented with the below screen which allows you to select the courier, auth and preset you want to use when the requirements you set on the previous page are met. You can also set up a "Failover Service" to be used in case of a technical issue with your primary service choice. And once done, hit "Create Rule".

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You'll see your rule appear here on the Smart Shipping page and you'll have the ability to deactivate, edit or delete it.

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API Accounts

OVERVIEW

The API Accounts page gives you a list of all the API accounts under your user account. You can have multiple API accounts per user.

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You can view Key & Tokens, shipments and registered auths belonging to each user and disable or delete an API account. You can also create a new API account.

CREATING A NEW API ACCOUNT

1. First you need to click on the "Create New API Account" button on the top right corner of the page.

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2. In the popup that you'll be presented with, give this new account a name and generate a key for this account. This key is unique to your account and although you will not have to input it in your requests directly, you can keep it somewhere if you'd like. 

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3. Once this is all done, click "Save Changes" and your new API account will appear on the page.

CREATING TOKENS

Tokens are needed to create authentication requests via the API.  They are used to identify a request coming from a certain API user. So, to authenticate a request, you need a token tied to the relevant API user. To create tokens:

1. Click on "Keys & Tokens" next to the API account you wish to generate tokens for.

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2. Then click on "Create Token".

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3. After that, give your token a name and hit "Create Token" again.

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4. Once saved, your new token will appear on the below screen. You can see the token value here or if you ever wish to remove this token, you can do so by clicking on the bin icon next to it.

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ADD/VIEW REGISTERED AUTHS

To register a new auth:

1. Click on the plus icon next to the "View Registered Auths".

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2. The next step is to select a courier from the drop-down list.

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3. Then fill in the relevant fields. The "Company" field helps you differentiate your accounts if you've got multiple accounts with the same courier.

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4. Make sure the Testing field is marked accordingly, ie, if you are in the testing mode make sure it is marked as "Yes" and if not, leave it as "No". 

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5. Once all of this is done, click "Save Changes" and you will have successfully registered a new auth.

6. You can view your registered auths by clicking on "View Registered Auths".

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From this pop-up, you can view presets defined for the courier for which you registered an auth, and see the details of this auth such as the username and password. You can also, of course, delete this registered auth anytime you need to by clicking on the red bin icon.

 

 

 

 

 

API Request Logs

OVERVIEW

API Request Logs page basically shows you the requests coming via each API user into the system. 

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On this page you can see the following relevant to your requests:

Date and Time: Data and time the request was made.

ID: The global ID set by the Courier API system for that specific request.

Request ID: The ID that has been set by the user in their request. This is usually the UNIX timestamp corresponding to the time of the request in cases where the request_id is set as the time of the request.

Request URL: The Courier API endpoint that your request is sent to.

Request Method: Whether it was a POST, GET or another type of request.

API Account: The API account via which the request was made.

Request Authenticated: The time it took to authenticate the request (in milliseconds).

Duration: The time it took to complete the request (in milliseconds).

Response Code: The HTTP response code.

Logs (Request Logs): This shows the data that was sent and the data that was received in return.

Request Logs (Courier Request Logs): This shows the details of a request's journey from beginning to end, ie. how many requests have had to be sent and translated until the final response of your request has been received and translated for you.

SEARCHING & FILTERING LOGS

You can search among your API requests based on ID or Request ID.

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You can also filter this search based on date:

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Request URL (You do not need to enter the full request URL to apply this filter. If you are looking for "create-label" requests, you can simply apply "create" as a filter and it will work):

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API Account (You need to tick the relevant API account from the list):

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Or Response Code:

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API Reports

OVERVIEW

API Reports page gives you an overview of how many API calls you have made for each of your API accounts and how many of them have been successful as well as how many of them failed.

By default, the numbers shown on this page belong to the last 7 days, however, you can change this by filtering by the dates you're interested in.

HOW IS IT USED?

1. When you land on the API Reports page, the first thing you need to do is to choose the API account you'd like to see the report for and hit "Generate Report".

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2. Then you'll see the statistics on each type of request made from your API account of choice.

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3. You can change the dates by clicking on "Show Filters" and selecting new dates.

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4. You can also switch between accounts by clicking on the eye icon next to any of the other accounts on the list.

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Help & Documentation

OVERVIEW

The Help & Documentation page has been created to gather all the resources you may need in order to use the Courier API system effectively in one place.

DOCUMENTATION

Our documentation guides you through all of our API processes and explains the data required to be sent through to make requests via our API.

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VIDEO TUTORIALS

These video tutorials are aimed at getting you all set up to use Courier API via the user interface. We're still in the process of adding more videos.

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PLAYGROUND

The Playground lets you simulate a label request and allows you to manipulate the data sent and data received so that you can see the logic behind how labels are created.

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RAISING A TICKET

If you cannot find the answers you have been looking for in any of the help materials we provided, please get in touch with our team by raising a ticket.

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My Account

OVERVIEW

"My Account" is where you can see all the billing information about your account. To go to your account, you need to click the below link on the side menu:

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*The pricing shown in the above image only reflects the pricing at the time this screenshot was taken and may be subject to change.

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MANAGE & CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION

To switch from your current plan to another one, simply click on the plan you'd like to switch to and hit "Update plan".

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To edit your payment details or to cancel your subscription:

1. Click on "Manage Subscription"

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2. And then on the popup that you'll be presented with, 

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Click on "Update Card Details" to change your payment details. You'll then be redirected to a page where you can update your card details.

Click on "Cancel Subscription" if you're looking to cancel your account.