Integrating Siebel eSales with Third-Party Shipment Tracking Applications

This chapter tells you how to set up the ability for consumers to track the shipping progress of packages that you are sending to them. It contains the following sections:

About Shipment Tracking Applications

The shipping carrier scans each package at various checkpoints on its journey, and stores information about the progress of the package in the carrier’s shipment tracking database.

Customers can access the shipment tracking through Siebel eSales by clicking the Check Shipment button, which appears when there is a shipment. When the consumer clicks the button it shows the shipments that are associated with the order. If the shipment has a Shipment Identification Number, the Track Shipment button appears. When the consumer clicks this button, information in the shipment tracking database is delivered to Siebel eSales using a specific, prebuilt Application Services Interface (ASI) named External Shipment Tracking. Some configuration is required to set up this integration.

Integration also uses the published interfaces called Shipment Tracking Interface Request and Shipment Tracking Interface Response. For information about extending this integration object, and for more information about how to set up, use, and modify integrations based on ASIs, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

The following terms are used when referring to shipment tracking:

Shipment. This is a part of an order that is shipped using the same carrier and shipment method. For example, an order can consist of one air-freight shipment and one ground shipment that have the same destination address. A shipment is made up of one or more packages. More than one order can be included in a single shipment, and a single order can require more than one shipment. In other words, there is a many-to-many relationship between orders and shipments.
Shipment Tracking Number. Also known as a Shipment Identification number or Waybill number, this is a unique identifier used to track a shipment through the delivery system.
Package. This is a container for the parts of a shipment. For example, a computer shipment may have a package for the monitor and a package for the computer’s CPU case.
Package Tracking Number. This is a unique identifier used to track a package through the delivery system.
Shipment Reference Number. This is a unique identifier that is defined by the seller and used to track shipments. This number can be used in conjunction with a package, a set of packages within one or more shipments, or all packages within a shipment.

Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking

To set up the use of third-party shipment tracking system, you must perform the following tasks:

To set up the use of third-party shipment tracking application, you can also perform the following optional tasks:

Setting the Shipment Tracking-Package Tracking User Properties

The virtual business component from which the shipment tracking application can be launched is associated with the Request Action method and its associated Request Option. These methods invoke the External Shipment Tracking ASI when clicking the Track Shipment button on the Shipment View (eSales) view. The Request Action is Track, and it should match the shipper’s system command. The Request Option is Last Package or Last Activity, which should also match the shipper’s system.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking.

To set the Shipment Tracking - Package Tracking business component user properties

In Siebel Tools, select the Shipment Tracking - Package Tracking business component.
Select Business Component User Prop.

Verify that the Names and Values of the User Properties match those in the following table.

Business Component	Name	Default Value
Shipment Tracking-Package Tracking	Request Action	Track
Shipment Tracking-Package Tracking	Request Option	Last Activity

Note: If you want to support integration with more than one carrier, the user property values required by the carriers will probably be different. In this case, you must employ a middleware adapter that will change the values passed to each carrier.

Verifying the External Shipment Tracking ASI User Properties

You must verify the External Shipment Tracking ASI user properties.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking.

To verify the External Shipment Tracking ASI user properties

In Siebel Tools, select the External Shipment Tracking business service.
Select Business Service User Prop.

Verify that the Names and Values of the User Properties match those in the following table.

Name	Value
siebel_port_name	Default
siebel_web_service_name	External Shipment Tracking
siebel_web_service_namespace	http://siebel.com/asi/

Configuring Web Services for Shipment Tracking

Web services are used to direct the inbound and outbound messages to and from:

The third-party shipment tracking application.
A demonstration script that can be used to test your integration setup.
A middleware component.

You must make sure that the Web services are correctly configured.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking.

To configure the Web services

Navigate to the Administration - Web Services > Outbound Web Services.
Select the row with External Shipment Tracking in the Name field.

Verify that the fields in the Outbound Web Services list match those in the following table.

Namespace	Name	Status
http://siebel.com/asi/	External Shipment Tracking	Active

In the Service Ports list, click New, and enter the following values in the fields of the new record.

Field	Comments
Name	Enter a name for the port.
Service Display Name	Enter External Shipment Tracking.
Transport	Select from the drop-down list. If you want to set up testing, for example when you are customizing applets or extending the ASI, select Local Business Service.
Address	When you select a transport, the field is populated with a template address. Edit the address based on where you are sending the data. If you want to set up testing, enter Shipment Tracking ASI Test.
Binding	If a SOAP header is expected by the receiving application, select SOAP_RPC. If you are using Shipment Tracking ASI Test, select PropertySet.

For more information about configuring Web Services and setting up demonstration scripts, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

Extending Returned Data for Shipment Tracking

You can extend the returned data by adding a field to the response integration object and displaying it in the user interface.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking.

To extend the returned data

Add the field to the Shipment Tracking Interface Response integration object.
Add the field to the Shipment Tracking - Package Tracking business component, making sure that the name of the field matches that of the integration object.
Add the control to the Shipment Tracking - Package Tracking (eSales) applet, which maps to the added field in the business component.

For more information about extending the data that is received from the shipment tracking application, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

Changing the Package Sorting Order

Packages are displayed as a list of records in the Shipment Tracking - Package Tracking (eSales) applet. The list is sorted in the order shown in the following table.

Table Package Sorting Order

Sort Level	Value Sorted	Sort Order
First	Package Tracking Number	Ascending
Second	Date	Descending
Third	Time	Descending

You can change the order in which packages are listed.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking.

To change the package sorting order

In Siebel Tools, select the Shipment Tracking (eSales) business service.
Select Business Service User Prop.
The displayed list of user properties includes nine sort fields.
Change the values of the fields to change the sorting order for the three levels of sort.

Turning Off Package Sorting

You may want to turn off package sorting to improve performance if:

The order in which information is returned does not matter to you.
You usually only have one package in a shipment.
Sorting is performed in middleware.
Sorting is performed by the carrier’s shipment tracking application.
This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Shipment Tracking.

To turn off package sorting

In Siebel Tools, select the Shipment Tracking-Package Tracking business component.
Select Business Component User Prop.
Select the Sort Results user property.
Change the value from Y to N.