RE: UPS Shipping System -- MAPICS-L

I've implemented UPS Worldship integration several times for several clients
of mine using various Software Packages, including MAPICS.  Worldship
utilizes an ODBC connection to get at your AS400 data.    You can setup the
ODBC connection, then use the "Key Entry" feature of Worldship to allow the
person in Shipping to key an Order# or Shipment Number or other identifying
information that will be used to retrieve the shipping name, address, etc
from your Mapics files.    In my case, I used the Pick List number as the
"key entry" information.  So, the user enters the Pick List number in
Worldship and the shipping information is automatically populated from
Mapics.   I was able to do this part without any programming per se.    All
I did was create a join logical file containing the appropriate information
needed by Worldship.    I had to create a JLF because Worldship can only
look at one file for its information and the required information in Mapics
was in a couple of different files.  NOTE!   When setting up your ODBC
connection, you will be very disappointed with the performance if you try to
point to files in your AMFLIBx.    In fact, you'll be lucky if it will even
work.    This is because when you connect with ODBC it wants to build a
table of all the files in AMFLIBx before it lets you attach to the required
file.   Since AMFLIBx has so many files, this is a VERY long process.
Usually Worldship times out without even establishing a connection.    I got
around this by building a special library called SHIPINFO and I put my JLF
in that library and had it point back to the data in AMFLIBx.   Doing it in
this way makes the ODBC connection very fast.  You just setup ODBC to look
at the SHIPINFO library.  If you are using multiple company numbers you will
have to deal with another problem presented by Worldship.    The key field
used to retrieve information can only be 1 (one) field, therefore you can't
use Company# and Order# together to pull the information.   In my case, I
only had one company, so this was not a problem.    If you have multiple
companies you will need to do one of two things; either ensure the field you
are using to pull up the data is unique across companies or create the file
in SHIPINFO with a concatenated key field.   Populating the name and address
fields in Worldship is a simple process of mapping the MAPICS fields to
Worldship fields with the tool provided in Worldship.

 
As far as getting the shipping cost, weight, etc back into Mapics, this is
where some programming needs to come into play.   I haven't actually done
this part in MAPICS but I have done it with other AS400 Software Packages so
I can give you some insight in this area as well.   Worldship cannot update
files, it can only add records (append) so that eliminates the possibility
of updating Mapics files directly (which isn't a good idea anyway).    I
created a special file which I placed in library SHIPINFO as well.
Worldship writes records to this file and an RPG program can update the
Mapics files from the transactions in this file.  In my case, I created a
Database Trigger program so each time Worldship adds a record to the
shipinfo file the program is kicked off, updates the shipping information in
your ERP system, then flags the SHIPINFO record as processed.    You'll have
to deal with the peculiarities of the data that Worldship gives you.     For
example, amount fields will contain the decimal point (ouch!), therefore,
you have to make the amount field a character field and then parse out the
amount with your program.  Also, be careful with your field names in your
DDS for the shipinfo file.   Worldship doesn't like any #'s in the field
names (Ord# for example will not work).    Worldship gives you 2 options for
writing the data to this shipment file.   It can write the data in real time
or at the end of day process in a batch mode.  I usually choose to update
"real time."  Keep in mind though that sometimes mistakes are made in
shipping and they go back and correct the shipment.   If this happens, you
will get 2 more transactions from Worldship, a void transaction and the new
shipment transaction.   Your program will have to be smart enough to handle
this situation.    If you have any other questions, please feel free to
contact me offline. 
 
Good luck!

Bud Roble
Charles Roble Consulting
broble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.CharlesRobleConsulting.com
(805)794-3027


-----Original Message-----
From: meyno [mailto:meyno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 8:36 AM
To: MAPICS-L SUBMIT
Subject: UPS Shipping System

We are in the process of changing shipping systems, from Pfastship to UPS.

We are using the offline load for shipping and plan to do the same for UPS.

To the group, what problem(s) has anyone encountered with using UPS Shipping
System.

We have completed initial conversations and know that we need to supply UPS
with a data file, containing all     shipping information, and then they
will give us a file with all shipped information (charges, tracking# etc ).

Thanks

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