addInnerToOuter

This method allows you to establish a relationship between two consignments, by associating a parcel in an 'inner' consignment with a parcel in an 'outer' consignment. This facilitates 'parent'/'child' tracking (refer to Cartonisation ('Parent' and 'Child')).

Note

A 'child', inner consignment can only ever have one 'parent', 'outer' consignment.

It is assumed that you have worked through Creating your first Request to a Service and are familiar with the Properties needed to Call or Create a Consignment.

How to submit a request

Proceed as follows:

If you have not already done so, open a new project using the WSDL ConsignmentService.xml.
Create a new request under addInnerToOuter,
Enter the authorisation for the request.
Specify the following:
1. The Consignment Code (starting with DMC) of the 'inner' consignment (i.e. the innerConsignmentCode).
2. The number of the parcel in the 'inner' consignment to be linked to the 'outer' consignment (i.e. the innerParcelNumber).
3. The Consignment Code of the 'outer' consignment (i.e. the outerConsignmentCode).
4. The number of the parcel in the 'outer' consignment with which the specified parcel in the 'inner' consignment is to be linked (i.e. the outerParcelNumber).
Click to submit the request.

If the input is valid, then the 'inner' consignment becomes a 'child' of the 'outer', 'parent' consignment, and true is returned, as in the example below.
If you wish to link a further 'child' consignment, repeat from step 4, changing the information at steps a) and b) as required, but leaving steps c) and d) as they are.

Example Request

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ser="urn:DeliveryManager/services">
   <soapenv:Header/>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <ser:addInnerToOuter soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
         <innerConsignmentCode xsi:type="soapenc:string" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">DMC4BY1V6XXS</innerConsignmentCode>
         <innerParcelNumber xsi:type="xsd:int">1</innerParcelNumber>
         <outerConsignmentCode xsi:type="soapenc:string" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">DMC4BY1V6TP9</outerConsignmentCode>
         <outerParcelNumber xsi:type="xsd:int">1</outerParcelNumber>
      </ser:addInnerToOuter>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Example Response

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <soapenv:Body>
      <ns1:addInnerToOuterResponse soapenv:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:ns1="urn:DeliveryManager/services">
         <addInnerToOuterReturn xsi:type="xsd:boolean">true</addInnerToOuterReturn>
      </ns1:addInnerToOuterResponse>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Next Steps

If you wish to confirm the association, then, use one of the following ConsignmentSearchService methods to find the 'child' consignments: findConsignmentByConsignmentCode, findConsignmentsByCartonId, findConsignmentsByOrderReference, findConsignmentsByCarrierConsignmentCode.

If you look in the parcels array that is returned from any of the methods, you will see the outerConsignmentCode and outerParcelNumber identifying the 'parent' consignment, e.g.

<outerConsignmentCode xsi:type="soapenc:string">DMC4BY1V6TP9</outerConsignmentCode>
<outerParcelNumber xsi:type="xsd:int">1</outerParcelNumber>