addInnerToOuter

This method allows you to establish a relationship between two consignments by associating a parcel in an "inner" (child) consignment with a parcel in an "outer" (parent) consignment. This facilitates parent-child tracking (refer to Cartonisation (parent-child)).

Note

An inner consignment can have only one 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, that is, the innerConsignmentCode.
2. The number of the parcel in the inner consignment to be linked to the outer consignment, that is, the innerParcelNumber.
3. The Consignment Code of the outer consignment, that is, 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, that is, the outerParcelNumber.
Click to submit the request.

If the input is valid, the inner consignment becomes a child of the outer consignment and true is returned, as shown in the example below.
If you wish to link another inner consignment, repeat step 4 but change the information in steps a) and b) as required and leave 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, use one of the following ConsignmentSearchService methods to find the inner 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 outer consignment consignment - see the following example.

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