Connecting a Warehouse Management System with Centra, to handle pick and pack with an internal or external logistic center, is easy when you're using Centra’s Order API. The API offers convenient endpoints optimized for this use case.
Prerequisites#
To implement a WMS integration using the Order API, you need access to Centra with a configured Order API endpoint. Always use the test environment when developing your integration.
Fetching good-to-go shipments#
In order to fetch shipments that should be picked and packed by your logistics center, you should use the shipments endpoint of the Order API.
More information: Order API - Get shipments
Please note that you would need to auth with the secret key configured in the Centra Order API settings.
Using this endpoint, you’ll get all the available shipments that are ready to be shipped (the default behavior of the endpoint is to only return shipments with status good-to-go in Centra). Note that this endpoint is not an event queue, meaning all shipments available to be shipped always show up, even if you have fetched them before. Store the shipment id to make sure that you skip shipments that you have already fetched. Once shipments are marked as completed, they are by default ignored by Order API and will therefore not show up in the get-shipments call results.
Capturing payments#
You need to make sure that you capture payments associated with shipments. This will make sure that the payment is activated with the payment service provider.
More information: Order API - Capture shipments
Understanding shipment data#
Each shipment node will contain all the data you need, delivery address, products and shipping information. shippingList will contain the data you would need to understand with which carrier and service the shipment should be sent. There is no standard here, so this needs to be aligned and well tested.
The node will also contain URLs to proforma invoices (if needed) and delivery notes that can be printed, if the WMS doesn’t already have its own that will be used.
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"proforma": "http://.../proforma?shipment=83651-1",
"deliveryNote": "http://../delnote?shipment=83651-1"More importantly, it will contain the product that was ordered. A shipment may, of course, contain several products, in which case they will appear after each other.
This is how the product object will look like, it will vary depending on the number of items ordered.
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"products": [
{
"lineId": "43243",
"sku": "S123K456U1",
"variantSku": "",
"sizeSku": "",
"name": "Product #1",
"variant": "White",
"size": "XS",
"ean": "1234567890123",
"qty": 1,
"originalPrice": 500.5,
"price": 450.5,
"weight": 2,
"weightUnit": "kg",
"countryOfOrigin": "DE",
"harmCode": "12345",
"comment": ""
},
{
"lineId": "43244",
"sku": "S123K456U2",
"variantSku": "",
"sizeSku": "",
"name": "Product #2",
"variant": "Blue",
"size": "XS",
"ean": "1234567890124",
"qty": 2,
"originalPrice": 200.5,
"price": 180.5,
"weight": 1.5,
"weightUnit": "kg",
"countryOfOrigin": "CI",
"harmCode": "12345",
"comment": ""
}
]LineId identifies the unique item row (hence the name). You’ll also get three different SKU nodes: sku, variantSku and sizeSku. To match them with the full product sku in the WMS you either need to concatenate these three fields or match with EAN, if applicable.
In case you use Ingrid
If you're using Ingrid to show advanced shipping options in your checkout, after the Order is finalized you will see the Ingrid data on the Order:
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"shipwallet_courier_instructions": "",
"shipwallet_doorcode": "1234",
"shipwallet_id": "abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890",
"shipwallet_method": "pnl-mpc",
"shipwallet_pickup": "12345",
"shipwallet_deliverytime": "YYYY-MM-DD"The fields are:
shipwallet_method: The chosen shipping methodshipwallet_pickup: If the user has chosen to have the order delivered to a Service point, this is the carrier identifer of that service point. This might be empty, but if it is not, this is crucial to get right so the customer gets the goods to the right Service Pointshipwallet_deliverytime: When it should be deliveredshipwallet_doorcode: Door code, if applicableshipwallet_courier_instructions: Generic instructions for the couriershipwallet_id: Ingrid's unique identifier. Generally doesn't hold any value for the 3PL, but it might be useful for back tracing
Editing shipments#
You can also update shipments, if the quantity shipped was lower than on the order. This will allow subsequent creation of additional shipments with the remaining items, or creating refunds for items that could not be shipped.
More information: Order API - Update shipment
Marking shipments as complete#
The last step of finalizing an order is to complete the shipment. This is the step where you can send carrier info and tracking number to Centra.
More information: Order API - Complete shipment
Warehouse and stock figures#
In Centra, the user will configure for which warehouse stock values should be stored. As an integrator, you will simply send the value to Centra of each product. You should always send the physical value available, not any calculation of what’s available for sales. That calculation is done by Centra.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to send updates for every single stock movement since Centra has the order data and knows how many items belong to each order. Simply update the full stock on inbound deliveries, if the stock is manually changed in for example a stock-take or if a different system is picking stock from the same warehouse (which is not recommended).
However, it’s always good practice to schedule a regular stock sync, e.g. once a day. This will ensure the systems re-sync automatically if they should go out of sync for any reason.
More information: Order API - Update stock
Fetching products#
In order to minimise work for the shared client, it is possible to fetch the products created in Centra, so that the client or you won’t have to create them in the WMS manually.
You'll be able to fetch all products, and you can also filter out products that are recently updated with the API call.
More information: Order API - Get products
The most important thing to think about here are the SKU fields. In Centra, a product can have multiple variants connected to the same main SKU, where as in most WMS systems this is not the case. While fetching a product, please make sure to create the products in the WMS, based on sku, variantSku and sizeSKU. These three concatenated would be the physical SKU on the shelf in the warehouse.
In the example below, you can see that neither variantSku nor sizeSku are configured, and in this case the full sku is only M411-740, which will not identify a specific item in the warehouse. If not all SKU values are available, you can use the EAN number instead.
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"sku": "M411-740",
"variantSku": "",
"sizeSku": "",
"ean": "57724280430011",Creating returns#
If not all items in an order can be shipped, or if an order item has been returned by the customer, a proper Return with a refund should be created. When creating a Return, you will be able to specify (among other options) if a refund should be issued, whether or not the returned items should be put back into stock, or if any handling cost should be added.
It's important to note that the list of returned products is not made up of the product IDs, but rather of the lineIds taken from the shipment, as described in the Understanding shipment data section.
More information: Order API - Create return
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{
"shipment": "120276-1",
"returnStock": 1,
"products": {
"43243": "1",
"43244": "1"
}
}Fetching returns#
To get detailed information on existing returns, you can fetch returns for specific orders or shipments, or all of them.
More information: Order API - Get returns