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Automatic Labels

A shipment provider can create labels on its own: when a sales order is released or when a sales shipment is posted. Nobody has to open the Create Label Dialog. The feature is part of every carrier module at no extra cost.

How it works

Release and posting only create an entry. The job queue then creates the label within a few minutes by the same route as the dialog: licence check, shipping rules, contract resolution, tracking entry. A carrier problem is recorded on the entry and never blocks the release or the posting.

Switching it on

  1. Open Shipment Providers and the card of the provider.
  2. In the Automation section set the field Auto Create Label:
Value Effect
None Labels are created manually only.
On Release As soon as a sales order is released, a label for the order is queued.
On Post As soon as a sales shipment is posted, a label for the posted shipment is queued.

Switching it on creates the recurring job merchantCENTRAL: create queued shipment labels in the job queue. It runs every five minutes, every day, around the clock.

Release or post?

On Post is the safe choice: the label then belongs to the posted shipment and carries exactly the shipped quantities. On Release suits a process that prints the label before packing; partial shipments then need attention, because the label is based on the whole order.

Which provider creates the label?

The hub resolves the provider as the dialog does, in this order:

  1. the provider whose shipping agent matches the shipping agent of the order,
  2. the default shipment provider of the merchantCENTRAL setup,
  3. the only enabled provider.

An entry is queued only when that provider carries the matching trigger. An order with a shipping agent that belongs to no automating provider stays untouched.

Duplicate labels are avoided. If the document already has a label with status Requested, Created or Manifested, or an entry is already waiting for it, nothing is queued.

Monitoring the entries

The page Automatic Label Entries (search: automatic label) shows every entry with trigger, provider, document, status and error text.

Status Meaning
Pending Waiting for the next job queue run.
Completed Label created; the Shipment Label action opens it.
Error The label could not be created; the reason is in Error Message.

Actions:

  • Retry puts a failed entry back to Pending.
  • Process Pending creates the labels of all pending entries right away, without waiting for the job queue.
  • Shipment Label opens the created label.

The hub dashboard reports entries that failed today in its attention list.

Typical error causes

Error text contains Cause and remedy
licence, demo, not registered The carrier module is not licensed or the demo has expired. Check the licence on the provider card.
no connector The provider is registered in the hub, but the connector app is not installed or disabled.
address, weight, product The carrier rejected the shipment. Correct the document and retry the entry.
shipping rules, participation An additional service needs a participation that is missing in the contract (see the connector help, for example DHL Profiles & Billing).