Orders (API Functions, Preview)
The list ITscope Orders shows every purchase order the connector has handed over to ITscope — as a cart or as a binding order —, with its state at ITscope.
Preview — API contract required
The ordering functions run over the ITscope REST API and require a paid API contract with ITscope (HTTP Basic with account ID and API key). They are marked as preview and switched off by default — the catalog import works completely without them. To unlock them: ITscope settings → API Functions (Preview).
Opening the Page
- Dashboard → Orders
- Search: ITscope Orders
- From every document that belongs to an ITscope order — purchase order, sales order, posted receipt or invoice, vendor ledger entry: action ITscope Order (see Document Navigation)
How an ITscope Order Comes About
An ITscope order comes about when merchantCENTRAL procurement — for example AD merchantCENTRAL Trading from a drop-shipment sales order — creates a purchase order for a vendor that an ITscope distributor is actively mapped to in the vendor mapping, or when someone creates it by hand on the purchase order. An order always sits completely with one distributor. Without the API functions switched on, without a license or with the module switched off, nothing comes about.
The Order Mode in the ITscope settings decides how far the connector goes:
| Order mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Prepare cart only (default) | The connector creates a cart in ITscope in the background — with ITscope product number, distributor, quantity and the order number as a comment. The actual ordering is then done by hand in ITscope. This works with every distributor |
| Send binding order | The order is queued as Ready to Send. A person sends it here with Send Order — after a confirmation — as an OpenTrans 2.1 order through ITscope to the distributor. The distributor must have enabled you for this |
The binding order contains your account ID as the buyer, the distributor as the supplier, the ship-to address of the order (the end customer's on a drop shipment, otherwise your company address) and, per line, the distributor's item number, the ITscope product number, quantity and purchase price. The distributor's answers are then fetched by the document feedback.
Start in the order test mode
With Order Test Mode (on by default), binding orders go to ITscope's own test distributor 10000735, which answers automatically — no distributor sees the order, no goods are ordered. The Test Response Pattern §C3A1I2 requests three order confirmations, one dispatch notification and two invoices. Test orders never touch the purchase order, the sales order or a posting; the column Sent as Test marks them. The test mode only affects binding orders — a cart orders nothing until someone orders in ITscope.
Creating One by Hand
Not every purchase order comes about through merchantCENTRAL procurement; the automatic route never sees one entered by hand. For such an order, the purchase order offers the action Create ITscope Order in the action group ITscope — with the API functions switched on, as long as the order has no ITscope order yet and its vendor is mapped to an active ITscope distributor. It takes the same route as the automatic creation:
- In Prepare cart only mode, it creates the cart right away and reports the cart ID and the number of lines transferred. If the cart fails, the reason is in the message and on the order (Cart Failed).
- In Send binding order mode, it queues the order as Ready to Send and then asks the same confirmation as Send Order. If you answer no, you find the order ready to send in this list.
Fields
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Purchase Order No. | The Business Central purchase order the ITscope order belongs to |
| Sales Order No. | The linked sales order on a drop shipment |
| Status | The state at ITscope — see Status |
| Cart ID | The prepared ITscope cart |
| Deal ID | The ITscope deal, once the order is placed |
| Own Order No. | Our order number as ITscope knows it — the status query searches by it, and every response document names it |
| ITscope Deal Order No. | The order number ITscope issued for the deal — filled for orders that were not sent through the connector |
| Distributor Order No. | The order number from the distributor's order confirmation — the number to quote when you ask about a delivery. It reaches the purchase order as the Vendor Order No., provided that field is still empty there |
| Distributor ID | The ITscope distributor the order went to |
| Sent as Test | The order went to the test distributor; no goods were ordered |
| Cart Created At | When the cart was prepared or the order queued |
| Last Status Check | When the deal status was last queried |
| Error Message | The last error message, if any — for an API error with the status code and ITscope's answer |
Actions
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Download Order Document | Builds the OpenTrans order for this purchase order and downloads it as XML without sending anything. Works without an API access too — to check what would be transmitted |
| Send Order | Sends the order to ITscope as a binding order. Enabled only in Send binding order mode; the confirmation says whether it goes to the real or the test distributor |
| Prepare Cart | Creates the cart now — for orders in status Cart Pending or Cart Failed, for example after the credentials were corrected |
| Refresh Deal Status | Asks ITscope what has happened to the order and stores the answer with the deal documents |
| Deal Documents | Opens the deal documents of this order |
| Sync Documents Now | Fetches deal status, order confirmations, dispatch notifications and invoices of this order, processes them and runs the document automation — the same pass as the document feedback, on demand. Corrections and problems are then listed in the activity log |
| Purchase Order, Sales Order | Open the linked Business Central documents |
| ITscope Invoices, Serial Numbers | Open the invoices and serial numbers of this order |
The Order Card
Clicking a line opens the card ITscope Order — the same card that ITscope Order opens on the Business Central documents.
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| General | Purchase Order No., Sales Order No., Status, Distributor ID, Distributor Order No. and Sent as Test |
| ITscope | Own Order No., ITscope Deal Order No., Cart ID and Deal ID |
| Progress | Cart Created At, Send Attempted At, Last Status Check and Last Document At; Deal Sync Complete once the order is invoiced, every document processed and every invoice matched; Last Receipt Note — what the last run reported about the goods receipt; Error Message |
| Lines | Per line, what order confirmation and dispatch notification reported: PUID, supplier PID, confirmed quantity, confirmed unit price, promised delivery date and quantity shipped |
| Parcels (FactBox) | The parcels from the dispatch notifications with tracking number, shipping agent name and ship date/time. Clicking the number opens the carrier's tracking page |
The card offers Send Order, Prepare Cart, Refresh Deal Status and Sync Documents Now like the list — Send Order with the same confirmation — and leads to every linked document: purchase order, sales order, posted purchase receipts and invoices, ITscope invoices, serial numbers, deal documents and Track Package (see Document Navigation).
Status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cart Pending | Cart mode: queued; the cart is created in the background in a moment. If the status stays, Prepare Cart creates it by hand |
| Cart Prepared | The cart is in ITscope, waiting for someone to order there |
| Cart Failed | The cart could not be created; the reason is in Error Message. Prepare Cart tries again |
| Ready to Send | Binding order queued, waiting for Send Order |
| Order Sent | Transmitted to ITscope |
| Order Failed | Did not arrive: rejected by ITscope, the order could not even be built (for example without a matching offer or with a number that is too long), or an unconfirmed send demonstrably did not arrive. The reason is in Error Message; the order can be sent again |
| Send Unconfirmed | Sent, but without an answer from ITscope |
| Confirmed | Order confirmation processed |
| Deviation Detected | The order confirmation differs from the order and could not be corrected automatically. Deviations from the invoice are listed in the activity log only |
| Partially Shipped / Shipped | Dispatch notification processed — for part of the order or all of it |
| Invoiced | Invoice processed |
| Cancelled | Cancelled by the distributor |
Send Unconfirmed
The order went out, but ITscope did not answer — the connector does not know whether it arrived. While the order is in this status, the connector allows no second send. The document feedback — or Refresh Deal Status — settles it: if ITscope knows the deal, the order goes to Order Sent; if ITscope knows none ten minutes after the send, to Order Failed, and it can be sent again. If the status does not move, check in ITscope whether the order arrived.
Checking Availability
Check ITscope Availability on the purchase order asks ITscope what the distributors have of the order's products today — before ordering, or when a delivery date is in doubt. The action sits in the action group ITscope as soon as the order has an ITscope order or can get one.
The check covers every item line with a quantity still to be delivered and asks for the ITscope product of the offer the line is ordered from — the same one cart and binding order use. One call answers up to 50 products; an ordinary order therefore costs one API call (category Product Data in the API usage).
The page ITscope Availability shows the offers of all distributors per line:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Item No., Description | The order line |
| Quantity | The quantity still to be delivered, in the base unit of measure — the unit the distributors count their stock in and the cart orders in |
| Distributor, Ordered From | Who makes the offer. The distributor the line is ordered from comes first, in bold |
| Stock | What the distributor reports in stock — red if it does not cover the quantity |
| Incoming Stock, Available From | What is on its way to the distributor, and from when it expects the product, if it names a date |
| Stock Status | The status in the distributor's own words |
| Unit Price, Currency Code | The distributor's current price |
| Distributor Item No. | The distributor's own item number for the product |
| Stock Updated At | When the distributor last reported its stock to ITscope |
| Note | Why a line shows no offer |
A line without an offer does not disappear but says why: No ITscope offer is known for this item — there is no ITscope offer for the line's item and vendor in the supplier data —, or ITscope lists no offer for this product at the moment.
Nothing is stored
Stock changes by the hour. The answer is therefore only displayed, not stored — every check asks again. The check requires the API functions switched on, with account ID and API key.
On the Business Central Documents
As soon as a document has an ITscope deal, the FactBox ITscope Order shows its state — status, distributor ID, order numbers, test flag, the time of the last document and an error message —, and the action group ITscope leads to the ITscope order. Which actions appear on which document is under Document Navigation.
The connector writes the distributor's numbers into the standard fields of the purchase order — Vendor Order No., Vendor Shipment No. and Vendor Invoice No. —, and posting carries them on to the posted documents. Which fields are written when is under Document Automation.
401, 403 or 503 from the API
401 means the credentials were rejected — with ITscope usually not a typo but a missing API contract. 403 means the login is fine, but the call is not permitted: the booked package does not include the function, or the quota is used up. 503 means too many requests per minute — wait a minute. The error message on the order names status code and answer.