Custom shipping connector technical design

Important

This integration guide supports physical goods. The physical goods product category is in Early Availability status. Features in Early Availability status are only available in production to a limited number of customers based on fit with specific use cases. For more information about Early Availability status, see Product lifecycle phases. If you would like to use the product capabilities described here during the Early Availability phase, contact your AppDirect technical representative.

A shipping connector acts as a translation layer between the marketplace's physical fulfillment manager and the fulfillment service (the shipper's API). It converts shipping rate and tracking status information from the fulfillment service into formats that AppDirect can understand. For example, it maps address fields that customers enter during checkout to fields that the fulfillment service can accept. It handles all nuances of the shipper's API, including polling services and delays, where applicable.

The shipping connector implements the Shipping Connector API. A shipping service can use the API to build its own connector or can build one with support from AppDirect. Shippers who want to build a connector to work with the purchase fulfillment manager must use the technical design described in this section, which includes the following topics:

• Shipping fulfillment flow
• Data objects
• Calls expected by the purchase fulfillment manager
• Shipment authentication
• Marketplace-specific configurations