We are now able to provide fake status tracking information for consignments "shipped" from the test platform. This enables you to complete the loop and see what reports would look like in the real world. At the moment, we only model a satisfactory delivery, rather than one which is carded, misrouted or damaged.

We do nothing more than provide the status. It will not trigger emails or any other event that could happen in the live systems.

Microsoft has done a sterling job with webservices. The tools, however, are somewhat cumbersome. The WSDL->C# code generator, wsdl.exe, produces code that is hardly developer-friendly. Moreover, the code does not support HTTP/1.0 by default. This article describes how to integrate with Delivery Manager.

Labels from MetaPack's Delivery Manager are produced in PDF format. In almost all cases, these are then printed using Adobe's Acrobat Reader at a Windows pack-bench.

The self-printing labels will result in the user being presented with a pop-up request box asking them if they are sure they want to print. And they will get that every time. This is due to a security precaution implemented in Acrobat Reader.

 The Delivery Manager Expression language is a powerful tool that can be used to manipulate data on the way in to DM using file import. This is of particular use when the contents of fields don't quite match. For example, one system might hold "first name, last name and title". It might be deemed necessary to concatenate them on their way into DM.

 In the spirit of openness and collaboration, we now publish performance data showing how long calls to the system take. This site publishes the performance data for all the API methods called, and provides a link to download all the data so you can see how other parts of the system are behaving.

PHP has been successfully used time and time again for integration with MetaPack's Delivery Manager. This article is aimed at those who have never called a webservice from PHP, or those who quickly need to brush up on the basics. This should allow you to develop code more confidently and more effectively.

Postcodes are a frequent cause of concern for carriers. Invalid postcodes cause automated processes to fail at depots, so improving data quality is a sure way of increasing quality of service. This article describes how DM performs its validation of postcode structure, and explains why it uses the algorithms it does.

The allocation engine is the most powerful feature of MetaPack's Delivery Manager. It is also one of the most complicated. This article describes the processes involved in choosing a carrier, and identifies the various things that can affect the selection.

Printing from UNIX systems is trivial for certain environments but if you start mixing in Windows pack-benches, and unsupported printers, things get a little more complicated. This article serves to show how to get printing up and running.