Introduction

Determining why a particular allocation fails is a very hard job. As you may have read here, there are many constraints that can affect carrier selection, and some of them change over time.

As part of normal operating procedure, sometimes allocations don't go how you expect. In a live environment, this is usually due to "ugly" factors such as super-heavy consignments or far-off distant places. However, during development, testing or roll-out, this is usually down to misconfiguration.

There are many reasons why a consignment can't be allocated to a particular service. Things such as warehouse-setup and pricing play as an important part as the details of the consignment itself. Moreover, it is entirely plausible that many elements conspire to make an allocation impossible.

Getting access to the "Why Not?" feature

You will need to have access to the GUI, and with an account that has administrator privileges. If you are using test1.metapack.com or test2.metapack.com, the account that was created during registration is automatically given administrator privileges.

To see the "Why Not?" button, the user needs to have the Ability to see why services are excluded right.

For demonstration purposes, I will show test1.metapack.com. The same process applies to other environments.

1. Go to the user groups setup page http://test1.metapack.com/dm/ActionServlet?action=retailer_group_search

2 . Create a new secured group named something sensible. Then ensure the group has the feature Ability to see why services are excluded checked.

At this point, you might also consider adding other security rights to allow access to the other features. The Use the advanced allocation engine feature is of particular use if you are trying to debug allocation calls that use filters etc.

3. Find the user account you want to use (which might be your current account) http://test1.metapack.com/dm/ActionServlet?action=user_search

4. Add the user to the group you've just created so the user gains the right.

5. The user now has the right to see the feature, but they won't know about it until the log in again. So if they are already logged in, they will need to log out first

Using the "Why Not?" feature

The "Why Not?" feature manifests itself as a magic button on the consignment details page. This means that it can only be used for consignments saved in the system.

The button will appear on the Options tab, no matter what the consignment status.

When you click the button, you'll be presented with a pop-up. Choose the service you want to test, then click the button. The results will appear beneath.

In this particular example, the particular HDN service (HDNECOSUP48DAY7) can't be used as it doesn't go to that destination. There are two possible reasons why a destination postcode causes allocation to fail:
1) The carrier has not stated that the service goes there (the area is not included)
2) The carrier has explicitly stated that the service does not go there (the area is excluded)