Fedex Ship Manager ODBC Error message help

[mhburris]

So, first of all I've done some searching and have seen some of the discussions regarding Fedex Ship Manager integration and I was wondering if anyone has successfully completed this?  I know that NRG has a product and we are looking into that too...

So, here's where I am...

I've got the two systems connected and the fields are all mapped but when i go to do the lookup I get this error message.  I was on the phone with Fedex for about an hour and they were no help.  Can someone help point me in the right direction?

Thanks

Mark

 

[Josh Ormond]

FileMaker, through External SQL Sources ( ESS ), is only compatible with specific databases.

https://support.filemaker.com/s/answerview?language=en_US&anum=000023433

 

You can do Imports/Exports through ODBC, but I've honestly never done that a lot, especially in the modern world where you can use an API to get/move data around to or from other services.

[mhburris]

OK, I guess i'll pass this along to Fedex and see what format their database uses.

Thanks

Mark

[Wim Decorte]

Your best bet is to use the FedEx APIs instead of xDBC.  Their APIs are great and extensive, and FM happens to be really good at consuming APIs.

[Josh Ormond]

This is one of those cases where I, personally, prefer to pay for a service like NRGSoft. Those APIs change enough, where I don't want to have to go figure out why something is broken, because "Surprise" FedEx changed something. Plus Andy has all that stuff figured out, no reason for me to torture myself. LOL

[Wim Decorte]

I hear ya.  Integrating with anything comes at a cost.  You can either build or buy.  If you build, you bear the responsibility of keeping track of the FedEx changes, make sure you get early notifications and spend some time on those.  If you buy you have to do vendor risk management: is the vendor quick to support, are in for the long haul...

decisions, decisions...

[mhburris]

So, here's what i just discovered....The issue is with the format of my import key which is our "sales order number" which in Filemaker is a created serial number field.  If I switch the import key to a text field, like customers last name...the import works.

Keep in mind, my skill level is minimal at this point...

So, is there a way to put a copy the sales order number into another field that is formatted at text and then I could set that as my import key?

Mark

[Wim Decorte]

I don't like to do this but the easiest is to add a calculated field of type text that just does "= <your number field>"

[mhburris]

We were able to change the field type in our sales order layout to text and then pull from that field and that seems to be working so far.

 

Mark

[Wim Decorte]

Careful with that, a text field behaves differently than a number field.  If your users (or your scripts) are using that field for searches then searching for 1 will also yield 10, 11, 100,...

And sorting will behave differently too.  So if you were relying on that field acting as a number then you are better off leaving it as a number and using a 'shadow' filed as I mentioned.

[mhburris]

Great point...thanks for the heads up!

Mark

and most importantly,  for the advice!

Edited January 16, 2020 by mhburris