UPS ODBC to Filemaker

[techninja]

Good Afternoon,

 

I recently built "Catch All" database that captures all of our orders from several different locations. (In-house, web, subscription programs, etc) This filemaker database is talking to UPS worldship through ODBC and with a keyed import from Worldship. We pull the needed data and then ship the package.

 

One thing that UPS requires on packages is the attention field which I have mapped, but information is not always populated in that field.

 

For example:

 

(Filemaker Field - Worldship Field)

 

Full Name - Name or Company

Address Line 2 - Attention

 

 

We don't always have data landing in the address line 2 field so the shipping department is having to copy and paste the full name in to the packages that don't have data in the attention field.

 

To circumvent this, I was thinking about building either a script or a calculation (in the ODBC database) in the address line 2 field that basically says "If this field is blank on import, then copy contents from Full Name field and paste it" This way it removes one more step from the task of shipping a package.

 

Your thoughts on how to easily tackle this are appreciated.

 

Marc

 

 

 

 

 

[nrg software]

Hi Marc -

 

In WorldShip, there is actually a Name (company) along with an Attention field plus the address fields. You really don't want to put names into address lines as the attention name is required for some shipments.

 

You could certainly create a calc field with and then map that field in your import.

 

If you're looking to simply your shipping, I'd suggest you take a look at NRGship - from FileMaker you can directly ship, rate, track and validate addresses. Post-shipment, you can pull tracking numbers and costs into your source database. It removes the need for Server Advanced, ODBC, etc. and works with all UPS hardware like printers and scales.

 

http://www.nrgsoft.com/products/filemaker/ups/index.php

 

Regards,

Andy