[Michael McHugh]

Hi Raju,

Did you look at the custom field function link ShipStation provided? Here it is again.

> Export Custom Field Data to ShipStation
> —————————————-
> https://woocommerce.com/document/shipstation-for-woocommerce/#export-custom-field-data-to-shipstation

It seems you don’t need to know how theirs is coded, as they provide a function to add meta data their custom fields to export with orders.

I’m asking WCMp to help with how WCMp data—i.e. the _vendor_id and whether an order is a suborder—can be passed to the function they provide at the link above to add this info to their custom fields for the orders.

That’s it.

With that data in their ‘custom field 2’ and ‘custom field 3’, we can then filter out the orders we don’t need on their end.

Is that not clear?

Thanks,
Michael

[Michael McHugh]

Can someone clarify if long comments here are moderated and not posted? It’s not clear if my last message got through, as it doesn’t display, but when I tried to post it again, it said it was a duplicate.

This was it…
———————–

Unfortunately, ShipStation support is not being very helpful. Their reply is included below.

However, as I’ve tried to explain, these functions they provide to write data to their custom fields may be all we need:

> Export Custom Field Data to ShipStation
> —————————————-
> https://woocommerce.com/document/shipstation-for-woocommerce/#export-custom-field-data-to-shipstation

return ‘_meta_key’; // Replace this with the key of your custom field

This function seems to take a values in the form of a meta key that are already on the orders.

Would not WCMp’s existing ‘_vendor_id’ work for one (e.g. for shipstation_custom_field_2)

For the other (e.g. for shipstation_custom_field_3) it’d be good to have something that indicates that it is a WCMp suborder, and not the main order.

Is there any existing meta data WCMp already adds to an order to identify it as a suborder that can be used?

Or would there be a function you can provide to add a ‘suborder’ meta data identifier to the suborders, which we can then apply to their provided function as the ‘_meta_key’ for shipstation_custom_field_3 ?

This way we can use their filtering on the ShipStation.com to ignore any orders that are not suborders and not of the vendor_id we want to import.

Their last reply follows…

-Michael

—————————
Sasha A. (ShipStation)
Aug 23, 2022, 10:37 AM CDT

Hello!

Thank you for your reply. With using the WooCommerce integration you can not customize what information is sent over to us.

If you want to use the API to pull/send data with ShipStation you are able to do so, however, we are unable to assist with the setup of this as it is a custom setup.

Here is our API documentation for reference:
https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/

Please let me know if you have any further concerns or questions.
Sasha A.
User Success Specialist

[Michael McHugh]

Unfortunately, ShipStation support is not being very helpful. Their reply is included below.

However, as I’ve tried to explain, these functions they provide to write data to their custom fields may be all we need:

> Export Custom Field Data to ShipStation
> —————————————-
> https://woocommerce.com/document/shipstation-for-woocommerce/#export-custom-field-data-to-shipstation

return ‘_meta_key’; // Replace this with the key of your custom field

This function seems to take a values in the form of a meta key that are already on the orders.

Would not WCMp’s existing ‘_vendor_id’ work for one (e.g. for shipstation_custom_field_2)

For the other (e.g. for shipstation_custom_field_3) it’d be good to have something that indicates that it is a WCMp suborder, and not the main order.

Is there any existing meta data WCMp already adds to an order to identify it as a suborder that can be used?

Or would there be a function you can provide to add a ‘suborder’ meta data identifier to the suborders, which we can then apply to their provided function as the ‘_meta_key’ for shipstation_custom_field_3 ?

This way we can use their filtering on the ShipStation.com to ignore any orders that are not suborders and not of the vendor_id we want to import.

Their last reply follows…

-Michael

—————————
Sasha A. (ShipStation)
Aug 23, 2022, 10:37 AM CDT

Hello!

Thank you for your reply. With using the WooCommerce integration you can not customize what information is sent over to us.

If you want to use the API to pull/send data with ShipStation you are able to do so, however, we are unable to assist with the setup of this as it is a custom setup.

Here is our API documentation for reference:
https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/

Please let me know if you have any further concerns or questions.
Sasha A.
User Success Specialist

[Michael McHugh]

Can someone clarify if long comment here are moderated and not posted instantly here? It’s unlcear if my last message got through, as it doesn’t display, but trying to repost says it’s a duplicate.

[Michael McHugh]

I just send that to them, but it seems the route of using their 2nd and 3rd Custom Fields to pass a ‘suborder’ value to one, and the ‘vendor id’ to the other would be a fix that we can then use to filter out what we don’t want using their filtering.

Waiting to hear back from them on this.

Thanks,
Michael

[Michael McHugh]

Thanks. I’ve forwarded this request to support@shipstation.com, and cc’d WCMp.

In the meantime, I can’t tell if you’re getting their replies, as cc’s are hidden, so here is their reply to WCMp’s first query…

—————————-
Begin forwarded message:

From: “‘WordPress.com Support’ via DF Design Forward” <design@digitalfusion.net>
Madison (Automattic)
Aug 17, 2022, 12:32 UTC

Hi there Mournita!

Thank you for reaching out!

Can you give us some code that will restrict some orders from Shipstation?
We will give you the code on how to fetch those orders.
Basically, For each main order (The actual order placed by the customer), we create another sub-order (which is also a woocommerce order) : https://prnt.sc/mAmQC7046qaQ
We know how to fetch those sub orders from the main order.
So the excluding part needs to work from your end.

Typically, we cannot provide custom code to modify the function of extensions but to make sure I understand what you are asking, can you please clarify? Are you looking to hide the sub orders from Shipstation?

If this is because WCMp is sending suborders to Shipstation, we are not able to create code to restrict those from going to Shipstation. You could reach out to WCMp to see if they have some code to do that but most likely you would need to have a developer write some code to achieve this.

Please let me know if I misunderstood!

All the best,
Madison

Happiness Engineer @ Automattic

WooCommerce Payments helps increase conversions by making it convenient for customers to pay you using Apple Pay, Google Pay, Sofort, iDeal, SEPA, and more. Get started today – free download, with no setup costs or monthly fees.

This email is a service from Automattic.

[Michael McHugh]

This is the reply from support@shipstation.com… THey also did not include Woo or WCMp in the reply.

They state they are being sent all the orders, including WCMp suborders by WooCommerce.

The more we think about this, the ideal situation would be be able to filter the orders sent to ShipStation by Vendor.

This would even be better than just filtering out the Suborders entirely, as we determine fulfillment by Vendor.

We fulfill prints for our clients, so there is always a “PRINTS” vendor. They often also sell other items like books, so it would be ideal to have a filter to only send the “PRINTS” vendor suborders to ShipStation, and ignore all others.

I don’t see a way to do this as they mention by using their import rules via the ShipStation settings, as I don’t see “vendor” in that list at all. “Shipping class” could also work, but that’s not there either.

Can this be done somehow with a function that add a filtering by Vendor like they already have for Order Statuses?

Need not have an interface, but just a function that only exports the “PRINTS” vendor suborders to ShipStation.

-Michael

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sv6m910n5jrer22/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-16%20at%2011.55.08%20AM.png?dl=0

——————————–
Begin forwarded message:

From: ShipStation Support <support@shipstation.com>
Subject: [ShipStation] Re: Re: [Automattic] Live chat follow-up: ShipStation Integration REST API Version
Date: August 16, 2022 at 8:42:46 AM PDT
To: Michael McHugh <mchugh@digitalfusion.net>
Reply-To: ShipStation Support <support@shipstation.com>

##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Your request (3141359) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

Sasha A. (ShipStation)
Aug 16, 2022, 10:42 AM CDT

Hello!

I hope this finds you well! Thank you for contacting ShipStation, we apologize for the delayed response as we are experiencing a higher than normal volume. I am happy to assist you! I understand you have concerns about sub-orders importing from WooCommerce and having those not import.

Looking at the screenshot your provided it looks like the program you are using in WooCommerce is sending us these orders as their own order numbers. The only way to block these orders would be to create a do not import rule using something that is universal on the orders such as a custom field or note. Please note that a do not import rule will block an order permanently so any orders that are blocked will need to be recreated with new order numbers.

You can read more about do not import rules here:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047475631-Advanced-Automation-Rules?queryID=df369149b0e174f33bbf17813fe3ffb9

You may be able to block these orders from importing by working with WooCommerce to see if there is a way to block that data from being sent to us.

I do not think anything can be done with our API to prevent those orders from importing either, however, here is a link to our API documentation if needed:
https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/

Please let me know if you have any further concerns or questions.

If you are needing immediate assistance with your questions in the future, we encourage you to contact us via chat so that we can help you in real time.

Here is our help article on how to access chat for reference:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025853032-Contact-ShipStation-Support?queryID=079de6ed1755b75ccf0cebf3f7d9de95
Sasha A.
User Success Specialist

ShipStation Help Resources Logo

[Michael McHugh]

It seems we might be able to solve this issue using the ShipStation Automation Rules on their end.

If we can write the vendor name or the vendor_id to one of the two available custom fields as described here:

https://woocommerce.com/document/shipstation-for-woocommerce/#export-custom-field-data-to-shipstation

Is this something WCMp can assist with?

Then, basically, we can set up a rule to filter out orders with the vendor_ids we don’t want:

For instance, if we filter out all orders with the BOOK vendor_id, and if an order has a PRINT and a BOOK, it would only import the PRINT only suborder, and not the main order, or the Book suborder… in theory.

I guess the problem is we’d still get duplicate orders on Prints only orders then, unless we can use the second custom field to
just say “suborder” if it’s a suborder, and we can exclude all that are not suborders first, then exclude the vendor_id we don’t want.

Any additional thoughts on that?

Can WCMp just assist with how to write those WCMp values to those custom fields?

Thanks,
Michael

—————————
Sasha A. (ShipStation)
Aug 16, 2022, 3:55 PM CDT

Hello!

Thank you for your reply. Since you are using our built-in integration, this does not work like the API. I am not able to say why an order is being sent to us if it should not be, I am attaching the feed sent to us for order 21685 for example.

If you wanted to block orders by a vendor you would need to have this information on order and use that criteria to create a do not import rule. We do not have anything built into our system for “vendor” this would need to be added to a custom field or order note.

Order statuses are determined by our integration. You can read about what statuses map into ShipStation from WooCommerce under the Available Feature portion of our help article:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026141671-WooCommerce?queryID=03973305be2a5ae3c789c6c0df7dcd0d#UUID-6ec053d0-bdbf-6468-3c63-f49c1eb32fdc

Please let me know if you have any further concerns or questions.

Sasha A.
User Success Specialist

[Michael McHugh]

This is the reply from support@shipstation.com… They also did not include Woo or WCMp in the reply.

They state they are being sent all the orders, including WCMp suborders by WooCommerce.

The more we think about this, the ideal situation would be be able to filter the orders sent to ShipStation by Vendor.

This would even be better than just filtering out the Suborders entirely, as we determine fulfillment by Vendor.

We fulfill prints for our clients, so there is always a “PRINTS” vendor. They often also sell other items like books, so it would be ideal to have a filter to only send the “PRINTS” vendor suborders to ShipStation, and ignore all others.

I don’t see a way to do this as they mention by using their import rules via the ShipStation settings, as I don’t see “vendor” in that list at all. “Shipping class” could also work, but that’s not there either.

Can this be done somehow with a function that add a filtering by Vendor like they already have for Order Statuses?

Need not have an interface, but just a function that only exports the “PRINTS” vendor suborders to ShipStation.

-Michael

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sv6m910n5jrer22/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-16%20at%2011.55.08%20AM.png?dl=0

——————————–
Begin forwarded message:

From: ShipStation Support <support@shipstation.com>
Subject: [ShipStation] Re: Re: [Automattic] Live chat follow-up: ShipStation Integration REST API Version
Date: August 16, 2022 at 8:42:46 AM PDT
To: Michael McHugh <mchugh@digitalfusion.net>
Reply-To: ShipStation Support <support@shipstation.com>

##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Your request (3141359) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

Sasha A. (ShipStation)
Aug 16, 2022, 10:42 AM CDT

Hello!

I hope this finds you well! Thank you for contacting ShipStation, we apologize for the delayed response as we are experiencing a higher than normal volume. I am happy to assist you! I understand you have concerns about sub-orders importing from WooCommerce and having those not import.

Looking at the screenshot your provided it looks like the program you are using in WooCommerce is sending us these orders as their own order numbers. The only way to block these orders would be to create a do not import rule using something that is universal on the orders such as a custom field or note. Please note that a do not import rule will block an order permanently so any orders that are blocked will need to be recreated with new order numbers.

You can read more about do not import rules here:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047475631-Advanced-Automation-Rules?queryID=df369149b0e174f33bbf17813fe3ffb9

You may be able to block these orders from importing by working with WooCommerce to see if there is a way to block that data from being sent to us.

I do not think anything can be done with our API to prevent those orders from importing either, however, here is a link to our API documentation if needed:
https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/

Please let me know if you have any further concerns or questions.

If you are needing immediate assistance with your questions in the future, we encourage you to contact us via chat so that we can help you in real time.

Here is our help article on how to access chat for reference:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025853032-Contact-ShipStation-Support?queryID=079de6ed1755b75ccf0cebf3f7d9de95
Sasha A.
User Success Specialist

[Michael McHugh]

This is the reply from support@shipstation.com… THey also did not include Woo or WCMp in the reply.

They state they are being sent all the orders, including WCMp suborders by WooCommerce.

The more we think about this, the ideal situation would be be able to filter the orders sent to ShipStation by Vendor.

This would even be better than just filtering out the Suborders entirely, as we determine fulfillment by Vendor.

We fulfill prints for our clients, so there is always a “PRINTS” vendor. They often also sell other items like books, so it would be ideal to have a filter to only send the “PRINTS” vendor suborders to ShipStation, and ignore all others.

I don’t see a way to do this as they mention by using their import rules via the ShipStation settings, as I don’t see “vendor” in that list at all. “Shipping class” could also work, but that’s not there either.

Can this be done somehow with a function that add a filtering by Vendor like they already have for Order Statuses?

Need not have an interface, but just a function that only exports the “PRINTS” vendor suborders to ShipStation.

-Michael

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sv6m910n5jrer22/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-16%20at%2011.55.08%20AM.png?dl=0

——————————–
Begin forwarded message:

From: ShipStation Support <support@shipstation.com>
Subject: [ShipStation] Re: Re: [Automattic] Live chat follow-up: ShipStation Integration REST API Version
Date: August 16, 2022 at 8:42:46 AM PDT
To: Michael McHugh <mchugh@digitalfusion.net>
Reply-To: ShipStation Support <support@shipstation.com>

##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Your request (3141359) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

Sasha A. (ShipStation)
Aug 16, 2022, 10:42 AM CDT

Hello!

I hope this finds you well! Thank you for contacting ShipStation, we apologize for the delayed response as we are experiencing a higher than normal volume. I am happy to assist you! I understand you have concerns about sub-orders importing from WooCommerce and having those not import.

Looking at the screenshot your provided it looks like the program you are using in WooCommerce is sending us these orders as their own order numbers. The only way to block these orders would be to create a do not import rule using something that is universal on the orders such as a custom field or note. Please note that a do not import rule will block an order permanently so any orders that are blocked will need to be recreated with new order numbers.

You can read more about do not import rules here:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047475631-Advanced-Automation-Rules?queryID=df369149b0e174f33bbf17813fe3ffb9

You may be able to block these orders from importing by working with WooCommerce to see if there is a way to block that data from being sent to us.

I do not think anything can be done with our API to prevent those orders from importing either, however, here is a link to our API documentation if needed:
https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/

Please let me know if you have any further concerns or questions.

If you are needing immediate assistance with your questions in the future, we encourage you to contact us via chat so that we can help you in real time.

Here is our help article on how to access chat for reference:
https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025853032-Contact-ShipStation-Support?queryID=079de6ed1755b75ccf0cebf3f7d9de95
Sasha A.
User Success Specialist

ShipStation Help Resources Logo

❓ ShipStation Knowledge Base

✋ ShipStation University Online

♥️Love ShipStation? Refer your friends!

[L624XR-VOXL7]

[Michael McHugh]

Are there replies of mine here awaiting moderation? I submitted two yesterday, and I’m not seeing them here.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Michael

[Michael McHugh]

Okay. That actually seemed to work. It’s a bit of a convoluted setup with where the setting are, but it seems to have done what we need.

Thanks,
Michael

[Michael McHugh]

So as we only want the one BOOK vendor to get the shipping, are you saying we have to tun on the “Transfer shipping charges collected (per product) to the vendor.” in the main settings and then also set the “Withhold Shipping” setting for the other main Printing + Framing vendor’s user?

It seems odd that this “Withhold Shipping” setting is in the regular User Profile settings, rather than the Vendor settings, no?

-Michael

[Michael McHugh]

This was also their previous reply from May, so including it here as well, as I can’t recall if I’d previously forwarded this one…

Job (Automattic)
May 6, 2022, 14:01 UTC

Hi there,

Thanks for getting back to us with those details.

Just to recap, there’s a problem with ShipStation and WCMp resulting in duplicate suborders. We’ve confirmed that we are using v2 of the WooCommerce REST API for the communication with the orders. They are now suggestion that you didn’t find any suborders.

It seems now that WCMp wants us to test to see if we find suborders.

There are no suborders created in WooCommerce core. So our core architecture isn’t built for suborders. As a consequence, there is no system built into ShipStation to distinguish orders from suborders. This is something that MCMp would need to do.

We can test the REST API to see if it’s working as it should, but from what I can read, this doesn’t seem to be a problem; it’s that there is a new post type created “suborders” that is causing a problem and that ShipStation doesn’t know what to do with this. The devs at WCMp have suggested that the suborders aren’t sent in via the API call. The result of that is that it’s not clear why ShipStation is sending those suborders over as well.

I however don’t think this is something we can troubleshoot as this would require us to understand why and how these suborders are created. I think we can do the REST API test, but I think we’ll likely get to the same conclusion as the WCMp team as I trust they did their API test well. So then the next step would be on their side to figure out how the suborders are built and why this would trigger ShipStation.

This means that I’m sending you back to their devs; we can’t offer support for something that we didn’t build.

I hope this helps you. Let us know if we can help with anything else.

ciao,
Job

Happiness Engineer @ WooCommerce | Automattic

[Michael McHugh]

I cc’d contact@wc-marketplace.com on my note to help@wordpress.com, but they did not cc’d WCMp on their reply, so I cc’d WCMp again on my reply to them. In any event, this was their reply…

-Michael

From:
Michael W (Automattic)
Jul 27, 2022, 04:30 UTC

Hi Michael,

Thank you for reaching back out to us here at WooCommerce!

I must admit, the previous reply that we made was back in early May – if this issue has been going on since then, is there some new information from WCMp that we need to know?

The reason I am asking is because o the Sub-orders that are being created – as mentioned in the previous reply, there are no suborders created in WooCommerce core. There are just orders, which are created via the POST system of WordPress (the POST system is responsible for creating orders, pages, posts, etc.).

As a consequence of the order structure, there is no system built into ShipStation to distinguish orders from other items, like the suborders. This is something that WCMp would need to do as ‘sub orders’ are something exclusive to WCMp. This is why we are not able to do anything on our side short of testing the API to make sure it is working.

To test the API to ensure it is working, you can follow the steps at this link. We can do this for you, but that would be the extent of what we can do. The test would just ensure the API is working to output basic items that ShipStation can then use, it would not include any sub orders or custom information that other plugins would provide.

When we see this:

They are doing some edit to the WooCommerce API, which is adding the suborder again or removing our modification.

That means ShipStation appears to be saying that WCMp is doing the modifications/edit to the API which is changing what ShipStation can understand – the best path to resolution would be to get ahold of WCMp and show them this reply, as well as ShipStation’s, and see what they can do.

By no means is this reply trying to ‘bounce you around’ as it most likely feels. If it does feel like that, it is not my intent and I am very sorry – I know how frustrating it can be when there is an issue and everyone is pointing the finger at someone else. In this particular instance, what we see is as follows:

* WooCommerce API works, sends information to ShipStation accordingly.
* ShipStation is seeing this information, but there is something in the information it cannot identify or work with.
* This information appears to be in the form of ‘sub orders’ that are being created/interceded by WCMp.

In this case, it would be WCMp that needs to check it out and make sense of it, so again please show them this information and see what they can do. If you have other general questions regarding WooCommerce, please do not hesitate to let us know!

Best,
Mike
Woo | Happiness Engineer

[Author]

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