Please be advised that we will be rolling out a system update for testing on 9/24/2022. These updates consist primarily of Quality of Life (QOL) updates for the system, including several performance improvements and patches to existing functionality in the system to prepare for the holiday season.

 

What will be updated?

Effective on the date above, we will update your SHIPSTORE test environment with the changes mentioned below. These changes are primarily behind the scenes, but will also add a new a new set of pages to the system for Carrier Invoice imports and Reconciliation Reports. A Reporting role has also been added, so you can give out access to just the reports section of the system, similar to OrderTrack.

 

Full list of Updates:

  • Reconciliation and reports (BETA) - Our newest feature in SHIPSTORE, the Reconciliation module allows users to import invoice files for supported carriers into their SHIPSTORE system and run reports on the imported information, including reconciling against the rates quoted in SS. If you would like to take advantage of this new module, please reach out to our support team @ support@shipstoresoftware.com to get started.
  • Reporting role - By popular demand, we have added a role to the system for Reporting. This will allow admins to designate certain users to only have access to the Reports section within the system.
  • Rateshop performance improvements - Rateshops have now been updated to process in a multithreaded fashion, meaning the system will now rate as many services as it can at a time, rather than one by one. This exponentially improves performance on any rateshops with more than 4 services, returning rates in a manner of time similar to a single service.
  • Tracking performance improvements - Tracking logic has also seen a performance improvement as a result of the latest code. We will be continuing to improve the performance of this process over the next month as demand for this feature has increased.
  • EOD/Closeout improvements - We've refactored the way the system handles processes like EOD and closeouts so they pull data more efficiently and track individual shipments through each process to make sure they are being properly closed. Shipments will also be tied back to the closeout that was created for said transactions to improve reporting here.
  • Reports - Improved efficiency for report data pulls and exports. Corrected some UI related issues when using the Reconciliation Reports section. Added support to embed PowerBI reports.
  • Tracking Number generation - Split logic into Parcel/LTL to account for carriers like FedEx that handle both.
  • Updates for the following carriers:
    • Better Trucks - added Invoice support
    • Cross Country - added estimated delivery and time in transit
    • DHL - International tracking
    • Endicia - misc. tracking improvements
    • Estafeta - updated test rating URL
    • FedEx - misc. tracking improvements
    • First Mile - Guam line items
    • GLS - authentication performance improvements
    • OSM - misc. tracking improvements
    • Pitney Bowes - patches to rating logic + new web hook allowing PB to post tracking updates directly to SS
    • RR Donnelly - Renamed to ePost Global + misc. tracking improvements
    • SpeeDee - label format + added (NEW) Closeout function, replacing need for reports on Utilities screen. If your account is enabled for FTP manifests, you can also configure that upload in SS, bypassing the need for the printed detail manifest.
    • UPS
      • References - Up until now, SS has only been able to upload 2 reference fields to UPS for shipments processed through the system. As part of the latest updates, SS is now able to upload up to 4 references for domestic shipments.
      • Removed Mail Innovations Parcel Select as a service
      • MI/Surepost tracking support.     
      • Patches for handling for terms of sale
      • IMPORTANT:   We have decided to swap the USPS tracking number with the UPS tracking number fields for Surepost and Mail Innovations, so TrackingNumber in SS will be the UPS tracking number moving forward. This decision was made due to UPS's continuing to use USPS less on these shipments, and increased reliance on their own delivery.
    • USPS - misc. tracking improvements
    • Visible - misc. tracking improvements + patches for handling for territories + patch to prevent USPS FCI labels for Visible from repeating on next label
    • XPO - authentication performance improvements
  • New carriers
    • eHub
    • TLS Parcel
  • Misc. Performance improvements around:
    • Data handling for Profiles
    • Patches to Order Entry page related to custom business logic
    • Efficiency improvements to tracking logic
    • Added Batch Title to shipping history search fields
    • Label mapping improvements for landscape and PDF labels
    • Added support to ASN EDI process to automatically FTP EDI file during EOD
    • Added support for UPS Location ID
  • Corrected some display issues for captioned user fields on the shipping screen, primarily around user prompts.
  • Corrected an issue causing the contact form to not function properly for Firefox users
  • Added Return Tracking Number to search fields in Shipping History
  • Optimized token logic with carriers to lower the number of tokens SS requests in a given day
  • Streamlined handling of PDF labels internally to resolve an issue with some non-carrier labels not printing
  • Patches to reports screen for handling of fields on Origin address and Packages
  • Added Flat Rate Legal Envelope and Padded Envelop as packaging types
  • Misc updates targeted at improving logging and error handling
  • Patch to Shipment w Return Labels process to allow return carrier to be different than outbound carrier
  • Patch to email logic for Address Book records to properly load email when address is selected
  • Patch to printable document handling for Order Entry page
  • Misc updates to fields available for business rules

What will the update affect?

The updates above will affect the following enterprise systems:

  • ShipStore v4 web portal

What do I need to do?

Once the updates are applied, you may go into your test site at any time to try out the new updates to the system to ensure there are no adverse effects. If you run into any issues along the way, please reach out to our support team so we can address the issues.

Once you have verified the updates are good to go, you may apply the update to your production environment at any time. Keep in mind though that this update will require an update to the database schema (attached), so we recommend applying this update either before or after the working day to minimize disruptions. If your SS solution is hosted on ARE provided servers, you can ignore the steps below, as these will be handled by the ARE team once approval is given.

To apply the update to the production files on the production app server:

  1. Backup/ZIP your current production site, found at “/Sites/Prod/” on the root of your data drive
  2. Copy the files found in the “/ARE/Site Builds/Prod/” folder to the folder above (both folders found on the root of the data drive)
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the following folders:
    1. /ARE/Extras/CarrierPlugins -> /SHIPSTOREv4 Extras/CarrierPlugins
    2. /ARE/Extras/SDKPlugins -> /SHIPSTOREv4 Extras/SDKPlugins
  4. Once the files are copied, connect to the SHIPSTOREv4_Prod DB via SSMS on the desired server as a SQL admin and run the attached “Up” script

Once applied, the web portal update may require the users to refresh (F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R) their Ship screen to pull in the changes if they are not seeing them when they log in after the update. As always, we can perform this update for you as well, just let us know if/when you would like us to perform the update. 

 

What if I have problems after applying the updates?

If the issues encountered are minor in nature, please reach out to us via email (support@shipstoresoftware.com) or phone (816-781-5100). So that we may work with you to correct these issues. If for any these updates are impacting shipping heavily, you can revert the update by:

 

  1. Deleting the existing production folder found in step 1 above
  2. Extract the backup you made in step 1 above to restore the old application
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the folders found in step 3 above
  4. Run the attached “Down” script on the SHIPSTOREv4_Prod DB to revert the schema changes from step 4 above