SOP-Proof Of Delivery (EPOD) – Technical Aspects

Electronic Proof of Delivery (EPOD) is a value-added extension to Sales Order Processing that enables integration with remote hand-held devices to process EPOD data such as:

Unique delivery reference
Driver ID
Electronic signature
Printed name of signatory
Date/Time of delivery
GPS latitude/longitude of delivery
No signature management
Damages
Returns
Photographs
General Notes

All data captured by the hand-held device can be stored in Prelude Desktop for the relevant order and with Stationery Design can be incorporated in the document, whether that be the order acknowledgement, delivery note or invoice.

Activation

EPOD is enabled as a DIAMOND.INI feature.

Add a DIAMOND.INI record from the following list depending on your chosen EPOD provider:EPOD=TAAP www.ontaap.com

New tables/fields

PARAMS.DBF
o EPODCO EPOD Company: Text (3), to identify live data from copy/test
o TAAPSERVER Server Address: Text (loads)
o TAAPCLIENT Client ID: Text (20)
o TAAPUSER Username: Text (20)
o TAAPPASS Password: Text (20)

Header/Details tables to record audit trail of communications with EPOD service provider
o Communications log tables of raw data downloaded from EPOD service provider
 SOP_EPOD_H, SOP_EPOD_D, SOP_EPOD_IMAGES
 Later can introduce a cleardown procedure
o Update the existing document tables with new fields to store live data

SOP_EPOD_H.DBF
o RECID Auto-increment
o PODID Unique 12-digit code including check-sum digit
o DOCTABLE Text (10), to identify the document type
o DOCID Text (20), to identify parent document
o DTIM Date/Time
o GPS_LAT Text (20)
o GPS_LONG Text (20)
o U_ID Text (20)
o SIG_IMAGE MEMO
o SIG_NAME Text (40)
o NO_SIG Text (200)
o DAMAGE Text (200)
o RETURNS Text (200)
o NOTES Text (200)
o PAID Logical (T/F)
o PAID_AMT Number (2 dp)
o PAY_METH Text (20)
o DOWN_DT Date/Time (DATAUP existing records with DTIM value)
o IMP_DT Date/Time (DATAUP existing records with DTIM value)
o IMP_TF Logical (T/F) (DATAUP existing records with .T.)

SOP_EPOD_D.DBF
o Not needed yet, but will be later for line items of damages, returns etc.

SOP_EPOD_IMAGES.DBF
o RECID Auto-increment
o PODID to identify SOP_EPOD_H parent record
o IMAGE MEMO
o DESC Text (200) – for imported description, if any

Reorganise Database

Add all new tables/fields to this routine

Company Utilities

Data Cleardown
o Add all new tables to the relevant cleardown routines
o Use PODID to identify the parent document
o Delete POD document/image records with the parent document records
o Let’s discuss if this is not clear

Stationery Design

Add new fields to Data Environment of all documents to take new SOP_EPOD_H.DBF data
o PODID 12-digit code
o DTIM Date/Time
o GPS_LAT Text (20)
o GPS_LONG Text (20)
o U_ID Text (20)
o SIG_IMAGE MEMO
o SIG_NAME Text (40)
o NO_SIG Text (200)
o DAMAGE Text (200)
o RETURNS Text (200)
o NOTES Text (200)
o PAID Logical (T/F)
o PAID_AMT Number (2 dp)
o PAYMENT_METHOD Text (20)
o IMAGE_001 MEMO
o IMAGE_002 MEMO
o IMAGE_003 MEMO
o IMAGE_004 MEMO
o IMAGE_005 MEMO
o IMAGE_006 MEMO
o IMAGE_007 MEMO
o IMAGE_008 MEMO
o IMAGE_009 MEMO
o IMAGE_010 MEMO

 DATAUP existing records with associated images from SOP_EPOD_IMAGES
• First record image copied to IMAGE_001
• Second record image copied to IMAGE_002
• and so on up to a maximum of 10 images

To incorporate signature and images into stationery design
o in Picture/OLE Bound Control > Control source:
 Body.SIG_IMAGE.PNG
 Body.IMAGE_NNN.PNG

SOP Parameters

New ‘EPOD’ tab in SOP parameters form
EPOD=TAAP

Server Address: Text (loads)

Client ID: Text (20)

Username: Text (20)

Password: Text (20)
o These fields enabled for EPOD=TAAP (diamond.ini)
o In future, if we introduce other EPOD providers, some fields might be common and some new or different fields might be required.

Security

Set Access Levels form > S.O.P. tab
o Between “Deliver goods” and “Invoice orders”
 “Proof of delivery”
 To control the SOP “Proof of Delivery” menu item

Orders > Customers > Proof of Delivery

Between “Deliver Goods” and “Collect Goods”

o Download
 Download the not-yet-downloaded EPOD data from the web service and store in the raw data tables with status ‘not submitted’
 Do so with two distinct procedures
• This will allow us to re-run each procedure individually, e.g.
o after bad RAW data has been fixed
o on a schedule

 Procedure 1: Download all new data, creating a SOP_EPOD_H record for each downloaded message and populate only the following fields
• DOWN_DT = current system date/time
o Assign the same value to all records in this download
• IMP_TF = .F.
• SUBMITTED = .F.
• RAW (as downloaded)
• MESSID (as downloaded)
• RECID (auto)

 Procedure 2: Import data that was just downloaded
• For all records just downloaded, e.g. identified by DOWN_DT
o If RAW is in a recognised format that can be imported
 Import it
 IMP_DT = current system date/time
 IMP_TF = .T.

o If RAW is not in a recognised format and cannot be processed
 Skip it
 Do nothing else
• If any data was not imported (e.g. IMP_TF=.F. or IMP_DT= blank), Warning:
o “Data was downloaded but some was in an unrecognised format and could not be not imported.”
o Process
 To open “POD Processing” form
• Like the Job-Only ‘Web Submissions Processing’ forms
• Present all ‘not submitted, not deleted’ raw data entries, displaying all fields with only the following fields editable
o PODID
 Not editable directly, but double click to display a Search/Find form that lists the source document PODIDs that do not exist in SOP_EPOD_H, with the SL Code and Name to aid the user. Apply a text-box filter to the listed PODIDs.
 Needs work to exclude deleted PODs and never-used PODs (e.g. credit notes), maybe by adding an ‘Unmatched’ tab that lists all the source documents with PODIDs that do not exist in SOP_EPOD_H and allowing the user to do something with them to remove them from the search/find list, e.g. simply by emptying the PODID field of the source document header record.
o SIG_NAME
o NO_SIG
o DAMAGE
o RETURNS
o NOTES
o PAID_AMT
o PAYMENT_METHOD
• Three ‘show’ icons at the end of each line-item
o [Pen] To show signature image
o [Camera] To display multiple other images (if any)
o [Mag Glass] To preview document
• Actions [Post] [Del] [None]
o Do not need [Prov]
o [Post]
 Save form record to live data tables
 For each record in SOP_EPOD_IMAGES.DBF for this PODID, copy IMAGE field to IMAGE_NNN field in document’s Data Environment
• First record image copied to IMAGE_001
• Second record image copied to IMAGE_002
• and so on up to a maximum of 10 images
 Mark raw data records as ‘submitted’
o [Del]
 Mark raw data records as ‘deleted’ including associated records in SOP_EPOD_IMAGES.DBF

Reporter

Add SOP_EPOD_H.DBF to Reporter
o Report Data: “Sales Order EPOD Header”
 Link SOP_EPOD_IMAGES.DBF
o Fields Select (SOP_EPOD_H)
 EPOD ID PODID
 Document type DOCTABLE
 Document ID DOCID
 Date/Time DTIM
 GPS latitude GPS_LAT
 GPS longitude GPS_LONG
 User ID U_ID
 Signature name SIG_NAME
 No signature NO_SIG
 Damages DAMAGE
 Returns RETURNS
 Notes NOTES
 Paid PAID
 Paid amount PAID_AMT
 Payment method PAY_METH
 Submitted SUBMITTED
 Message ID MESSID