Custom properties allow users to add additional information to shipments. Custom properties can be everything from information about packaging to information about couriers, anything that the customer desires and feels is relevant to the shipment. Properties can be free text properties or enumerable properties, i.e properties with different values to select from. To be able to add properties shipments or shipment templates the customer has to have defined custom properties in the system. For now the customer has to provide a list of desired properties to Controlant and Controlant will create the properties in the system for the customer. In the future the customer will be able to take care of the custom properties creation by themselves. Properties can be set to be optional or required, if they are required then the will automatically appear in the create shipment form and the user is forced to add/select value in the info step.
Adding custom properties to templates
Administrative users take care of creating templates in SCM. If properties should be set in shipment templates the admin user has to add them to the template. In the shipment template form below shipping & delivery and above shipment warnings the custom properties section can be found. Customer properties section is only visible if the customer has custom properties defined in the system. The admin user decides if he sets the properties in the template or if users should be allowed to set the properties in the create shipment process. Admin can define shipment properties and leave empty, that means users that use the template cannot add properties to shipments. To add properties the button ADD CUSTOM PROPERTY is clicked. Admin can add as many properties that exist but each property can only be added once and when added it is disabled in the dropdown selection. When the button is clicked a dropdown selection box will appear with available properties, when a property is selected from it either a text input or dropdown selection box will appear, that depends on the property type (free text or enumerable). To save a property to a template the green check icon has to be clicked, to remove a property the dark x icon is clicked. In templates the admin users can add properties but leave the values empty for other users to set when shipments are created with the template. If values are left empty, i.e the property is added but with no value, the user that uses the template to create a shipment is required to provide a value to the empty property. To edit a property the pencil icon is clicked. All properties have to be saved inside the template before a template can be created or saved.
Creating custom shipments with properties
If a customer has properties defined in the system users that can create shipments will be able to add custom properties when creating custom shipments. Custom Properties section in info step of the create shipment form is only visible to customers that have properties defined in the system. To add a property the button ADD CUSTOM PROPERTY is clicked. Users can add as many properties that exist but each property can only be added once and when added it is disabled in the dropdown selection. When the button is clicked a dropdown selection box will appear with available properties, when a property is selected from it either a text input or dropdown selection box will appear, that depends on the property type (free text or enumerable). To save a property to a template the green check icon has to be clicked, to remove a property the dark x icon is clicked. To edit a property the pencil icon is clicked. All properties have to be saved to be able to continue to next step. If property is required in the system it will automatically be added to the form and the user is required to add/select value for it and save before being able to continue in the shipment creation process, the user cannot remove the property. Required custom properties are displayed in bold. In preview step (optional) of the create shipment form the custom properties are displayed below the shipping & delivery information.
Creating template shipments with properties
If a customer has properties defined in the system users that can create shipments will be able to add custom properties when creating template shipments. How properties are set in templates controls whether users can add properties in the create template shipment process. If a template has properties fully set and is then used when creating a shipment the user is not able to add additional properties, the admin has then defined in the template what properties should be used in a shipment that is created with the template. If a template has properties but values are not set the user that creates a shipment with that template is required to set the values of the properties. If a template has no properties and is configured so that the user can set properties the custom properties section will be available for the user that uses the template and he can add whatever properties he wants to the shipment. See chapter above about how to add properties when creating a shipment from template.
