Matching Shipping Labels to Packing Slips

eFORMz can eliminate mismatched shipping labels and packing slips by automatically matching them. Both documents must have a unique identifier such as a PO number or shipment number to match together. Some shipping or ERP software can create files with names that include these unique identifiers. For example, PO123456.zpl and PO123456.xml. The ZPL file is the shipping label, and the XML file is the packing slip. They can be in other formats. The following two scenarios are the most typical:

If your software creates custom file names, matching files up is straightforward. If you always print packing slips first, your eFORMz project should start by picking up the shipping labels, because you can be certain that the packing slip exists. The process works like this:

1. The eFORMz Director picks up a ZPL file from the input queue.
2. The project assigns the path and name of the ZPL file to a variable.
3. A replace function changes .zpl to .xml in the variable.
4. eFORMz gets the XML file and formats the packing slip on the back side.

If the eFORMz Port Monitor captures files or you do not have custom file names, the files are usually timestamps: _201708101322509070.zpl. In this case, the process works like this:

1. The eFORMz Director picks up a ZPL file from the input queue.
2. The project picks up the unique identifier from the label.
3. A variable in the eFORMz project is hard coded to the XML path.
4. eFORMz appends the unique identifier to the path and ends with .xml. The variable now has the full path and name of the XML file.
5. eFORMz gets the XML file and formats the packing slip on the back side.