The CSV format (Comma Separated Values)

General Description

Example file:

   customerID;deliveryType;deliveryName;deliveryAddress;deliveryPostcode;deliveryCity;deliveryDate;quantity;packing;goodsID;weight
   1234;express;Philips Electronics;Mainroad 24;7418 EV;Deventer;23-09-17;10;carton;electronic equipment;525
   1234;economy;Thyssen Steel BV;Krupproad 1;12345;Essen;24-04-17;1;bulk;ore;30000
   1234;express;Fiat Turino Ltd;Ferrariroad 99;1212;Turino;25-04-17;5;pallet;gearbox parts;5000

• The first line "customerID;deliveryType;del.." (the 'header line') contains the field names of the lines below.
  A complete list of field names can be found here: Transport order fields.
• The general idea of EDI is to send as little information as possible and send only those fields which are absolutely necessary for the job. For sending orders it is a good idea to look at the order entry form of the party you are sending information to, this usually gives a good idea of what the other party needs to know.
• If you use the above example, change the pickup- and delivery dates to values in the future (otherwise it will be difficult to find these orders in your shipment overview).

Other Requirements

• The file is ascii encoded.
• Lines are terminated by a newline character.
• Fields within a line are separated by commas ',' or semicolons ';' and (optionally) delimited by double(") or single (') quotes. The same separator must be used throughout the whole file.
• If quotes are part of the data itself, they must be escaped by a second quote and the whole field element must be quoted.
• Fractional amounts must use a decimal point (period) to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of the amount, e.g. 1234.56.
• There is no particular order for the fields within a line, as long as the data in each line corresponds to the field names given in the header line.
• Csv files must contain a customerID field in order to be processed
• Records containing a shipmentID or orderID will update existing records if they can be found, or create new records otherwise. shipmentID or orderID must not have a blank value.
• Files without a shipmentID or orderID will always create new records with a unique (system-generated) shipmentID.

Detailed Description

Each order line has two sections:

1. Order section
2. Goods section

The goods section can be repeated within the same order, if used then these conditions must be met:

• each goods line must be on a separate line.
• the goods lines must directly follow the order line they belong to.
• in a goods line all order fields must either be empty or contain exactly the same value as the order line it belongs to.

An example with repeating goods lines can be found here.

A list of fieldnames and their properties can be found at our list of Transport order fields.

Communication

There are several methods to send files to Cargooffice. An attachment to an email is the most widely used method to send files but FTP, HTTP and AS2 is also possible. More details can be found here.

Updates of order status.

Order statuses can be changed via EDI.

Demonstration / testing your file

1. Download the attached file 'layoutStdSimple.csv' (below).
2. Go to your '...cargooffice.com' page.
3. Choose 'Overview of Batch Orders' from the menu.
4. Type the name of the downloaded file (layoutStdSimple.csv) in the upload box (upper right corner).
5. Click 'Upload Order File'.
6. The orders will appear in the page, click on 'shipmentID' to check the details.

-- RutgerRutgers - 14 Sep 2006