Order Processing

Downloading an Order File

Order Files will be generated once every hour. During peak times, order file generation may occur at 2 or 3 hour intervals.

1. Connect to orders.abebooks.com using FTP software. You may use a standard FTP client such as FileZilla, or you may use an FTP library from a programming language of your choice for a custom integration.
   • AbeBooks supports both FTPS and SFTP for security. Unencrypted FTP connections are not supported. All modern FTP clients support at least one of these protocols.
   • If using FTPS, ensure that you set the 'security' or 'protocol' field to: explicit FTP over TLS 1.2.
2. When prompted, enter your UserID and API Key in the appropriate fields.
3. Open the orders folder to access your Order file. (Note: The orders folder will be created once you have received one or more orders in your account).
4. Copy the Order file from the orders folder and save it to your computer.
5. Delete the file in the orders folder once downloaded to your computer.

The naming convention for these files is "orders_clientID_DDMMYY24HHMM.csv", so you can easily identify what time a file was created based on its name.

Order File Columns

Processing the File

1. Open a new page in your spreadsheet program.
2. Create columns called ABEPOID, ABEPOITEMID and STATUS (optionally, you can also include a SHIPPER and TRACKING column).
   • The first three columns correspond to AbeBooks Order Number, AbeBooks Purchase Order Number and Order Status.
   • The last two (optional) columns can be used to include tracking details for the shipment of the order. This tracking information can also be added later, after the order has been confirmed.
3. Copy and paste the order and purchase order numbers from the Orders file into the new spreadsheet.
4. Do one of the following for each order:
   • Type Confirm in the Order Status column to accept an order.
   • Type Cancel in the Order Status column to reject an order.
5. When all orders have been confirmed or cancelled, save the file in pipe or tab delimited format.

The name and extension of the file is irrelevant for AbeBooks processing as long as the file is saved in tab or pipe delimited format. You can name the file according to a convention that makes sense to you.

Uploading the Completed Confirmation File

After you have confirmed or cancelled all of your orders, upload the completed file to AbeBooks for processing.

1. Copy the file from its location on your computer and paste it into the confirm folder.

The buyer's shipping address is included in the Order File for your information.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not ship any items until you have reviewed the Sales Report to determine whether any items have been cancelled or have experienced credit card errors, as you will not receive payment for these items. It is possible for orders to be partially cancelled by the buyer (i.e. only some items in the order should be shipped).

Multiple Book Orders

Every book in the Order file must be either confirmed or cancelled or the uploaded file will not be processed. If you are able to confirm only part of an order, the other books in the order must be cancelled.

For example: If 3 out of 6 books were included in your Confirm file, all 6 orders will expire if they are not all included in a later file and received within the 4 day expiry period. AbeBooks recommends processing all of your orders within 2 days.

Error Logs

After we process your confirmation file, we will send you an error log. Possible errors include:

• Orders you accepted but could not be processed
• Credit card errors
• Incomplete orders uploaded to AbeBooks

All processed files and error logs are stored in the done folder. They will be named using the name of the corresponding input file with the extension '.done.'

Please ensure that you review your Done file to ensure that you do not ship orders that were cancelled or unavailable after you processed them.

Viewing Error Reports

Open the Done sub-directory to view all completed files and any generated error logs.

Example error report:

Processing started at 05/Jul/04 10:03
The ABEPOID for this record is invalid:
ABEPOID from record ABEPOID ABEPOITEMID STATUS
Successfully updated ABEPOID 16031646
Successfully updated ABEPOID 16025954
Successfully updated ABEPOID 16020186
Processing finished at 05/Jul/04 10:03

Success

Your Confirm file was successfully processed if the error log contains the following message:

Successfully updated ABEPOID (AbeBooks Purchase Order Number)

Confirm File Errors

The Confirm record should be fixed and re-uploaded if the logfile contains any of the following errors:

Sales Reports

Sales Reports contain the current status of an order and indicate whether a book should be shipped. They are named "shipto_clientid_DDMMYY24HHMM.tab". Sellers should review the sales report prior to shipping books to ensure the charge to the buyer's credit card was successfully completed. AbeBooks cannot guarantee payment for books shipped when the buyer's credit card has been declined.

Viewing Sales Reports

Open the sales folder to view all completed files. (Note: The sales folder will be created after you have processed one or more orders in your account using AMoP).

Sales Reports are for seller reference only. The columns in the Sales File will contain the following information: