Order Processing

Downloading an Order File

Order files are generated once every hour. During peak times, generation may occur at 2 or 3 hour intervals.

1. Connect to orders.abebooks.com using FTP software. You can use a standard FTP client like FileZilla, or an FTP library from a programming language of your choice for a custom integration.
   • AbeBooks supports 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 User ID and API key in the appropriate fields.
3. Open the orders folder to access your order file. (Note: This folder is created once you receive one or more orders.)
4. Copy the order file from the orders folder and save it to your computer.
5. Delete the file from the orders folder once it's saved to your computer.

Files are named orders_clientID_DDMMYY24HHMM.csv, so you can identify when a file was created by 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 item number, and order status.
   • The last two columns (optional) let you include tracking details for the shipment. 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-delimited or tab-delimited format.

The file name and extension don't matter for processing, as long as the file is saved in tab-delimited 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 confirm or cancel all of your orders, upload the completed file to AbeBooks for processing.

1. Upload the file to the confirm folder.

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

Important: Do not ship any items until you review the sales report. Some items may have been cancelled or had credit card errors, and you will not receive payment for those items. Orders can be partially cancelled by the buyer – meaning only some items in the order should be shipped.

Multiple Book Orders

Every book in the order file must be 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 you include 3 out of 6 books in your confirm file, all 6 will expire unless the remaining items are included in a later file within the 4-day expiry period. AbeBooks recommends processing all orders within 2 days.

Error Logs

After your confirmation file is processed, an error log is generated. 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, named using the corresponding input file name with a .done extension.

Review your done file to confirm you don't ship orders that were cancelled or became unavailable after processing.

Viewing Error Reports

Open the done folder to view completed files and 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 show the current status of an order and indicate whether a book should be shipped. They are named "shipto_clientid_DDMMYY24HHMM.tab". Review the sales report before shipping books to confirm the buyer's credit card was charged successfully. AbeBooks cannot guarantee payment for books shipped when the buyer's credit card is declined.

Viewing Sales Reports

Open the sales folder to view completed files. (Note: This folder is created after you process one or more orders using AMoP.)

Sales reports are for your reference only. The columns contain the following information: