Split by line items

How to fulfill your orders creating a separate shipment for each line item

Problem

You have an order containing several SKUs, whose stock is available in different locations and — possibly — belongs to multiple shipping categories. You want to create at least a separate shipment per each line item of the order.

Solution

You need to use the split by line items strategy. To do that, check the related option in the admin UI or send a PATCH request to the inventory_models/:id endpoint, setting the strategy attribute accordingly.

Example

The following request explicitly updates the strategy for the inventory model identified by the "BwAezhyOQw" ID:

curl -g -X PATCH \
  'http://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/BwAezhyOQw' \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-access-token' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json' \
  -d '{
  "data": {
    "type": "inventory_modeld",
    "id": "BwAezhyOQw",
    "attributes": {
      "strategy": "split_by_line_items"
    }
  }
}'

On success, the API responds with a 200 OK status code, returning the updated inventory model object:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "BwAezhyOQw",
    "type": "inventory_models",
    "links": {
      "self": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/BwAezhyOQw"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "name": "EU Inventory Model",
      "strategy": "split_by_line_items",
      "stock_locations_cutoff": 3,
      "created_at": "2018-01-01T12:00:00.000Z",
      "updated_at": "2018-01-01T12:00:00.000Z",
      "reference": "ANY-EXTERNAL-REFEFERNCE",
      "reference_origin": "ANY-EXTERNAL-REFEFERNCE-ORIGIN",
      "metadata": {
        "foo": "bar"
      }
    },
    "relationships": {
      "inventory_stock_locations": {
        "links": {
          "self": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/xYZkjABcde/relationships/inventory_stock_locations",
          "related": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/xYZkjABcde/inventory_stock_locations"
        }
      },
      "inventory_return_locations": {
        "links": {
          "self": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/xYZkjABcde/relationships/inventory_return_locations",
          "related": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/xYZkjABcde/inventory_return_locations"
        }
      },
      "attachments": {
        "links": {
          "self": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/xYZkjABcde/relationships/attachments",
          "related": "https://yourdomain.commercelayer.io/api/inventory_models/xYZkjABcde/attachments"
        }
      }
    },
    "meta": {
      "mode": "test"
    }
  }
}

This strategy works for line items of type skus only. If an order contains line items of type bundles, all the shipments and stock are managed by using the split shipment strategy as a fallback.

How it works

This inventory strategy affects the creation of the resources involved in the process by the following logic.

Shipments

Each line item of the order generates at least a separate shipment, if possible from the primary stock location. In case the primary stock location cannot fulfill the SKUs associated with the line item, one or more shipments are created from the secondary locations.

Stock line items

Each SKU associated with the order generates a stock line item that is also linked to the stock location from which its quantity will be fulfilled.

Shipping categories

In case the order contains SKUs belonging to different shipping categories, this strategy introduces no side effects, since each line item already generates a separate shipment.

Additional notes

Do not ship SKU

If an SKU is marked with the do_not_ship flag, no shipment is generated for it. The necessary stock line items are created anyway.

This option still tracks inventory.

Do not track SKU

If an SKU is marked with the do_not_track flag, stock line items are still created but they aren't associated with any stock item so that the stock isn't decremented/incremented on order placement/cancellation.

This option still generates shipments.