REF field in Fedex labels not being filled out

[Anderson Mesquita (andersonvom)]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to get the REF field on a Fedex label to display any reference data, but to no avail. I've tried setting it both in the shipment itself (in the reference attribute) and in the reference_number attribute of parcels, none of which work. parcels.reference_number gets overwritten with the Fedex tracking number once the label is purchased. The shipment reference attribute retains the information, but it's only displayed in the UI; it doesn't get displayed in the label.

In all cases, the REF field in the printed label is empty. Am I missing some other location in which to store this information or is this a bug?

[Chris Nolan.ca (ChrisNolan)]

I'll be looking at this today and will be able to confirm or deny if this is an issue (if it is... I'll fix it 😉)

[Chris Nolan.ca (ChrisNolan)]

I've fixed this in #1089 ; We'll need Dan (@danh91) or someone to review and merge if appropriate.

I also added in the other possible customerReferences from the fedex api which can be sent via the api in the shipping options.

I've made a new post, #1090 about extending the UI to allow for these options.

[Anderson Mesquita (andersonvom)]

This is great! 🥳

Assuming all goes well, and this gets merged, when could this be included in a new release? I'm wondering whether to temporarily deploy a patched version on my end or just wait for the fix to land

[Chris Nolan.ca (ChrisNolan)]

This is great! 🥳

Assuming all goes well, and this gets merged, when could this be included in a new release? I'm wondering whether to temporarily deploy a patched version on my end or just wait for the fix to land

Hi -- I believe once merged, it'll be in a release... there isn't a 'next' or a 'latest' kinda branch afaik.

It'll depend on Daniel's availability though... if I'm not mistaken he tries to look at least on the weekend for any thing outstanding so it could be as early as then.

If you're comfortable deploying your own version with that patch and are shipping live packages with Fedex you might want it sooner rather than later. I've only been using it for tracking, but am switching to shipping and we need the reference number there -- cause if it isn't 'on the label', it isn't in the system and searchable etc either which could cause us headaches for the existing workflows which won't fully change over quickly.

I wonder if there will be any 'influx' of people not wanting to re-write their SOAP to REST for fedex with the looming 'deadline' of June 1st (Why'd I leave it so late 😉 )

I also have an old patch for the tracking side that fixes the Signature Photo system too which I have to make a PR of too and hope to get that out this afternoon but probably won't. I was glad to see my local fix of the 'signedBy' vs 'deliveredBy' was already caught by another contributor in the mean time too.

[Dan (danh91)]

Thanks Anderson Mesquita (@andersonvom), good catch. Confirmed bug — the REF was not making it onto the FedEx label.

Chris Nolan.ca (@ChrisNolan) already fixed it in #1089 (and added support for the other FedEx customerReferences via shipping options). Queuing that for review and merge, will close this out once it lands.