Order Headers

Applies to: Fulfill, NeoPack


Order Headers are optionally printed in Fulfill and (less commonly) in NeoPack at the change of an order. They assist with the identification, sorting and packing of orders. Many times, Order Headers printed in Fulfill are used as mailing labels.

Order Headers can display a wealth of information about the order such as the customer name and delivery address together with the contents of the order. Being a template, the photographer is free to design the Order Header as he or she pleases. Special @codes are available for Order Headers to the photographer in this.

Key points

  • Print once per order at the start of a new order in Fulfill or NeoPack
  • Have their own template of type .oht
  • Can display job, order,package and subject level data
  • Optionally display thumbnails of ordered images
  • List the packages in the order

Sample templates

Some sample Order Header templates have been available for download here
You may wish to download the templates ahead of reading this document and use them as a guide. You are free to modify and use these templates as you wish.

Creating Order Header templates

Order Headers have their own template type and are created and edited in the Template Designer of Fulfill or NeoPack. Since Order Headers are likely to be used across many if not all jobs it is recommended the templates are saved in a 'common' path accessible by all jobs.

The Fulfill template designer can be seen here . A new Order Header is being started while an existing template is open in the background.

Designing the Order Header

As with all Timestone templates, order header templates support fixed and variable text, graphics, barcodes and images. Since the power of Order Headers is their ability to display information particular to an order, the bulk of this document shall discuss @codes and techniques to achieve this aim.

Order level data

Order level data is unique to a particular order and has only only one possible value per order. Several @codes are available to pull order level information onto an order header.

Basic Order information

  • @key
  • @date
  • @cost

The customer information

The customer is defined as the person placing the order. It should be noted only the customer's first and last name, email address and phone number are required in IOS.

The following @codes can be used to retrieve the customer's information.

  • @customer:firstname
  • @customer:lastname
  • @customer:name
  • @customer:email
  • @customer:contactphone

The delivery information

When delivery is required, further information is collected notably street addresses. Furthermore, since the ship to person could be someone other than the customer, different 'name' @codes are used to retrieve their details.

  • @order:name
  • @order:firstname
  • @order:lastname
  • @address
  • @city
  • @state
  • @postal @postcode @zip
  • @country
  • @countrycode - the standard two character country code
  • @deliverycode - when delivery options have been used

Package level data

A very common requirement of order headers is to list the contents of the order.

Since an order can contain multiple items (packages) the @codes need to be enclosed by square 'repeating' brackets as shown below. This results in one line per item (package) in the order.

Codes exist to retrieve information about the packages in the order. These are prefixed with @item:

The package Information

  • @item:packagecode
  • @item:packagename
  • @item:copies
  • @item:description - a combination of the package code, the package name, the entity key and where present, the group or composite name.

Displaying entity Information with the package

It is possible to include entity data, such as subject or family information, in the list of packages ordered.

  • @item:key - the subject, folder, family or job key depending on the entity
  • @item:name
  • @item:firstname
  • @item:lastname
  • @item:folder

Example

Mrs Jones orders online for her two children John (in folder Miss Saunders) and Martha (in folder Mr Burns) with subject keys of SDF3S23Q and 23DFRT5R respectively. She orders packages PK1 for both children and package PK2 for John and PK3 for Martha. To list the contents of the order, displaying each subject's name, key and packages ordered we use the following codes enclosed in square brackets.

[@item:name @item:key @Item:folder Package: @item:package code - Copies:@item:copies]

This will result in the following list

  • John Jones SDF3S23Q Miss Saunders Package: PK1 Copies:1
  • John Jones SDF3S23Q Miss Saunders Package: PK2 Copies 1
  • Martha Jones 23DFRT5R Mr Burns Package: PK1 Copies:1
  • Martha Jones 23DFRT5R Mr Burns Package: PK3 Copies:1

Entity level data

The examples above display entity data for each package ordered. This is not ideal if the desire is to simply display for example, subject data once only not once per package ordered. This can be achieved with the following @code inside a text box. Repeating square brackets are not needed.

@items:fieldname

Note the fieldname is prefixed with @items NOT @item. The fieldname is essentially any relevant field in the job. Some extra @codes are available

  • @items:shootkeys - the access key(s) used in the order (once per key)
  • @items:shootname - the 'shoot' name(s) in the order. This will vary depending on the type of key used.
  • @items:shootunique - the unique field where present
  • @items:description - a combination of package code and name, the entity key and where present the group or composite name

Images in Order Headers

It is possible to display a thumbnail of the images in the order.

Placing a single image hole on the template

A single image hole on the template will, by default, display the ordered image. If multiple items are in the order it will display the image ordered in the first item.


Figure 1: An order with two order items. The image displayed will be that ordered for the first
item - Package PK1

Multiple image holes for orders with multiple order items

It is possible to place multiple image holes on the template with each hole calling the image from a different order item. This is achieved by numbering the Image No attribute of the image hole #1, #2, #3 ....#n


Figure 2: This image hole will call the image from the second order item courtesy of placing #2
into the Image No field of the image hole properties

Where an order has fewer order items than there are image holes on the template, the unused image holes will be blank.

It should be noted that only images applied to the package as a whole are displayed. When different images are used for different products within a package, they are not displayed.

End of article