Track a shipment in real-time

Overview

Tracking a shipment in real time on your platform consists of creating an object to track the shipment and setting up an endpoint for webhooks.

Kublau uses this tracking object, called a Tracker, to track and handle all the states of the shipment until it’s delivered.

The tracker will be updated periodically based on when the carrier provides Kublau with new tracking information. This information can be consumed by using our webhooks.

Get our GraphQL Playground running

To follow along the the steps in this guide we'll provide an interactive environment for Ruby, Python and Node. You can also use GraphQL directly with our GraphQL Playground.

Create a Tracker using your tracking code & carrier

Here is an example of how to make a tracker object:

mutation trackerCreate($input: TrackerCreateInput!) {
  trackerCreate(input: $input) {
    tracker {
      id
      trackingCode
      status
      estimatedDeliveryAt
      deliveredAt
      carrier
      checkpoints {
        id
        message
        status
        scannedAt
      }
    }
    trackerUserErrors {
      code
      message
      field
    }
  }
}
{
  "data": {
    "trackerCreate": {
      "tracker": {
        "id": "gid://kublau/Tracker/1592e6a0-7679-43aa-bc24-9b51960fbdc6",
        "trackingCode": "K1000000003",
        "status": "IN_TRANSIT",
        "estimatedDeliveryAt": null,
        "deliveredAt": null,
        "carrier": "ESTAFETA",
        "checkpoints": [
          {
            "id": "gid://kublau/Checkpoint/c23c60b2-7c53-41da-901a-70c9a2e56f4b",
            "message": "Desconocido",
            "status": "UNKNOWN",
            "scannedAt": "2020-05-20T19:56:46-05:00"
          },
          {
            "id": "gid://kublau/Checkpoint/dee3510f-59fa-4b3e-8f24-c005b012a997",
            "message": "Pendiente",
            "status": "PENDING",
            "scannedAt": "2020-05-21T00:56:46-05:00"
          },
          {
            "id": "gid://kublau/Checkpoint/27abb796-5c7f-4dd0-b37e-d05796625937",
            "message": "Recogido",
            "status": "PICKED_UP",
            "scannedAt": "2020-05-21T05:56:46-05:00"
          },
          {
            "id": "gid://kublau/Checkpoint/e5b8fcb5-f56a-4281-9d2d-6549ac96d6d3",
            "message": "En transito",
            "status": "IN_TRANSIT",
            "scannedAt": "2020-05-21T10:56:46-05:00"
          }
        ]
      },
      "trackerUserErrors": []
    }
  }
}

The Tracker object contains both the current information about the package as well as previous updates. All of the previous updates are stored in the checkpoints array. Each Checkpoint object contains the status, the message from the carrier and the scan time.

Tracking status values

The status field in Tracker can have several values. Below is a list of these statuses with an explanation.

Tracker tracking status

Test Tracking Codes

Sometimes you may want to simulate specific tracking statuses (e.g. OUT_FOR_DELIVERY) within your application to test how your application responds. Kublau has a set of test tracking codes that, when sent to the API, respond with specific tracking statuses. The information that are sent by these test trackers will contain canned information.

These testing tracking codes will only work using a test API Key.

Tracking Code

Status

K1000000000

UNKNOWN

K1000000001

PENDING

K1000000002

PICKED_UP

K1000000003

OUT_FOR_DELIVERY

K1000000004

IN_TRANSIT

K1000000005

DELIVERED

K1000000006

AVAILABLE_FOR_PICKUP

K1000000007

RETURN_TO_SENDER

K1000000008

ATTEMPT_FAILURE

Creating trackers in sync/async mode

Trackers are by default created in async mode if the async argument for trackerCreate is empty. We list their differences in the following table:

trackerCreate mode
Sync mode
Async mode

The API returns

A full up-to-date view of the tracker

An empty tracker with UNKNOWN status

API Response time

Varies per carrier. Most carriers will see 15 to 30 seconds.

From a hundred milliseconds to a couple of seconds.

API async value

"async": false

"async": true or leave empty (default value is true).

When to use?

When you care about the value of certain attribute of the tracker in the response right now.

  • When you don't care about the information of the tracker in the response right now.

  • When you only want Kublau to start tracking this shipment for you.

  • When you are okay with waiting for that information on a webhook. (2 mins avg. to first TRACKER_UPDATE webhook after trackerCreate call).

Sends update webhooks?

Yes

Yes

Process Tracking Event Webhooks

After you create a tracker, we will automatically start sending TRACKER_UPDATED events. Event Objects are sent to the webhook URLs you’ve configured. Updates will only be sent when there is a status change for the package (e.g. a package changes from "Out for Delivery" to "Delivered").

You’ll know it is a tracking update event because the topic is TRACKER_UPDATED. The data value of Event will contain a Tracker object that has the information about the current progress of the package. When building application logic, the status of Tracker object is most useful and reliable to use.

Create a webhook endpoint

Add a new endpoint in your application. You can act on certain events by checking the type field of the event object sent in the request body.

We include example webhook implementations so you can follow along:

You can get the REPL's public URL for testing on the top right side of editor. It should look something like: https://Webhook-endpoint-LANG--USERNAME.repl.co.

Then, you need to append the /webhook path at the end:https://Webhook-endpoint-LANG--USERNAME.repl.co/webhook

Create a webhook on our Dashboard

You can configure your webhooks using the Kublau dashboard:

  1. From your Kublau dashboard, go to Settings > Developer.

  2. In the Webhooks section, click Create a webhook.

  3. Input the URL where you want to receive notifications. Which if you're following along is the REPL's public URL.

  4. Select the TRACKER_UPATED topic.

After you've created a webhook, you're presented with a secret to validate its authenticity.

Testing webhooks

For testing webhooks, you can use:

  • Any of the language specific REPL's above.

  • Run a local server

  • Use a publicly available service such as Beeceptor.

If you decide to run a server locally, then you need to make it publicly available using a service such as Pagekite or ngrok. The following URLs do not work as endpoints for webhooks:

  • Localhost

  • Internal network

  • Domains like www.example.com

  • Kublau domains such as kublau.com and api.kublau.com

To test your webhook from the Kublau dashboard:

  1. Go to the Webhooks section in Settings > Developer.

  2. Click the Test button next to the webhook that you want to test.

  3. Select the TRACKER_UPDATED topic.

An example webhook is sent to the configured webhook URL.

Deploy your webhook endpoint

When you are ready to deploy your webhook endpoint to production there are a couple things you need to do:

  1. Use your live mode API keys and not your test mode keys.

  2. Configure your production webhook endpoint in the Dashboard.

That’s it! Your application is ready to accept live updates for a shipment. For more information about our webhooks.

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