Magento is an e-commerce platform with a wide variety of features created for online merchants – in order to give them flexibility and control over their business. Magento 1 is the solution that integrates most of the functionalities every business owner needs in order to start and/or grow his/her webshop: ERP integration, transactional emails, one panel to control multiple websites, CMS for landing pages, online payments, logistics, etc.
Version 2 of Magento was launched at the end of 2015. This created, for our team of developers, opportunities and challenges alike. For instance – while developing an M2 webshop for one of our clients, Joliette, we realized that there was no way to integrate a logistics module, for delivery solutions, that takes servers information from the Romanian delivery company FAN Courier. When we encounter such a hurdle, we always find a suited workaround thanks to our experience in custom development.
Sometimes we need to take custom development into our own hands
Because we didn’t want to delay the launch of the new e-commerce website, we decided to take this matter into our own hands and develop a custom module that integrates with the delivery company’s servers. By doing this we made sure that, when a user is in the checkout process, he can select the delivery location, based on which the delivery price is updated in real-time. Other functionalities provided by this custom developed module are:
- A grid with tracking numbers where the webshop administrators can view, print and cancel;
- The option of opening the package on delivery;
- Shipping insurance;
- A cron to send generated tracking numbers to FAN Courier for shipping.
When we built the module, FAN Courier only provided the API documentation, based on which our colleague, Mihai, developed the custom solution.
So how does this module work?
The module adds FAN Courier as a shipping method in Magento 2. When the user places an order, it calculates and displays the shipping costs during the checkout. In the webshop’s Admin interface, it automatically generates a tracking number for the package, that’s also being sent in the customer’s order confirmation e-mail and in his webshop account.
Based on this ID, the package can be tracked on the FAN Courier website.
Working with new emerging technologies is always exciting and great for business, but you need to consider that various challenges may appear. And this is why you need to work with a reliable development agency.
Here, at Baldwin, we like to make things happen, So you can focus on growing your business. Contact us now!
