Automation Quickstart

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Aims & Preparation

Most of this is included if you get the Installation & Setup Service

Follow the Easy Install Guide to get Automation up and running.

Make sure you have your Magento Cron running - Automation uses it to index your sales for display.

We're going to have a look at the core Automation functions, and how to customise them for your store.

 

Features

Save yourself time and money by automating time-sapping actions in Magento. Reduce errors, cut training time and staffing needs, and increase your team's efficiency.

Automatically Change Status

Eg. Here we've set it to:

• run at 5pm
• only look at orders that are status:Shipped + shipEasy-flag-printed:Printed
• change matching orders to Status:Complete

At Specific Times

Set the hour you'd like Automation to run. Eg. at the end of the day Automation can change status from Shipped to Archived.

If the hour isn't set then Automation will process that rule every 5 minutes. This can be useful if you want to keep customers totally up-to-date with order statuses.

Based On Order Status

Just set the 'Trigger Order Status' - Automation will only look at orders with this status.

Based On shipEasy Flag

If you'd like to also filter by specific shipEasy custom flag, you can also do that. Just set which of the 3 custom flag columns you'd like to look at, and the specific value you want to trigger on. Automation will then only process orders with the status selected above, and the shipEasy flag set here.

Automatically Process Orders

Eg. Here we've set it to:

• run weekdays, at 7am, midday, and 7pm
• import the csv from the server via a specific path
• use a comma as the separating character
• with imported orders, Invoice if not already Invoiced; Ship if not already Shipped
• Send the appropriate transactional emails to the customers
• email any errors to dev@example.com

Via CSV Upload

This uploads a csv file of order ids, and connects with shipEasy to process them. It uses the same settings that have been set for 'CSV Upload' in shipEasy.

You can specify days of the week to run each action, and also which hour(s) on those days.

Eg. if you courier gives you a csv of order ids and tracking numbers at the end of the day, this can auto-import that, change the order status of each order (eg. to 'Shipped'), add the tracking number, and send the notification email.

Automatically Print pickPack PDFs

The basic idea to to auto-email Zapier or IFTTT your pickPack PDFs (eg. Zebra shipping labels).

Zapier then copies that attached file to a specific folder in your Dropbox account.

You have a computer attached to your desired target printer, with Dropbox running.

Dropbox see the new file, and downloads it.

You set a local folder automated action (on a Mac with the built-in app called 'Automator') to print any file in that folder, and to then move that file to the "Printed Folder".

Once Dropbox copied the file in, your local app spots it and runs, thereby printing the file and moving it to the "Printed" folder.

IFTTT Setup Process

The easiest setup process is usually :

1. Create a Dropbox account if you don't have one

   Remember that this account is going to be used on the staff-accessible machine attached to the printer - you might want to create a new Dropbox account instead of your usual business account

2. Create 2 folders in your account named "To Be Printed" & "Printed"
3. Create a IFTTT account
4. Save this action to your account

   

5. Enter *trigger@applet.ifttt.com* to the Automation 'Target Email' field
6. Edit the body text transactional email to include #pickpack in the subject or body
7. Set the Automation rule to email your intended pickPack PDF (eg. Zebra Labels), and enable it.

Zapier Setup Process

The easiest setup process is usually :

1. Create a Dropbox account if you don't have one

   Remember that this account is going to be used on the staff-accessible machine attached to the printer - you might want to create a new Dropbox account instead of your usual business account

2. Create 2 folders in your account named "To Be Printed" & "Printed"
3. Create a Zapier account
4. Add this action to your account

   

5. Copy the custom email it gives you, to the Automation 'Target Email' field

   

   Here it'd be dropbox.dzesft@zapiermail.com but your email will be different

6. Work through the Zapier tests that your email address is working
7. Set the dropbox part of the Zap to match "To Be Printed"
8. Set the Automation rule to email your intended pickPack PDF (eg. Zebra Labels), and enable it.

Printing

Now you need to set the printing + file moving part on the machine you have attached to your printer.

• With a Mac, fire up Automator.

  Here's sample Mac Automator template you can use to get started

• With a Windows machine try JitBit or equivalent.

Whichever app you use, then set a "folder action" (on the "To Be Printed" folder) to:

1. Set the macro as a "Folder action" (ie. changes to the folder you'll save it in, trigger the action)

   300px

2. Print all files in that folder
3. Then move that file to the 'Printed' folder

Here's roughly what it should look like when setup:

300px

Testing

1. Test that you can do a normal print from an actual pickPack PDF, on your target printer, from the target machine

   You might need to edit page scale or size

2. Then copy the file, manually, into the "To Be Printed" folder.
3. Your local app should fire up, print it, and move the file.

   If it doesn't, then troubleshoot this section locally before moving on

4. Send an email, manually, to the target email address, with #pickpack in the subject and body, and attaching your sample PDF.
5. Your remote service should fire up, and copy the attached PDF to your dropBox file

   If it doesn't, then troubleshoot this section with your remote service before moving on

6. In Automation then set the target email to your personal email address, and make a change which should trigger that.
7. Automation should then email you the correct PDF.

   If it doesn't, then troubleshoot this section in Automation before moving on

8. Finally, change the target email to your correct remote service email and enable.
9. Make a suitable change to an order which should fire this action, and if all is set correctly then you should be auto-printing pickPack PDFs!

Setup

There's actually pretty minimal setup required.

You need a current subscription for Automation to work, and to get the status-change features you also need shipEasy running. If you have pickPack installed, you can also auto-print PDFs and auto-set order status at the time of printing.