In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to add functionality to the shopping cart checkout process that allows customers to choose a specific parcel delivery date and time window using the Delivery Choice API.

The following steps will be completed:

Retrieve a list of available delivery dates based on the required postage service and the origin and destination postcodes of the item to be sent
Retrieve a list of available timed delivery windows for a particular day of the week

Authentication

All requests are HTTP GET returning either XML or JSON (depending on the URL)
All requests require a valid API Key in the form of a username and password pair
All requests require setting a HTTP Header Cookie variable of ‘OBBasicAuth=fromDialog’

Step 1: Retrieve a list of available delivery dates

In this step, we’ll call the the delivery dates service to retrieve a list of available dates for a parcel delivery based on the input parameters provided.

Input parameters required

Origin and destination postcodes of the item to be sent
The postage service required (this parameter is the ‘networkID’ and can have one of two values)
- 01 = Standard post
- 02 = Express post
Lodgement date of the parcel

The code above generates the following HTTP request:

The response contains

A list of available delivery dates
The number of working days from the lodgement date of the parcel each delivery date occurs
A true or false result for the Boolean field ‘TimedDeliveryAvailable’ that determines whether each delivery date supports a timed delivery window

Step 2: Retrieve a list of available timed delivery windows

In this step, we’ll call the the delivery timeslots service to retrieve a list of available delivery time windows for a particular day of the week.