Using a different carrier? See Package Tracking.

Introduction

Zembula reads OnTrac tracking through OnTrac's tracking web service. It needs your OnTrac account number and an API password for that service. Zembula uses them only to read tracking. It never creates shipments or changes anything in your OnTrac account.

This guide covers asking OnTrac for an API password and connecting it in the Zembula platform. You enter the password in Zembula yourself.

Who can do this

OnTrac's API is for active OnTrac account holders. You need your OnTrac account number and an API password from OnTrac.

In Zembula, only account Admins can connect OnTrac. Other users can open the Package Tracking page, but they can't change it.

Before you go live

OnTrac's API Terms of Use allow at most five tracking calls per package per day. They also say not to track a package again once it's delivered, not to track shipments older than two weeks, and to track only packages shipped with OnTrac.

Each email open could otherwise call OnTrac, so Zembula keeps to the call limit, the delivery rule and the two-week rule for you:

Zembula saves the latest OnTrac result for each package and shows it between calls. So the image can be several hours behind OnTrac's own tracking page.
It calls OnTrac at most five times for each package in any 24 hours.
It stops calling OnTrac once the package is delivered, or once its first scan is more than 14 days old. It keeps showing the last result for up to 14 days. An email opened after that can show no tracking.

OnTrac also asks that a package isn't tracked before it's handed to OnTrac. Zembula doesn't check this, so send OnTrac tracking only in emails that go out after the package ships.

Send OnTrac as the carrier only for OnTrac tracking numbers. OnTrac's terms don't allow tracking UPS, FedEx or DHL shipments through its API.

Get your credentials

OnTrac doesn't publish a sign-up page for its tracking web service.

Ask OnTrac for an API password for the OnTrac tracking web service, for your OnTrac account.
Keep your OnTrac account number to hand. Zembula needs it with the password.

Keep the password private. Don't send it by email or chat. You enter it yourself in the Zembula platform in the next step.

Connect OnTrac in Zembula

In the Zembula platform, open Data Sync → Integrations and select the Data integrations tab.
Click Set up on the Package Tracking tile. If Package Tracking is already set up, the button reads Open instead.
If Package Tracking is off, click Turn on. The page shows Setting up the builder source… and then Use INTERFACES › Package Tracking in the builder.
Under Carriers, click Add on the OnTrac row.
The row lists Password. Click Paste a key next to Password. The Paste your OnTrac key dialog opens.
Paste the API password into the Password field. Then type your OnTrac account number in the Account number field.
Click Connect.

The button reads Verifying… while Zembula saves your password. The OnTrac row then reads Connected — starts answering within the hour.

Zembula doesn't check the password with OnTrac when you connect. If the password or the account number is wrong, tracking won't show. Check it with Try it below.

A password that contains &, #, + or a space doesn't work yet. If yours does, ask OnTrac for a new one.

If order data is live for Package Tracking, the OnTrac row reads Connected — waiting: carriers and order data can't run together until the next release. To switch, click Use OnTrac instead and confirm. This turns order data off and OnTrac on. Content that sends only an order ID then shows your fallback.

Try it

Add INTERFACES › Package Tracking to a draft image in the builder, turn on Simulate, and preview it with an OnTrac tracking number. If a number you know is real shows no tracking, check the password and the account number, and replace them if needed.

After you replace the password or the account number, test with an OnTrac tracking number you haven't previewed yet. Zembula can wait up to 6 hours before it asks OnTrac about the same number again. Every call to OnTrac, previews included, counts toward that package's five calls a day.

The Status section at the bottom of the Package Tracking page also lists anything that needs attention.

Using OnTrac in your content

Send each package's tracking number in tracking_number and its carrier in carrier. Zembula doesn't work out the carrier from the tracking number, so always send the carrier.

Any carrier value that contains OnTrac goes to OnTrac, in any case. For example: OnTrac, ONTRAC, OnTrac Ground or ontrac_ground. A carrier value of LaserShip doesn't go to OnTrac.

Send one OnTrac tracking number. Zembula removes spaces and commas from it before it asks OnTrac.

What shoppers see

Status: the stage of OnTrac's latest scan, such as In Transit, Out for Delivery or Delivered. A scan Zembula can't classify reads In Transit.
Latest scan: the most recent scan in the result Zembula has, with the city and state of the OnTrac facility that scanned it, and the scan time.
Estimated delivery: OnTrac's expected delivery date, when OnTrac gives one. Zembula shows the date only. After delivery it reads Delivered, with the time of the delivery scan.
Tracking link: the package's page on ontrac.com.
Manage delivery link: while the package is still on its way, a link to the same ontrac.com tracking page as the tracking link.

A number OnTrac has no record of reads as not found: Tracking.API.error is not_found, so your content can show a fallback. Zembula never reads the signature or the recipient's name and address.

Where your credentials are kept

The API password is saved as an encrypted secret. It can't be read back: the platform only shows its last four characters. It's listed under Data Sync → Secrets & Configs, and it can only be sent to OnTrac's API (www.shipontrac.net).

Your account number isn't a password, so it's saved as a config that belongs to this connection, not as a secret.

To change the password, open the Package Tracking page and click Replace key next to Password on the OnTrac row. To stop using OnTrac, click Disconnect.

More detail: Shared Secrets and Configs.