INTRODUCTION

The BIC BoxTech Containers Database (see the website) has a reference API which is described below. Other API entry points may be implemented on request.

Repository
BoxTech API
Prerequisites
Detailed samples
Manual Tests with a REST Client

Repository

This repository contains samples for calling the BoxTech REST API. These API samples are open source. Other samples may be contributed by you or others to the GitHub repository : please fork and suggest your pull requests.

BoxTech API

The BoxTech API is a simple REST API.

The following entry points are available, for looking up container tare weight and max gross mass in the BoxTech database :

When you ask for a data :

You will receive the raw data if it is available in the requested unit.

You will receive the converted data if it is available in another unit.

tare_kg : for a given container number, provides the tare weight in kg
tare_lbs : for a given container number, provides the tare weight in lbs
max_gross_mass_kg : for a given container number, provides the max gross mass in kg
max_gross_mass_lbs : for a given container number, provides the max gross mass in lbs

The following entry points are planned, but not yet available, for updating the BoxTech database :

fleet_in : declare a new container in my fleet
fleet_out : declare that a container has left my fleet
fleet_replace : upload a file with the whole contents of my fleet, replacing the existing contents

The container tare weight API is being made available first, because this is the most urgent. An API allowing the download of a fuller set of container characteristics will eventually be added.

Prerequisites

To use the BoxTech API, you will need the following :

Username and Password

You will be given these once you have signed up on the BoxTech app : see BIC BoxTech website Remember that, from time to time, you may need to approve new Terms and Conditions : to do this, simply log in manually into the app : see the FAQ

Clientid

You will use the following value for clientid in your tests and in your app :

for production and sandbox, clientid is YmljYXBwOmJpY3NlY3JldGFwcA==

Endpoint

The endpoint for the BoxTech REST API is :

for Production : app.bic-boxtech.org/api
for Sandbox : test-bic-container.herokuapp.com/api

Container number

For Sandbox, you may test you tare request with the following container number : GLDU5334260 Generally speaking, the container number format is AAAU9999999 :

BIC Code of 4 characters
Container number with 6 digits plus 1 check digit.

Detailed Samples

A simple flow would be the following :

call the authentication service with username/password; this returns a token used in all other API calls
call the tare_kg entry point, passing the authentication token and the container number; this returns the tare in kgs

The following chapters describe how to use the API :

AUTHENTICATION
TARE_KG, TARE_LBS : how to call these entry points
ERRORS : details about error codes and messages

Manual Tests with a REST Client

We have added a step-by-step description of manual tests we suggest you run with Postman, a REST Client application :

sign up for a sandbox user for data access only
authenticate with this user to get a token
call the tare_kg service with this token to look up the tare weight of a container
repeat the operation in production

More details in this guide

Feedback and Support

We invite you to add your comments about the Tare Weight API service here as comments on this GitHub issue : bic-org#1

If you have other problems or questions, we invite you to enter them here as a new issue : https://github.com/bic-boxtech/BIC-BoxTech-API-Samples/issues/new

** Please do not look for support by email - response time on GitHub will be much faster **

warrantgroup/BIC-BoxTech-API-Samples