Shipping events

Synchronous webhooks for shipping methods allow Saleor Apps to control shipping methods available for checkouts and draft orders. Diagram below shows example flow of requests between your store customer, Saleor and shipping app.

Required Permissions

MANAGE_SHIPPING
MANAGE_ORDERS
MANAGE_CHECKOUTS

List External Shipping Methods

This solution can be used whenever shipping methods need to be fetched from a 3rd party API or when the pricing logic built into Saleor is insufficient for your needs.

External shipping methods can be used alone or with internal shipping methods. Saleor will return both the internal methods (defined through the Saleor Dashboard and stored in the ShippingMethod model) and external methods returned from the sync webhook.

Saleor Apps can subscribe to the SHIPPING_LIST_METHODS_FOR_CHECKOUT synchronous webhook. It is called whenever shipping methods are queried for a checkout object.

{
  checkout(id: "checkout-id") {
    shippingMethods {
      id
      name
    }
  }
}

warning

Due to circular reference, ShippingListMethodsForCheckout subscription queries should not contain fields:

checkout.shippingMethods
checkout.deliveryMethod
shippingMethods

Request Format

This is an example response from the application:

[
  {
    "type": "Checkout",
    "id": "Q2hlY2tvdXQ6dXVpZA==",
    "channel": {
      "type": "Channel",
      "id": "Q2hhbm5lbDox",
      "slug": "default-channel",
      "currency_code": "USD"
    },
    "user": {
      "type": "User",
      "id": "VXNlcjoxOTY=",
      "email": "linda.thomas@example.com",
      "first_name": "Linda",
      "last_name": "Thomas"
    },
    "billing_address": {
      "type": "Address",
      "id": "QWRkcmVzczpOb25l",
      "first_name": "Krista",
      "last_name": "Wyatt",
      "company_name": "",
      "street_address_1": "98910 Cynthia Rest",
      "street_address_2": "",
      "city": "South Christopherville",
      "city_area": "",
      "postal_code": "15178",
      "country": "US",
      "country_area": "PA",
      "phone": ""
    },
    "shipping_address": {
      "type": "Address",
      "id": "QWRkcmVzczpOb25l",
      "first_name": "Bethany",
      "last_name": "Hayes",
      "company_name": "",
      "street_address_1": "59179 Bruce Gardens Apt. 413",
      "street_address_2": "",
      "city": "Lauramouth",
      "city_area": "",
      "postal_code": "71807",
      "country": "US",
      "country_area": "AR",
      "phone": ""
    },
    "shipping_method": null,
    "warehouse_address": {
      "type": "Address",
      "id": "QWRkcmVzczoxMTMw",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe",
      "company_name": "Mirumee Software",
      "street_address_1": "Tęczowa 7",
      "street_address_2": "",
      "city": "WROCŁAW",
      "city_area": "",
      "postal_code": "53-601",
      "country": "PL",
      "country_area": "",
      "phone": "+48713988102"
    },
    "lines": [],
    "collection_point": null,
    "meta": {
      "issued_at": "1914-06-28T10:50:00+00:00",
      "version": "dev",
      "issuing_principal": {
        "id": null,
        "type": null
      }
    },
    "private_metadata": [],
    "metadata": [],
    "created": "2022-02-20T21:21:18.756Z",
    "last_change": "2022-02-20T21:21:18.756Z",
    "email": "linda.thomas@example.com",
    "currency": "USD",
    "discount_amount": "0.00",
    "discount_name": null
  }
]

Response Format

This is an example response from the application:

[
  {
    "id": "method-1",
    "name": "Same Day Delivery",
    "amount": 10.0,
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  {
    "id": "method-2",
    "name": "Standard Delivery",
    "amount": 0.0,
    "currency": "USD",
    "maximum_delivery_days": 14,
    "minimum_delivery_days": 4,
    "description": "Delivery description",
    "metadata": { "key": "value", "key_2": "value_2" }
  }
]

Where:

id (required) is id of external shipping method e.g dhl-exp. It will be converted by Saleor to app:<app-database-id>:<id-returned-by-webhook> and encoded in Base64 format.
name (required) of shipping method e.g DHL Express.
amount (required) is price that customer needs to pay for delivery with shipping method.
currency (required) is ISO currency code for amount (needs to match the checkout's currency).
maximum_delivery_days is maximum delivery days for delivery promise of shipping carrier.
minimum_delivery_days is minimum delivery days for delivery promise of shipping carrier.
description is additional description of external shipping method.
metadata is additional shipping method metadata in a form of a dict with strings as keys and values.

info

Fields: minimum_delivery_days, description and metadata were added to the response in Saleor 3.19.

warning

Since Saleor 3.21, the currency returned by the app must match the checkout's currency. If they do not match, the corresponding shipping method will not be displayed to the customer.

warning

Since Saleor 3.21, the following queries will not return external shipping methods:

checkouts(...)
me.checkouts(...)
checkoutLines(...)

These queries will not make external API calls for fetching external shipping methods.

Selecting Shipping Methods

External shipping methods have an ID of the following format: app:<app-database-id>:<id-returned-by-webhook> encoded in Base64.

They are selected using the same mutations as internal shipping methods, e.g.:

mutation {
  checkoutDeliveryMethodUpdate(
    id: "Q2hlY2tvdXQ6dXVpZA=="
    deliveryMethodId: "YXBwOjEyMzQ6c29tZS1pZA=="
  ) {
    checkout {
      deliveryMethod {
        ... on ShippingMethod {
          id
          name
        }
      }
    }
    errors {
      code
      message
    }
  }
}

Information about an external shipping method is stored in the order's private metadata. This entry should be kept to allow the shipping method to be correctly displayed in the dashboard.

Filter Shipping Methods

This solution allows you to control which shipping methods (internal or external) should be available to customers on the storefront or later on order.

Saleor Apps can subscribe to the synchronous webhooks:

CHECKOUT_FILTER_SHIPPING_METHODS is called whenever shipping methods are listed for a checkout
ORDER_FILTER_SHIPPING_METHODS is called whenever shipping methods are listed for an editable order, such as a draft order or an unconfirmed order

warning

Due to circular reference, CheckoutFilterShippingMethods and OrderFilterShippingMethods subscription queries should not contain fields:

checkout.shippingMethods
checkout.deliveryMethod
order.shippingMethods
order.deliveryMethod

Instead you should fetch shipping methods using root level shippingMethods field, e.g.:

subscription {
  event {
    ... on CheckoutFilterShippingMethods {
      __typename
      shippingMethods {
        id
        name
      }
      checkout {
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

Request Format

Example request for CHECKOUT_FILTER_SHIPPING_METHODS:

{
  "checkout": {
    "type": "Checkout",
    "id": "Q2hlY2tvdXQ6dXVpZA==",
    "channel": {
      "type": "Channel",
      "id": "Q2hhbm5lbDox",
      "slug": "default-channel",
      "currency_code": "USD"
    },
    "user": null,
    "billing_address": null,
    "shipping_address": null,
    "shipping_method": null,
    "warehouse_address": null,
    "lines": [],
    "collection_point": null,
    "meta": {
      "issued_at": "2022-02-20T21:18:55.216178+00:00",
      "version": "dev",
      "issuing_principal": {
        "id": null,
        "type": null
      }
    },
    "private_metadata": {},
    "metadata": {},
    "created": "2022-02-20T21:18:55.209Z",
    "last_change": "2022-02-20T21:18:55.209Z",
    "email": "user@email.com",
    "currency": "USD",
    "discount_amount": "0.00",
    "discount_name": null
  },
  "shipping_methods": [
    {
      "id": "U2hpcHBpbmdNZXRob2Q6MTIz",
      "price": "10.59",
      "currency": "USD",
      "name": "shipping",
      "maximum_order_weight": "10.0:kg",
      "minimum_order_weight": "1.0:g",
      "maximum_delivery_days": 10,
      "minimum_delivery_days": 2
    }
  ]
}

Example request for ORDER_FILTER_SHIPPING_METHODS:

{
  "order": {
    "type": "Order",
    "id": "T3JkZXI6Mjkz",
    "channel": {
      "type": "Channel",
      "id": "Q2hhbm5lbDo1Njk=",
      "slug": "main",
      "currency_code": "USD"
    },
    "shipping_method": null,
    "payments": null,
    "shipping_address": {
      "type": "Address",
      "id": "QWRkcmVzczoxMzQz",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe",
      "company_name": "Mirumee Software",
      "street_address_1": "T\u0119czowa 7",
      "street_address_2": "",
      "city": "WROC\u0141AW",
      "city_area": "",
      "postal_code": "53-601",
      "country": "PL",
      "country_area": "",
      "phone": "+48713988102"
    },
    "billing_address": {
      "type": "Address",
      "id": "QWRkcmVzczoxMzQz",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe",
      "company_name": "Mirumee Software",
      "street_address_1": "T\u0119czowa 7",
      "street_address_2": "",
      "city": "WROC\u0141AW",
      "city_area": "",
      "postal_code": "53-601",
      "country": "PL",
      "country_area": "",
      "phone": "+48713988102"
    },
    "discounts": null,
    "original": "T3JkZXI6Tm9uZQ==",
    "lines": [],
    "fulfillments": [],
    "collection_point": null,
    "meta": {
      "issued_at": "2022-02-20T21:17:38.766493+00:00",
      "version": "dev",
      "issuing_principal": {
        "id": null,
        "type": null
      }
    },
    "private_metadata": {},
    "metadata": {},
    "created": "2022-02-20T21:17:38.760Z",
    "status": "unfulfilled",
    "user_email": "test@example.com",
    "origin": "checkout",
    "shipping_method_name": null,
    "collection_point_name": null,
    "shipping_price_net_amount": "0.00",
    "shipping_price_gross_amount": "0.00",
    "shipping_tax_rate": "0.0",
    "token": "b449194f-cf9c-4269-9d73-fdfa4534a140",
    "total_net_amount": "0.00",
    "undiscounted_total_net_amount": "0.00",
    "total_gross_amount": "0.00",
    "undiscounted_total_gross_amount": "0.00",
    "weight": "0.0:kg"
  },
  "shipping_methods": [
    {
      "id": "U2hpcHBpbmdNZXRob2Q6MTIz",
      "price": "10.59",
      "currency": "USD",
      "name": "shipping",
      "maximum_order_weight": "10.0:kg",
      "minimum_order_weight": "1.0:g",
      "maximum_delivery_days": 10,
      "minimum_delivery_days": 2
    }
  ]
}

Response Format

This is an example response from the application:

{
  "excluded_methods": [
    {
      "id": "U2hpcHBpbmdNZXRob2Q6MQ==",
      "reason": "Same Day Delivery is no longer available."
    },
    {
      "id": "U2hpcHBpbmdNZXRob2Q6MTQ=",
      "reason": "Bulky items are not allowed for standard shipping."
    }
  ]
}

warning

Since Saleor 3.21, the following queries will return non filtered shipping methods:

checkouts(...)
me.checkouts(...)
checkoutLines(...)
orders(...)
draftOrders(...)
me.orders(...)

These queries will not make external API calls for filtering shipping methods.

Implementation Guide

ShippingMethod objects returned by Checkout.shippingMethods and Order.shippingMethods will have 2 attributes:

active which is set to false when at least one of the Saleor Apps excludes the methods;
message which concatenates the exclusion reason coming from each of the Apps;

{
  checkout(id: "checkout-id") {
    shippingMethods {
      id
      name
      active
      message
    }
  }
}

warning

Even though external methods are also subject to filtering, we recommend integrating only one of the two approaches, as every single synchronous webhook affects the response time of your Saleor API.

Caching Behavior on Checkout

This chapter explains how Saleor handles caching of shipping webhook responses, how the cache is invalidated, and when shipping webhooks are triggered during checkout.

Cache TTLs

CACHE_TIME_SHIPPING_LIST_METHODS_FOR_CHECKOUT for external shipping methods: 12 hours
CACHE_EXCLUDED_SHIPPING_TIME for filtering shipping methods: 3 minutes

Cache Invalidation

The cache is invalidated when any of the following checkout mutations run:

checkoutCreate
checkoutCreateFromOrder
checkoutCustomerAttach, checkoutCustomerDetach
checkoutDeliveryMethodUpdate, checkoutShippingMethodUpdate
checkoutShippingAddressUpdate, checkoutBillingAddressUpdate
checkoutEmailUpdate, checkoutLanguageCodeUpdate
checkoutLinesAdd, checkoutLinesUpdate, checkoutLineDelete
checkoutAddPromoCode, checkoutRemovePromoCode
updateMetadata (on the checkout)
updatePrivateMetadata (on the checkout)

Non-Checkout Cache Invalidation

These operations also invalidate shipping cache:

Create/Update/Delete of catalogue promotions
Create/Update/Delete of order promotions applied to the checkout
Create/Update/Delete of variant attributes attached to checkout lines
Changing Product or ProductVariant names

Query-Triggered Webhooks

When the cache is invalid, querying these checkout fields triggers shipping webhooks:

Shipping details:
- checkout.shippingMethod
- checkout.shippingMethods
- checkout.availableShippingMethods
- checkout.deliveryMethod
Price fields:
- checkout.shippingPrice
- checkout.totalPrice
- checkout.subtotalPrice
- checkout.totalBalance
- checkout.lines[].unitPrice
- checkout.lines[].totalPrice
Payment statuses:
- checkout.authorizeStatus
- checkout.chargeStatus

Summary

Saleor caches shipping webhook responses to reduce API calls.
TTLs are currently 12 hours for external shipping methods and 3 minutes for filtering methods.
Cache is invalidated by specific checkout mutations, checkout-related queries, and some non-checkout operations.
Queries accessing key checkout fields may trigger webhooks if the cache is invalid.
Developers should consider cache behavior when building shipping apps to avoid redundant calls and ensure accurate shipping methods.

Community Resources

Demo shipping app

Required Permissions​

List External Shipping Methods​

Subscribe to the Webhook​

Request Format​

Response Format​

Selecting Shipping Methods​

Filter Shipping Methods​

Subscribe to the Webhook​

Request Format​

Response Format​

Implementation Guide​

Caching Behavior on Checkout​

Cache TTLs​

Cache Invalidation​

Non-Checkout Cache Invalidation​

Query-Triggered Webhooks​

Summary​

Community Resources​

Required Permissions

List External Shipping Methods

Subscribe to the Webhook

Request Format

Response Format

Selecting Shipping Methods

Filter Shipping Methods

Subscribe to the Webhook

Request Format

Response Format

Implementation Guide

Caching Behavior on Checkout

Cache TTLs

Cache Invalidation

Non-Checkout Cache Invalidation

Query-Triggered Webhooks

Summary

Community Resources