The Classification of Attachments

When sending or receiving attachments, one of the most important needs is being able to identify what type of attachments have been included… a Materials Declaration, Certificate, Drawing, Service Notes, etc…

In this article you'll find how you can classify your attachments when you Trade through either our Trade Application (Trade Basic and Business) or via an integration to your system.

Classifying Attachments in the Trade Application

When you upload an attachment for the first time to your documents library, you'll be asked to select what category the document type is.

The image below shows a typical use of the Document Library within our Trade application being used to upload a Materials Declaration form for an item that contains Hazardous Materials

🕮 To learn more about the Document Library within Trade and how to use it, please go here. For more information on supported document types, see below.

☢️ Hazardous Materials

If the document you upload is a Materials Declaration (MD) or a Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) then you'll also have to specify whether it is indicative of an item that contains Hazardous Materials.

When such a document is attached to a line item, the line item will be flagged as containing Hazardous Materials.

Support for Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM)

When you attach a Materials Declaration (MD) to a line item you will also be required to attach a Supplier Declaration of Compliance (SDoC), and vice versa. If you attach one but not the other you will be unable to submit your document.

Classification of Attachments for Integrated Clients on MTML Version 1.9 / Order Management API Version 2.0 or higher

If you're integrated with the versions noted above or higher, when sending attachments you're able classify the attachment type for both header attachments and line attachments.

When you receive attachments, the response will include the full classification for each attachment. See below the allowed document categorisations and formats, also detailed in the full documentation.

"attachments": [
  {
     "name":"SampleItemAttachment.pdf",
     "type":"PDF",
     "classification":"MD",
     …
  }
]

Example snippet of the API Order management response (for illustration purposes only, please see the full documentation)

☢️ Hazardous Materials

When sending an attachment, you'll also be able to specify whether the document is indicative of an item containing Hazardous Materials. This applies to a Materials Declaration (MD) or a Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) only.

"attachments": [
  {
     "name":"SampleItemAttachment.pdf",
     "type":"PDF",
     "classification":"MD",
     "forHazMat": "Yes",
     …
  }
]

Example snippet of the API Order management response (for illustration purposes only, please see the full documentation)

When a document, containing a line item with an MD or MSDS attached flagged as containing Hazardous Materials the line item will be flagged as containing Hazardous Materials.

"lineItems": [
  {
     "number":1,
     "description": "12 PCE OF PLATES A",
     "quality": "Low",
     "quantity": 100,
     "unitOfMeasure": "PCE",
     "forHazMat": "Yes",
     …
  }
]

Example snippet of the API Order management response (for illustration purposes only, please see the full documentation)

For full details on how classification works, click through to the relevant documentation.

Classification of Attachments for Integrated Clients on MTML Version 1.8 / Order Management API Version 1.1 or lower

If you're integrated with the versions noted above or lower, when sending attachments you're can classify the attachment type for both header attachments and line attachments.

To classify your documents, you will need to ensure that the document abbreviation is prepended to the file name (e.g. MD_filename.pdf). We'll read the name to identify what type of document it is. If the abbreviation used is not recognised or the format is not valid then the attached document will be automatically classified as Unspecified. See below the allowed document categorisations, abbreviations, formats and error handling.

When you receive attachments, its classification will be prepended to the file name to make for easy visibility and analysis.

"attachments": [
  {
     "name":"MD_SampleItemAttachment.pdf",
     "type":"PDF",
     …
  }
]

Example snippet of the API Order management response (for illustration purposes only, please see the full documentation)

Important Note: This is a configuration that must be turned on. If your attachments are not being categorised then please get in touch.

☢️ Hazardous Materials

When sending an attachment, you'll also be able to specify whether the document is indicative of an item containing Hazardous Materials. This applies to a Materials Declaration (MD) or a Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) only.

Similar to the document classification, the term 'HazMat' will be will need to be prepended to the document name (e.g. HazMat_MD_filename.pdf).

"attachments": [
  {
     "name":"HazMat_MD_SampleItemAttachment.pdf",
     "type":"PDF",
     …
  }
]

Example snippet of the API Order management response (for illustration purposes only, please see the full documentation)

Important Note: When receiving a document you will only be able to identify a line item as Hazardous via the line attachments printable or the corresponding line item attachment name. Upgrade to the aforementioned versions for full support.

🕮 For more information about how you might adopt these new changes within your own integration with your suppliers/buyers please read more here

Supported Documents, Formats and Usage

The following two tables lay out the names of the document types, the supported file formats and their subsequent usage.

Supported Documents

Important Note for Integrated Clients Classifying Attachments via the file name: The document type abbreviations are an important to how we identify, classify and process these attachments.

If you're classifying the document via the file name, please see below for details on error handling, otherwise please refer to the integration documentation.

Supported Documents

Classification Validation when classifying the attachment document type via the document name

Classifying document types via the file name is prone to human error. As such, to ensure this does not disrupt your trade when the naming of your document attachments does not conform to the naming conventions supported we will never block the document from being sent.

Examples of valid classification:

• MD_docName

• md_docName

Auto-Classification of attachments as 'Unspecified'

When the attachment has not been classified or we are unable to recognise the classification, when your document is sent those particular attachments will be classified as Unspecified.

Examples of no or invalid classifications:

• docName

• doc_name

• M.D_docName

• docName_MD