External information lookup
External information lookup enables the retrieval of externally maintained data during the webshop or checkout process.
The system evaluates a predefined table and returns the values of a specific row based on a provided payload.
This mechanism supports use cases where customer-facing information must differ from internally calculated values while remaining fully configurable and deterministic.
Concept
External information lookup is based on the following concepts:
A table that contains externally maintained data.
A lookup request that provides input values as a payload.
A row evaluation that matches the payload against the table definition.
A response that returns values from the matched row.
The table acts as a rule-based mapping between input parameters and output values that that a webshop or checkout implementation can consume.
Example use case
In many scenarios, the shipping costs charged to an end customer differ from the actual shipping costs incurred by the merchant.
Typical examples include:
Free shipping for the end customer once a specific cart value is exceeded, while the merchant continues to pay the full shipping costs.
Flat-rate shipping fees for customers (for example, a fixed amount per order), while the merchant's shipping costs follow a dynamic pricing structure based on weight, volume, or packaging units.
In such cases, the internally calculated shipping costs remain relevant for fulfillment and cost accounting, but they must not be exposed to the customer.
With external information lookup, fulfillmenttools can:
Send packaging or shipping units calculated during checkout as a payload.
Evaluate these values against a predefined external table.
Return the shipping costs that should be charged to the customer.
The returned values typically differ from the internally calculated shipping costs that fulfillmenttools determines dynamically on the platform.
Functional behavior
The system behaves as follows:
A lookup request is triggered from any point in the webshop or checkout flow.
The request includes a payload that represents calculated values, such as packaging units or shipment characteristics.
The system evaluates the payload against the configured table.
If a matching row is found, the system returns the values defined for that row.
The returned data can be used to display or apply customer-facing information, such as shipping costs.
Typical integration points
The external information lookup can be integrated at various points, including:
Webshop product detail pages.
Shopping cart views.
Checkout steps where shipping costs are calculated or displayed.
Custom frontend logic that requires externalized business rules.
Scope and limitations
The feature is designed for lookup-based evaluation and doesn't replace internal fulfillmenttools cost calculation logic.
It complements existing calculations by providing a controlled way to expose alternative values to external systems.
The following limits apply to the size and structure of the external information table:
A maximum of 20 definitions per document is supported.
Each document can contain up to 1,500 items.
Each definition value is limited to 150 characters.
These limits ensure consistent lookup performance and predictable evaluation behavior across all integrations.
For detailed API definitions, field descriptions, and request examples, refer to our API documentation.
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