PalLeT by Team Unisys

Inspiration

With the growth of e-commerce and shipment of specialty products such as pharmaceuticals, live animals, and food shippers want to know where their individual cargo pieces are at all times, not just the larger shipment that the individuals pieces are a part of. Airlines, Forwarders, GHAs, etc. that can provide shipment tracking information at the piece level will have an advantage in the market over those that cannot provide piece level information. Shippers also need to be able trust the data so accuracy of the piece level information is of the utmost importance. The PalLeT solution ensure that all parties have the most up to date and accurate information as possible.

The PalLet solution will provide a method of connecting existing airline cargo systems to One Record with little if any modifications to the airline cargo systems. This will be accomplished by using existing APIs such as CIMP, IATA XML, or proprietary APIs to push/pull information to/from the One Record server. The One Record server will use One Record APIs to communicate with other parties which could also be using PalLeT.

What it does

After the shipper has provided the airline with a booking or air waybill via any API available, PalLeT provides the shipper with the ability to provide the individual piece information via One Record. The piece information such as customer id (bar code or QR code), weight and dimensions can be entered in the PalLeT application or uploaded via a spreadsheet. Once the data is received in One Record, our One Record server will push the piece level information to the Unisys Cargo Core application. The Cargo Core user can then accept the individual pieces, build them up in a ULD or on a pallet, assign the pieces, ULD, or pallet to flight, check-in a destination, and deliver the shipment to the consignee. When each of the actions mentioned and other occur the updates and piece level history are pushed out to the One Record server. Interested parties can use the PalLeT application to view the movement history of each piece.

A ground handler will also have the ability to record acceptance of the individual pieces, assignment to flight, and departure of the flight via the PalLeT application. The PalLeT application records these movement actions on the One Record server. The One Record Server then pushes the movement actions to the Cargo Core system.

How we built it

1. We developed two UI Screens which are integrated with One Record server. The One Record server and UI are hosted in local system. The screens are : a. Piece Details - GHA/FORWARDER b. Piece Details History - GHA/FORWARDER
2. We implemented One Record API JsonLD Request / Response parsing logic using Jackson libraries. With this logic the above screens communicate with One Record server to send/recieve piece details and piece history details.

Challenges we ran into

1. Overcame few issues and errors during the One Record server build and deployment in local system.
2. As we were new to the Ontology concept used in One Record, it was challenging for us to understand it initially.
3. Transforming application domain object to JsonLD mapping.
4. OneRecord API request/response fields mostly don't match with few Cargo domain object attributes. Few for example: Piece History, Piece History timestamps and pieceID
5. Everytime API is adding new logistic objects but the expectation is that OneRecord should update the existing logistic object for every subsequent updates.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

1. Being part of this Hackathon program and understanding One Record in a short span of time.

What we learned

1. We have done the research and practiced on the One Record API implementations.
2. We Learned and understood the concept of Ontology and How One Record is built upon Ontology concept.
3. We learned performing Json+LD to Java and vice versa translation using Jackson libraries, OWL API.
4. We learned to integrate One Record server API with Unisys Airline System.

What's next for PalLeT by Team Unisys

The next steps for PalLet are:

1. Expand PalLeT beyond Piece Level Tracking to the full One Record API with corresponding functions
2. Create a mobile application that covers most or all of the web app functionality.

Built With

• java
• jboss
• jsf
• maven
• spring