How to mark a SalesOrder Picked then Packed using NetSuite SuiteTalk WebServices - netsuite

Question

My objective is to respond to a picked event in an external system and mark the SalesOrder "Picked" in NetSuite and later respond to a pack event in an external system and mark the SalesOrder "Packed" in NetSuite.
I am using the code from the SuiteTalk sample application. I first get a copy of the existing ItemFulfillment record and then populate a new ItemFulfillment record.
The code works great when I respond to the pick event. Unfortunately, when I respond to the pack event, when I try to get a copy of the existing ItemFulfillment Record for the SalesOrder I get this error.
"You must have at least one valid line item for this transaction."
I assumed that NetSuite is complaining that there are no more line items to fulfill, so I tried not adding any ItemFulfillmentItem(s) when I set the status to picked, but NetSuite didn't like that either.
The only documentation that I could find referenced a task Id, /app/accounting/transactions/itemshipmanager.nl?type=pack. This approach seemed credible because when I brought up Fiddler, this is the call that it made when I click the "Mark Packed" button in the UI. However, I would prefer not to introduce a different paradigm for talking to the NetSuite server.
I have found that NetSuite will let me go straight to the Pack state if I set shipStatus and shipStatusSpecified in the ItemFulfillment.
Can I move a SalesOrder through both the picked and packed states using only NetSuite SuiteTalk?

Answer 1

I was going about the problem incorrectly. Instead of adding items to a new packed item fulfillment, the correct approach is to find the existing ItemFulfillment and change its status to packed.
This is the search that finds an existing ItemFulfillment for a SalesOrder:
TransactionSearch xactionSearch = new TransactionSearch
{
basic = new TransactionSearchBasic
{
type = new SearchEnumMultiSelectField
{
#operator = SearchEnumMultiSelectFieldOperator.anyOf,
operatorSpecified = true,
searchValue = new System.String[]
{
"_itemFulfillment"
}
},
createdFrom = new SearchMultiSelectField
{
#operator = SearchMultiSelectFieldOperator.anyOf,
operatorSpecified = true,
searchValue = new RecordRef[1]
{
new RecordRef
{
internalId = salesOrderInternalId,
type = RecordType.salesOrder,
typeSpecified = true
}
}
}
}
};
This is the code that updates the ItemFulfillment:
ItemFulfillment update = new ItemFulfillment { internalId = existing.internalId, shipStatus = status, shipStatusSpecified = true };
WriteResponse res = _service.update(update);