Recipe & Menu Engineering Import API Guide

Introduction

The Recipe & Menu Engineering Import API lets you create or update a wide range of ingredient and supplier details in Fourth.

Quick Facts

Integration type	HTTP REST with JSON and XML
Authentication	Basic authentication
Availability	All customers using our Fourth Inventory for Restaurants solution
Testing	Test environment available
More information	See the Import API Reference

Get access

To get started with this API, you will need:

A Recipe & Menu Engineering Import API account to access this API
The root URL for requests to the test and live environments

Your mutual Fourth customer must request credentials on your behalf. Please ensure they do this as soon as possible. The Fourth Professional Services team member managing the integration can provide the above information and help you with any integration questions you may have.

Uniquely identifying each ingredient

Inside Fourth, ingredients are linked with suppliers. When you send in an ingredient-related request, we rely on supplier information to uniquely recognise a new or existing ingredient:

SupplierName — Name of the supplier
SupplierCode — A unique identifier for the ingredient, as provided by the supplier

Using both fields stops existing ingredients from being accidentally altered by another supplier’s ingredient (if they coincidentally shared the same unique ID). This can also make integrating faster, as you do not need to create or track IDs separately from Fourth and the supplier.

To update an existing ingredient, you must include both SupplierName and SupplierCode.

Resources

Fourth will provide you with the base path for requests. Each resource exposes a single POST method to both create and update entries. There are no path parameters required.

Resource	Task
ingredients	Adds or updates one or more ingredients. Before you can add ingredients, the supplier for the ingredient must exist in Fourth. You can use the suppliers resource to do this. This resource focuses on purchasing information, such as supplier and distributor details, unit types, cost and tax details, and ordering limits. As well, you can specify whether the ingredient is an alternate to an existing ingredient. To add category, intolerance, nutrient, priceband or conversion information for an ingredient, you need to use the individual resources for these.
ingredientcategory	Adds categories for one or more ingredients. The categories must already exist in Fourth.
ingredientconversion	Adds or updates conversion information for an ingredient. You can remove a conversion for a unit of measure by leaving the quantity and number values empty.
ingredientintolerance	Adds or updates ingredient intolerances for one or more ingredients. You can remove an intolerance by setting the IntoleranceValue to null.
ingredientnutrient	Adds or updates ingredient nutrition details for one or more ingredients. You can remove nutrition details by setting the NutrientValue to null.
ingredientpriceband	Adds or updates an ingredient’s price band details.
suppliers	Adds or updates one or more suppliers.

Request header

For all requests, you must provide your authentication details using Basic authentication in the header.

POST /ingredients HTTP/1.1
Host: instance.example.com
Accept: text/json
Authorization: Basic VXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

Field	Description
Authorization	Your Recipe & Menu Engineering Imports ID and password, separated by a colon, and then base64 encoded. Your ID and password are case-sensitive.
Accept	The data format you are using for the request. Options are: application/json, text/json, application/xml, text/xml.

Request body

For full details about what is required in the request body, see the reference and the examples below.

Unit of measure (UoM) values and codes

There a several requests where you will need to set values for a UoM or unit code. The following require a long name as their value:

SupplyQuantityUnit
UnitSizeUom
AlternativeUnit1Uom
AlternativeUnit2Uom

The UnitCode parameter must use the abbreviated name.

Lastly, there are two optional parameters SupplierOrderUom or InvoiceUom that take only these values:

EA — each
CS — case
KGM — kilogram

The next table has the possible long name and abbreviated name values.

Long name	Abbreviated name (UnitCode only)
bakers dozen	bdz
bottle	btl
bunch	bnch
centilitre	cl
clove	clv
cup (UK)	cup (UK)
cup (US)	cup (US)
dozen	dz
each	ea
floz (UK)	floz (UK)
floz (US)	floz (US)
gallon (UK)	gal (UK)
gallon (US)	gal (US)
gill (UK)	gill (UK)
gill (US)	gill (US)
gram	g
kilogram	kg
litre	l
loaf	loaf
milligram	mg
millilitre	ml
ounce	oz
piece	piece
pint (UK)	pt (UK)
pint (US)	pt (US)
pound	lb
quart (UK)	qt (UK)
quart (US)	qt (US)
serving(s)	serving
single	single
slice	slice
stone	stone
tbsp (UK)	tbsp (UK)
tbsp (US)	tbsp (US)
tin	tin
tsp (UK)	tsp (UK)
tsp (US)	tsp (US)

Response to requests

Successful requests

Successful POST requests receive an HTTP 202 Accepted response with an empty response body.

Unsuccessful requests

Unsuccessful requests receive an HTTP 400-599 response, with an error message in the response body. See the error messages for each of these requests:

ingredients
ingredientnutrient
ingredientintolerance
ingredientcategory
ingredientconversion

Making suppliers requests

Before you can start adding ingredients, you need to make sure the ingredient supplier exists in Fourth. You can do this using the suppliers resource.

This example request adds a new supplier. The accountNumber is your unique reference for the supplier. The SupplierCurrencyCode is in standard ISO 4217 codes.

POST /suppliers  HTTP/1.1
Host: instance.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic VXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

[
{
   "AccountNumber": "ACME12346",
   "SupplierName": "Chris's produce", 
   "AlternateSupplierName": "CHRISPRO",
   "CountryGuid": "example",
   "SupplierCurrencyCode": "GBP"
}
]

Note that CountryGuid is optional as it is not required for most use cases. The value is a Fourth ID for the country.

Making ingredient requests

Use the ingredient resource to add or update an ingredient. You need to include the ingredient sets to which the ingredient belongs, and the ingredient's supplier (and both the sets and suppliers must already exist in Fourth).

Simple example

POST /ingredient  HTTP/1.1
Host: instance.example.com
Content-Type: application/xml
Authorization: Basic VXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

<ArrayOfIngredient>
   <Ingredient>
      <IngredientName>Ribs</IngredientName>
      <SupplierName>Butcher</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>SupplierCode1</SupplierCode>
      <SupplyQuantity>6.0000</SupplyQuantity>
      <SupplyQuantityUnit>kilogram</SupplyQuantityUnit>
      <IngredientType>Food</IngredientType>
      <CostPrice>20.0000</CostPrice>
      <InternalCode>2008</InternalCode>
      <IngredientSets>
         <Set>Master Ingredients</Set>
      </IngredientSets>
      <SupplyQuantityNumber>2.0000</SupplyQuantityNumber>
   </Ingredient>
</ArrayOfIngredient>

Alternate ingredients

You can use this resource to add alternate ingredients. Alternate ingredients are always linked to a parent ingredient, so in the request you will need to specify the parent ingredient.

Alternate ingredients can come from the same or different suppliers from the parent ingredient.

Example with alternate ingredients data

</ArrayOfIngredient>
   <Ingredient>
      <IngredientName>ApiAlternateAutomation Ingredient 021</IngredientName>
      <SupplierName>Dairy</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>B391</SupplierCode>
      <SupplyQuantity>12.0000</SupplyQuantity>
      <SupplyQuantityUnit>gram</SupplyQuantityUnit>
      <CostPrice>12.5000</CostPrice>
      <IngredientType>Food</IngredientType>
      <InternalCode>1007</InternalCode>
      <IngredientSets>
         <Set>Test 1</Set>
         <Set>Test 2</Set>
         <Set>Test 3</Set>
      </IngredientSets>
      <SupplyQuantityNumber>1.0000</SupplyQuantityNumber>
      <ParentSupplierName>Dairy</ParentSupplierName>       
      <ParentSupplierCode>B600</ParentSupplierCode>
      <RankOrder>2</RankOrder>
      <ParentStarChefKey>0036858</ParentStarChefKey>
   </Ingredient> 
</ArrayOfIngredient>

AlternativeUnit values

These elements are used with Fourth Inventory:

AlternativeUnit1Quantity, AlternativeUnit1Uom, AlternativeUnit1Descriptor
AlternativeUnit2Quantity, AlternativeUnit2Uom, AlternativeUnit2Descriptor

They create an alternative stock count unit in the Inventory system for the ingredient. If you need to use these values please contact your Fourth Implementation Consultant.

Example with all stock compatibility values

<ArrayOfIngredient>
   <Ingredient>
      <IngredientName>Ribs</IngredientName>
      <SupplierName>Butcher</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>SupplierCode1</SupplierCode>
      <SupplyQuantity>6.0000</SupplyQuantity>
      <SupplyQuantityUnit>kilogram</SupplyQuantityUnit>
      <IngredientType>Food</IngredientType>
      <CostPrice>20.0000</CostPrice>
      <InternalCode>2008</InternalCode>
      <IngredientSets>
         <Set>Test 1</Set>
         <Set>Test 2</Set>
         <Set></Set>
      </IngredientSets>
      <SupplyQuantityNumber>2.0000</SupplyQuantityNumber>
      <DistributorName>Dairy</DistributorName>
      <DistributorCode>Dairy001</DistributorCode>
      <ExternalCode>EXTCODE01</ExternalCode>
      <SupplyQuantityDescriptor>case</SupplyQuantityDescriptor>
      <UnitSizeNumber>10</UnitSizeNumber>
      <UnitSizeUom>ounce</UnitSizeUom>
      <UnitSizeUomDescriptor>Case</UnitSizeUomDescriptor>
      <CostModel>Highest</CostModel>
      <IsAdjustmentItem>True</IsAdjustmentItem>
      <PreventUsageInRecipes>False</PreventUsageInRecipes>
      <TransferRequisitionStatus>False</TransferRequisitionStatus>
      <ExcludeFromGP>False</ExcludeFromGP>
      <ZeroStockCount>True</ZeroStockCount>
      <ItemVatable>Yes</ItemVatable>
      <FirstDelivery>2017-06-28</FirstDelivery>
      <BinNumber>12134</BinNumber>
      <MaxOrderQuantity>50</MaxOrderQuantity>
      <MinOrderQuantity>5</MinOrderQuantity>
      <AlternativeUnit1Quantity>5</AlternativeUnit1Quantity>
      <AlternativeUnit1Uom>centilitre</AlternativeUnit1Uom>
      <AlternativeUnit1Descriptor>Bottle</AlternativeUnit1Descriptor>
      <AlternativeUnit2Quantity>1000</AlternativeUnit2Quantity>
      <AlternativeUnit2Uom>milligram</AlternativeUnit2Uom>
      <AlternativeUnit2Descriptor>Box</AlternativeUnit2Descriptor>
     <SupplierOrderUom>CS</SupplierOrderUom>
     <InvoiceUom>CS</InvoiceUom>
     <InvoicePrice>7.55</InvoicePrice>
   </Ingredient>
</ArrayOfIngredient>

Descriptor values

These descriptors use the same set of values:

SupplyQuantityDescriptor
UnitSizeUomDescriptor
AlternativeUnit1Descriptor
AlternativeUnit2Descriptor

The possible values are:

Bag

Bottle

Box

Bucket

Bunch

Carton

Case

Can

Container

Each

Jar

Keg

Pack

Portion

Punnet

Roll

Sheet

Sleeve

Tin

Tub

Error messages for ingredients

Error Message	Description
Ingredient Name is mandatory and must be less than 150 characters.	Ingredient name missing or too long.
Supplier Name does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Name value not provided or does not exist in StarChef.
Supplier Code is mandatory and must be less than 50 characters.	Supplier Code value missing or too long.
Supply Quantity Number is mandatory and must be valid decimal value.	Supply Quantity Number value missing or incorrect format.
Supply Quantity Quantity is mandatory and must be valid decimal value.	Supply Quantity Quantity value missing or incorrect format.
Cost Price is mandatory and must be valid decimal value.	Cost Price value missing or invalid format.
Ingredient Set(s) does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Ingredient set value not provided or does not exist in StarChef.
Multiple Records exist with same Supplier Name and Supplier Code combination.	Trying to import the same ingredient (defined by the combination of Supplier Name and Supplier Code) more than once or ingredient already exists in StarChef.
Multiple Records exist with same Distributor Name and Distributor code combination.	Trying to import the same ingredient (defined by the combination of Distributor Name and Distributor Code) more than once or ingredient already exists in StarChef.
Ingredient Type could be only food or non-food.	Trying to import an ingredient with type different than food or non-food.
External Code must be less than 50 characters.	External code contains more than 50 characters.
Supply Quantity descriptor does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Quantity Descriptor value doesn't exists in StarChef.
Unit Size number must be valid decimal value.	Unit Size number value is not a decimal value.
Unit Size UoM does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing	Unit Size UoM value doesn't exist in the StarChef UoM table. See the Unit of measure (UoM) values and codes table for valid values.
Unit Size UoM descriptor does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Unit Size UoM Descriptor value doesn't exists in StarChef. See the Descriptor values table for valid values.
Cost model does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Cost Model value doesn't exist in StarChef.
Flag Adjustment Item value is not Boolean.	Is Adjustment Item value is not entered as True or False.
Flag Prevent Usage in Recipes value is not Boolean.	Prevent Usage in Recipes value is not entered as True or False.
Transfer Requisition Status value is not Boolean.	Transfer Requisition Status value is not entered as True or False.
Exclude from GP value is not Boolean.	Exclude From GP value is not entered as True or False.
Zero Stock Count value is not Boolean.	Zero Stock Count value is not entered as True or False.
Item Vatable does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Item Vatable value is not entered as Yes, No or - .
First delivery must be valid date value.	Date into Warehouse value is not entered in the correct format yyyy-mm-dd.
Max order quantity must be valid decimal value.	Maximum Order Quantity value is not entered as a decimal value.
Min order quantity must be valid decimal value.	Minimum Order Quantity value is not entered as a decimal value.
Alternative Unit1 quantity must be valid decimal value.	Alternative Unit1 quantity value is not entered as a decimal value.
Alternative Unit1 UoM does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Alternative Unit1 UoM value doesn't exist in the StarChef UoM table.
Alternative Unit1 descriptor does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Alternative Unit1 descriptor value doesn't exist in StarChef.
Alternative Unit2 quantity must be valid decimal value.	Alternative Unit2 quantity value is not entered as a decimal value.
Alternative Unit2 UoM does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Alternative Unit2 UoM value doesn't exist in the StarChef UoM table.
Alternative Unit2 descriptor does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Alternative Unit2 descriptor value doesn't exist in the StarChef descriptor table.
Supplier Order UoM does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Order UoM value is not one of the valid values: CS, EA, KGM.
Invoice UoM does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Invoice UoM value is not one of the valid values: CS, EA, KGM.
Invoice Price must be valid decimal value	Invoice Price value is not entered as a decimal value.
Parent Supplier Name does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Parent Supplier Name value is not provided or does not exist in StarChef.
Parent Supplier Name and Parent Supplier Code combination is not full	Either Parent Supplier Name value is not provided or does not exist in StarChef or the Supplier Code value is not provided.
Parent Supplier StarChef Key does not exist or Value is missing.	StarChef Key value is not provided or is not valid.
Parent Supplier Name must be less than 150 characters.	Parent Supplier Name value should not exceed 150 characters.
Parent Supplier Code must be less than 50 characters.	Parent Supplier Code value should not exceed 50 characters.
Rank Order is not valid number.	Rank Order should be a valid number.
Multiple Records exist with the same rank order.	Two or more alternate ingredients that are associated with the same parent ingredient cannot be imported with the same rank order.
Supplied Unit name is not part of the family.	Unit of measure of the alternate ingredient must correspond to the parent unit of measure.

Making ingredientnutrient requests

Use ingredientnutrient to add nutrition details for an ingredient.

If you need to remove a nutrient from an ingredient's information, send in the nutrient with no value (or null) for NutrientValue.

In this example, the request adds two nutrients (Energy_KJ and Cal_Carb_Pct), and removes one (Caffeine) from the ingredient CHRI332.

POST /ingredientnutrient  HTTP/1.1
Host: instance.example.com
Content-Type: application/xml
Authorization: Basic VXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

<ArrayOfIngredientNutrient>
   <IngredientNutrient>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRI332</SupplierCode>
      <NutrientName>Energy_KJ</NutrientName>   
      <NutrientValue>10.235</NutrientValue>
   </IngredientNutrient>
   <IngredientNutrient>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRI332</SupplierCode>
      <NutrientName>Cal_Carb_Pct</NutrientName>   
      <NutrientValue>6.115</NutrientValue>
   </IngredientNutrient>
   <IngredientNutrient>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRI332</SupplierCode>
      <NutrientName>Caffeine</NutrientName>   
      <NutrientValue></NutrientValue>
   </IngredientNutrient>
</ArrayOfIngredientNutrient>

Nutrient values table

NutrientName	Display Description on Starchef Screen
Cal_Carb_Pct	% Calories from Carbohydrate
Cal_Fat_Pct	% Calories from Fat
Cal_MUFA_Pct	% Calories from Monounsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA)
Cal_PUFA_Pct	% Calories from Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA)
Cal_Prot_Pct	% Calories from Protein
Cal_SatFat_Pct	% Calories from Saturated Fat (SFA)
Alpha_Tocopherol	Alpha Tocopherol (mg)
Biotin	Biotin (μg)
Caffeine	Caffeine (mg)
Calcium	Calcium (mg)
Cal_Details	Calorie Breakdown
Cal_Fat	Calories from Fat
Cal_SatFat	Calories from Saturated Fat
Carb	Carbohydrate
Carotene	Carotene (μg)
Carotene_alpha	Carotene, alpha (μg)
Carotene_beta	Carotene, beta (μg)
Chloride	Chloride (mg)
Fat_Chol_mg	Cholesterol (mg)
Choline	Choline (mg)
Chromium	Chromium (μg)
Copper	Copper (mg)
Cryptoxanthins	Cryptoxanthins (μg)
Energy_kCal	Energy (kcal)
Energy_KJ	Energy (kJ)
Fat_sol	Fat soluble vitamins
Fibre_AOAC	Fibre (AOAC)
Fibre_NSP	Fibre (NSP)
Fluoride	Fluoride (mg)
Folate	Folate, food (μg)
Folic_Acid	Folic Acid (Folate) (μg)
Fructose	Fructose
Glucose	Glucose
Iodine	Iodine (μg)
Iron	Iron (mg)
Lactose	Lactose
Lutein_zeaxanthin	Lutein + zeaxanthin (μg)
Lycopene	Lycopene (μg)
Magnesium	Magnesium (mg)
Maltose	Maltose
Manganese	Manganese (mg)
Mineral	Minerals
Molybdenum	Molybdenum (μg)
Fat_Mono	mono-unsaturates
Niacin	Niacin (mg)
NMES	NMES
Pantothenic_Acid	Pantothenic acid (mg)
Phosphorus	Phosphorus (mg)
Fat_Poly	poly-unsaturates
Potassium	Potassium (mg)
Protein	Protein
Retinol	Retinol (μg)
Riboflavin	Riboflavin (mg)
Fat_Sat	saturates
Selenium	Selenium (μg)
Sodium	Sodium (mg)
Carb_Starch	starch
Sucrose	Sucrose
Thiamin	Thiamin (mg)
Fat	Total Fat
Carb_Sugars	total sugars
Vitamin_A_μg	Vitamin A (μg)
Vitamin_A	Vitamin A (IU)
Vitamin_A_RE	Vitamin A (RE)
Vitamin_B12	Vitamin B12 (μg)
Vitamin_B6	Vitamin B6 (mg)
Vitamin_C	Vitamin C (mg)
Vitamin_D	Vitamin D (μg)
Vitamin_D_IU	Vitamin D (IU)
Vitamin_E	Vitamin E (mg)
Vitamin_K1	Vitamin K1 (μg)
Water	Water
Water_sol	Water soluble vitamins
Zinc	Zinc (mg)

Error messages for ingredientnutrient

Error Message	Description
Supplier Name does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Name value is missing or does not exist in StarChef.
Supplier Code is mandatory and must be less than 50 characters.	Supplier Code value missing or too long.
No ingredient exists for this Supplier Name and Supplier Code combination.	Such ingredient does not exist.
Invalid nutrient name.	Incorrect nutrient name.
Invalid nutrient value.	Nutrient value is not in the correct format.
Duplicate nutrient_name.	Trying to update the same nutrient value twice.

Making ingredientintolerance requests

Use ingredientintolerance to add intolerance details for an ingredient.

If you need to remove an intolerance from an ingredient's information, send in the intolerance with IntoleranceValue set to null.

In this example, the request adds two intolerances and removes one from the ingredient CHRI201.

POST /ingredientintolerance  HTTP/1.1
Host: instance.example.com
Content-Type: application/xml
Authorization: Basic VXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

<ArrayOfIngredientIntolerance>
   <IngredientIntolerance>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRI201</SupplierCode>
      <IntoleranceCode>AddSalt</IntoleranceCode> 
      <IntoleranceValue>Yes</IntoleranceValue>
   </IngredientIntolerance>
   <IngredientIntolerance>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRI201</SupplierCode>
      <IntoleranceCode>Nuts</IntoleranceCode> 
      <IntoleranceValue>May</IntoleranceValue>
   </IngredientIntolerance>
   <IngredientIntolerance>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRI201</SupplierCode>
      <IntoleranceCode>AddSalt</IntoleranceCode> 
      <IntoleranceValue>null</IntoleranceValue>
   </IngredientIntolerance>
</ArrayOfIngredientIntolerance>

Intolerance values table

IntoleranceCode - API Import	Display Description on StarChef Screen
Glutamates	Contains Added Glutamates
AddSalt	Contains Added Salt
AddedTransFats	Contains Added Trans Fats
OtherAdditives	Contains Additives
Alcohol	Contains Alcohol or Alcohol Based Products
AnimalFat	Contains Animal Fat (excluding milk fat)
AnimalProd	Contains Animal Products (excluding rennet free milk products)
ArtCol	Contains Artificial Colours
ArtFlav	Contains Artificial Flavours
Preserv	Contains Artificial Preservatives
ArtSweet	Contains Artificial Sweeteners
Azo	Contains Azo Dyes
Benz	Contains Benzoates (if greater than 1mg/kg or l)
BHA_BHT	Contains BHA/BHT (if greater than 1mg/kg or l)
Celery	Contains Celery / Celeriac Products
Wheat	Contains Cereals that Contain Gluten
Coconut	Contains Coconut
Crustaceans	Contains Crustaceans
E110_E102_E122_E124_E104_E129	Contains E110/E102/E122/E124/E104/E129
E211_Sodium_Benzoate	Contains E211 Sodium Benzoate
Egg	Contains Eggs / Egg Derivatives
Fish	Contains Fish or Fish Products
FlavEnhan	Contains Flavour Enhancers
GM	Contains G.M. Material / Ingredients
Garlic_Onions	Contains Garlic / Onion Products
Gluten	Contains Gluten or Gluten Products
HydrogenatedVegOils	Contains Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils >1%
Irradiated	Contains Irradiated Food
Lactose	Contains Lactose
Lupin	Contains Lupin Flour / Lupin Products
Maize	Contains Maize or Maize Derivatives
Milk	Contains Milk or Milk Products
ModifiedStarch	Contains Modified Starch
Molluscs	Contains Molluscs
MSG	Contains MSG
Mushrooms	Contains Mushrooms or Mushroom Products
Mustard	Contains Mustard or Mustard Products
NatFlav	Contains Natural Flavourings
Nuts	Contains Nuts or Nut Trace
NatCol	Contains Only Natural Colours
Seeds	Contains Seeds / Seed Oil
Sesame	Contains Sesame Seed or Sesame Seed Products
ShellFish	Contains Shellfish
Soya	Contains Soya
Sulph_Diox	Contains Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites
Organic	Organically Produced
Coeliacs	Suitable for Coeliacs
Halaal	Suitable for Halaal Diet
Kosher	Suitable for Kosher Diet
LactoseIntol	Suitable for Lactose Intolerants
Vegan	Suitable for Vegans
Veg	Suitable for Vegetarians
Barley	Barley
Chestnuts	Chestnuts
Sulphites	Contains Sulphites
Sulph	Contains Sulphur Dioxide (if greater than 10mg/kg)
CottonSeed	Cotton seed
Kamut	Kamut (Wheat)
Oats	Oats
OtherNuts	Other
OtherSeeds	Other
Peanuts	Peanuts
PineNuts	Pine Nuts
PoppySeed	Poppy Seed
Rye	Rye
SeedOils	Seed Oils
Spelt	Spelt (Wheat)
SunflowerSeed	Sunflower Seed
TreeNuts	Tree Nuts
CerealsWheat	Wheat
Almonds	Almonds
BrazilNuts	Brazil Nuts
CashewNuts	Cashew Nuts
Hazelnuts	Hazelnuts
Macadamias	Macadamia or Queensland Nuts
PecanNuts	Pecan Nuts
Pistachios	Pistachios
Walnuts	Walnuts

Error messages for ingredientintolerance

Error Message	Description
Supplier Name does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Name value is missing or does not exist in StarChef.
Supplier Code is mandatory and must be less than 50 characters.	Supplier Code value missing or too long.
No ingredient exists for this Supplier Name and Supplier Code combination.	Such ingredient does not exist.
Intolerance value is invalid.	Intolerance value must be yes / no / may / null.
Intolerance Code does not exist in Starchef or Value is missing	Intolerance code missing or incorrect. See the intolerance values table for possible values.

Making ingredientcategory requests

The ingredientcategory resource lets you add categories to an ingredient.

Our Fourth Inventory for Restaurants solution has a hierarchy of user-defined categories. You can include the top three levels in this request, which are:

Category Type
Main Category
SubCategory

Before you can add an ingredient to ingredient categories, the categories must already exist in Fourth. You can use the Recipe & Menu Engineering Export API to retrieve a list of existing categories.

An ingredient may have more than one category applied to it. In which case, one of the categories must become the default category for the ingredient.

 <ArrayOfIngredientCategory>
   <IngredientCategory>
       <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
       <SupplierCode>CHRI103</SupplierCode>
       <CategoryTypeName>Cost Center</CategoryTypeName>
       <MainCategoryName>Food</MainCategoryName>
       <SubCategoryName>Vegetables</SubCategoryName>
       <IsDefault>yes</IsDefault>
   </IngredientCategory>
</ArrayOfIngredientCategory>

Error messages for ingredientcategory

Error Message	Description
Supplier Name does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Name value not provided or does not exist in StarChef.
Supplier Code is mandatory and must be less than 50 characters.	Supplier Code value is missing or too long.
Category type does not exist in Starchef or Value is missing.	Missing Category Type value or Category Type does not exist in StarChef.
Required Ingredient Category Type not found.	Mandatory Category Type not provided for the ingredient.
Invalid category tree structure provided.	All provided categories exist but structure is incorrect.
is_default value is invalid	Incorrect is_default value.
Invalid category for alternate ingredients	Category provided is applicable only for parent ingredients.
Categories cannot be set for alternate ingredients inherited from parent ingredients	Alternates with "Inherit Parent Values" cannot have category value updated.

Making ingredientconversion requests

This request adds or updates conversion information for an ingredient.

Conversions let you take the unit of measure for purchasing (the "supply quantity") and provide a more recipe-friendly unit of measure elsewhere in Fourth.

In the screenshot:

quantity is the left column (values 1, 1, and 1)
number is the middle (values: 800, 1 and 12)

Screenshot showing example conversions in the Fourth user interface

To remove a conversion for a unit of measure, leave the quantity and number values empty. You can only delete conversions that are not in use.

For a list of unit of measures for UnitCode, see the Unit of measure (UoM) values and codes table.

The following example shows the same ingredient having two new conversions added (for piece and cup (UK)), and one removed (for btl).

POST /ingredientconversion  HTTP/1.1
Host: instance.example.com
Content-Type: application/xml
Authorization: Basic VXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

<ArrayOfIngredientConversion>
   <IngredientConversion>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRIS201</SupplierCode>
      <UnitCode>piece</UnitCode>
      <Quantity>8</Quantity>
      <Number>1</Number>
   </IngredientConversion>
   <IngredientConversion>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRIS201</SupplierCode>
      <UnitCode>cup (UK)</UnitCode>
      <Quantity>4</Quantity>
      <Number>1.5</Number>
   </IngredientConversion>
   <IngredientConversion>
      <SupplierName>Chris's produce</SupplierName>
      <SupplierCode>CHRIS201</SupplierCode>
      <UnitCode>btl</UnitCode>
      <Quantity></Quantity>
      <Number></Number>
   </IngredientConversion>
</ArrayOfIngredientConversion>

Error messages for ingredientconversion

Error Message	Description
Invalid product.	The combination of Supplier Name value and Supplier Code value does not exist in StarChef.
Supplier Name does not exist in StarChef or Value is missing.	Supplier Name value not provided or does not exist in StarChef.
Supplier Code is mandatory and must be less than 50 characters.	Supplier Code value missing or too long.
Invalid UoM name	UoM UnitCode missing or incorrect. See the Unit of measure (UoM) values and codes table for a list of possible values.
Invalid UoM quantity value.	UoM Quantity value incorrect.
Missing UoM quantity value.	UoM Quantity value is missing.
Invalid UoM number value.	UoM Number value is incorrect.
Missing UoM number value.	UoM Number value is missing.
Duplicate UoM Conversion.	UoM conversion for this particular UoM already exists.
Duplicate UoM Weight. Only one Weight UoM per ingredient is allowed.	Only one Weight UoM per ingredient is allowed.
Duplicate UoM Volume. Only one Volume UoM per ingredient is allowed.	Only one Volume UoM per ingredient is allowed.
Unable to delete non-existent UoM Conversion.	Trying to delete UoM conversion that does not exist.
Unable to delete UoM Conversion. It is used in recipe/menu/alternates.	Trying to delete UoM conversion which is used in another item, remove the usage first.