Hearings Package Manager - department-of-veterans-affairs/caseflow GitHub Wiki
Purpose
IDT users would be able to upload their documents to eFolder or outcode decision reviews and also send the documents for mailing during those processes. This will streamline the process of sending the documents to the recipients as opposed to doing it manually. The Address Validation API would be needed to check and validate recipient's address before it gets sent out for mailing to avoid complications and for quicker resolution. We will be using IDT as a pass through to utilize both Lighthouse and Package Manager to handle the process and receive the data back.
Workflow
Uploading and Mailing Document
When an IDT user is uploading documents or outcoding they will be asked if they want to mail it as well and then be prompted to input addresses if yes. Address validation will occur. Lighthouse Address Validation API would then check the address, once IDT sends the recipient info over, if invalid it will then correct the address and proceed with the mailing. It will then get uploaded and then sent to Package Manager API with the needed information to interact with the post office to send to the recipient.
Checking Current Status of Distribution
An IDT User would be able to check the current status of the distribution for the veteran. They will need to make a request for the distribution they want and the status will then be sent back to Caseflow.
Lighthouse API Implementation for Address Validation
When an IDT User requests to mail the document they will be prompted to input the addresses, and these addresses will get sent for validation. We will be using the external Lighthouse API to verify the addresses.
Endpoints
| Type | Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|---|
| POST | /idt/api/v1/addresses/validate | Validating the recipient information |
Process
When uploading a document to efolder as an IDT user there will be an option to upload the document with recipient information for mailing. When recipient information gets inputted, in addition to uploading the document we will also validate the information.
We will be using the endpoint POST idt/api/v1/services/address_validation/v1/validate. This endpoint when it gets called will be processed via the Appeals Controller to call on VaDotGovService with the required params which will then be sent to the Lighthouse API for Address Validation.
See Lighthouse API Implementation for more details
Package Manager API Implementation
Once an address has been validated it can now be handed off over to Package Manager. With the Package Manager API we will use its GET /idt/api/v2/distributions/{distribution_id} endpoint to get the distribution status back
See Package Manager API Implementation for more details
Endpoints
We will be using multiple Package Manager API endpoints to handle the creation/submitting of packages and distributions to the post offices.
| Type | Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|---|
| POST | /package-manager-service/communication-package | Create a communication package |
| POST | /package-manager-service/distribution | Create and submit a distribution |
| GET | /idt/api/v2/distributions/{distribution_id} | Get distribution package |
Documents Table
This will hold information of the documents that have been uploaded
Communication Package Table
This will hold information of the actual packages being sent.
Distribution Table
This will hold information of the recipient that will receive the package.
Destination Table
This will hold information of the destinations that the package will be sent.
