Effective 1 April 2025, we are launching a significant update to the ZDHC Gateway Chemical Module, designed to streamline chemical product upload and verification processes. It will reimagine workflows for all stakeholders.

Recognising the need for increased efficiency and improved user experience, we’ve developed APIs to enable seamless communication between the Gateway and ZDHC Approved MRSL Certifiers’ databases. This automation eliminates manual verification, leading to:

• Faster verification and publication of ZDHC MRSL conformant chemical products.
• Improved data accuracy.

Please refer to the step-by-step guide below or check out our FAQs for a more detailed understanding of the new process. 

01/ APIs Implementation

This guide outlines the process for ZDHC Approved MRSL Certifiers to integrate their certification data with the ZDHC Gateway using our newly developed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These APIs enable direct, automated communication between your databases and the Gateway, streamlining the verification process and significantly reducing manual workload.

Key Functionality:

• Automated Certification Integration: Directly post certification details into the formulator's products, bypassing manual workload within the ZDHC Gateway.
• Auto-Verification: Receive email notifications upon successful POST processing.
• Real-time Notifications: API operations occur in the background, with updates delivered via email and bell notifications within the ZDHC Gateway.
• Monthly Summary Reports: Obtain detailed monthly reports for each certification standard per formulator.
• Enhanced Data Integrity: Ensure accurate and consistent certification data within the ZDHC Gateway.

To begin utilizing the ZDHC Gateway APIs, please follow these steps:

1. 1. Review Technical Documentation: Refer to our comprehensive technical documentation, which provides a high-level overview of the API functionality and detailed specifications for each API's requirements and responses. We recommend sharing this documentation with your technical team or IT expert for thorough review and assessment.
   2. Contact ZDHC Customer Support: If your organisation decides to proceed with API integration, please reach out to the ZDHC Customer Support Team. In your request, please provide:
      • Your Organisation Name.
      • Your ZDHC Account ID (AID).
      • A specification of whether you would like to use an existing account or create a new dedicated user account for the user key.
      • A request for your individual authentication and user keys.

Important Notes: API operations occur in the background, with updates delivered via email and bell notifications within the ZDHC Gateway. To check the status of added certification details, please refer to 03/ Certification Status Notifications. For certifiers requiring a transition period to implement APIs, a manual data upload process is available (please refer to the step-by-step guide under section 02/ Manual Bulk Upload.

02/ Manual Bulk Upload

For ZDHC Approved MRSL Certifiers that cannot use APIs, we created a new manual process on the ZDHC Gateway, complete with a user-friendly Excel template for data uploads. Please note: this is meant as a temporary solution until a certifier can transition to using the APIs.

Please follow the steps below to submit certification details using the Bulk Upload process on the ZDHC Gateway.

1. Upon logging into the ZDHC Gateway, click Verification on the left navigation bar and select Bulk Upload to open a simple 3-step process.
2. Begin by entering a formulator's ZDHC AID. A formulator's Organisation Name will automatically appear next to it.
   
3. Next, click Download Bulk Upload Template under step 2 and save the file.

4. Open the downloaded Excel file. Review the instructions on the Instructions tab and switch to the Template tab to fill out the certification details for the selected formulator.

5. Update or renewal of existing certification details: You will find that the file is pre-populated with product details you previously certified for the given formulator. Please note: the certification details that expired or are about to expire are highlighted in red. To update, simply adjust the needed details (e.g. Expiration Date) and save the file.  Entering new certification details: Make sure that the formulator provides you with the new product's name and (optional but strongly recommended) Product ID (PID). Please note: For this process to work, the product must first be created on the ZDHC Gateway by the formulator. Once you have the product details, fill out the template and save the file. Refer to the Instructions tab of the file in case you have any doubts. Important: one file can only be filled out for one formulator.
6. Please come back to your 3-step process on ZDHC Gateway and upload the filled-out template Excel file under step 3, either by dragging the file into the relevant box or by clicking Choose a file. Please note: you may use one file for one formulator and select up to 5 files within one upload (hence, up to 5 formulators per upload). Repeat the previous steps if you would like to upload certification details for more than one formulator.
7. In case of a large amount of data, the platform will show the message in yellow while the data is being processed: "Please stay on this page until the validation is complete". Once the green message "Validation complete" appears on the page, the upload process is done. In case of an error, a file you uploaded will be highlighted in red, with an opportunity to Download file to see error details. Upon downloading, you will find the exact error mentioned under column M "Error Encountered" in the same row as in the incorrectly entered details. Once adjusted, you can re-upload the correct file.
8. And that's it! You will receive notifications regarding the certification details updated. The formulator will be notified as well. In case you would like to update details for more than 5 formulators, click on New Bulk Upload and repeat the previous steps.

03/ Certification Status Notifications

As you push new certification details and update existing ones, ZDHC Gateway will notify you of any updates via the bell notifications, and email notifications and provide a summary in a monthly report. There are two types of Certification Status notifications: 

1. ZDHC MRSL Certification Posted For Acceptance:  You will receive this notification after posting completely new certification details that now require acceptance from the formulator.        By clicking on this bell/email notification, you will be taken to the Certification Status page, Auto tab, sorted by Awaiting Formulator status.
2. ZDHC MRSL Certification Processing Complete: You will receive this notification after posting an update to existing certification details or after the formulator accepts or declines the new certification details you posted earlier.                                                                                                                                     By clicking on this bell/email notification, you will be taken to the Certification Status page, Auto tab, sorted by Modified, Accepted by Formulator and Declined by Formulator statuses. Please note: these overviews are for your reference and do not require any additional actions from your side.