USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2 (official support thread)

[DesertCoder]

All,

 

Well, this thread has suffered the ravages of the API update on the 28th... and with 32 current pages, it's a lot to go through.

 

Let me ask this simple question:

 

My store v 2.3.3 with Jetta's module was working fine, then stopped after the API update.

 

What needs to be changed to get this module working as before? Or is this more like major surgery?

 

Any and all info appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

DesertCoder

[Dizzycajun]

@@Dizzycajun

It sounds like you are using the USPS Methods addon. I can only support the USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2 addon here. If you want to try this one, uninstall your module and upload the latest USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2, then overwrite the module file with the one I posted and install from the Admin.

 

Regards

Jim

OK, thanks I'll try this tonight and see how it goes. So I'm assuming that the latest USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2 also includes the XML_5.php file that I was missing previously? That's the only reason that I updated to the USPS methods addon, because I didn't have that file. --. Is the latest version from Feb 2012? That's all I can find and I installed my previous version in the beginning of June 2013 which worked fine - so I must have had the most recent version working already? Then why did I get the xml_5.php error?

Edited July 31, 2013 by Dizzycajun

[♥kymation]

@@Bwfci

This module appears to be working except for the First Class options. Those are failing because the USPS server is not returning the values that USPS says it does. I'm working on a fix for that. You can install now or wait until the dust has settled.

 

There's also someone working on the old USPS Methods module. That has it's own support thread, so you'll have to check in there for progress on that module.

 

@@DesertCoder

See my comments above. You would just need to uninstall in your Admin, then overwrite the module file with the one I posted above and reinstall.

 

Regards

Jim

[♥kymation]

The xml_5.php file is available here as well as a number of addons. It was quite popular until an equivalent was added to PHP. It should not be required to use this addon though.

 

Regards

Jim

[Guest]

@@kymation:

 

After having reinstalled your latest file, I'm getting quotes for all of the shipping services. I'm not seeing any extra being added on for extra services, however.

Really appreciate the hard work. You've saved my bacon.

 

EDIT: Running 2.3.3 with fulluvscents' "Simple Checkout" Mod.

Edited July 31, 2013 by JeffroDH

[Bwfci]

I added the usps.php program file per kymation's instructions and am finally getting some quotes from usps for shipping.

however, the weight is 2 lbs higher than the part that i ma selecting, anyone have ideas why?

sorry for being a noobie -

 

XXXX nevermind, figured out that under configuration / package tare weight - the system is ADDING the

tare weight to the items weight. then adding the "Larger packages - percent increase to the weight to get a final

total shipping weight!

 

cheers

Edited July 31, 2013 by Bwfci

[bkpie]

I am getting rates but lower than they should be. Does not seem to add the insurance and confirmation even though checked. Used to use methods which I could also add the rates manually. I think I will look for the thread kymation talked about

[wkdwich]

@@beemertec

The Show International Regulations bit only works with osC 2.3+. Everything else should work with 2.2*, but I haven't tested it.

 

Regards

Jim

 

Actually it works out of the box on osCmax 2.0.35 also I was pleasantly surprised to see that :)

[wkdwich]

@@bkpie

actually thought the rates were higher than they used to be and I dropped my tare weight a wee bit..

 

Which module are you poking around with now?? I'm now using USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2 w/kymation's update(should be around post 612 here?) and you should be golden I think

[♥kymation]

@@wkdwich

Probably because you have jQuery included. Compatibility with osC forks is not guaranteed, but it's good to know that it does work.

 

Now to get the stupid First Class options to work. And apparently extra services, although those were not supposed to have changed.

 

Regards

Jim

[bkpie]

@@bkpie

actually thought the rates were higher than they used to be and I dropped my tare weight a wee bit..

 

Which module are you poking around with now?? I'm now using USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2 w/kymation's update(should be around post 612 here?) and you should be golden I think

That's the one I am using. Finishing up something now to see if that fixes the rate issue. Just did an order coming from Australia where the rate came in higher for INTL Express than it should. More than likely an error I made somewhere.

[bkpie]

Just had an order come in from a customer and Priorty Mail on this module spit out $8.00. I went ahead and created the label for that order ($155 order) to see the difference. Internet Price for that order was $8.40 and Retail price $8.90 so since I have retail clicked it would be .90 short.

[Dizzycajun]

OK, thanks I'll try this tonight and see how it goes. So I'm assuming that the latest USPS Rate V4, Intl Rate V2 also includes the XML_5.php file that I was missing previously? That's the only reason that I updated to the USPS methods addon, because I didn't have that file. --. Is the latest version from Feb 2012? That's all I can find and I installed my previous version in the beginning of June 2013 which worked fine - so I must have had the most recent version working already? Then why did I get the xml_5.php error?

BWAhahaHAHAhahahaWOOootT!!!!!!!!! It finally worked!! Thanks Jim and everyone involved in this glorious event!! Basically I put in the xml_5.php file above, and the new UPSP beta file. There were a few errors in my module.php and general.php files from the USPS methods 6.1c that I installed, but once I worked through those on that board, I"VE GOT SHIPPING AGAIN, with all the new stuff, very, very nice. Thanks a billion -f I had it I'd send it to ya.

[♥kymation]

@@bkpie

Any differences between your module settings and the USPS label, i.e Insurance or Delivery Confirmation?

 

Regards

Jim

[bkpie]

@@bkpie

Any differences between your module settings and the USPS label, i.e Insurance or Delivery Confirmation?

 

Regards

Jim

I got the label online at click and ship as I usually do and with delivery conf and insurance it would be 8.90 retail.( Online confirmation is actually free) so Online price was $8.40 I have both delivery conf and insurance checked on the module and they definitely add something to the total but that same shipment on the module only came to $8 even. and that included a .20 handling fee. The handling fee is added correctly. Not sure why it would not pull the correct amount.

[♥kymation]

I suspect that it is not adding the additional services correctly. I haven't had time to play with this (too many interruptions) but it's on my list to investigate. You could try turning off the extra services and see if the numbers change.

 

Regards

Jim

[bkpie]

Another thought I had is Priority mail base price is different for different zones or zip codes. Ex. Shipping Al to Hawaii is more than Al to North Carolina. I wonder if it is pulling the correct base price prior to the additional services. I will try and check that when I get time later today.

[krdito]

My husband, who is very knowledgable about PHP and posts here often, and I have spent countless hours since Sunday trying to fix this mess. We have never gotten the service names to show up (despite using the USPS naming nomenclature from their July 2013 web tools release document), have not gotten international or Standard Post to work at all, and can't get the handling charge to work. So, we set up 3 modules for zone rates, one for Standard Post, one for Priority Mail (both domestic and international in one module), and one for Express Mail (again, both domestic and international in one module). It took about an hour to define the prices by weight for each service/zone, but it's all loaded, working fine, each zone has our handling fee, and BEST OF ALL, we do not have to connect to the USPS for it to work! No matter what the USPS does in the future, our zone modules will be unaffected (although we will have to manually increase prices if there is a price increase, but is less than an hour's work and could be covered by upping the handling fee). I remember the USPS website was down for almost 2 weeks several years ago around the holidays, and then their January 2013 changes caused us problem for almost a week, and now this 6 months later.

 

Zone shipping works great and will NEVER be affected by a silly name change by the USPS or any other useless change they implement to make their services less user-friendly.

[♥kennyk]

Try this new usps_beta.php file. Instead of redesigning the contribution to include Letter, Large Envelope, and Parcel as options, I basically reverted back to the original design where they're controlled through thresholds. There are slight database changes, so you will need to:

 

1) write down your current USPS settings

2) uninstall your current module

3) download this attachment

4) rename from usps_beta.php to usps.php

5) upload new file to catalog/includes/modules/shipping

6) re-install module (preferably in a new browser window or after a cleared cache)

7) reapply USPS settings

 

This is an update to the v5.x USPS Methods add-on contribution:

usps_beta.php

 

Time to try kymation's update to the contribution I like at Post #607.

 

This works for both domestic and international quotes. I installed the full package of 5.2.1 and overwrote usps.php with the one mentioned here and I am getting domestic and international quotes again. Thank you for those who contributed to make this version work with the new and unimproved USPS API.

 

SUGGESTION:

Endicia is a 3rd party USPS postage provider we use to save on shipping and make creating postage labels easier. They have an API for quotes. Someone with more expertise and interest could develop a USPS shipping module based on Endicia's API. It would not only allow the quoting but allow much easier label creation at lower postal rates.

[bkpie]

Supposedly I now have a fixed USPS.php module for USPS Methods 5.2 I will be testing it later today. Still researching to find why this module here is coming back with incorrect rates.

[bkpie]

This works for both domestic and international quotes. I installed the full package of 5.2.1 and overwrote usps.php with the one mentioned here and I am getting domestic and international quotes again. Thank you for those who contributed to make this version work with the new and unimproved USPS API.

 

SUGGESTION:

Endicia is a 3rd party USPS postage provider we use to save on shipping and make creating postage labels easier. They have an API for quotes. Someone with more expertise and interest could develop a USPS shipping module based on Endicia's API. It would not only allow the quoting but allow much easier label creation at lower postal rates.

You can also check this file with a compare tool it is a bit different. Of course you would have to rename it.

USPS2.php

[TomB01]

Supposedly I now have a fixed USPS.php module for USPS Methods 5.2 I will be testing it later today. Still researching to find why this module here is coming back with incorrect rates.

Thank you for this. I have to confess that I never bought into the contrib that this topic is based on and continued to use USPS Methods. fulluvscents did excellent work a couple of years ago - along with wkdwich, I might add, in fixing the annual (now semi-annual!!) changes that USPS loved to pull on us. I was immensely grateful for their help. However, when I saw that fulluvscents started this contrib and locked it from revisions from any other people - then disappeared herself, I decided to stay with USPS Methods. Unfortunately, it looks like USPS outdid themselves this time and the talented people like yourself have had trouble fixing this thing in less than a few days. :(

[♥kymation]

The main problem that everyone is having with this is that both addons are trying to key on the service name that USPS returns. Since USPS seems determined to change those names every six months, this is a really bad idea. I think we should be using the CLASSID for each service as those numbers never (or rarely) change. I'm working on a proof-of-concept of an adaptive module that would never need these twice-yearly changes. I suppose I should start a development thread, as this is looking really good.

 

Regards

Jim

[Jayman11]

Here is my working copy of this module. You need to have this module (any version) already installed. Uninstall USPS in your admin, overwrite the existing module file with the one from the linked package, then reinstall in admin.

 

This is a work in process, so expect bugs. The current status is:

• Domestic First Class is broken due to the bug I posted above in the USPS API. There is a workaround in the module that allows you to select First Class and get quotes for First Class Parcel. This is a known problem and will be fixed.
  
• The remainder of the Domestic quotes work as expected.
  
• I have not yet tested International. One person has reported problems with it. Please test this and report your results.
  

If you want to see the request and response, find line 382 in the attached file:

 // mail( STORE_OWNER_EMAIL_ADDRESS, STORE_OWNER, $mail_body );

and uncomment it.

 

Please post your results here.

 

Regards

Jim

 

 

Thanks Jim! This got rid of the  on my domestic and got me back my Intl rates. My only question, is there a way in this module to get rid of it displaying the weights to customers?

[bkpie]

The main problem that everyone is having with this is that both addons are trying to key on the service name that USPS returns. Since USPS seems determined to change those names every six months, this is a really bad idea. I think we should be using the CLASSID for each service as those numbers never (or rarely) change. I'm working on a proof-of-concept of an adaptive module that would never need these twice-yearly changes. I suppose I should start a development thread, as this is looking really good.

 

Regards

Jim

I agree! Both these methods are open to more problems that use way more time to fix than I have. I am thankful for some really good coders out there that help me out. Your idea would be great if it can be done and be able to use it across the multiple versions of Oscommerce or Max.