Postal Address Verification

[andyhewitson]

Hi

 

I've scoured the contribs and forum for anything that uses the USPS address verification webtools service. Ensuring the validity of a destination address has got to be high up the on the agenda of priorities - shipping to an incorrect address costs in postal fees, support effort, and devalues quality of service.

 

I'm setting up osCommerce for a real business, and postal address verification is a non-negotiable requirement. I'd rather not have to write it. If anyone knows of a module that performs USPS address verification, or perhaps uses another address verification service, please let me know.

 

Thanks in advance

[magicproshop]

Most Postal software programs will verfy and validate shipping addresses. Dazzle by Endicia http://endicia.com/ is what we us and it works very well.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Take care

[tonymazz]

How are you (if you are) linking into the osCommerce database? I am trying to do an import into Dazzle, but not having any luck.

[kingbono]

UPS told me that offer that tool and will help me integrate when we are ready.

[goldencrown]

Hi

 

I've scoured the contribs and forum for anything that uses the USPS address verification webtools service. Ensuring the validity of a destination address has got to be high up the on the agenda of priorities - shipping to an incorrect address costs in postal fees, support effort, and devalues quality of service.

 

I'm setting up osCommerce for a real business, and postal address verification is a non-negotiable requirement.  I'd rather not have to write it.  If anyone knows of a module that performs USPS address verification, or perhaps uses another address verification service, please let me know.

 

Thanks in advance

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

here is some code that may help.done by a guy named tim..

 

<?

// Initialize the returned USPS address

$usps_address = array();

 

// These functions handle the XML tags

// use this to keep track of which tag the parser is currently processing

$currentTag = "";

 

function startElement($parser, $name, $attrs) {

global $currentTag;

$currentTag = $name;

}

 

function endElement($parser, $name) {

global $currentTag;

// clear current tag variable

$currentTag = "";

}

 

// process data between tags

function characterData($parser, $data) {

 

global $currentTag;

global $usps_address;

 

switch ($currentTag) {

case "Address1":

$usps_address['address1'] = $data;

break;

case "Address2":

$usps_address['address2'] = $data;

break;

case "City":

$usps_address['city'] = $data;

break;

case "State":

$usps_address['state'] = $data;

break;

case "Zip5":

$usps_address['zip5'] = $data;

break;

case "Zip4":

$usps_address['zip4'] = $data;

break;

case "Description":

$usps_address['error'] = $data;

break;

default:

break;

}

}

 

// Open a socket connection the USPS site

// Change production to testing for, you know, testing purposes

$fp = @fsockopen("production.shippingapis.com", 80, &$errno, &$errstr, 300);

 

// If the connection is successful then set up the variables for the URL

if($fp) {

$address1 = rawurlencode($HTTP_POST_VARS["address2"]);

$address2 = rawurlencode($HTTP_POST_VARS["address1"]);

$city = rawurlencode($HTTP_POST_VARS["city"]);

$state = $HTTP_POST_VARS["state"];

$zip = rawurlencode($HTTP_POST_VARS["zip"]);

 

// Testing URL

/*$url = "http://testing.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPITest.dll?API=Verify&XML=<AddressValidateRequest%20USERID=\"*********\"%20PASSWORD=\"*********\"><Address%20ID=\"3\"><Address1>" . $address1 . "</Address1><Address2>" . $address2 . "</Address2><City>" . $city . "</City><State>" . $state . "</State><Zip5>" . $zip . "</Zip5><Zip4></Zip4></Address></AddressValidateRequest>";*/

 

// Production URL

$url = "http://production.shippingapis.com/ShippingAPI.dll?API=Verify&XML=<AddressValidateRequest%20USERID=\"*********\"%20PASSWORD=\"**********\"><Address%20ID=\"0\"><Address1>" . $address1 . "</Address1><Address2>" . $address2 . "</Address2><City>" . $city . "</City><State>" . $state . "</State><Zip5>" . $zip . "</Zip5><Zip4></Zip4></Address></AddressValidateRequest>";

 

// Get the URL

fputs($fp, "GET " . $url . " HTTP/1.0\n\n");

 

while(!feof($fp)) {

$result = fgets($fp,500);

$body .= $result;

}

 

// cut out the header

$body = substr($body, strpos($body, "<?xml"));

 

// initialize parser

$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();

 

// set callback functions

xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");

xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "characterData");

xml_parser_set_option($xml_parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, FALSE);

 

// parse the xml

xml_parse($xml_parser, $body, feof($fp));

 

// clean up

xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

 

// handle any erros from USPS

if(isset($usps_address["error"]))

if ($usps_address["error"] == "That State is not valid.")

$errors["state"] = "USPS error - State is not valid";

elseif ($usps_address["error"] == "That is not a valid city.")

$errors["city"] = "USPS error - City is not valid";

else

$errors["address1"] = "That address could not be found";

// If an address is returned then put it into the formvars like I want it.

elseif(isset($usps_address["address1"]) ?? isset($usps_address["address2"])) {

foreach ($usps_address as $key => $value)

$usps_address[$key] = ucwords(strtolower($value));

$formvars["address1"] = $usps_address["address2"];

$formvars["address2"] = $usps_address["address1"];

$formvars["city"] = $usps_address["city"];

$formvars["state"] = strtoupper($usps_address["state"]);

$formvars["zip"] = $usps_address["zip5"] . "-" . $usps_address["zip4"];

}

}

?>