Will Zen-Cart work with the June 17, 2010 changes to the USPS API?

[Danielle]

I have a client who received the following e-mail:

Valued Web Tools Customer;
There are several important changes occurring in the coming months for the Customs Forms and International APIs. Please read the following notice in its entirety.
1. Please reference the June 17, 2010 edition of the USPS Postal Bulletin (http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/pb2010.htm) for a valid index of countries and localities. Effective August 2, 2010, integrators of the following APIs may receive an error response if requests are made to the API with values other than those on the USPS Postal Bulletin list:
- IntlRate
- ExpressMailIntl
- PriorityMailIntl
- FirstClassMailIntl
- CustomsCN22*
- CustomsCN22V2
- CustomsCP72V2*
- CustomsCP72V3
* CustomsCN22 and CustomsCP72V2 are out-dated and will be retired on September 26, 2010 and January 2, 2011, respectively (see below).
2. Effective September 26, 2010, the Customs Form 2976/CN22 API (CustomsCN22) will be retired. Requests made to this API will result in an error response. A new version of the API, CustomsCN22V2, is currently available for use. Detailed technical specifications for this API can be found at http://www.usps.com/webtools/technical.htm under Online Customs Forms.
3. Effective September 26, 2010, the Customs Form 2976/CN22 API (CustomsCN22V2) will undergo several changes. Most significantly, the label image will change in the following ways to satisfy USPS and US Census Bureau regulations:
- A second “Post Office” copy will be added to the bottom portion of the label. This area was blank in the past;
- An “Exemption and Exclusion Legend” box will be added to the label;
- The dimensions of the “Shipping Label” and “Customer Copy” will change slightly relative to each other, though the overall dimensions will remain the same;
- A “Merchandise” checkbox will be added;
- Instructions, certification and Privacy Act text on the second page will be modified.
Changes to the XML schema will be made to enforce several restrictions and add several optional fields. New XML tags will be optional and updated specifications will be published at http://www.usps.com/webtools/technical.htm when the changes are available in the Web Tools production environment:
- <GrossPounds> plus <GrossOunces> cannot exceed 4 pounds, unless addressed to an APO/FPO/DPO or US Possession, Territory or Freely Associated State;
- The sum of <NetPounds> and <NetOunces> values cannot exceed 4 pounds, unless addressed to an APO/FPO/DPO or US Possession, Territory or Freely Associated State;
- The sum of <NetValue> values cannot exceed 400, unless addressed to an APO/FPO/DPO or US Possession, Territory or Freely Associated State;
- An <EELPFC> tag to allow input of an “Exemption and Exclusion Legend” to satisfy US Census Bureau regulations;
- A “MERCHANDISE” enumeration in the <ContentType> tag;
- An optional <ContentTypeOther> tag for use when <ContentType> = “OTHER”
- Up to 5 items in the <ItemDetail> group;
- An optional <HSTariffNumber> tag in the <ItemDetail> group to allow an HS Tariff Number to be input for each of up to 5 items;
- An optional tag to specify Ship Date;
- Changes in the <MailClass> enumerations;
- An optional tag to specify a US Possession, Territory or Freely Associated State destination ZIP Code.
4. Effective January 2, 2011, the Customs Form 2976-A/CP72 API (CustomsCP72V2) will be retired. Requests made to this API will result in an error response. A new version of the API, CustomsCP72V3, is currently available for use. Detailed technical specifications for this API can be found at http://www.usps.com/webtools/technical.htm under Online Customs Forms.
Please contact the USPS Internet Customer Care Center at 1-800-344-7779 or [email protected] with questions.
Thank you,
Web Tools Program Office

Will this cause any issues with the built-in USPS module in Zen-Cart?

Thanks!

[DrByte]

We received the same email today.
As far as I can tell there should be no reason for there to be a problem, as long as you're using Zen Cart v1.3.9a or greater.

[Danielle]

OK, thank you. So will it definitely not work in older versions of Zen-Cart then, or would we have to just wait and see?

[DrByte]

The usps module in versions of Zen Cart older than v1.3.9 won't work today anyway. To do that requires installing an update posted for prior versions, many months ago when usps changed their systems *last* time.

For this, as well as security reasons, and of course numerous bugfixes, you should be keeping your sites upgraded to the latest version.

[Danielle]

Yes, I agree. Thank you, I will pass that information on to my client.

[PeauProductions]

Greetings,

I have been putting this question off for awhile and hopefully this is the right/relevant place and I get a response soon without having to start a new thread.

Basically after the update as this thread op pointed out, my shipping through usps has been fine, except for the Global Express Shipping Method for international orders. I have it selected in the usps shipping module, but it doesn't show up in the options when customers check out.

I have not updated to the newest version of zc (currently on Zen Cart 1.3.8a) yet because it's too much work with all the mods I've done, so I'd just like to know which part of which files to update, because I thought I had read that the update to zc had fixed this issue.

Hopefully I can figure this out soon with your help, thanks.

[Ajeh]

You will want to review the Known Bug Fixes:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82619

as well as the Security Patches and Updates:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131115

which includes the update of USPS ...

NOTE: the current version of Zen Cart on our Home page has all of these and more built into it ...

[PeauProductions]

Just had to change all instances referencing "Global Express Guaranteed" to "Global Express Guaranteed (GXG)" and it works.

Thanks!

[Ajeh]

Thanks for the update that you have this working ...

NOTE: That is already in v1.3.9 ...