USPS Shipping Module [Support Thread]

[swguy]

There's a ALTER TABLE in the check() method that's going to cause problems for Advanced Shipper users. Would suggest removing it and just adding a note in the install instructions for users of 1.5.4 or below to run this step manually.

[lat9]

... or add a note to the instructions to let the Advanced Shipper users know that they need to remove the SQL statement prior to install.

I'm guessing that the previous post has to do with this (https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread....hipping-issues) posting.

[swguy]

Correct, although I don't know for a fact that he uses Advanced Shipper, just that he has some other weirdness going on with that field.

The advanced shipper installations I have seen recently use "text" as their datatype.

I think just removing this code (which won't be required for newer installations) would be the better move. People shouldn't be installing new plugins on Zen Cart 1.5.4 and expecting good things.

[njcyx]

I just noticed the following news regarding the USPS rate change in July 2023:

https://savepostage.com/july23-rate-increase.html

Other than the periodical rate update/increase, there is a product name and max limit change for the first-class...

"First Class Package Service Retail and USPS Retail Ground have been combined and renamed USPS Ground Advantage Retail"

[lat9]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[lat9]

I just noticed the following news regarding the USPS rate change in July 2023:

https://savepostage.com/july23-rate-increase.html

Other than the periodical rate update/increase, there is a product name and max limit change for the first-class...

"First Class Package Service Retail and USPS Retail Ground have been combined and renamed USPS Ground Advantage Retail"

FWIW, I've been testing on the USPS development servers and see no such name changes in those methods.

I've got the basis of a K11i change currently captured on GitHub (https://github.com/lat9/usps, mostly additional notifications) and will wait until next weekend to release ... just in case USPS decides to actually change those methods' names.

[lat9]

I've created a tracking issue (https://github.com/lat9/usps/issues/38) on GitHub to reflect updates associated with the USPS Ground Advantage shipping method's introduction.

As of today, the USPS test server still doesn't return quotes for the new USPS Ground Advantage shipping method. Until that time, USPS says that they'll be returning USPS Ground Advantage rates for all First Class and Retail Ground quote requests. As such, I'll hold off with the K11i release of the shipping module until such time that USPS starts recognizing that shipping 'service'.

Note that the K11i update will result in all "First Class" methods' removal and the "Retail Ground" method's renaming to "Ground Advantage". Since there will no longer be any "First Class" methods, "USPS First Class Filter" setting will be removed.

The K11i update will, due to the available methods' restructuring, require that the USPS shipping module be removed and then re-installed via your admin's Modules :: Shipping tool. This is a heads-up to site owners/maintainers using the USPS shipping module so that you can proactively note the current settings!

[lat9]

Noting also that the "HAZMAT" interface to USPS is also changing, such that the type of hazardous material needs to be identified. See section 2.5.4 of the USPS' 2023 release notes (https://www.usps.com/business/web-to...ease-notes.pdf) for more information.

For the initial K11i release, I'll be commenting that out but providing documentation regarding how a site can inject that into a rate-request via the Zen Cart notify/observer interface.

Any sites currently using that HAZMAT soft-setting (it requires that the products table in your database include a field named products_groundonly), please post here so that I've got a clue as to whether this feature should be resurrected in a future release.