Stamps.com integration - Couple small bugs need addressing

[badarac]

Currently, we post back information to Zen Cart at which point merchants can send emails from Zen Cart.

Actually unless I've missed it, ZC does not have the functionality to send an order shipped e-mail to the customer without a change of status. The only way to do it would be to change it from the shipped or the delivered status which is set when stamps adds tracking info to the comments. It would seem to be a better solution to have stamps trigger the e-mail at the time they add the tracking number.

[RixStix]

RixStix,

For each order we import and post back information for, there can be back and forth communication resulting in multiple calls to your server. Are you seeing this type of traffic during periods when you do not have orders that are imported or shipment info that is being posted back? Is this traffic typical, or does it occur only when you have a number of orders?

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

Hi Chuck. TNX for being involved.

This appears to be typical. I just checked and the latest call list was over 6 dozen calls for only 4 orders that had not been previously downloaded.

Also, on an unsecure connection there is quite a bit of data being requested that is not necessary for printing postage in addition to the 56 digit Access Token being transmitted in each of those calls. I don't understand the need for a 56 digit password when you transmit it on an unencrypted connection. Sorry, that's just the skeptic in me asking the question.

[StampsCom]

Well I was hoping for something a little more specific than that. What are they testing for? The USPS delivery method name? The value of a DB variable? What values are they expecting for Zen Cart? How can I check my install to see if me settings are what is expected?

As it stands now orders import in batch mode. For each order I must select the shipping method (which I must to each order in Zen Cart to find), adjust the weight of the package since that doesn't seem to come across either, and then print the labels.

The order is then updated in the comments with the tracking info and an e-mail is sent from stamps.com to the customer with tracking info. Even though I have a package tracking add-on installed I cannot add a trackable link to the order so my customers can login and track their order. There is also no order shipped e-mail sent from Zen Cart to my customer.

All in all a pretty sloppy implementation which is just moderately better than cut and paste. I don't mean to be harsh but the settings file that we have to update for the order status could be used to map the other settings which you expect to be defaults At the very least if I knew what may have been modified I could make a decision if I want to set things back to defaults or live with the batch processing the way it is.

I appreciate your participation here but you really need to give your programmers a little whack for us.

I've been looking into this with our technical team. Here are some more specifics on importing shipping methods to Stamps.com.

When integrating your ZenCart shopping cart with Stamps.com, your shipping modules should use the following mail classes in order to be imported correctly. The documentation provided with your shipping modules should contain information on how to edit these choices. Note: You can present these to your customer in any format, so long as this exact syntax is what gets stored in the ‘shipping_method’ column of your orders table.

USPS First Class
USPS Priority
USPS Media Mail
USPS Parcel Post
USPS Express
USPS Bound Printed Matter
USPS Library Mail
USPS Intl Express
USPS Intl Priority
USPS Intl First Class


The default shipping methods provided by ZenCart are defined in the following four files in the directory below. For additional information on editing these files, we recommend that you consult ZenCart’s documentation or contact their support team.

<zencart_root>\includes\languages\english\modules\shipping\

flat.php
item.php
perweightunit.php
table.php


Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

[RixStix]

Chuck,

I'm not sure that I follow the logic. I use ZenCart without any shipping mods. I assume that since ZenCart sends USPS PRIORITY MAIL as the shipmethod, that S.com logic is supposed to use USPS Priority instead of FirstClass. There seems to be a bug if that is the case.

Data requested by Stamps.com (1st few lines) Notice Ship Method

<ShipmentOrders>
−
<ShipmentOrder>
<OrderDate>2010-10-18T21:25:22Z</OrderDate>
<ItemsTotal>50.89</ItemsTotal>
<Total>58.01</Total>
<ShippingChargesPaid>7.12</ShippingChargesPaid>
−
<ShipMethod>
United States Postal Service (Priority Mail (2 - 3 days))
</ShipMethod>

Entered into Stamps.com application from the data downloaded

Postage cost $1.42
Mailpiece: Package
Mail Class: FIRST CLASS MAIL

[StampsCom]

Rick,

It looks like the ship method that is being passed is "United States Postal Service (Priority Mail (2 - 3 days))". The syntax recognized by Stamps.com is "USPS Priority". Because "United States Postal Service (Priority Mail (2 - 3 days))" is being passed, Stamps.com is defaulting to First-Class Mail.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

[RixStix]

Hi Chuck,

Since I don't believe that I've made changes to zen default code, maybe it would be better for Stamps.com to pull the default zencart codes. or provide the necessary override files.

TNX
Rick

[nohart]

I appreciate your feedback regarding the ability to have emails generated from your Zen Cart store and I've passed this on to our product development team to investigate whether or not it is feasible to have our software initiate email sent through Zen Cart. Currently, we post back information to Zen Cart at which point merchants can send emails from Zen Cart. As an option to merchants, Stamps.com can send out emails to your customers.

Based on your comments in this thread, we will investigate a solution which will have Stamps.com prompt Zen Cart to send the email.

Thanks so much Chuck for your prompt attention. I really appreciate it! Also thanks for the info about cc the email and allowing us to customize to a certain extent the Subject and From info. Looking forward to further options as this is turning out to be a great shipping module/Add on!

[badarac]

Hi Chuck,

Since I don't believe that I've made changes to zen default code, maybe it would be better for Stamps.com to pull the default zencart codes. or provide the necessary override files.

Same here. I'm using the unmodified USPS shipping module in ZC and it passes the same the same text for the shipping method. I agree that modifying stamps is a better solution than having every ZC user overide the shipped code. I still think adding this stuff to the settings file or some mappings in the db that are retained is the best way to go.

[StampsCom]

Same here. I'm using the unmodified USPS shipping module in ZC and it passes the same the same text for the shipping method. I agree that modifying stamps is a better solution than having every ZC user overide the shipped code. I still think adding this stuff to the settings file or some mappings in the db that are retained is the best way to go.

Thank you for the feedback.

Our development team is investigating a solution to simplify shipping method imports.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

[roberttimmons]

I am still getting too many failed jobs error.. any idea?