Connecting to stamps.com - HOW-TO

[HeleneWallis]

I haven't used anything older than v. 1.55, so I don't know whether the following will work for older systems or not. Sorry this is long. Feel free to skip anything you don't need. Please note that this refers to the Stamps.com plugin for Zencart, NOT the one located in the Plugins here.

Connecting to stamps.com isn't hard, but everything has to be exactly correct, and their instruction screens don't make everything clear.

1. Go to http://www.stamps.com and sign up for a new account (click on the big red 'Get Started' button).

2. Choose 'Download Stamps.com Software'

3. Follow the three steps on the download page. They're self-explanatory and work as expected.

4. Start the program and log in.

5. Click on 'Batch' (left side column)

6. Click on 'Create A New Data Source' (bottom of screen)

7. In the new window, scroll down to Zencart, highlight it and click on Next

8. Follow the directions on the screen to download the Zencart plugin. Note this this comes from Stamps.com.
(For an updated version that works with PHP 7.2+, see Post #27 here)
It is NOT the stamps.com/shipstation plugin in the files here. Extract the zip file into your preferred directory and copy the three files to your server. They must go in your admin folder. stamps.php goes in the root of your admin folder (along with the list of other php files like customers.php, product.php, etc). The other two files also go in your admin folder in the specified directories.

9. After uploading the files, come back to this screen and fill it in. This is the point where things can get a bit tricky. Enter a nickname for your store if you want. Now look at the next line where you're stupposed to enter the URL for your online store. In nice light gray lettering, it shows 'stamps.php' at the end of the url. How much you want to bet that 99.99% of new users just start typing in their store's address and never see 'stamps.php' at the end of the example? I didn't see it. The URL must contain your store's whole address plus the directory name for your admin folder, plus 'stamps.php.'

My URL, just as an example, was http s://www. newnaturalsonline .com/MY-ADMIN-DIR/stamps.php



10. Fill in the fields for your admin user name and password. This is your ZENCART user name and password, not the one for Stamps.com

11. If you filled in everything correctly, you'll see this screen.



12. Exit from it and you'll see the Profile Options screen. Fill in as much as you need here. Some things can wait until you import your first orders. If anything is missing at that point, the software will alert you and you can fill in those fields then. Look at the second tab, though, that says 'Sender Information." The return address field shold already be filled in from the information you provided when you signed up for your account. If your some reason it isn't filled in, make sure you do it now. If you want to default to always sending an email notification to your customer, check that box. Now click on Done.

13. You'll see the 'Manage Profiles' panel with the store name you chose filled in. If you have used the manual label entry already, you'll see that as a profile also. Don't worry if you don't see it. Highlight your store name and click on Edit.

14. This is the second point at which things can get tricky. The default order statuses that Stamps.com has in its system for Zencart are Pending and Processing. I had already added other order statuses, and with my usual disregard for advice from older wiser heads, lol, I had also changed the order in which they appeared in the list. More about that in a minute. I wanted Stamps.com to pick up 'Packed Partial' and 'Packed Complete.' I got one error message after another.

Here is the secret: the order status descriptions MUST be a single word with no spaces or punctuation. If you are using multi-word order statuses, you will have to change them to a single word. I had to change 'Packed Partial' and 'Packed Complete' to 'PackedPartial' and 'PackedComplete.' Separating the words with a dash or underline or anything else will NOT work. Whatever order statuses you want Stamps.com to pick up, they MUST be in the form of a single word with no punctuation. Then you can add them to the list under 'Status Mapping.' When Stamps.com accepts your order status, click on Save.



15. You'll get a yellow banner across the top, which you may not notice if you've been concentrating on what to enter. Exit from the window.

16. The next screen will ask you to enter the first date for which you want orders to be picked up. That will be the first date for which the order statuses you entered are in use--WITH THIS PROVISION: Stamps.com will only go back two days from the current date. So my backordered customers will require manual entry when the things they're waiting for come in, and so will yours.

17. When you fill in the date for your first orders, if everything worked right, the next screen you see will be full of your customers' names and addresses. More likely, though, you'll see the message that 'There are no new items for My Zencart Store'

18. There are two possibilities here. The first one is that you somehow have managed to have a system date older than the 'LatestRefreshDate' in the Stamps.com directory on your computer. That's the easiest thing to check. If your system date is at least equal to or later than the date of your earliest order, then you will need to force a refresh of the stamps.com 'latest date.'

Hold down the Windows key and press R (to run a program). In the small popup, enter %%app%% and click OK. This will bring up a file explorer window. Scroll down to 'Stamps.com Internet Postage.' Double-click on that, then 'Profiles,' then 'versioned.' You'll see a folder with a seven digit number (which is your account number with stamps.com, by the way). Double-click on that and you'll see something like this:



Right-click on the entry for your web store and choose 'Open with Notepad' or whatever you'd like to edit the file with. Notepad is easiest. Do make sure that Word Wrap is on, or you will introduce a CR-LF character that will prevent the code from working at all. Near the end of the first line, you'll see something like

LastRefreshTimePreviousSession="2016-07-25T16:10:12.093Z"

Remove the date and time info between the quotes. DON'T remove the quotes. Save the file, go back to the Stamps.com software (exit and restart) and try again.

There is a good possibility that this won't make any difference.

If it does not, here is the other most likely scenario. 'Stamps.php' defaults to requring a secure connection. If your store uses that only to connect with your credit card processor, then the software will not be able to access the order file. It won't tell you that, of course. The only message you'll get is that it can't find any new orders. What you have to do is change the code in stamps.php so it defaults to False for a secure connection. Here is the code you have to change. The easiest way is to use your ftp software, edit stamps.php there, and save it back to your server.

On the third line, where you see

define('REQUIRE_SECURE', TRUE);

Change TRUE to FALSE, being careful not to change anything else. Save that and you will probably be successful on the next attempt.

However: don't jump in and try it again right away. Stamps.com has a delay built in to prevent changed files from being executed immediately, probably to slow down hackers. The whole business is horribly insecure, in fact. Wait 15-20 minutes, and you should be successful.

19. Now go back to your order screen and look at the orders that labels were printed for. Hopefully, each one will now say 'Shipped.' If you edit any given order, you'll see a new line in the order status list that says 'Shipped via stamps.com,' etc. with the tracking number filled in.

HOWEVER: if you got cute with changing order statuses, you will see whichever order status is in the third position in your list, regardless of what it is. I turned out to have 'Delivered' in that position, and I called stamps.com in great indignation demanding to know why they had said my orders were delivered when my mail lady had only just driven away with them.

They insisted, of course, that their system returned 'Shipped,' not 'Delivered.' Well, sort of. What their system returns is a '3.' The default order status list for Zencart is Pending, Processing and Shipped. Stamps.php picks up whatever is in the third position in the list. If you have changed that, you are going to see whatever you put in that position. You might want to fix that first before trying your first batch of labels.

21. If you have gone through all of this and are still having problems, call their Tech Support(855-782-6734). The people I talked to were patient and knowledgable. If you don't understand one or more of the steps I've outlined here, feel free to send me a private message. I'll do my best to help.

[DrByte]

Thanks for posting this!