Stamps.com integration - Couple small bugs need addressing

StampsCom:

Robert,

I am glad to hear that you've implemented the integration. Hopefully I can help with the issues you've reported.

Filtering out UPS orders - at this time, we do not filter out any orders. I have passed your request along to our product team.

Importing shipping method - it is possible to import the ship method. In order to accomplish this, you need to use the correct syntax for Stamps.com to recognize the imported ship method. I am looking into the specifics of this syntax and will post a response once I have it.

You can toggle on/off emails and hidden postage under Profile Options:

To access profile options, click Batch>Manage>Edit>Close the Web Store setup and there should be a "Profile Options" dialog box. Here you can select "Hidden Postage Amount".

Please let me know if changing these settings does not correct the issues you have had with hidden postage or email notifications.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to me let me know.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

Thanks for the reply.

We where able to hide the postage with the above setting. He also checked the box to enable the email notifications. The tracking info is still posting back to the zen cart order status. But its still showing the big red x under Customer was notified. My shipping manager thinks that the email customer option may be for stamps.com to email the customer directly with the tracking info? Which would be fine if the import captured the email address? But I am not sure that it does? Unfortunately I am unable to work directly with the stamps.com software because I am 200 miles away from our shipping warehouse. I just have access to the server side. But My shipping manager is savvy enough to figure out the end user side. I have a feeling there is a flag somewhere in the code we need to enable to make zen cart notify the customer when its been shipped. I just have to find out where it is.

I look forward to the updates regarding postage selection importing and UPS filtering. He said he is able to uncheck the UPS orders but there have been times one slips through accidentally but he is able to get a refund for the postage.

Robert,

Stamps.com is capable of sending out notification emails to recipients. But you are correct, you would need to import email address in order to accomplish this.

When the data is imported, do you not see the email address field populated?

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

StampsCom:

Robert,

I am glad to hear that you've implemented the integration. Hopefully I can help with the issues you've reported.

Filtering out UPS orders - at this time, we do not filter out any orders. I have passed your request along to our product team.

Importing shipping method - it is possible to import the ship method. In order to accomplish this, you need to use the correct syntax for Stamps.com to recognize the imported ship method. I am looking into the specifics of this syntax and will post a response once I have it.

You can toggle on/off emails and hidden postage under Profile Options:

To access profile options, click Batch>Manage>Edit>Close the Web Store setup and there should be a "Profile Options" dialog box. Here you can select "Hidden Postage Amount".

Please let me know if changing these settings does not correct the issues you have had with hidden postage or email notifications.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to me let me know.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

I have this configured and working but have a couple issues. First, what is the correct syntax to import the shipping method? I too have the problem of needing to go into every order and select the shipping method the customer selected.
Next I have the ty_package_tracker_for_x_2-3a add-on installed. This gives my customer the ability to track shipping from their logged in account. You post the tracking number to the order comments but it's not clickable and the field in the DB that the tracking mod uses is not populated. If I try and add the tracking info for the order it says no modifications are found and gives an error. Having a couple items in the settings for the code to use to map the shipping methods to the required syntax and to specify the field in the DB to hold the tracking number would be wonderful. Right now this is as much work as doing a cut and paste for each order.

badarac,

First off, thank you for the feedback. I have passed your request regarding package_tracker along to our product development team.

Regarding the syntax, I am working with our technical team to obtain the syntax for shipping method imports and hope to have this information soon. As soon as I have this information, I will be sure to update.

Is there anything else that I can help you with?

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

was working pretty decent until a couple of days ago. then out of the blue he started getting this error and it no longer connects to the webstore..

This webstore misbehaved and was disabled. Reason:AuthenticationError

Edit

I downloaded the latest version and uploaded it to the webstore and its working again.

stamps says there is a current php plugin zip(v1.0.0.38690) the one that is in the system is 1.0.0.37782

Darn,

They forced me to install what was the current version of 1.0.0.38666 on Monday because last Friday's version 1.0.0.38600 caused them to disable my account. AND NOW, on Wednesday, the current version is 1.0.0.38690 ???

Most of the time there is no difference in the versions other than the version number itself. The Stamps.com programmers say that even though WinMerge indicates no changes other than version number that there are in-fact changes to the files and that WinMerge is not a valid utility to check for differences.

well I will tell you this.. On the zsettings file I changed nothing but the version number on the top of the php file. The other 3 files I replaced w the new files.. And it is indeed working

TNX Robert

That's what I'll start doing too. It seems a bit much to release new versions that have no changes on a daily basis.

StampsCom:

badarac,
Regarding the syntax, I am working with our technical team to obtain the syntax for shipping method imports and hope to have this information soon. As soon as I have this information, I will be sure to update.

Is there anything else that I can help you with?

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

Any update on the syntax question?

I just added first class mail as an option and have uncovered a problem. I imported an order and in batch mode it added a 19 cent charge to the rate for delivery confirmation. Using the manual mode to calculate shipping (packages - thick envelope 8oz) to the same address did not add that fee. The USPS rate calculator also did not add this on the website. In batch mode adding a manual entry first class is not even selectable regardless of weight.

I installed the plugin last week and I've processed orders since then without incident. Today I download one order, clicked on it to edit it and received the following message.

This webstore misbehaved and was disabled. Reason: Too many failed jobs.

It seems to be "permanently" disabled with no information on rectifying the situation....sometimes I really hate programmers, they just don't get the big picture...sorry programmers(I was one once too). Actually I don't blame the programmers, I blame the project managers for letting arcane error messages like this make it through to published software.

Sorry for the rant, but I have not been able to do anything to get this working again. I have tried to download new orders and I get the same message. I tried installing the latest version of the plug-in(had the one from 9/27 installed and now installed the latest from 9/29) and it had no effect.

BTW, I too am having the first class issues mentioned by badarac. I also agree that if you're going to pass back the tracking info it should be placed into the comments field and the e-mail should be sent from the ZenCart system. I'm still not clear from this thread if the e-mails are being generated from stamps.com directly, or if they're supposed to be sending from Zen Cart. If they're coming from stamps.com, there's no indication whether they were really sent. I too need for the program to properly set the shipping class so this doesn't have to be done manually.

Also, when you download new orders why does there have to be a delay between when an order is in Zen Cart and marked processing and when it will download into the stamps.com software. The delay is really a problem. If an order has been placed by our shipping cutoff time, then we need to have those orders download when we process right after the cutoff.

I hope you guys get the bugs worked out on this soon as it really is a nice integration and generally works well and is a real time saver. Thanks.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Re: disabled account
Try this. Go to the "Manage" section of the plug in. Disabled accounts usually have a RED "Enable" button in the upper right corner of the screen where you enter the Access Token.

That happened to me last weekend after they had the Stamps.com site down for updates. This weekend's update gives me a "You have the wrong domain name entered" error.

Re: 2 hour time delay. The development team told me that was a hardcoded business decision by Stamps.com & was not going to be changed. Like you, the expected behavior when I click the "Refresh" button is a Refresh, RIGHT NOW.

RixStix:

Hi Bill,

Re: disabled account
Try this. Go to the "Manage" section of the plug in. Disabled accounts usually have a RED "Enable" button in the upper right corner of the screen where you enter the Access Token.

Thanks for the lead Rick. The enable button was active, but unfortunately when I clicked it I got the same error back and it remained disabled, and the enable button is gone now. Clicking on System Info I did get a little more information though. It lists the same error as before but it says "Can't access Order Total module" below it, which gives me a little more info, but still doesn't make any sense. I've made no changes to my store that would have caused this.

ERROR: This webstore misbehaved and was disabled. Reason: TooManyFailedJobs. (10/3/2010 4:36:44 AM)
Can't access Order Total module

RixStix:

Re: 2 hour time delay. The development team told me that was a hardcoded business decision by Stamps.com & was not going to be changed. Like you, the expected behavior when I click the "Refresh" button is a Refresh, RIGHT NOW

I wonder what the heck the thinking is with that? It's totally contrary to the whole point of doing business on the Web. If they aren't going to change that behavior, that alone may be enough that I have to find another solution for printing USPS postage.

Thanks again for the help.

Bill

Bill,

Last weekend when I got that error, the final fix was to install the latest version of the app because the last update I had gotten one file out of sync. It's a pain to have to edit the same file every time they update which is almost daily. I had one file with one version number and the rest with a different verison # and had forgotten to copy/paste the Access Token and edit the admin folder name in 2 places. Grumpy me found that out while talking to support which only works banker's hours.

I also expected orders manually labeled as PRINTED to be updated back to the ZenCart database as Delivered. Tier2 says that's the expected behavior. 4 weeks later the Dev Team has yet to respond.

RixStix:

...final fix was to install the latest version of the app because the last update I had gotten one file out of sync.

I tried updating to the latest version but without any change.

RixStix:

It's a pain to have to edit the same file every time they update which is almost daily.

No kidding, but at least that means they're working on it.

RixStix:

....edit the admin folder name in 2 places.

Two places???? I was only aware of the one in the settings file.

Unable to download orders from https://www.mysite.com/ShippingZZencart.php. ERROR: <strong>Error Type:</strong> 8<br><strong>File:</strong> /home/html/ShippingZZencart.php<br><strong>Line:</strong> 236<br><br><strong>Message:</strong> Undefined variable: shipping_charges<br><br><strong>Trace:</strong>   &nbsp... 

The basic error has not changed, but the detail in system info has changed now to the above.

I have found the place in the code where the error is being thrown, but it's still not obvious what is failing.

Bill

edit Admin folder name: 1 line, 2 places though 1 may be a comment

RixStix:

edit Admin folder name: 1 line, 2 places though 1 may be a comment

Yep, one's just a comment. It only has to be edited in the one place.

FYI, my problem has been escalated to level 2 support(developers). I'll report back here when they provide a solution.

badarac:

Any update on the syntax question?

I just added first class mail as an option and have uncovered a problem. I imported an order and in batch mode it added a 19 cent charge to the rate for delivery confirmation. Using the manual mode to calculate shipping (packages - thick envelope 8oz) to the same address did not add that fee. The USPS rate calculator also did not add this on the website. In batch mode adding a manual entry first class is not even selectable regardless of weight.

Unfortunately, still no word on the syntax; we should have an answer soon. Thank you for your patience while we work this out.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

RixStix:

The Stamps.com programmers say that even though WinMerge indicates no changes other than version number that there are in-fact changes to the files and that WinMerge is not a valid utility to check for differences.ROFL. Make them elaborate on that. Sounds like a smokescreen to me. ie: passing the buck