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Federal Express Real Time Quotes V2.0 Just Uploaded


sfatula

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Ok, it's back. The MS1 version was a fairly good success, but there were lots of installation issues, confusion with Fedex about how to sign up, test server problems with Fedex, and it just wasn't easy to configure. Not that this version is perfect either, but it's a big improvement with a lot more functionality. This V2.0 of the module works with MS2, and MS1, and probably versions earlier than MS1. You can get it here: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1462

 

Improvements include some bug fixes, support for MS2, ability to run cURL outside of PHP, debug option, Fedex error messages displayed instead of canned error message, parms moved to OSC Admin, timeout capability, MUCH easier install, KGS as a weight option, envelope package rating, sorting rates low to high or high to low, transit time for ground shipment, and probably some others I forgot.

 

In a future version I want to add the ability to pick which shipping methods you want to support from the normal OSC Admin shipping modules screen instead of having to edit fedex1.php. I don't have many other ideas as to what else this module could do at this time, most other ideas involve changes to OSC in order to support them. However, if you want to make suggestions, I always listen and other readers do also.

 

Some things I would like to see OSC do, support oversize flag for an item, perhaps a seperate dimensional weight as well which could be considered in rating, ability to flag an item to not be able to be shipped certain ways, support an entire ship from address so those parms can be removed from this module (instead of just a ship from zip code), ask customer for Saturday delivery at checkout, also prompt for COD, a specific prompt for residential or commercial (company name is not good enough), store tracking numbers with links to the respective services web site, and the ability to mark an item for free delivery via ground, 3 day, 2 day, or even overnight.

 

All of these are beyond the scope of this module and what I want to spend time on, though they can all be easily supported if the data was there. How 'bout it OSC guys? These are all things which save us store owners time, and make life so much better for customers as well. Once the engine is there for this, the modules will follow.

 

I may in the future (unless someone else takes it on) add the ability to ship from OSC. i.e., create a shipment just like you might on the Fedex web site, and print a label. But this is down the road a ways, I have a lot of functionality I need to do for my own site first. But it would be a time saver for us store owners. But I ship via USPS and UPS also, so, it would be nice if those also had that functionality too.

 

Anyway, enjoy, and make those suggestions.

Steve

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These are some great improvments you have made to your module Steve and I truely appreciate the time and effort you have put into this.

 

The only problem is that I still cannot get my module to work. I posted this in another thread, but I thought I should repost my question into the Real FedEx Real Time Quotes v2.0 thread:

 

Ok so i'm trying to get v2.0 working and I am getting the following error:

 

Error 9910 : Customer Profile Server database processing error

 

Can anyone tell me what this means?

 

Thanks,

 

Ceres

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Sounds like you are not set up in their database. I would guess you are a new customer? You are going to have to give them a call to get setup.

 

I am pretty sure I am setup in their database. I got their shipping boxes and record keeping book already. My questions is this though: Do i have to go through the process to get into their production server? I read in your readme.txt that it is not necessary to go through that whole process as your module works either way.

 

Maybe my address is being verified wrong? I am doing a dropoff type 5... I am not totally sure if I should be putting the address and postal code of the station which has been designated as our dropoff point, or if I should be putting the information with which we registered our account with Fedex.

 

Thanks,

 

Ceres

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The message comes from the Fedex server, not this module! So, you are not set up in their database. It doesn't matter if you have boxes or anything else from them, if you are not on the rating computer system, it doesn't know you exist. Address has nothing to do with it. The address you enter should be whereever you ship from, doesn't have to match your account.

 

So, please contact Fedex and straighten it out. You didn't reply to what I theorized, are you a relatively new account? If you are, it takes time for all of their systems to be updated.

 

I have yet to find a user that had to sign up for the Fedex ship manager direct, though they said you had to in the past. So, maybe you are the first one, I don't know, but I would recommend contacting your account rep. Tell then your web site is trying to get rates from the Fedex rating server and it gives you the message you noted.

Steve

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Address has nothing to do with it. The address you enter should be whereever you ship from, doesn't have to match your account.

 

So I spent a few minutes on the phone with a very helpful FedEx Web API representative and he ran me through everything that needed to be done. He did say that the address that should be used should be the address that you registered the account with. Spacing and such do matter but capitalization does not. In the end, we found that I did not have the correct store name in my osCommerce module (your store name has to match the name that you registered your FedEx account with). So I guess the lesson is that if anyone else gets this same error message, they should verify that the address, postal/zip code, and company name are the same as what they registered with FedEx. I also did not end up having to go through the full certification process to get this working (and I am located Canada).

 

You didn't reply to what I theorized, are you a relatively new account? If you are, it takes time for all of their systems to be updated.

 

From what the FedEx representative told me, it should take no more than 24 hours for account information to propagate to all of their systems. That might be a little optimistic, but it really should take no more than 3 days (and my account at the time had been registered for 4 days).

 

But now that I have my meter number I am having other issues. For some reason I (like a few other people) am only getting a priority shipping rate even though I have verified that I do indeed have ground shipping enabled on my account. At the very least other shipping rates should be coming up should they not? I verified that I have no other restrictions on my account. Is this a problem on my end or FedEx's end?

 

Thanks for all the help,

 

Ceres

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Getting reliable information out of Fedex is close to impossible. But, I seriously doubt it HAS to match. Maybe the company name does, but last night, I did change my address to another state and it worked just fine.

 

However, I will try and change my company name and see if that works for me.

 

As far as ground shipping goes, it's on their end. I want to explain this so all who read understand this. The module does NOT rate anything. It says to Fedex, please give me all shipping methods from point A to point B. If it doesn't send ground, then the module can't show it to you. But no matter what, it does not request ground rates, it does not do anything to limit what comes back from Fedex.

 

Also, everyone who reads this, please keep in mind Fedex ground is NOT Fedex home delivery. Some accounts may ship ground, but not Home Delivery. Of course, if you comment out ground in fedex1.php, it won't show ground.

 

If it turns out that the store name has to match, I will be sure and add it to the next versions README file. That would be useful to know, I know mine DOES match. The documentation from Fedex says absolutely nothing about this.

 

If you really want to see what is coming back from Fedex, briefly (the key word is brifely) turn on debugging in the Admin modules config screen. Then, buy something and get a rate quote. On your screen is a bunch of stuff that came back from Fedex. Copy and paste that and email to [email protected] and do not forget to turn off debug mode!

 

Do not post it here, it contains your account number and other useful info (to other people)!

 

Hopefully, we can find out why you are not getting ground rates, but I suspect there is a 99.9% chance it's Fedex end.

Steve

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You are not getting what you call ground rates as you do not have home delivery on your account. Fedex has TWO DIFFERENT SERVICES, ground is only for business to business, home delivery is for residential deliveries. You can have one without the other, and many people do. So, if you want to quote residential rates, you'll have to get home delivery added to your Fedex account.

 

Secondly, regarding the name, address, etc. on an account. I eliminated my METER number, set it back to none, and changed the owner, store name, address, and phone number to another state and company. Only thing the same was of course our Fedex account number. No error was received, quoting worked perfectly from the new state and location. So, at least for our account, no error checking was done by Fedex. It is odd that you say you corrected some of your information, and then you got rid of the error message. I have no explnanation as I am not privy to Fedex source code. My GUESS would be for the same reason when you call up the phone company, they tell you nothing is wrong, and then 5 minutes later, all works again. Now how can that be? This used to happen at a previous place I worked about 10 times a year. 10 for 10 is started working right after they told us nothing was wrong.

 

I did confirm with a Fedex insider today that you do not ever have to register to use the rating product. So, for all the old users who did, no problem, but all accounts are found on the production server.

Steve

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How do fedex know if the address is for home or business??

 

I'm getting home delivery

 

and i'm not showing any ground shipping??

 

do i have to enter a valid buisness adresss in order for the ground shipping to comes out??

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Fedex doesn't know. OSC doesn't provide that ability, therefore, we guess based on whether or not the customer enters a company name. If no company name is entered, then it's a residence.

 

Actually, there is no way YOU know either, unless you personally have visited the destination site. Fedex has definitions for each on their web site.

Steve

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Now i understand now..

 

So if a user create an account and don't enter his Companay Name. Its automatically calculate it as a RESIDENTIAL. and if they enter their company name then its GROUND SHIPPING..

 

thanks. this clearly explain it..

 

And.. what about setting the shipping percentage higher. like 30% higher then what fedex charges..

 

how?

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Secondly, regarding the name, address, etc. on an account. I eliminated my METER number, set it back to none, and changed the owner, store name, address, and phone number to another state and company. Only thing the same was of course our Fedex account number.

 

Well, just to be sure that this wasn't like the phenomenon that you mentioned about the phone companies, I reset my meter number to none and changed the name of my store. Error 9910 showed up again immediately upon testing. I then changed the store name back to the proper one, and it worked again with no error. I guess it is possible that this is an isolated incident specific to my account, but I know for a fact that the store name matters at least in some cases. Maybe this has something to do with me starting my account on the road to being certified and then stopping before I get fully certified on my account? I was put onto the test server and I never bothered to go through the whole procedure to get onto the production server before using it with v2.0 of the FedEx module.

 

Later,

 

Ceres

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Ceres, not saying you are imagining it. I can't explain why, I can change mine to overseas even and it works. There is nothing with Fedex to sign up for, you do not have to register or get added to any production server, all accounts are. Oh well, who knows! On the surface, it actually sounds like a good idea to secure it.

 

Aboyz, MS1 and MS2 both provide the ability to use a different shipping address than the one you sign up with. So, it's actually the SHIPPING address that is checked, not the account address.

 

Also, no ability is there to add a percentage, just a fixed dollar amount. I suppose you could modify your version to add this.

Steve

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I suppose I should mention I just uploaded 2.01 version. The comments are as follows:

 

Improves upon 2.0. It turns out Fedex was not adding into their quotes residential delivery surcharges for express rates, so we correct for that. Added some more text to the README. Made transit time display an option.

 

This makes no sense in reality as they specifically ASK if it is a residential address, we tell them, and they ignore it! Oh well. What can you do.

 

Fedex now claims this is a fairly new surcharge, and that it hasn't made it into their code yet. I don't remember it being that new!

 

For those checking rates.... The rates from this module match *exactly* (at least for me) the rates Fedex will quote you by phone. BUT, the Fedex web site often quotes a higher rate since it is list. Also, even if you have no discount, there are very slight surcharge differences. The Fedex web site generally quotes a slightly higher rate, but, remember, we quote what a Fedex person quotes. Strange isn't it?

 

Lots of strange happenings with Fedex and web services, but, hopefully, this module is helpful to you. It sure helps our site a lot.

 

If you use the USPS methods contribution, you will find they quote transit times also. Very useful to me, esp with foreign shipments. Or even domestic ground, customers often don't realize they are only 1-2 days from where you are, yet, order 2 day shipping. Sure, you can call them and be a nice guy and point out you can change the rate, hassle with the credit card charge or authorization, hassle with not reaching them, change the database in OSC to match the new rate, etc. etc., or you can tell them it's only 2 days via home delivery and they pick which option for themselves.

Steve

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Surcharge amount to add to shipping charge?

 

I find this in the fedex 2.0 edit section..

 

does this surcharge mean, I can add extras surcharge on the shipping. Say i want to add extras $10 dollars. then I'll make extras 10 dollars on each shipment right??

 

is this true?

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Yes, if you put 10.00, it will add $10 to the shipping quote. Of course you actually don't MAKE $10, you have to consider the cost of any box, shipping supplies, paper, whatever. But, $10 would more than cover it.

Steve

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That's really weird, it may be an OSC bug? If you can reproduce it, then you might submit it. As far as I know, you HAVE to pick a country. At least on MS2...

 

Just an FYI - the error messages come right from Fedex, we do not create them, so, hopefully, they are fairly self-explanatory for the most part.

Steve

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Yeah,

 

it was the user account.. didn't select a COUNTRY..

 

very good contribution i must says..

 

Is there a way to set 30% on the shipping fee more. then just add like a surcharge on it.. Becuase i want it to be percent... Not like like dollars.. If there is a way to do this please let me know I'm more interested in thhis..

 

thanks

 

gREAT MOD!!!

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I guess it'll work for now. the dollars amount :) hheeheh

 

I installed this mod and the ups xml.

 

Why is that the the shipping of the UPS ground is more then FED EX GROUND. I thought upds is cheaper??

 

any thoughts on that..

 

Federal Express (1 x 48.4lbs)

Ground Service (1 days) $11.05

Express Saver (3 Day) $35.26

2 Day Air $36.97

Standard Overnight (by 3PM, later for rural) $53.22

Priority (by 10:30AM, later for rural) $61.50

First Overnight $87.37

 

United Parcel Service (XML) (1 pkg x 48.4 lbs total)

UPS Ground $13.70

UPS 3 Day Select? (3Days) $28.35

UPS 2nd Day Air A.M.SM (2Days) $43.84

UPS 2nd Day Air? (2Days) $39.49

UPS Next Day Air Saver? (1Days) $52.40

UPS Next Day Air? Early A.M.? (1Days) $88.34

UPS Next Day Air? (1Days) $59.48

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