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#1 12-12-2008 15:30:33

enchant
Member
From: Marshfield, MA
Registered: 02-02-2005
Posts: 84
Website

Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

I've got real time fedex shipping set up, but my client is complaining that sometimes when a buyer selects "Express Saver" as the Fedex shipping method, it turns out that Fedex doesn't offer Express saver to that location.

Now it seems weird to me that Fedex would return a shipping cost if they don't ship there, but I didn't get an explanation from them that I really understood.

They said that they have three different ways to connect to their rates server.  The one that I'm probably using is "rates".  The two methods that give more accurate returns are "service availability" and "rate available service".

Does this mean anything to anyone?  Is it a modification that I can make to CCP?

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#2 12-12-2008 17:59:38

rachaelseven
Member
From: Massachusetts, USA
Registered: 01-23-2006
Posts: 3169
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

Well first off, I have to say that FedEx's rating APIs suck.  I had all kinds of problems with their APIs not quoting extended delivery area charges, and sever other issues, all of which combined to make me leave FedEx in favor of UPS.  UPS ended up cutting me a real good deal and their software (both API and Worldship) are miles ahead of FedEx.  That having been said, I had a look at the FedEx documentation that I still have on my computer and it appears that CCP uses transaction code 025, which FedEx refers to as a "Rate Available Services Request".

FedEx Tagged Transaction Guide Document wrote:

Rate Available Services provides the ability to send a single Request in order to receive the FedEx service(s) available and corresponding rate
quote(s) for your package, service, and origin/destination criteria.

The "Service Availability Request" is transaction code 019:

FedEx Tagged Transaction Guide Document wrote:

The Service Availability Request is used to determine which FedEx Express services are available between a given origin and destination. To
check the availability of one particular FedEx service and packaging type, include fields 1273 (service) and 1274 (packaging type) in the Request
transaction. Only information regarding that single service and packaging type will be returned in the 119 Reply transaction. To obtain a list of all
available services for a certain origin and destination, omit fields 1273 and 1274 from the Request. The Reply will contain information on every
available service.

However, that transaction only tells you which ones are available and it doesn't tell you anything about rates.  It also only works with Express types and not Ground and other non-Express services.  Even if you wanted to use this, you would have to run this call in addition to the "Rate Available Services" request, and then cross reference them to eliminate any ones that are not available - a LOT of coding that is WAY beyond what's gonna happen on the forum.

I don't find anything in the version of the guide that I have which is called "rate available service" - the closest I could find is transaction type 022, "Rate a Package Request".   That transaction type may or may not be any more accurate than the 025 type, but it only rates one service in each transaction.  So in order to get all the available service, you'd have to loop through a list of them, sending a new transaction and waiting for a reply for each one.  Not only would it be a huge change to the way the software works, with great heaps of code to rewrite, it would take forever to pull the rates with all those transactions flying back and forth... you'd lose the sale when the customer got tired of waiting that long, unless you only offered one service type.  If you did only offer one service type, it probably wouldn't be a big deal to hack up ste_ship.pl and make it pull the 022 transaction for your one service instead of the 025... but that is once again way beyond what we're going to accomplish here and you'd be into a bespoke mod at that point (Stephen at cartmod.com).

Honestly, at the risk of sounding like an advertisement... fwiw, I find that there are really a lot less problems with UPS, in rating, labeling, and delivery... at least that's been my experience.  Good luck!


Rachael Katz
- Custom Focusing Screens for DSLR Cameras

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#3 12-12-2008 18:22:39

enchant
Member
From: Marshfield, MA
Registered: 02-02-2005
Posts: 84
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

rachaelseven wrote:

So in order to get all the available service, you'd have to loop through a list of them, sending a new transaction and waiting for a reply for each one.  Not only would it be a huge change to the way the software works, with great heaps of code to rewrite

So you'll have it done maybe Monday??

wink

Thanks for all that information.  I'll try to suggest the switch to UPS.

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#4 01-12-2009 12:39:01

vbsaltydog
Member
From: Florida
Registered: 05-02-2005
Posts: 947
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

We (Cartmod) have a UPS integration tool that you may want to check out if you do make the switch to UPS shipping. Details can be found at: http://www.cartmod.com/clickcartpro/ups_shipping.html and a demo video is coming soon.

-Stephen


Latest CCP 7 XMods Available:


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#5 01-12-2009 13:35:26

rachaelseven
Member
From: Massachusetts, USA
Registered: 01-23-2006
Posts: 3169
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

Now that's something I'd be interested in.  Can't wait to see the video or at least some screen shots.  Does it work with the UPS thermal printers?


Rachael Katz
- Custom Focusing Screens for DSLR Cameras

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#6 01-12-2009 14:01:43

vbsaltydog
Member
From: Florida
Registered: 05-02-2005
Posts: 947
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

Rachael,

Here is the video:

http://www.cartmod.com/media/ups-integration.mov

You will need the apple quicktime plugin to view the video.

It does support UPS thermal printers as you will see in the video.

Thanks,

-Stephen

Last edited by vbsaltydog (01-12-2009 14:03:19)


Latest CCP 7 XMods Available:


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#7 01-12-2009 16:09:16

rachaelseven
Member
From: Massachusetts, USA
Registered: 01-23-2006
Posts: 3169
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

Thanks.  I'll give that a look... as soon as its done downloading :-S  Fwiw, you might want to consider downsizing that a bit for web distribution, since I'm getting an estimate of about 5 minutes to download the file, even on a blazing connection.  Anyway, I'll check it out and get back to you if I need the module.  Thanks!


Rachael Katz
- Custom Focusing Screens for DSLR Cameras

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#8 01-12-2009 16:13:14

vbsaltydog
Member
From: Florida
Registered: 05-02-2005
Posts: 947
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

I know about the size of the file but its hard to have both, an informative video, and small file size unless you want to make a series of small videos and that's a pain. Thanks for the fwiw and enjoy the video.

-Stephen


Latest CCP 7 XMods Available:


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#9 01-12-2009 16:28:35

vbsaltydog
Member
From: Florida
Registered: 05-02-2005
Posts: 947
Website

Re: Fedex: "rate" vs. "service availability" vs. "rate available service"

Rachael,

I just added http compression on the server to help with the management of the larger 25Mb+ video file.

-Stephen


Latest CCP 7 XMods Available:


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