Important USPS Updates

I'm interested in the answer to this question as well. subscribing to thread.

Has anyone been able to receive quotes using the new staging URL for queries? The test URL is http://stg-production.shippingapis.com/ShippingApi.dll and reading through the documentation I found that the primary change is that the 'Express Mail' is now called 'Priority Mail Express,' but I have been unable to get successful responses to queries.

It seems to me that the module will need to be patched or the uc_usps module will stop working correctly on Sunday.

I am aware of the coming changes. They are very minor, and for the most part everything should continue to work. If something breaks just post the details here and I'lI get a patch out.

It's been discussed in detail before - the way USPS manages these changes makes it impossible to transition cleanly, so we just have to deal with problems if and when they occur.

@string6

I have noticed the same issue. It appears that the API update has changed how trademark symbols are displayed. In uc_usps.module, near line 400 (depending on your version), simply add these lines:

'<sup>®</sup>'   => '®',
'<sup>™</sup>' => '™',

Worked for me! I kept the other markup in place just in case they decide to switch it back.

Cheers!

Thanks! That worked great.
If USPS could just nail this down and not touch it, I'd be happy.

Here's a patch for #6.

#8: uc_fix_usps_service_label-2047795-8.patch queued for re-testing.

Since this USPS update, During checkout, it only displays Priority Mail. First Class is no longer an option. Media Mail works fine (I added it as an optuion just to check it), but still no first class. It has to be due to the usps update because I didnt update or change anything in the settings prior. One day it worked. The next (after the USPS update) it did not.(for the same product).

Anyone have a solution or experiencing the same problem?

Awesome! I altered my "uc_usps.module" file with the above - replacing what was there

'^®' => '®',
'^™' => '™',

with what you posted
'^®' => '®',
'^™' => '™',

and now the trademark symbols are coming through. Thank you. And BTW I'm using version 7.x-3.4

This is a fine example of the problems we've had with the USPS API over the years. Last time, when USPS changed their web service to include HTML and double-encoded HTML in the returned service names, that change was never announced or documented. This time, they *did* say that the service names would have double-encoded HTML (although they don't seem to recognize that *double*-encoding the HTML is just wrong...), and they list all the service names complete with the double-encoded HTML. However, they got it wrong again! For the first time they documented that they would be returning, e.g. <sup>®</sup> (which is what they used to return) but now after the change they actually return <sup>®</sup>, which contradicts the documentation.

So, aside from the HTML thing, which should be fixed by the patch in #8, we have one other report of problems with First-Class mail. The API change documentation doesn't contain anything which indicates First-Class would be affected, aside from the HTML.

@kap316: Did you apply the patch before you tested First-Class mail? Because the patch is necessary for First-Class to work... If you did apply the patch and First-Class still doesn't work, please turn on shipping quotes debug, try to get a quote for First-Class, then paste the debugging output here (edit out your customer ID and be sure to wrap the whole thing in <code></code> so we can read it).

I had this issue as well on a site running D6. Here is what I did--it was very easy:

I copied the two lines from the patch where the lines begin with '+'

'^®' => '®',
'^™' => '™',

and pasted them under the existing lines of code:

'^&reg;' => '®',
'^&trade;' => '™',

but before this line:

'**' => '',

And removed the '+' from the beginning of those two lines.

It worked perfectly! Thank you very much for the patch!

As mentioned, the First Class option is no longer available, which in my case doesn't matter currently. But strangely the 'Priority Mail' option is gone and we only are given 'Priority Mail 1-Day' and 'Priority Mail 2-Day'. The 2-day option is more expensive than the 1-day option. Is anyone else seeing this? Argh... Help!

@Desertgirl: To figure out the First-Class problem and the Priority Mail problem you mentioned, we will need the information I asked for in #16:

please turn on shipping quotes debug, try to get a quote for First-Class, then paste the debugging output here (edit out your customer ID and be sure to wrap the whole thing in so we can read it).

Committed #8 to both branches.

For anyone seeing the First Class and Priority Mail problems, please provide debugging output.

The First Class shipping option reappeared for me and the HTML issues were fixed after installing the most recent development version.

As this thread has been quiet for over a week now, it seems like all USPS problems caused by the July update are fixed. If not, please reopen the thread and include debug information.

New to the old party here.. If USPS API is vacillating between one of two conventions (and ubercart shipping quote users of different versions of UC have to dance to keep up), wouldn't it make sense to expect and handle both formats?

[edit]Oh I see the patch is already doing just that.. thanks[/edit]

#8 Worked for me. Thank you.

#8 is the winner, thank you for the update much appreciated.

The patch in #8 works for me (and it looks like several others as well!).

This patch has already been applied to the -dev version and will be included in 7.x-3.6 and 6.x-2.13 when they are released.

Ah, sorry, I saw it go from "Postponed" to "Fixed" - it wasn't clear that it got committed. Thanks!