I received a email with subject line “UPS Developer Kit APIs Migration – Action Required”. It stated this
[color=“#000000”][size=2]This message is to inform you that you are currently using UPS Developer Kit APIs in the Customer Integration Environment (CIE), which is not intended to perform as the UPS[/size][sup][size=1]®[/size][/sup][size=2] production environment. To avoid slow response times or planned outages, please migrate to the UPS production environment by November 25, 2014.[/size][/color]
Found out that this email hit the mass email list instead of a target list. So a good chance this does not effect most of us.
Dave
I also received this email, and am trying to figure out whether it applies to my CS-Cart 2.1.4 site.
We've had several previous sites running other shopping carts that were integrated with UPS, so I suppose it's possible the email is referring to one of them.
It would be great if someone from CS-Cart could weigh in on this - whether it is something we need to worry about.
Followup: Yes, it does appear this affects us. If you look at the knowledge base article on setting up the realtime UPS shipping method, you'll see that it links to a URL for requesting a “UPS Developer Kit” access key. That is exactly what the UPS email is referring to.
I did a search through my old email and found that is indeed what I signed up for back in 2011 - the Developer Kit API.
I am going to inquire with UPS and will let you know what I learn.
The change that UPS is implementing on Dec 29th, following the Nov 25th obsolescence of the API that CS-Cart is currently using, will render CS-Cart entirely incompatible with UPS Live Rate calculations.
[url=“http://rates.ups.com/”]http://rates.ups.com/[/url]
Starting Jan 1, 2015, UPS (and Fed Ex) will go ENTIRELY dimensional weight. Not only is this the LARGEST increase in the cost of shipping that the world has ever seen, it also means that even if you could patch the existing API and pass the weight of your shipment to the proper PRODUCTION environment (instead of the current DEVELOPER environment that the cart is using), you still are not going to get a rate unless you are passing the dimensional weight.
For example:
A box measuring 6x6x6 will ship at what is now a 2 lb rate (no matter what it weighs). Likewise a 12x12x12 box will ship at what is now the 4 lb rate (regardless of what it weighs).
I can't figure out how CS-Cart can even solve this problem.[list=1]
[]It would require that EACH product have a BOX SIZE defined for it.
[]It would have to choose the largest box size defined when more than one item is in the cart.
[*]It would have to combine the box sizes IF the products in the order COMPLETELY FILL the box defined for each of them.
For example: Say you sell a Brick that completely fills a 8x4x4 box. The same order includes a bag of sand, which completely fills a 12x8x4 box. The cart cannot simply USE the largest box size, because I need to put BOTH the brick and the bag of sand into one box and now that box is 12x8x8, or 12x12x4, or 16x8x4.
[/list]
I'd like to see the logic for that calculation!
Basically, UPS and FedEX are rendering themselves incompatible with internet retailers who want to use Live Rates. There is just NO WAY to get an accurate live rate when the customer purchases multiple items per order.
I plan on simply turning the UPS and FedEX shipping service off on Nov 25th. I just don't see any other solution; and CS-Cart's programmers are not being proactive on the issue IF a logical solution to using dimensional weight with shopping cart software even exists.
Posted to Bug Tracker 11/20/2014:
http://forum.cs-cart.com/tracker/issue-5388-ups-and-fedex-api-change-and-rate-change/
Are you sure the Nov 25 change affects us?:
As I understood the note fro UPS, it has to do with customers who MIGHT be using the sandbox (test) version of the API for acquiring rates for production use. The Configure of UPS in cs-cart has the option of using the 'test' setting (which uses the sandbox url) or the production version. The 'test' setting also requires a developer API key which most merchants will not have.
Hopefully cs-cart will weigh in on this issue, but my perspective is that it is a non-event for the vast majority of merchants.
Any change to requiring dimensional weights is a separate issue and I'm also not aware of the requirement that all package have dimensional weight calculations.
I don't see why anything needs to be changed in the calculation of the cart because dimensional weight has always been used on items over a certain size. You will just need to calculate and use the dimensional size for weight instead of the actual weight.
So the email notification from UPS is nothing. The path to UPS for live rates in CS-Cart is correct.
The announcement that all UPS Ground shipments will switch to Dimensional Weight on Jan 1st is still a deal killer for me. The employees just informed me of this AT MY UPS HUB yesterday, and it's confirmed on this page: [url=“http://rates.ups.com/”]http://rates.ups.com/[/url]
CS-Cart only provides me with fields for:
How many of each product fit in 1 box & that box's dimensions
So let's say I sell DVDs. I have a box that holds from 1-3 DVDs. (It's a standard DVD mailing box with variable sizes)
1 DVD inside the box and it's 8x6x0.5
2 DVDs inside the box and it's 8x6x1
3 DVDs inside the box and it's 8x6x1.5 (rounded to 8x6x2)
That doesn't work. I have to say 1-3 DVDs fit in the 8x6x1.5 (rounded to 8x6x2)
Let's pretend that I have defined a box for each product in Shipping Properties and the customer purchases 1 DVD, 1 BOOK, and 1 TOY:
The box size for the DVD is 8x6x2.
The box size for the book is 12x10x2.
The box size for the toy is 10x6x6.
How does CS-Cart determine the dimensional weight for that shipment? I'm NOT shipping 3 boxes separately, I'm shipping one.
I have 700 products in inventory and only 6 of them ship separately in their own box.
Normally a customer purchases 3-4 items, I put them all into a small box and weigh it.
I just don't see how the fields available for the Shipping Properties can be used accurately for dimensional weight.
It seems like CS-Cart could solve the “how many products will fit in the box” problem with some some rather straightforward additions to the existing functionality. We need a way to define shipping box dimensions and an algorithm to solve the “3D Packing Problem”.
There is an addon for Magento that does this: http://www.webshopap…l-shipping.html
Maybe CS-Cart could copy this addon design?
This 3D packing algorithm looks promising:
[url=“GitHub - Cloudstek/php-laff: Largest Area Fit First (LAFF) 3D box packing algorithm class for PHP”]https://github.com/mdeboer/php-laff[/url]
Here is a good overview of how the shipping rate changes will affect us:
http://www.intelligr…der-fulfillment
Since the Nov 25 deadline for UPS's change was yesterday, I tested UPS shipping calculations on my site today. It appears to still be working. I'm curious whether everything is still OK with others' sites. Has anyone else tested?
This is one we are seeing more and more - sometimes it is server related - specifically the weak SHA-1 ciphers that are still out there if you have not replaced or updated your SSL certificates post Oct 2014.
From a recent request we sent on behalf of a client having troubles:
Thank you for your inquiry. I am sorry you encountered an error with the API. Please make sure that you are using the current URLs [url=“Page Not Found | UPS - United States”]Page Not Found | UPS - United States (test) or [url=“Page Not Found | UPS - United States”]Page Not Found | UPS - United States (production).
In addition, please know that due to a vulnerability found with SSL version 3.0 security, UPS now requires TLS version 1.0 or higher encryption.
SSL encryption has been disabled as of March 1st, 2015.
If your solution is browser based, make sure that TLS is enabled in the security settings. If your solution is server based, the encryption will need to be hard coded.
Please contact us if you need any additional assistance.
XXXXXXXXX
UPS Technical Support
Visit the UPS Developer Kit Community to access API support materials and share best practices and programming tips at http://developerkitcommunity.ups.com.
Does anyone have a solution for the problem that CS-Cart calculates a box for each product instead of calculating how many different products go in a box?
I just cant get UPS to work. Instead of a shipping rate of €30 it gives 220 which is will scare off any customer.