How to Add UPS Calculated Shipping on a Website
Creating and maintaining an Internet business can be difficult, and requires a lot of attention. When users make a purchase from your online store, you must determine their locations, the preferred shippers, shipment methods and the cost of shipping to be added to the order. To make your life and business a little bit easier, UPS has provided application programming interfaces, or APIs, for developers to use in creating UPS shipping calculators for their websites.
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Instructions
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Accessing Shipping API
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1
Create an account with UPS, if you do not already have one. Enter your name, a username, email address and a password, then click "Next."
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2
Enter your address and email options. Read the "Technology Agreement" and click the check box confirming that you have read and agree to the agreement. Click "Next."
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3
Click "Next" again, then log in using your username and password.
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4
Read the information about the APIs provided by UPS (see "Resources"). Click "Shipping.zip" to download the API to add to your website.
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5
Request an access key to retrieve shipping information from purchases. Log in to your UPS account. Enter secondary contact information if you have any, then click "Request Access Key" in the lower right corner of the website.
Implementing Shipping Calculator
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6
Open the "Shipping.zip" file, then open the "Shipping PACKAGE" folder.
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7
Select the method you are using to create the calculator. If you are using code such as Java or C#, open the "PACKAGE Web Services" folder. Open the "PACKAGE XML Tools" folder if you are using XML.
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Open the "Code Samples" folder. One is found in both the Web Services and XML locations. If you are using Web Services, open the "Ship" folder, then the folder corresponding to your programming language. For XML, files you need will be located in the "ShipAccept," "ShipConfirm" and "LabelRecovery" folders.
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Open the "Shipping.zip" file again and open the "Developer's Guide" folder. Open the Web Services or XML guide and follow the UPS guidelines for adding the APIs and implementing them in the code of your website.
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Tips & Warnings
Using an all-in-one service such as PayPal will add UPS, FedEx and custom shipping options to your site and, for a small charge, will provide the code and tools necessary to implement it.
To use these APIs, you will be required to program the calculator and implement the UPS additions into your code. If you do not have experience or knowledge in Web programming, a quick search for "UPS Calculator Code" will find many calculators you can add to your site. Because of the time and energy put into these calculators, most will charge a fee for access to and use of their calculator code.
References
Resources
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