I'm curious, how difficult would it be to add support for FedEx shipping labels? In a nutshell, I'm thinking the functionality might work like this: An admin would review an order and "approve" the shipping quote. This approval would send another request to FedEx, this time to actually initiate the shipment and generate a tracking number. The admin could then print out an appropriate label.

Is there anything preventing such a feature from being added to Ubercart -- e.g., any technical reason, like a lack of a FedEx API? If not, I'd be willing to contribute either money or time on behalf of my clients who could this.

Perhaps this is a separate module, but I thought I'd check here first since you probably understand the interaction between Drupal and the FedEx API better than anyone. :)

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions/feedback!

Comments

tr’s picture

tr commented

Straighforward to code. FedEx has an API and Ubercart has the right hooks to do this (though only the UPS module implements the hooks...). But FedEx puts restrictions on who can use the label API. Your client would have to have daily pickup service and ship about 50 packages a day to qualify for API access. They might make an exception for smaller merchants - I know UPS will. I don't personally have a need for this so I haven't written the code yet.

aasarava’s picture

aasarava commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Thanks for the input, TR. Good to know there are no major technical hurdles. But the FedEx restrictions on API access could be an issue for many users. Will look into the possibility of an exception after talking with my client. If anyone else would be interested in contributing code or funds for this, please contact me.

jasonabc’s picture

jasonabc commented

Are you sure this restriction is in place for the label API? I have a few osCommerce stores and this FedEx Label contribution (below) apparently works with any number of orders (not just over 50) and returns FedEx labels for each order:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2244

tr’s picture

tr commented

The 50 packages a day with daily pickup restriction is actually the UPS requirement, not the FedEx requirement. I have talked to FedEx since my previous post and the only restriction for FedEx label printing seems to be that each individual end-user must get the labels certified by snail-mailing a set of test labels (from the FedEx test server) to FedEx for approval. After the labels are approved, FedEx will grant permission to use the production server to generate real labels that will work for shipping.

tr’s picture

tr commented
Status: Closed (fixed) » Postponed

Marking this as "postponed". It's something I'd like to implement, if I can find a client to fund the development.

aasarava’s picture

aasarava commented

Hi TR, I may be able to chip in on development. Do you have an estimate of what it would cost? (Feel free to contact me privately if you'd prefer.)

Are there other developers & consultants out there who might want to chip in on this? Getting this functionality into Ubercart would really help close the deal when talking to potential clients about an Ubercart-based store.

Also, I looked at FedEx's demo code and they do offer some PHP classes for shipping labels, so that might help by providing something to work with.

patcon’s picture

patcon commented

subscribing :)

tr’s picture

tr commented

Thanks to aasarava, who funded the development, this feature is now in the -dev version of the FedEx module.

sunny2187’s picture

sunny2187 commented
Status: Postponed » Fixed

Hi,

Dear aasarava I am sunny and i am wrking on fedex and Usps label printing solution on drupal.If i can be a part of development please let me know.I have developed the shipping manager solution in ASP.net and now developing in PHP for drupal.

I have good knowledge of API : FEDEX, USPS, UPS ,EBAY, GOOGLEBASE

regards,
Sunny

tr’s picture

tr commented

Sunny, I see you're very new to drupal.org - you signed up only 5 minutes before your post. The status of this thread/issue has been set to "fixed", meaning the work has already been completed. I suggest that you spend some time reading the forums, learning what is already available, and getting familiar with the way things are done here if you want people to view your posts as serious rather than blatant self-promotion.

tr’s picture

tr commented
Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)