Hi all, The thread asking about OsCommerce has been closed so I have had to start a new thread to reply.
I'm the UPS CTSS technician for the South West and have been directed to this thread by an account manager.
I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with OsCommerce but there are many ways to integrate with Worldship 9.
* ODBC *
With an ODBC link a field mapping can be created between Worldship and the DBMS, e.g. Sage Accounts. A unique identifier is chosen, e.g. order number and an entry box appears when selected. Once setup (can take about 10 minutes if all goes well) the user would enter their search reference into the box and the field contents will populate directly into the Worldship fields based on the mapping. The shipment is then processed once weight/service etc is added on the screen.
ODBC can also be used to batch export data mainly used to write back subsequent tracking numbers etc. to a table which can then be interrogated back into a DBMS if matched up with order numbers for example.
* XML Auto Import *
I noticed a few people had this setup on the closed thread. Worldship can be set to poll a directory of your choice, as soon as an .XML file is written (by your system, normally at the order process stage) to this location Worldship automatically reads and processes churning out a label. This is a completely automated solution as the only Worldship user interaction would be to set it running in the morning. Worldship then renames the .XML file to .#*$! and creates an .OUT file containing the original code and a process message with either the tracking number(s) or a field specific error message.
* Batch Import/Export *
A field mapping can be created much the same way with ODBC but from or to a file, for example, .CSV. If importing shipment data you can set to print the labels upon importation if all mandatory fields are imported (have a blue field title in Worldship) otherwise you can still import if you only have an address but will have to go into the 'History' tab and reconcile them from an 'Imported Shipments' folder to manually add the remaining shipment data before processing. The batch import/export can be set to initiate manually or automatically after processing each shipment or at the end of day.
If anyone who ships with UPS would like assistance with doing this please contact your UPS Account Manager, otherwise I will be monitoring this thread if you wish to add anything.
Cheers,
Alex
