Re: The sad state of UPS

My 2 cents...

I dont know if the modules work better but I can assure you that FedEx is far superior to UPS.

I get lots of crushed boxes at my job, all of them come through UPS. I don't think they actually care about anything they do -> that is why the documentation is so awful. I have never had to return anything because FedEx or USPS destroyed it, but I have had to return 2 items that UPS smashed flat(and delivered with no comment).

From my experience in the past, CPAN has a lot of modules that started off strong but never followed through on a correct and polished library of code -> plus everything in the entire world seems to change on a monthly basis rendering the development of stable code a near impossibility in any case.

For my money I would say: Jump in with WebService:UPS and help implement the functionality you need.

Comment on Re: The sad state of UPS

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Re^2: The sad state of UPS
by wilsond (Scribe) on Mar 27, 2009 at 23:51 UTC

The UPS webservice is a lot easier to deal with than FedEx is. Or at least that was the case when I wrote the fancy webstore and order fulfillment system for Taylor Shellfish half a decade ago. With UPS, you can get all varieties of rates and availability for a set of boxes in one request. FedEx required one separate request for each different service, from what I kinda remember. I hope they fixed it since then. (BTW: Taylor Shellfish changed to a different web design company that replaced their fancy webstore that we made with some cookie cutter junk. What they have online now wasn't my doing.)

I have some very nice code that does all kinds of UPS stuff that I should have made into a proper module (tests, etc) long ago. I don't even know if I can find that code anymore. If I do, I'll see about releasing something on the CPAN. I'm not sure releasing a separate module would be better than enhancing the modules already on the CPAN though.

I'm a Linux user. You wouldn't know it since I mostly ask Windows questions. Whee.

If you want to do evil, science provides the most powerful weapons to do evil; but equally, if you want to do good, science puts into your hands the most powerful tools to do so.

- Richard Dawkins

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Re^2: The sad state of UPS
by jdrago_999 (Hermit) on Mar 27, 2009 at 22:10 UTC

FedEx may offer better service, but the last time I checked they want blood samples and your first-born before they will give you any webservice access.

From the look of things, it would appear that I will go ahead and create Yet Another UPS Module for CPAN. Since the UPS API appears to be relatively stable - albeit lame - it should function just fine for the foreseeable future.

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