NAME

Business::Shipping - Rates and tracking for UPS and USPS


VERSION

Version 1.90


SYNOPSIS

Rate request example

 use Business::Shipping;
 
 my $rate_request = Business::Shipping->rate_request(
     shipper   => 'UPS_Offline',
     service   => 'Ground Residential',
     from_zip  => '98683',
     to_zip    => '98270',
     weight    =>  5.00,
 );    
 
 $rate_request->execute() or die $rate_request->user_error();
 
 print $rate_request->rate();


FEATURES

Business::Shipping currently supports three shippers:

UPS_Offline: United Parcel Service

UPS_Online: United Parcel Service using UPS OnLine Tools (disabled)

USPS_Online: United States Postal Service


INSTALLATION

 perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::Business::Shipping'

See doc/INSTALL.


REQUIRED MODULES

The following modules are required for offline UPS rate estimation. See doc/INSTALL.

 Business::Shipping::DataFiles (any)
 Class::MethodMaker::Engine (any)
 Config::IniFiles (any)
 Log::Log4perl (any)


OPTIONAL MODULES

The following modules are used by online rate estimation and tracking. See doc/INSTALL.

 Cache::FileCache (any)
 Clone (any)
 Crypt::SSLeay (any)
 LWP::UserAgent (any)
 XML::DOM (any)
 XML::Simple (2.05)
 
=head1 GETTING STARTED

Be careful to read, understand, and comply with the terms of use for the provider that you will use.

UPS_Offline: For United Parcel Service (UPS) offline rate requests

No signup required. Business::Shipping::DataFiles has all of rate tables, which are usually updated only once per year.

We recommend that you run the following program to update your fuel surcharge every first monday of the month.

 Business-Shipping-UPS_Offline-update-fuel-surcharge.pl

See bin/Business-Shipping-UPS_Offline-update-fuel-surcharge.pl

UPS_Online: For United Parcel Service (UPS) Online XML: Free signup

USPS_Online: For United States Postal Service (USPS): Free signup


ERROR/DEBUG HANDLING

Log4perl is used for logging error, debug, etc. messages. For simple manipulation of the current log level, use the Business::Shipping->log_level( $log_level ) class method (below). For more advanced logging/debugging options, see config/log4perl.conf.


Preloading Modules

To preload all modules, call Business::Shipping with this syntax:

 use Business::Shipping { preload => 'All' };

To preload the modules for just one shipper:

 use Business::Shipping { preload => 'USPS_Online' };
 
Without preloading, some modules will be loaded at runtime.  Normally, runtime
loading is the best mode of operation.  However, there are some circumstances 
when preloading is advantagous.  For example:


METHODS

$obj->init()

Generic attribute setter.

$obj->user_error()

Log and store errors that should be visibile to the user.

$obj->validate()

Confirms that the object is valid. Checks that required attributes are set.

$obj->rate_request()

This method is used to request shipping rate information from online providers or offline tables. A hash is accepted as input. The acceptable values are determined by the shipper class, but the following are common to all:

There are some additional common values:

Business::Shipping->log_level()

Simple alternative to editing the config/log4perl.conf file. Sets the log level for all Business::Shipping objects.

Takes a scalar that can be 'debug', 'info', 'warn', 'error', or 'fatal'.


SEE ALSO

Important modules that are related to Business::Shipping:

Other Perl modules that are simliar to Business::Shipping:

It is appreciated when users mention their use of Business::Shipping to the author and/or on their website or in their application.


WEBSITE

http://www.kavod.com/Business-Shipping

Also see http://search.cpan.org/~dbrowning/Business-Shipping


SUPPORT

This module is supported by the author. Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-business-shipping@rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org. The author will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as the author makes changes.


KNOWN BUGS

See the doc/Todo file for a comprehensive list of known bugs.


CREDITS

Many people have contributed to this module, please see the doc/Credits file.


AUTHOR

Daniel Browning <db@kavod.com>, Kavod Technologies, http://www.kavod.com.


COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (c) 2003-2005 Daniel Browning <db@kavod.com>. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See doc/License for more info.