I renamed the FedEx group to now be titled “Shipping Integration” in order to reach a broader range of topics and because some of the solutions presented in the group apply to more then just FedEx but can also benefit other carrier software or other packages.

A good example of this is how the Shipping SQL View can be adapted for both FedEx’s Ship Manager software and Endicia’s Galaxy Ship software. I’m sure this could be carried over to most shipping tools that allow you to reference an ODBC database.

Matt (mjohnsonperl)

I posted a new article with a couple notes on getting Galaxy Ship to use the Shipping SQL View.
http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/groups/207/endicia_galaxy_ship_integration

It’s not a detailed step-by-step guide like I did for FedEx Ship Manager, but it is simpler to setup with Galaxy Ship so it may not be needed as much. Maybe someone else will add to the document and expound on what I started.

Probably the main thing to note is the MySQL Connector version required to make it work. I tried it with the v5.1 connector and it gave odd errors in Galaxy Ship when trying to connect, so unless we can figure out what the issue is with the newer connector we may have to use the old one.

The documentation is in a new wiki article FedEx Ship Manager Configuration: http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/groups/207/fedex_ship_manager_configuration

I took screenshots along the way to help document what is involved in configuring Ship Manager. This should go a long way to getting anyone a huge boost on setting Ship Manager up.

I have updated the Shipping SQL View so that it has most of the fields that are needed. I added a few things like the email address, order weight, order total, and I separated the street field which contained both address line 1 and 2 so that now they are represented as two separate fields in the view.

I probably need to go back and optimize the query for the view, but it at least gets everything that is needed right now, and probably just needs to undergo some load testing.

Will the FedEx Magento module be configurable to allow International Localisation?

Will the module use FedEx International Express rates for delivery which starts and ends within International countries, such as Dubai?

I have a Dubai client who wishes to use FedEx Dubai for shipping.

I have just completed a full integration of the UPS ShipXML web service for creating package shipments. I am posting this here, because in the next couple of weeks I will also be implementing a FedEx instance of the same functionality, and would like to contribute both back to the community.

What I have done is add the ability to create UPS shipments into the Magento admin. Once you have successfully registered for a UPS ShipXML access key (requires UPS approval), you just need to go into the admin, enter your authorization credentials, what type of shipping containers you user, type of pickup, etc. and you will be ready to integrate the functionality into your warehouse process.

There is a separate page that is meant to be used by the shipper in the warehouse which allows you to enter the order id and specify which products are to be shipped and in how many packages (this can easily be configured to work with a barcode reader). This data is then submitted to the UPS API and the cost and shipping label are returned and can currently be printed off in PDF format. All shipped items are then updated back on the order with tracking information so the customer and admin can track the order.

The entire process has been architected to work with any shipping method as additional API integrations are added (as I mentioned FedEx is next on my list). The idea is for fulfillment to print out the packing slip, pack the order, go over and scan the order id barcode, and then have the shipping labels print out without having to do anything else.

Hopefully I will get some time soon to contribute this back to the community, as it has been awesome working in the Magento code. If you have any questions or are interested in hearing more details, drop me a line.

FedEx SmartPost is a service of FedEx Ground that is designed for large volume shippers where FedEx freights shipments to regional USPS sorting facilities and has USPS deliver to the end routes. That way FedEx manages the up-line of getting packages sorted and distributed, and USPS manages the down-line and feet on the ground to get the packages to the end location.

I’ve been working with integrating an Order Management System (CounterPoint SQL) with FedEx SmartPost (http://fedex.com/us/smartpost/), and I have it setup to where the SmartPost software will lookup shipping information in the CounterPoint SQL database for filling out the information so that nothing needs to be typed into the shipping software, just have someone scan a barcode on a pick ticket and click ship to print a label. I have the SmartPost software writing back tracking numbers to CounterPoint, and if a shipment is deleted from SmartPost it is logged and deleted from CounterPoint also.

So if anyone out there is trying to figure out how to make SmartPost integrate with Magento I’ve had some experience, and am willing to help.

Matt Johnson (mjohnsonperl)

Does the Fedex real-time shipping lookup work satisfactorily, currently?  That’s the thing I need the most, by far. 

Magento is currently supporting the real-time quotes where it queries FedEx’s servers for rate quotes on shipments based on the item weights in the shopping cart. This works great out of the box and supported by Magento. I am personally still trying verify the accuracy of the rates provided from Magento’s support of real-time rate quotes.

I’m not familiar with Fedex Shipping Manager, although maybe our shipping guy uses it… If you could write a blog post outlining what it is and what it does for us, that would be useful to me and probably lots of others who are either (1) new to all of this, or, like me, (2) removed from details of shipping on a currently non-Magento store.

I’ll also (of course) Google for it, but a Magento-centered explanation, from the p.o.v. of using it with a Megento store, without all of Fedex’s marketing b.s. obscuring the straightforward truth, would be very helpful.

Ship Manager is FedEx’s software used to ship packages out. This is similar to how UPS provides WorldShip for their customers. Ship Manager is a Windows based stand-alone application that you can run on one of your own PCs or possibly a PC provided by FedEx. The software can interface with a thermal label printer and a scale so that you can weigh a package and print a shipping label directly with their software all at once. You can also setup integration with 3rd party software such as Magento in order to pull in all the address information to be used when preparing the shipment.

Basically once the setup is done with Ship Manager to communicate correctly with Magento then you could just place a package on the attached scale, enter the order number, then hit the print button to print the shipping label.

There is also the option of providing the weight from magento so you don’t have to use a scale to weigh a package. It really depends on how your fulfillment operation works.

You also don’t have to use a thermal label printer, you can use a standard laser printer to print shipping labels.

Some fulfillment operations like to package everything up for an order and the last step be scaling the package and printing the shipping labels. Others try to get everything calculated ahead of time and print the shipping labels off along with a pick ticket so that as soon as everything is packaged together they just stick the label on the box and they don’t have to process it at a station.

I have worked with FedEx Ship Manager before so I’m working to see if I can integrate Ship Manager with the Magento database.

I have installed Ship Manager and started identifying what I need to do to use the integrations in it to ship individual orders.

It appears that I need to create a view or something for the software to reference when pulling the order information.

I also need to figure out what to do to have it write back the tracking numbers back to Magento. It has the ability to insert records after it processes each package, and you can map which shipping field it inserts, but I need to figure out where I want them to go, and how I’m going to get it back into Magneto. Initially I’m thinking I might build a new table in the database to dump the shipping data to, and then (if I can figure it out/if it’s possible) write some kind of trigger to fire when a new record is inserted to update the magento records with the tracking numbers.

I’ve run into some issues with Ship Manager before where it doesn’t always write back tracking numbers, so I’m not sure how I’m going to address that yet.

I started this group to help organize efforts of integrating FedEx with Magento. I am not an expert with either… yet… but have some experience and would like to see some solid solutions in place and am willing to help with the effort.

I think we need to start by identifying how everything is currently working with FedEx, and if it meets the needs of the users.

Secondly I think another hot topic is going to be how to actually process shipments and then integrate the processed shipments back in with Magento in a simple and least-time-consuming manner. This will vary greatly depending on the volume processed, and the fulfillment method.

After we have some of that lined out, I think it would be good to explore some more advanced integration with FedEx such as obtaining the status of shipments, advanced rate quoting, and maybe providing return labels to customers via the web.